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Question: What is a placomusophile?

Answer: A souvenir collector of the distinctive metal caps on the top of the cork closures of Champagne bottles. Fun hobby!

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Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons

By Joseph Temple

Last month, runners from around the world competed in a historic 10 kilometre race that occurred in perhaps the oddest place to hold such an event – an underground wine cellar! Sprinting past giant oak barrels and through dimly lit limestone caves, one runner told Reuters, “It’s unlike any race I’ve ever done, a once in a lifetime experience. Running through a wine cellar is unlike anything else and there were just people cheering everywhere.”

And just as this was no ordinary race, it was also no ordinary wine cellar. Located just outside Moldova’s capital city of Chișinău, the Milestii Mici winery has the distinction, according to Guinness World Records, of being the world’s largest wine cellar. Storing approximately 1.5 million bottles across 35 miles of underground galleries, this state-owned winery proved to be the perfect spot to hold such a contest.

Situated in a country that many Americans can’t find on a map, this whole ordeal leads to a much larger question: how did Moldova, both the poorest and least visited country in Europe, end up with the distinction of having the world’s largest wine cellar?

The answer becomes obvious when you take a closer look at the Republic of Moldova’s rich winemaking history that dates back nearly 5,000 years. Nestled between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has the highest density of grapevines per person than anywhere else in the world. In fact, almost ten percent of its land is covered in vines. However, unlike other former Soviet republics which have mineral, oil, and gas resources to fuel their respective economies, Moldova is dependent on agriculture, which represented 43 percent of its GDP and was responsible for half of the active labor force when the republic became independent in 1991. Simply put, Moldova loves and needs its wine.

Even more volatile is the country’s political history; in the last 200 years, Moldavia (as it was known back then) was invaded at least nine times including an annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944. After creating a client state known as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR), Moscow quickly put the nation’s wine industry first and foremost as part of its central planning.

Viewing wine as something that could showcase Soviet success to the entire world, diktats were given by the Ministry of Economy and Food Products to “liquidate the backwardness in the wine industry.” Starting in the 1950s, as part of a production led approach, a massive vineyard planting program was initiated, which topped 550,000 acres by 1960. This was accompanied by an investment in research and mechanization for Moldovan wines, which were already popular with the citizens of Moscow. At its peak, Moldova was responsible for a quarter of all wine consumed in the Soviet Union – a record 9.6 million hectoliters by 1983, making it the sixth largest producer in the world.

It is during this period of continual five-year plans that the Milestii Mici winery was built. Named after the town bearing the same name, construction began in the late 1950s with the first bottles being stored in 1968. Unfortunately, with Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaigns of the 1980s, which led to digging up over 75,000, the pride of having the the world’s largest wine cellar meant little as the country fell on hard times.

Thankfully, events like this race are helping to spread the word that Moldova is a hidden gem just waiting to be discovered. With vineyards extending along the southern coasts and around Chisinau, a vibrant capital full of tree-lined boulevards and a lively café culture, Moldova has plenty to offer for wine lovers. And the crown jewel is Milestii Mici – a winery that every oenophile needs to visit!

Sources:

Domine, Andre. Wine. Königswinter: Könemann, 2004.
Egan, James. 3000 Country Facts. Lulu.com
Gilby, Caroline. The Wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova. Oxford: Infinite Ideas, 2018.
Philpott, Don. The World of Wine and Food: A Guide to Varieties, Tastes, History, and Pairings. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

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Question: What is your favorite Ontario Riesling wine?

Answer: I have a long list of my favourite Rieslings from Ontario who now are producing some of the very best of that variety in the world. Save a soft spot for good value Thirty Bench (part of Andrew Peller) with low yield small lots from that sloping vineyard near Lake Ontario on the unique Beamsville Bench. Tried many over the years and all have shown most impressively and am still enjoying some delicious bottles from their 527 cases release of 2008 Triangle Vineyard at 11.3 alcohol. Also have some cherished bottles of 2011 Charles Baker 2011 Picone Vineyard Vinemount Ridge from Stratus at 11 degrees that is drinking beautifully. Pleased last month to be one of the judges at the Canadian Culinary Championships that awarded that wine from the 2014 vintage as Wine of the Year. Well deserved! Lots of excellent Ontario Riesling choices out there presently. Also like to follow the several wineries who planted back in the seventies the Riesling Clone 21B (called the Weis clone) both in Ontario & British Columbia now with mature vines and to compare their wines from the different regions. Fun exercise.

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Question: Would appreciate your opinion of the best and worst years this decade for white & red Burgundy.

Answer: Still a work in progress that is difficult to generalize on because of all the recent vineyard variables due to frost, hail, erratic weather by sub-region, and short crops. However your scribe still prefers the even vintages in Chablis of 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. For the Cote d’Or proper am finding 2013 to be one of the least consistent vintages for both the reds and the whites (as are some of the 2015 & 2011 whites). My vote for the best vintages would go to the concentrated ripe 2015 reds (with that surprising 2010 vintage) and balanced vibrant 2014 whites (with rich smaller crop 2010 also impressive). Lots of exceptions can be made during this unusual decade to those simple vintage chart numbers. You need to do a more detailed intensive study by both producer and vineyard for each vintage to be more truly accurate – or taste the wine. Hope this helps.

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Question: Sid with so many forest fires in the Okanagan the last two decades I wondered which years you thought resulted in the smokiest wines?

Answer: Yes the wild forest fires in the Okanagan have been a continuing hot topic (pun intended) for the BC wine industry. I would offer my opinion that the worst vintages for smoke taint are 2003, 2015, and 2018. There were also lots of wild forest fires in 2009 but they started quite early on because of above average temperatures and lower precipitation resulting in fewer grape issues. Luckily the 2003 fires were localized more around the environs of the Cedar Creek Estate Winery. In 2015 the fires were much more widely spread out (including extensive Washington State damage) and your scribe has noticed in some of these now bottled wines an extra smokiness with a difference in the tannins particularly in the reds having extended skin contact during the fermentation. Caveat Emptor. 2018 was another bad season with multiple fires but it is still early days for these wines from that year and the final results are still to be assessed after bottling. Always be careful in your selection.

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