Much like Romania and Georgia covered earlier this week, there is archeological evidence of viticulture in Ukraine dating back to BC times. 4000 years before, in the case of Ukraine. Amphoras, or ‘kvevris’ when used in Georgia, were found that dated back to this time, and are still used by producers today.
The story of our own friends in Ukraine began slightly more recently. Over a century ago, Vartan Guliashvili began planting his grapes in the legendary Odessa region, and passed everything he learned down several generations. The hard work of Ruben Guliev earned him two awards from the state, and may well have attributed to his vineyards survival at a particularly tough time in the 1980s when Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev started a campaign against the over consumption of alcohol in USSR.
The Odessa region may too have played a part, enjoying a unique microclimate between the Black Sea coast and the Dniester Firth river. Germans, Russians French and Armenian wine makers have cultivated wines in this region over the last 200 years. The ancient Greeks too, and among them, the ‘father of History’ Herodotus and the Ancient Roman poet Ovid, may well have enjoyed a tipple …according to Guliev!
Capitalising on the fall of the Iron Curtain and the wine education that was made available to them across the West as a result, Guliev have worked tirelessly to perfect their process.
Specialising in the driest of wines as a means of demonstrating the precision of their efforts, unmasked and unenhanced by sugar dosage, they invite you to find a fault!