Winemaking of the Stavropol Territory

Main article: Russian wine

• Stavropol Territory

History of winemaking development

The development of the Ciscaucasia became possible after the end of the Russo-Turkish war in the 18th century. Russia got the territory from Mozdok to the port of Azov, as well as the entire Stavropol Territory. Grigory Potemkin proposed strengthening the borders with the help of fortresses. The line of these structures was called Azov-Mozdokskaya. 9 fortresses were built. Cossack villages appeared next to the fortresses, and later forstadts for civilians. The military population eventually became peaceful.

On the territory of the current Stavropol Territory, the rural population prevailed. The area was dangerous, people settled in large groups. Peasants from the Oryol, Kursk, Voronezh, Poltava, Kharkov and Chernihiv provinces were brought to the Caucasus. Nomadic Nogai, Turkmen and Kalmyks also lived on these lands. Later (1808-1809) Armenians from Nakhichevan-on-Don appeared in Stavropol. In the 19th century, after the War of 1812, captured soldiers of Napoleon's army fell into the region. At the same time, German, Scottish and Italian colonies appeared in the region.

The first Russian settlers of the Stavropol province, who appeared there at the end of the 18th century, they found many wild vines in the forests along the banks of the Kuma River. Soon, cultural viticulture began to spread - first in the landowner estates, and then among the peasants.

By 1804, there were about 100 vineyards in the province with a total area of ​ ​ 60 acres. Viticulture in the Prikumsky district was not of industrial importance until the 1830s. A. Rebrov wrote out seedlings of the best varieties from abroad. He set out to establish the production of canteens and sparkling wines, for which he built a winery with fermenting containers, presses, basements for storing wine and invited French craftsmen to work. But already in 1839 the French left the estate, the production of sparkling ones ceased, and the vineyards soon fell into disrepair.

In Stavropol, the first vineyards were planted with Crimean vines in 1846 by order of Prince M. Vorontsov. Until the 1880s, when the center of provincial winemaking moved to Praskovea, the so-called Vorontsovsky garden. Further in the Stavropol Territory, viticulture developed mainly in the southeastern part of the province, along the river. Kuma, since irrigation could only be achieved near the full-water river in the villages of Praskovei and Karabagly (now Budennovsk). In the 1870s in Prikumye there were already 1,640 acres of vineyards. Viticulture developed in Novogrigoryevsky, Soldatsko-Aleksandrovsky, Vorontsovka settlement, New Testament and Late. Wine from here was sold in the province itself and exported to Astrakhan, the Kuban region and the Black Sea district. Merchants gathered in Praskovei, trying to buy still unborn wine in order to have time to deliver it to numerous autumn fairs for the Feast of the Intercession. The wine was of poor quality - rapid fermentation was carried out in "open stalls and vats," the wort was left for too long, as a result of which it faded very quickly and was covered with mold.

The colonists of Pyatigorye were more successful: the four German colonies of Orbelyanovka, Karras, Konstantinovskaya, Nikolaevskaya. Foreign varieties of game, silvaner, muscat, traminer, riesling, pinot gris were planted here, but in 1897 their 30-year contract ended, and they were forced to leave these places.

It all started with the Scots. In an effort to preach Christianity in any form among the peoples of the Caucasus, the government in 1802 placed a group of Protestant pastors here, who founded the Karras colony at the foot of Bestau on the lands of the Abazins and Nogais. Great Britain in every way condoned then the resettlement of the rebellious Scots as far from their shores as possible, and an agreement was quickly reached. Under the leadership of Henry Brunton, several Scottish families arrived here: the Petersons, the Mitchels, the Dicksons, the McAlpins. A few years later, the Scots realized that they were not coping, and called for help from the Germans from the Saratov province. It was they who brought here the culture of tobacco and grapes. There were more and more Germans, the requests of resort workers for their products were higher and higher. They brought their own varieties: riesling, silvaner, muscat. The Germans are believed to have been searching for decades for ideal varieties for the climate of the foothills, establishing the quality winemaking of Kavminvod. We settled on our native whites. Gradually, the colony became German, although by inertia it was called Scottish for a long time. Another colony of Germans, Nikolayevskaya, arose near Karras-Scotch (it was the latter that was more famous for winemaking, in the Soviet years there was the Mashuk wine farm). Today they merged into one village Inozemtsevo.

The second important point of German winemaking is Orbelyanovka and Tempelgof (Prikumskoye) in the Kumsky Valley, in the northernmost zone of the KMV. Prince Orbeliani, who owned the estate, gave up land for rent to the Lange brothers in 1867, and they invited German winegrowers from Bessarabia, Northern Tavria, Germany. So the colony "Tempelhof" - "Temple Court" was formed. Today, Tempelgof was renamed Prikumskoye, but Orbelyanovka, located on the other side of the Kuma, retained its name.

