Dear Readers,
It is an honour to address you on behalf of Purcari Wineries Group. Our company is one of the largest wine and brandy ventures in Central and Eastern Europe, managing around 1,450 hectares of vineyards in three countries: Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. The group operates four wineries – Château Purcari, Crama Ceptura, Bostavan Winery and Angel’s Estate – as well as the Divin Bardar distillery.
At Château Purcari, our flagship winery in Moldova, we’ve been making wine since 1827. For many, Moldova is not a top-of-mind wine country, yet my homeland’s history is intimately intertwined with vine cultivation – in fact, there is no country in the world that is more dependent on wine. Archaeological artefacts point to a thriving wine culture as far back as the Cucuteni–Trypillian civilisation, around 5,500 BC, followed by Greek and Roman influences. Despite more recent challenges – from 300 hundred years of Ottoman rule to Gorbachev’s prohibition era and multiple Russian embargoes – we have persevered and remained committed to planting vines, growing grapes and making wine.
Today, we’re slowly carving out our place in global wine markets, somewhere at the intersection of the old and new worlds, with indigenous grapes like the superbly subtle Rară Neagră or the aroma-bomb, white Viorica as part of our story.
As producers from a small, frontier country, we must work twice as hard for consumers to enjoy our truly special wines, and many of our Decanter 90+ rated wines offer extraordinary value for money. Our focus is on quality first, but increasingly we recognise the importance of sustainability too.
We are embracing sustainable growing and vinification practices – from underground, drip irrigation to the reuse of CO2 (a by-product of fermentation), whilst implementing sustainable packaging and farming methods. We’ll keep innovating too, for example nightharvesting our Nocturne series (cool temperatures mean purer flavours and reduced refrigeration costs) or working with clay amphorae for our minimal intervention Academia wines.
In the pages that follow, you’ll discover our extraordinary wines – products of our dedication and passion – which we believe reflect our landscape’s complex history. Setting the bar high, our ancestors won Purcari’s first Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition back in 1878, and we aim to continue that legacy by making exceptional wines. Noroc!