Description of the attraction
Massandra winery, located on the southern coast of Crimea, is located in close proximity to the resort town of Yalta in the small village of Massandra. The history of Massandra wines began in the middle of the 19th century, when the small village of Massandra passed into the possession of Count M. Vorontsov. He founded a vineyard here, which was supported by the most famous French winemakers. Wine production reached an industrial scale only 50 years later, after the estate became the property of the Russian imperial house.
In 1892, at the invitation of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, the chief winemaker of the Specific estates of the Crimea and the Caucasus, Prince Lev Golitsyn, who by that time was already considered the founder of the New World wineries, arrived in Massandra. By his order, an underground tunnel-type plant was built here for the production and aging of table and dessert wines.
Externally, the building of the Massandra winery, erected from the local Crimean light gray stone, looks like a medieval castle with a tower and wrought iron gates. In the underground part there are seven basements in the form of a gallery with stone niches designed for aging collection wines. This storage is unique due to its special microclimate, where the temperature of +12 ºС is kept all year round, which is ideal for storing high-quality wines. In addition, the building of the winery houses a workshop for aging dessert wine materials, tasting rooms and a winemaking museum.
The Massandra Association is one of the largest enterprises for the production of wines and the cultivation of grapes, tobacco and other agricultural products, not only in Ukraine, but also in the CIS countries. The collection of Massandra wines, with over one million bottles, is the largest in the world. In 1998, she was entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
