Ukrainian wine

The wine industry of Ukraine is well-established with long traditions. Several brands of wine from Ukraine are exported to bordering countries, the European Union, and North America.

History

A wine culture existed in the today's Ukraine in already 4 century B.C. Chr. at the south coast of the Crimea. Presses and amphoras were found from this period. Wine cultivation developed in the northern part (round Kiev and Chernihiv) however only starting from the 11th century by monks.

Under Catherine II. (1729 - 1796) in 1783 the Crimea became a part of the Russian Empire. Count Mikhail Vorontsov put the first wine gardens in 1820 establish a large winery near Yalta. The viticulture research institute Magarach was founded then in 1828. The founder of the famous foam wines is prince Lev Golitsyn, which for the first time manufactured Russian “Champagner” after the Crimean War (1854 to 1856) on its property Novyi Svet near Yalta. Later, under the last Tzar Nicholas II (1868 - 1918) the today's state winery of Massandra was founded. During Soviet times Ukraine with 2,500 km² was the largest supplier of the wines in the USSR. It came to a disaster in 1986: about 800 km² of the vineyards were destroyed, when Mikhail Gorbachov started a campaign for the delimitation of the consumption of alcohol in USSR. Since 2000 the production as well as the export of the wines increase rapidly.

Main vine-growing regions

* Crimea
* Bessarabia
* Carpathian Ruthenia
* Southern Ukraine: Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odessa Oblasts

Varietals

The main varietals are Aligoté, Muscat, Isabella, Traminer, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Fetească, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Rkatsiteli.

White wines

* Aligoté: original wine. Colour: from light-straw to golden one, pleasant fine, distinctive taste with a shade of violet.
* Pinot group (Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc): Wine has golden shades and harmonious delicate taste.
* Riesling: after 1,5 years of seasoning it obtains the particular freshness, refinement, flower fragrance with the pleasant tints of fir and pine pitches.
* Chardonnay: The colour is light gold shades.
* Traminer: Predominating shades of rose and dogrose leaves.

Red Wines

* Cabernet Sauvignon: King of red wines. Color is intensive dark-red.Full-bodied fragrance and taste of black currants, and black currants leaves.
* Merlot: With shades of sweet-cherry and/or cherry, the wine has long aftertaste.
* Pinot Noir: full-bodied, oily wine. It is used as a base in blend wines.

Sparkling wines

Production of sparkling wine like "Sovetskoye Shampanskoye" ('Soviet Champagne') is increasing. Most of the sparkling wine is produced around large cities like Kiev, Artemivsk, Lviv, Odessa and Kharkiv. Most of the production is based on Pinot Blanc, Aligoté, Riesling and Feteaska.

Special wineries

* Magarach Wine Institute near Yalta with possibility to sample some of their 20,000 different wines derived from 3,200 vine species.
* Winery Massandra.

External links

* [http://www.massandra.ua/ Massandra] (Russian language)
* [http://www.krimsekt.ua Artemivsk sparkling winery]
* [http://www.zolotaja-amfora.ua/ Golden Amphora]