Great news for enotourists: Magarach, the oldest research center for viticulture and winemaking in Russia, resumes excursions and tastings. They will take place in the Magarach building in the very center of Yalta. Details in our material.
Anyone can visit a research institution with a 190-year history. The program includes a tour of the territory of Magarach, which is located in the building of the former Alexander Gymnasium, built in 1898, and a story about viticulture and the art of winemaking, how Magarach was established, its development and achievements. After that, guests (of course, those who are already over their 18) are invited to an atmospheric tasting room, where they, sipping wines, can listen comments from professional tasters and recommendations on gastronomic follow-up of different types of wines.
Excursions and tastings are conducted by scientists − doctors or candidates of sciences, technologists, professional tasters, laureates of international competitions.
As they explained in the Magarach Research Institute, one of the tasks of the tasting room is to promote Crimea as the best region in Russia for wine tourism.
“The mission of our tasting room is not only to conduct product tastings in its elementary sense and to help sell wines, but to promote Russian winemaking, to promote Crimean wines on the market by informing about high-quality Crimean wines produced or sold, to create special programs, including lectures on the history of winemaking in Crimea,” the Magarach representative noted.
Services and prices for tourists:
• Excursion with tasting: 1000 rubles (lasts 2 hours).
• Excursion without tasting: 350 rubles (lasts 1.5 hours).
Magarach Research Institute address: Yalta, 31 Kirov St.
Inquiries by phone: +7 978 571-43-42.
The Magarach All-Russian National Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking achieved its present-day name and status in 2015, but its history began as far back as in 1828, when the Magarach experimental grape-vineyard was founded as part of the Imperial Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Since then, promising grape varieties have been planted there For several years. First four thousand vines of Pinot Franc, Petit Verdot, Gros Verdot, Malbec and Merlot varieties were planted in 1829 By 1860, the live ampelographic collection consisted of 400 varieties.
From the first days of its creation, the vineyard set the task of distributing the best varieties of grapes and creating an exemplary wine production.
Already in 1832, 6.5 thousand vines of valuable grape varieties were sent to various regions of the Caucasus, Bessarabia and southern regions of Russia. And in 1845, first shipments of wine were sent for sale to Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Saratov, where they were appreciated for their high quality.
