A sampling of the underground “city” with 124 miles of passages! Image courtesy of Deviant Art
Wedged between Ukraine and Romania in Eastern Europe is the small country of the Republic of Moldova. This small country is often forgotten about, and rarely traveled to; but fear not… it has something that no other country in the world has… the largest wine cellar in the world!
Milesstii Mici Winery was founded in 1969 as a place to store high-quality and rare wines. In 2005, Milestii Mici was registered with the Guinness World Records for having the biggest wine collection at 2 million bottles!
The wine cellars are between 100 and 300 feet underground. Image courtesy of MIR Corporation, photographed by Joanna Millick.
The Republic of Moldovia is actually the birthplace of what’s turned into today’s wine culture. 4,000-5,000 years ago, the first “wine” was made here. And as the years of World War II were quite hard on the region, and thus it’s vineyards, Milestii Mici Winery was built to store, preserve and mature high-quality wines. With such a storied past, it now makes perfect sense!
70% of the wine produced is red wine, 20% is white wine and 10% is dessert wine. Even though dessert wine is the least made, it’s the most expensive to produce at Milestii Mici Winery. Image courtesy of Drink Me Mag
The constant temperatures around 54-57 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity of 85%-95%, this is indeed the perfect location for stocking wine. Milestii Mici Winery has it’s own water supply which makes the liquid aspect completely stable.
For $200 per year, anyone can rent a niche. Image courtesy of: Nina Travels
This former mine with it’s limestone walls and large pits appears as though it was invented for it’s current purpose. 1,000,000 bottles are produced each year and are shipped to countries around the world, literally! Some of the oldest wines in the inventory date back to the 1960’s.
Image courtesy of Katie Aune. If only those walls could talk…
Touring the underground cellar is often done in a car so that you can get the “full” experience. The “streets” are named after the grape varieties. As you turn into a section, you notice how it’s carefully labeled with the year the grapes were picked, the year the wine was bottled and the number of bottles in the section.