Located 20km south of the city of Chisinau one finds the Moldovan town of Milestii Mici, which is home to the largest underground wine cellar in the country. Here in a winery of the same name, around half of the 250km of limestone underground tunnels in the area are used for storing wine. In fact, these cellars are home to more than two million bottles of wine and have been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest wine collection in the world!
Deep underground (around 40 to 85m below the surface) is a complicated web of tunnels with ‘streets’ named after different wines. These underground tunnels were originally excavated during the mining of limestone and have been ‘recycled’ as wine cellars since 1968, with new vintages being added every year.
flickr/Johan Foster
Milestii Mici complex
The natural limestone in the tunnels create ideal conditions for storing wine – the tunnels maintain a constant temperature of between 12 and 14 degrees C and humidity of around 97 and 98%. The wine-makers, also called Milestii Mici, store the wine in vast oak casks, the largest of which could hold a small motor vehicle.
Amongst the wine stored in the cellar are those dating back to 1969 when the tunnels first started being used as wine cellars. Most of the wines in the underground cellars are red (approximately 70%), while 20% are white and 10% make up dessert wines. All the wines stored in the cellars were produced using old Moldovan traditions, although more recently the winery has modernised its wine-production. The most valuable bottles are those produced in 1973 and 1974; these are now exclusively exported to Japan.
flickr/Dee Dee
One of the entrances to the cellars
flickr/alex.spatari
Inside the Milestii Mici cellars
People come here from all over the world to sample some of these famous wines and the winery has a special tasting area for this purpose. In the tasting halls, the walls are fashioned from natural seashells and the windows are magnificent stained glass creations. Guests enjoy sampling all the wines available at Milestii Mici, including dry, sweet and semi-dry wines, younger red and white variations, collector’s items and sparkling wines.
During the various tours, visitors learn all about the history of the winery and Moldova’s wine industry past and present. They get to see a variety of wines in storage, including rare bottles and champagne. Visitors also get to learn about the correct storage of wine so that the wine’s flavour and bouquet remains at its optimum. After the tour, visitors can enjoy wine tasting accompanied with various snacks or a traditional Moldovan lunch. Moldovan folk songs and music are also part of the action.
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