Ivancea museum is closed for renovation, so I have to come up quickly with an alternative. My uncle’s winery was ten minutes drive, and as few times he invited me to visit it, I give it a shot. And yes, it is possible to come for an excursion on such a short notice. Small deviation from the main road, driving on the gravy road, through a surprising forest and here we are parking the campers in front of an iron gate.
The colourful guard, dressed in quilted coat let us in. Smell of wine, spirituous and grapes.
We stop in front of a big, dark hole, diged in the one of the building walls. A chilly wind is coming from depth of the cave. It’s dark there and not much can be seen.
We are waiting for our guide. There she comes, Galina. She is the technology manager and does not speak English, so I have to translate for the group. We start our excursion and adventure into the depth of the cave.
Enthusiastically Galina starts to tell company’s story. Branesti cellar is the second longest wine cellars in Moldavia – 58 kilometers. The cave is the result of cutting out the lime stone, which in Moldova is used in construction. Because of lime proprieties, the temperature in the cave is constant during the whole year, 12-16 degrees. Somebody had an excellent idea to use these caves to store the wine. On the ceiling you can still see mark from drilling machine.
We continue to go down into the darkness. It becomes cooler. Not much light, but we do not mind as it ads mystery to our excursion. The cellar goes little by little 60 m below ground level. The company produces wine and sparkling wine. Most of it is exported to Russia. At Branesti not only the wine is stored underground, it is also produced here. Of course production lines are Italian. Strange, so many Moldovan companies are proud to tell where from production lines are coming, as it influence wine quality. The line is just bottling the wine, doesn’t it? Along the production lines we see few women busy with bottle labeling. We visit room where the wine is stored. The room is fool with big, emailed, high cisterns. Some are full, some are cleaned and empty. Somebody asked about champagne production, better said sparkling wine, as nobody is allowed to use work champagne, except Champagne region itself. Production details follows, which I hardly understand and therefore hard to translate for me. The most important I remember is that the champagne bottles are turned by hand and not by a modern machine - there is nothing better than a gentle women hand.
Galina becomes more and more enthusiastic. Her speech is longer and longer. It becomes harder and harder to translate for me. Nevertheless the group becomes very found of our guide. The winery is not spoiled with much tourists, so when a group is coming, the personnel do their best. It’s nice to hear a true story and not just a text learned by heart in so many touristy wineries.
We ask how company managed after Russian government blamed Moldovan companies of delivering bad quality wine to their market. It’s a painful question. Galina is disappointed and angry with Russian government. It’s only politics. It has nothing to do with wine quality. Galina, with her usual enthusiasm tells us their Russian clients never had complains on Branesti wine, that company has a modern quality control system, according to which the wine is checked at all production stages – from receiving the grapes till labeling the bottles. Her words come from the depth of her heart so I believe her, and the whole group does.
Let’s leave political issues and let’s go to cheer up! It’s tasting time.
We go up on narrow stairs and low ceiling. One by one, still in half dark we continue our cave adventure. Steps end up in very small room, with one long table. We feel very cozy. Galina enthusiasm goes on as she tell all irons and wooden things in the room were made by an artisan from the village. Real local things. As we noticed the whole company is full of gems, one of them being Galina itself. Heart and soul. We taste white wine, red wine, wine champagne, red champagne. Group is surprised. Red champagne? There is no such thing in Western Europe. Maybe it is a rose champagne? No, red. In Moldova it is a very usual thing. Moldavians drink it mostly for celebrations and special occasions. Both champagnes are very good, fresh, nice aromas, bubbles biting softly our receptors.
At the end, Galina asked to taste also a glass of water. She is very proud of their water. Another story follows. In wine production process, technical water is used. The company used its own artisan water. One day, a guest mentions that the technical water was actually very tasty. The personnel did necessary analyses and indeed, water proved to be so good, that winery decided to bottle also water. We taste water. It’s very tasty, cold and sweet.
The tasting is over. Save god, we do not have to finish our excursion in a souvenir shop - so many people are tired of them. Still you can buy wines products. The group makes a list of desired products and Galina runs quickly to production lines to take necessary bottles. Some bottles even do not have labels. We do not mind. We care what it’s in inside. And the wine quality is very good, we just proved it. Boxes of red wine, white and red champagne, and of course Brancesti water are loaded into campers and we say good buy to this authentic winery, authentic people, authentic products.
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