W i n e r y
Cricova Winery was founded in 1952 in the galleries of the former limestone mine and its truly the National Treasure of the Country. Underground City, Kingdom of Wines, Pearl of Winemaking, Visiting Card of the Country – is only a small part of the names that can proudly describe Cricova Winery.
The Underground City is filled with a unique energy. Once you are in this city you can feel the centuries-old history in our tunnels infused with the art of winemaking, the culture of the Moldovan people and the history of people visiting the famous winery.
You can only imagine!
- Underground tunnels - 120 km
- Deep level underground - 60-100 m
- Constant temperature +12+14 °С
- The Volume of Stored Wine 40.000.000 l
- Underground cinema at a depth of 80 m
- Underground tasting rooms at a depth of 60 m.
- Underground church at a depth of 60 m.
- Wine collection with above 1,000,000 bottles
- The first and largest producer of sparkling wine according to the French method - 2,000,000 bottles per year.
Our Story
o u n d e d n 9 5 2
Yuri Gagarin stayed in Cricova for the night and promised to bring gold from other planets to make medals for Cricova’s wines.
We propose you to plunge into the versatility of our winery!
Cricova is the first and largest winery in Moldova, which produces sparkling wine according to classical French method, by secondary fermentation in bottles and the subsequent cuvve ageing in a horizontal position for at least 3 years. Thanks to the deep knowledge carefully collected by the predecessors of the masters of winemaking, today it is safe to say that one of the most wonderful products offered by the Winery Cricova is classic sparkling wine.
Total production of classic sparkling wine is 1.200.000/year.Dom Pierre Perignon’s method is distinguished by its long and slow production to achieve the mature, gentle and elegant taste of sparkling wines. Production takes place at a depth of 90 m. underground. Most of the stages are manual. Remueurs are the Moldovan specialists in Cricova who make the process of remuage in the wooden pupitre. And each of remueurs is able to rotate up to 50,000 bottles/day manually.
Cricova Winery is located in the heart of Moldavia and owns more than 650 hectares of vineyards located in the vicinity of the Winery and in two PGI zones in Moldavia.
PGI Codru is located in the center of the country, where terroir is suitable for growing white grapes to make fresh and mineral white wines and great sparkling wines. Red grapes are also grown in this region in order to make light red wines and pink wines. PGI Valul Lui Traian is located in the south part of the country and is proper for full-bodied red wines and flavored dessert wines.
Innovative production technologies and bottling line allow serving 10,000 bottles per hour, which ensures maximum efficiency and optimization of work, allowing to produce high-quality wines, which for many years were valued at the world’s leading wine competitions, receiving more than 500 medals.
One of the important achievements is the Gold Medal in 2020 for the sparkling wine “Cricova Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs” at the most prestigious competition “Effervescents du Monde„ in the birthplace of Champagne. Cricova’s wines are a sign of quality that is valued international and is exported to more than 30 countries.
2020 was a significant year for the tourism industry, Cricova became a member of the ETOA. The only travel association that protects the interests of the tourism industry in the European Parliament and unites 1,200 companies.
Every year thousands of tourists from more than 120 countries, visit Cricova Winery. Among the visitors there are also officials as: Presidents, Prime Ministers, Members of Governments, Parliamentarian, Lords and even Kings. Also, we were visited by Scientists, Actors, Musicians, Winemakers, Cosmonauts from all around the world : Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Marat Safin, Nikolai Valuev, Gennady Khazanov, Savely Kramarov, Lara Fabian, GoranBregovic and many others.
In the National Wine Collection of Cricova Winery are stored more than 200 private casas of famous personalities.
