Winemaking in Russia

• 1. Introduction

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  Winemaking in Russia is older than Russia itself. Along the shores of the Black Sea, at ancient trading posts named Phanagoria and Gorgippia, people were cultivating grapes and selling wine to the Ancient Greeks thousands of years ago. Some scholars claim the Black Sea area is the world's oldest wine region. Yet by the year 2000, the entire Russian Federation had only 72,000 hectares of vineyards under cultivation, less than half the total that existed in the early 1980s. What happened in between is a story of revolution, ideology, a single reformer's campaign against drinking, and the slow, uneven rebuilding of an industry that once fed empires. How did Russia go from a wine culture restricted to the aristocracy, to a mass market dominated by grape concentrates? Who turned the tide, and what does a gold medal at an international chardonnay competition in 2020 tell us about where the industry stands today?

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• 2. Ancient Roots and One Prince

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  Wild grape vines have grown around the Caspian, Black, and Azov seas for thousands of years. The evidence of organized viticulture in the region, trade routes and cultivation methods, traces back to commerce with the Ancient Greeks along the Black Sea coast. That long prehistory did not translate into a broad wine culture inside Russia proper. According to writer Denis Puzyrev, before the Revolution of 1917 wine was drunk in Russia almost exclusively by the aristocracy. The person credited with bridging that ancient tradition and modern commercial production is Prince Lev Golitsyn, who lived from 1845 to 1915. Golitsyn established the first Russian factory of champagne wines at his estate in Crimea, a place called Novyi Svet. His work gave Russia its first industrially produced sparkling wine and set the template for the grand estates that would follow.

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• 3. Revolution, Recovery, and Ruin

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  When the Russian Revolution came in 1917, the French wine professionals who had been working in Russia fled the country. The industry did not simply pause; it scattered. Gradual rebuilding began from 1920 onward, and the Soviet era brought an unexpected expansion of wine's reach. Under Soviet rule, wine was no longer the exclusive possession of the elite. The industry experienced a genuine rebound through the 1940s and 1950s, reaching its peak area of cultivation sometime in the early 1980s. Then, in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev launched his campaign against alcoholism. The domestic reforms that followed hit the wine industry hard. After the Soviet Union collapsed, privatization of land redirected prime vineyard territories toward other uses. By 2000 the country was left with 72,000 hectares under cultivation, a dramatic contraction from what had existed just decades before.

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• 4. Geography of the Vine

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  The North Caucasus region hosts most of Russia's vineyards, and the climate there is continental in character, with winters severe enough that many growers bury their vines under soil to protect them from frost. Around Krasnodar, growers benefit from anywhere between 193 and 233 frost-free days during the growing season, enough for grapes to reach full ripening. Stavropol, which accounts for about 13 percent of Russian wine production, works with a shorter window of 180 to 190 frost-free days. The Rostov region operates under hotter, drier summers and harsher winters, which tends to produce lower yields. Rostov compensates with something else: a remarkable diversity of native grape varieties originating in the Don Valley, including Tsimlyankskiy Tchernyi, Kumshatskiy, Krasnostop Zolotovskiy, and Plechistik, among others. The Dagestan area adds another texture, with a varied climate that shades in some zones into semi-desert conditions.

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• 5. Grapes, Appellations, and Styles

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  Russia currently produces still, sparkling, and dessert wines, drawing on more than 100 different grape varieties. The Rkatsiteli grape accounts for over 45 percent of all production, making it by far the dominant variety in the country. Alongside it grow international names like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, Muscat, and Pinot gris, as well as regional varieties like Saperavi, Silvaner, Traminer, Aligote, and Golubok. Russia has also established a set of controlled appellations tied to specific grape varieties, including Krasnostop Zolotovsky, Saperavi, Sibirkovy, Tsimlyanski Cherny, and Bastardo Magarachsky, among others. Semi-sweet and sweet wines dominate the market, accounting for 80 percent of sales overall, with that share exceeding 90 percent in the economy segment. A Russian wine guide published in 2012 listed 55 wines from 13 wineries, naming producers such as Fanagoria, Lefkadia, Chateau du Talus, Abrau-Durso, and Chateau le Grand Vostock.

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• 6. The Modern Rebuild

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  Since 2006, Russian wineries have adopted European techniques and standards, a shift that marked a conscious break from the Soviet-era reputation for low-quality output. That reputation had real substance: in 2013, roughly 80 percent of wines sold in Russia were made from grape concentrates rather than fresh-pressed grapes. The Abrau-Durso winery is considered the flagship of the new industry. By 2014 Russia ranked 11th worldwide by vineyard area under cultivation, a sign that land was returning to viticulture. In 2018 and 2019 several Russian wines were rated by Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate, scoring between 80 and 97 points. The Law on Viticulture and Winemaking entered into force on the 26th of June 2020, enshrining 80 basic concepts for the field and defining that any product labeled "Russian wine" must be produced exclusively from grapes grown inside the country. Since 2020 wine prices have nearly doubled, driven by an increase in excise taxes. That same year, the Fanagoria Blanc de Blancs Brut, a 2017 vintage from the Fanagoria Estate Winery on the Taman Peninsula, won a gold medal at the international "Chardonnay du Monde" competition.

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