MOLDOVA

MOLDOVA: WINE LAND OF EMPERORS AND QUEENS

Moldova – a small country situated in the South-East of Europe between Romania and Ukraine – may not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of Royal Wines. And yet it should. Moldova is actually one of the oldest and most established wine producing nations on the planet with its first traces of wine production dating back 4,800 years. This means that Moldovan viticulture is even more ancient than the world famous pyramids of Giza in Egypt, which were built 200 – 300 years later.

A country appropriately shaped as a bunch of grapes, Moldova offers landscapes characterized by low hills and sunny plateaus, crossed by numerous smaller streams flowing into the two main rivers, the Prut and the Dniester. Its climate is moderately-continental with benign influences from the nearby Black Sea. Located at 46-47˚ latitude – comparable to the Bordeaux and Veneto regions – the rich soils of Moldova provide excellent terroir suited for the production of quality wine.

Moldova boasts 112 thousand hectares of vineyard with over 50 types of technical grape varieties. This also compares well to the Bordeaux region which covers 120,000 hectares. Winemaking is a big deal in Moldova: about 350,000 people or roughly 8,5% of the population are somehow involved in the wine business. Next to cultivating many internationally renowned grapes, Moldovans also make wine based on purely local ones.

As part of Russia and the Soviet-Union in the twentieth century, Moldova had very low visibility and its wines would be consumed inside these empires. During the 19th century, however, Moldovan wine was considered very prestigious and even won first prize at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition, where everyone participating in its blind tasting assumed it was a great Bordeaux.

It comes as no surprise then that Moldovan red wine belonged to the wines of choice among some of the most influential Royal rulers of the 19th century: not only the Czars of Russia famously drank wine from Moldova; few people realise that Moldovan red wine was among Queen Victoria’s favourites and that her Royal Court regularly ordered Moldovan wine to be shipped over to England.

So when drinking Moldovan red wine, you actually find yourself in the company of illustrious monarchs.

As an exquisite example of Moldovan red wine, Royal Wines is proud to offer you Trei Crai or Three Crowns, an organic wine produced by the truly creative Equinox winery.