Some Germans left these places when the lease expired in 1896 and the lands were bought (and, according to one version, won in cards) by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. And many remained to work for the royal uncle, building new wine basements: the most magnificent was built in 1898.

The estates of Count Evdokimov (today the village of Zheleznovodsky) and Count Mussin-Pushkin (today Vinsada) and Tempelgof, which at the beginning belonged to Prince Orbeliani, and then to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, uncle of the last tsar, were also popular.

All these farms had their own shops and tasting rooms - "wine cellars" in Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk and Essentuki. According to the practice of those years, only the most valuable and high-quality wines were bottled. But local winemakers needed little bottling: most of the products were drunk locally. Although certain lucky ones were lucky: high-ranking vacationers demanded their wines in St. Petersburg and Moscow, so supplies to the capitals were getting better. To those who lacked local German and Italian, Armenians, Georgians and, of course, Cossacks from Terek villages could offer their wines in abundance. Sneezing was one of the cheapest and cheapest.

Kizlyar black *, Tavlinsky, scarlet Tersky, as well as table varieties were bred from local varieties in Prikumye. Wineries were adobe sheds covered in reeds. Grapes were delivered there, dumped in and out of a tall wooden quadrangular lar, in bags that were placed on a board placed above another empty lar. Another board was pressed on top of the bag - and the juice flowed into the lara, where the chapra was then thrown. In the same stalls, wine was subjected to rapid fermentation for 10-12 days, where it often faded. Such wine was sold in the form of a sneeze: a poorly fermented cloudy must, with the addition of grain alcohol, sugar (saccharin), with the infusions of blueberries or elderberry.

The Germans, however, already had crushing machines with ridge separators at that time. Unlike Stavropol peasants, they made mainly white wines, and squeezed wort was poured into barrels with a curved pipe, the upper end of which entered the dishes with water. During the year, the wine was poured 3-4 times. However, even these German rieslings and traminers could not compete in quality with Crimean and Novorossiysk wines.

Time passes, and in 1909 Tempelhof was sold to the Specific Department, i.e. it becomes the possession of the entire royal family, like Massandra, Tsinandali or Abrau-Durso. Here not only wines were produced, as with the Germans, but also brandy.

Even more interesting is the story of Italians who settled next door to the Orbelian Germans, on the other side of the two-headed Camel Mountain, towering above the Kumskaya Valley. The first winegrower here was the Calabrian Angelo Civelli, who named these places in memory of his native Calabria. It is no coincidence that the Calabrians appeared on the lands of the Grand Duke. They or their relatives built palaces for the Romanov palaces in Crimea, and, not wanting to return to their native region, still one of the poorest and most mafia in Italy, requested, in addition to payment, land in Russia. However, there were not only Calabrians, but also Lombards: for 1900 there were about 100 people, according to A.V. and L.A. Skripnik from the words of Angela Luigevna Smorodova (Nazutto), the last purebred Italian from the settlement who died in 2005. She stayed here, marrying a Russian at one time.

Wine-making experiments with Italian varieties arranged by the "agriturismo" were a great success. One of the most successful wineries belonged to the Raja family. He not only successfully sold his wines in bulk to resort workers (for example, in those basements where the underground floor of the Pyatigorsk Lower Market is located today), but also bottled them, distributing them throughout Russia. Raja folded their business in 1915.

The revolution put the life of Italians and Germans on its head. The colonists hardly got used to the collective farm system: the Italians did the worst, they repeatedly complained to Mussolini about new living conditions and, finally, got the opportunity to repatriate to Italy in 1938. The Germans in 1941 were already deported to Siberia. Many Cossacks of the surrounding villages also went there earlier. The flow of immigrants from Ukraine and from the center of Russia filled the former German colonies. However, the vineyards remained, and the Soviet government took maximum care of their safety. A new, forty-year period of the wine history of Kavminvod has begun. So, in "Tempelgof" the state farm "Suvorovsky" appeared, then "Beshtau." Giant: from here bottles of Riesling Beshtau, Sylvaner Beshtau, all kinds of muscats spread across the country. Vermuts were produced at the Mashuk wine farm. The varieties were revered by the same, German. As in the former colony of Konstantinovka, which became a village after 1942.

In 1985, in the homeland of the author of the "Gorbachev" anti-alcohol company, officials worked hard, for obvious reasons, the most. Vineyards were cut down, the supply chain across the USSR was destroyed forever. The local domestic market remained.

The Stavropol Territory turned into a subsidized region, which actually refused to support winemaking. In the late 2000s, most enterprises did not pass relicensing, forced to sell their wine materials for nothing to other regions of Russia.

