It is the largest winery in the world, it is located in Moldavia, it is part of the Unesco heritage, but few know it in Italy. Franco Pasargiklian, director of the magazine “La Protection” who, a few weeks ago, accompanied 17 modules of an emergency refugee camp (for a value of two million euros) to the capital Chisinau told us about it. were donated by the Civil Protection of Trento and Bolzano to local counterparts.
At the end of the operations, the commander of the Moldovan Fire Brigade accompanied the Italians on a visit to the Cricova winery, 15 km from the capital.
«It is a former mine – explains Pasargiklian – where for centuries the limestone with which Chisinau was built was quarried. Now exhausted the material, after World War II the basement began to be used as a cellar by two local wine producers, Petru Ungureanu and Nicolae Sobolev, to store the bottles ».
After all, the environment is ideal: located at a depth of 60-100 m, it always maintains a constant temperature of about 12 ° -13 ° with a humidity of 97% “.
Of the 250 km of tunnels, as many as 120 are currently used as storage for tens of thousands of barrels of all types, ranging from 225 to 500 liters, while other gigantic containers can store up to 7 tons.
About 10 million bottles are stored in a strictly lying position. Among these, one of the oldest (drinkable) ones in the world, from 1901. The figure of one million euros was offered but the Moldovan government preferred to keep it for its cellar as a “showpiece”.
In 2005, the underground facility entered the Guinness Book of Records with the title of the largest winery in the world. A beautiful sponsorship that now attracts tens of thousands of tourists a year willing to pay the entrance ticket of around 40 euros. Visitors are greeted at the entrance by curious fountains that give (fake) wine which gushes, filling large glass goblets.
The maze in the bowels of the earth must be traveled with a kind of electric train and you are accompanied by a guide through the galleries which, to distinguish them, bear the names of vines: Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot etc …
There is also a cinema, a Moldovan wine museum, banquet and tasting rooms, up to certain special niches where the greats of the earth keep their collections of the finest wines.
In fact, it is not uncommon for European heads of state to pay a visit to Cricova: Queen Elizabeth orders 3000 bottles a year from there and Merkel and Putin keep their Sancta Sanctorum bottled there.
It seems that the Russian president has a real predilection for Cricova, so much so that he celebrated his fiftieth birthday there with a party where certainly there will be no lack of toasts. On this occasion, you will have read the dedication that Yuri Gagarin left on a photo after staying two days in the cellar.
A staff of 150 people work underground with another 200 on the surface, employees who come from all over Moldova.
With a production of 124,200 tons of wine (up to 2009), Moldova has a well-developed wine industry. Moreover, this production dates back to 3000 BC. C., when Greek traders introduced viticulture to the area. This was then encouraged by the Tsars who imported several grape varieties from France along with their know-how. The sector was modernized by the USSR which made Cricova the leading wine producer in the Soviet Union.
Until a few years ago, Moldova was the twentieth wine producer in the world. Much of the industrial production of wine in the country is destined for export; 67 million bottles of wine are exported annually to Poland, Romania, Russia, the United States, Japan, China and even some African countries such as Nigeria.
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