Massandra winery. Yalta

Massandra village is located on the southern coast of the Crimea. Here is located Alexander III Massandra Palace Museum and no less famous winery "Massandra".

Massandra village (wich is located not far from Yalta) became famous as a center of winemaking at the beginning of the XIX century, when its new owner was count Mikhail Vorontsov. The best French, Rhenish, Spanish and Greek vines were planted in the Crimean land with his efforts. The Count built the first wine cellar in the Ai-Danil estate. Semyon Mikhailovich Vorontsov, a son of the Count, picked up and continued his father’s beginning. Vine cultivation and wine process were transferred to an industrial level.

In 1889 Massandra became a part of Specific department property. The story of the future center of winemaking could have been ended. If only the assignment of Lev Golitsyn, a famous and talented winemaker. Thanks to Golitsyn vineyards area has greatly increased, there was built a cellar for table, sparkling and dessert wines.

The cellar construction had been lasting from 1894 to 1897. It included a main building and seven underground tunnels in which the constant temperature was +12 to + 14 degrees. Ideal ventilation, which is vital for normal maturation and storage of wine, created due to the drop height. Golitsyn laid the foundation of the future museum of wine, where the first exhibits were the best world wines. And since 1897 the collection was enriched with Massandra wines.

Today, enoteca, namely it is the correct name for a wine collection, contains about 1 million bottles of unique wines. This makes it the largest in the world. Among the exhibits are Spanish "Jerez de la Frontera" the harvest of 1775 and "Madera Ribero Secco" 1837, the French "Muscat Lunel," 1848, Theodosia "Saperavi". The wines, created and named by Prince Golitsyn, "Golitsyn Seventh Heaven," the harvest of 1891, "LakrimaKristi" the harvest of 1897, are stored there too. In 1990, some of the "Massandra" enoteca exhibits were presented at the "Sotheby's" auction.

The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was known as a great lover of good wines. Probably due to this enoteca has not suffered during the Second World War. A part of it was evacuated by warships to Novorossiisk, the rest was entombed in the cellars. After the war collection was returned to Massandra.

From the period of Vorontsov and Golitsyn the winery has significantly increased its area. As before, a winery building that resembles a medieval castle with a tower in the middle and wrought iron gates is the center. In 1938, began the construction of an additional factory building, which began operation in 1956. Today, there is a wine museum in the first and the main factory building where guided tours, exhibitions and wine-tastings are held.