Russian Wine Country: Sleeping Beauty Awakens

Russian Wine Country stretches along Russia’s northern Black Sea coast from the Gelendzhik coastal resort area, about 250 kilometers northwest of Sochi, to the Taman Peninsula between the Black and Azov Seas. In the seventh century BC, Greek settlers established villages in this area and produced some of the world’s first wines. In the late 19th century, wineries were built along this coast and the neighboring Crimean peninsula to produce sparkling wine to meet demand of an aristocracy that had a taste for French Champagne. The Russian Revolution brought industrialization to the wine industry, and by 1980 the Soviet Union was the world’s fourth largest wine producer behind Italy, France, and Spain. Soviet era wines were mostly sparkling or fortified and sweet. They were little known outside the country. The end of the Soviet era brought huge challenges and change to the industry, but within the past ten years a few modern winemaking pioneers have begun to build on the region’s legacy. Though still sleepy, this reincarnated youthful beauty is finally waking up. Read more