Crimean wines

On the south coast of Crimea the vineyards stand on slopes above the sea. The best-known wines of this coast carry two names: the Massandra winery and the Magarach institute of viticulture and winemaking.

Massandra

In 1894, by decree of Nicholas II, work began on the main wine cellar at Massandra near Yalta. The site was chosen by Lev Golitsyn, chief winemaker of the imperial estates. The cellar was finished in 1897, and the estate supplied wine to the imperial household.

Massandra's best-known wine is White Muscat of the Red Stone. Alexander Egorov created the cuvée in 1944. The name comes from the limestone cliff Red Stone near Gurzuf, where the grapes grow. It is a white liqueur wine, the most decorated of the Crimean wines: at international competitions it has a Super Grand Prix, three Grand Prix cups and more than twenty gold medals.

Magarach

The Magarach institute is older than Massandra. It was founded in 1828 in the Magarach tract near Nikita. It is a research body. It holds several thousand grape varieties and forms, and its own bottle collection, rather than a shop shelf of "20,000 wines for sale". Fortified wines came from here, among them port, sherry and muscat, and dry wines as well.

The Nikitsky Botanical Garden stands next door, in Nikita. The institute and the garden are neighbours on the same warm coast.

1941 and 1985

In 1941, before German troops reached Yalta, Massandra's collection bottles were taken to the Caucasus. Wine left in barrels and vats was poured into the sea. For several days the water in the bay ran red.

In 1985 the anti-alcohol campaign began. Mikhail Gorbachev was then General Secretary of the Communist Party, not president. Across southern Ukraine, Crimea included, large areas of vineyard were grubbed up. Vines at Massandra and Magarach were hit along with other farms.

Why the taste changes

The slopes of the south coast are sheltered from the north wind by the Crimean Mountains. Stony soil takes in the sun by day and gives that warmth back to the vine at night. The climate here is dry and warm, but it is not the same along the whole coast. The same varieties 25-30 km apart make different wine, because elevation, the face of the slope and the soil all change.

Tasting

Tastings in the Massandra cellars used to be part of a trip to the south coast. For now Crimea is not a place for tourism. Crimea is a peninsula of Ukraine, under temporary occupation by the Russian Federation since 2014.