Eco Wine of Moldova

A family winery at Molovata Nouă, on the plateau the Dniester wraps around on three sides. In 2019 Vladimir took over a vineyard more than thirty years old and kept the varieties that have grown there for generations: Crească, Târasă, Zaibăr, Castel and Viorica. He makes natural wine with minimal intervention, no added yeast, no sugar, water or preservatives. What people book here is not a cellar visit but a whole day. Guests describe cycling or hiking through the village and the neighbouring ones, a tour of the local mines, views over the Dniester and lunch in a village home, before the wine part. Groups come too, for team-building days. A sommelier with years in the trade wrote that this is the kind of place you would never find on your own. Tastings are held at the Peasants' Museum in the village, by appointment. The wines carry two family names, Sofia and Paola, in lots of a few dozen hand-numbered bottles. Those who have drunk them describe the whites as fresh, with citrus notes and a long finish, and the reds as deeply coloured, with firm tannins and noticeable oak. Sofia red is the one named most often as a favourite.