The most northern vineyards in Russia: Elbuzd winery

I’m not writing anything at all about the October eno-gastronomic trip to the Rostov Region, I would have to fix it.

Honestly, I thought that the word "t" is missing in the word "eno" and should be "ethno". Ahah, loshara is so loshara. No, “eno” is “wine”, so the tour was filled with visits to various wineries where we were served wine for breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime, and tasting products. And you know, a very good product. Before this trip, if they had offered me Rostov wine, I would politely refuse, and I would have thought what the hell out of me. I admit, I was greatly mistaken and was wrong. You see how much you learn on trips. So travel whenever possible, read not one page of the book, but all of it.

Today we will visit one of the wineries located in the Azov district of the Rostov region. In such a place, I always dreamed of visiting an underground wine cellar with barrels, the imagination painted various paintings. And, as they say, it happened.

We arrive at the place in the evening, so for us there are two news - good and bad. Bad - the grape harvest is finished for today, there will be no pictures of this process. Good - a nice soft light around, beautiful for filming.

Ahah, for sure! From the harvested grapes is another plus - you can grab at the boxes))

Sweet, delicious, juicy!

The fact that grapes are grown in the Rostov Region, I did not know either. I thought they couldn’t climb above the Krasnodar Territory. It turned out that he had made a mistake more than once. The Rostov region is almost the northernmost region of the world where it grows. At least in Russia, it is definitely the most northern.

The soils here are fertile, but plants can die in winter, so grapes are carefully wrapped here for the winter. And the whole thing has gone since 2010, when seedlings bought in an elite European nursery and planted here on an area of 25 hectares. The very first harvests showed that the project is successful, the potential for the production of high-quality wines is great.

Red varieties grow here: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir and white: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewurztraminer.
Divine set!

It was certainly impossible not to go to the plantation)

Elbuzda grapes grow next to the river of the same name. Translated from some ancient language, this means "ice river." I don’t know which one, but I know that now it is one of the cleanest rivers in the Rostov region.

We admire the vineyards and the river from the roof of the farm. In the future, they want to equip a tasting room with an observation deck.

The production is located here, so as not to spoil the harvested grapes by transport, but to process them on the spot. All workshops are underground, the depth is about 10 meters.

Smell - you can imagine which one, and these barrels are called “fermentation tanks”. Made of high-quality German steel that does not give rust. They are poured from above, all parameters are clearly observed. For example, wine should not be above a certain temperature in order to preserve its aroma. Fermentation takes 3-4 weeks.

They work with grapes on this equipment - they clean it of debris and seeds, prepare the mass for fermentation. It is already evening now, the workers have dispersed, but in general, 25 people work in the economy at the factory and 100 people in the vineyards.
With so many people, their own home, local atmosphere and cosiness are presented.

Continuation of the same equipment.

It’s a pity, we didn’t look at the automatic bottling line in the case, but nothing - they showed us something similar at the Rostov Combine of Champagne.

Yet it works according to a simple scheme - a bottle-wine-label-excise tax. The line copes with 2500 bottles per hour.

We go down even lower, it is almost completely dark here.

Yeah! Here is the wine cellar! One less dream, well, okay, think of something else to dream about)) Look, what a delight!
Cool, we are at a depth of 19 meters.

Barrels made of French oak - interaction with this tree makes the wine more delicious. Different varieties are stored for a different period of time - from 6 months to 2.5 years. If overexposed, the wine will become more rigid and not very comfortable for perception.

For aging, the barrel can be used only 3 times. After, as the wine takes all the useful properties of the tree, use only as a storage container. By the way, there is an empty new barrel of 953 euros. Not bad!

I liked the images of all the varieties growing here. Now I will know who differs from whom.

By the way, the consultant of "Elbuzda" is the oenologist number 1 in the world - Frenchman Michelle Rolland. This is his first and only project in Russia.

Don winery "Elbuzd" is constantly involved in various exhibitions, seminars and fairs. There are more and more fans of products.

The tasting confirmed that it was not in vain. The wine is really great. From the prices I remembered that Merlot - 600r, Chardonnay - 700, Gewurztraminer - 800.