A visit to the famous cellar of Purcari and the ancient fortress of Cetatea Alba, Moldova

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

The town of Purcari, located about 120 km south-east of the capital, is globally recognized to be the area of ??production of the most delicious Moldovan wines, especially for reds. This area, which is wedged between the self-proclaimed Dniester Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in addition, has a fantastic exposure to the sun of his vines as well as the influence of relatively mild climate due to the proximity of the Black Sea brings the right salinity in the clay soil of the area. The regular slopes gently rolling along the right bank of the Nistru river near the village of Purcari were once belonged to the monastery-Afon Zagrafsky. Thanks to these excellent properties since ancient times this area has attracted many farmers who settled there to cultivate the vine. The documented facts of history tell us that the monastery compelled the peasants to pay a duty on grape production, which hovered around 1 / 10 of the total, the men also forced the farmers to have an extreme care of the vines to maintain its excellent quality. It was during the period of the Russian Empire that this area received a great impetus in the development of winemaking. In 1827 came the first holding company created in Purcari production Hermanson was called, due to a founder of the German name of Russian origin. From this moment Purcari became a point of attraction for many foreigners who settled there; French (with their vines native), German and Russian. Later, during the 19th century, the Russian prince and Count Vorontsov Golytsin who controlled the production of the area had the inspirational idea to substitute part of the indigenous grapes (low alcohol content) with some varieties from Western Europe (soppratutto French) that fit exceptionally well in the context of this morphological and exhibition area.
Grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Pinot Game Freo, all grapes of very high efficiency as well as increased sugar accumulation.
Today Purcari is characterized by its high production of wines such as the collection and Rosu Negru de Purcari, its excellent Cabernet-Sauvignon de Purcari, Pinot Noir de Purcari Kahor dessert and wine.

About 40 km south of the border Moldo-Ukrainian Tudor stands one of the oldest cities on the planet. "Cetatea Alba" ("White Castle" in Italian) Belgorod-Dnestrovsky then called in Soviet times when it came under the administration of Socialist Soviet Republic of Ukraine than 2500 years of history! It was founded by sailors from the Middle East from the historic city of Milet built right on the mouth of the river Tiras (today Dniester) and originally called Tira. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the era of the Principality of Moldova was built by Stefan cel Mare a powerful fortress, which was precisely given the name of "Cetatea Alba". The "White Castle" is now one of the most magnificent examples of medieval defensive architecture found throughout Europe. Inside the Cetatea Alba you can see many buildings from different periods and among the most important ones are worthy of mention the remains of the minaret of the mosque built by the Ottomans during their period of rule in which the city took the name of Akkerman, name which was replaced with the current Belgorod-Dnestrovsky only in 1944. The oldest part of the fortress is from the Citadel, also called "Genoese castle" dating from the thirteenth century period in which it was built by merchants of the Maritime Republic of Genoa who renamed the city as the Moncastro.