According to soil and climatic data, the region is rare for Russia. Laccolithic mountains ("failed volcanoes") are formed by thousands of years of volcanic activity. The Kavminvod or Pyatigorsk viticultural zones are famous, except for limestones and sedimentary rocks, for volcanic soils. Some rocks are named after the area and are first described here (beshtaunite), some are not found anywhere in Russia: for example, travertine, a porous calcareous tuff, which is called "Mashuk stone" on KMV.

The climate of the foothills with temperature differences between day and night (even the hottest summer it will be 15-20 °), the difference in heights and precipitation made the region a place of production of some of the best white wines in Russia.

Present

Today, Praskoveyskoye CJSC - the industry leader spills Bulgarian and French wine The first regional festival of winemaking took place in 2014. In total, more than 40 enterprises were exhibited, from garages to large wineries. The edge is traditionally strong with saperavi, cabernet sauvignon, exquisite whites. Bestau-Tempelgoff (Prikumskoye)

The appearance of vineyards in the upper reaches of the Kum Valley is associated with such historical figures as the conqueror of the Caucasus, Count N.I. Evdokimov and the chamberlain of the imperial court, Prince G.D. Orbeliani, whose name is preserved in the name of the neighboring village - Orbelyanovka. The prince leased the land to German colonists from Bessarabia Friedrich and Johann Lenge, who planted 270 hectares of Rhine vines here and built the Tempelhof winery ("Temple Manor"). Wines, especially riesling and silvaner, were in demand in the resorts of Kavminvod and the entire Caucasus. In 1896, Orbeliani lost the estate in a card to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. Nearby, near Mount Camel, he granted lands to Italian colonists from Lombardy and Calabria, who founded the Calaborca wine settlement. After the revolution, the estates were nationalized and turned into wine farms, in the 1930s. at the insistence of Mussolini, Italians returned to their homeland, and in 1941 ethnic Germans were expelled. Vinsovkhoz, however, continued to develop progressively, in 1972 there were 1700 hectares of vineyards. The decline of the farm began with the anti-alcohol campaign of 1986, finally the vineyards disappeared by the 2000s. Since then, the farm, which has preserved the infrastructure of ancient basements, has constantly changed owners, turning into a secondary winery, little represented even in the local market.

Beshtau-Tempelgoff LLC is located at an altitude of 800 meters above sea level, in a place where the sun shines almost all 365 days a year. The farm is famous for the wine basement built by German immigrants in the 19th century. The Germans, in fact, stood at the very origins of the plant, the first owner and founder of which was the imperial governor Prince George Orbeliani. They brought here a vine from the monastery vineyards on the Left Bank of the Rhine. Stavropol Territory, Mineralovodsky district, with. Prikumskoye, st. Krasnaya, d.28

Built on the territory of the former Tempelgoff winery (one of the buildings of a curious German building was bought out - winemaking was the first to be promoted by the Germans here), the winery uses modern equipment (and wine production is a high-tech process, in general, little available at home without solid investment) produces quite modern wine.

At the winery there is a store from which you can go down, where the production itself is located. The hostess will gladly tell and show everything. Of the wines, I liked the reds more, although there are rare positions in the other - pink and white dry muscatas, for example. However, pink did not go in. There you can also look at the large abandoned winery itself, I hope sooner or later Batrak will be bought out.

Another table wine, Riesling - Beshtau, was also successful, on which H.P. Apazidi also began work. Actually, wine of this variety was produced in Tempelhof, but it was ordinary, ordinary and did not differ in special quality. After the death of H.P. Apazidi, the wine was "refined" by Vladimir Petrovich Shafransky with colleagues: E.I. Promtova, M.A. Makarova, E.G. Vinogradova.

In the 50-70s of the 20th century, a whole bouquet of master winegrowers was formed, including the newly named Heroes of Sotsialisti­cheskogo Labor, as well as the managers of the departments: Vinogradov - Pavel Sergeevich Vinogradov, horticultural - Anatoly Ste­panovich Grishkov and agronomist-fruit and vegetable grower Ivan Petrovich Barabash. The latter, switching to teaching, became a doctor of agricultural sciences, professor, head of the department of fruit and vegetable growing and viticulture of the Stavropol Agrarian University.

Winemaking of the winery farm "Tempelgof" - "Suvorovsky" - "Beshtau" throughout the post-war period, until the infamous 1985, was in good hands. Brand of local fine, elegant table wines Silvaner and Riesling, champagne wine materials, invariably shipped to the capital of our Motherland - Moscow, other wines and wine materials, the demand for which was constantly high, was supported by a whole galaxy of winemakers, including Vladimir Petrovich Shafransky, then po­ocheredno successive Lobunko N. A., Yu. V. Dozorov, P. A. Vasiliev, V. V. Batrak By 1986, the Beshtau wine farm had almost 900 hectares of vineyards, more than 600 hectares of gardens. Here, even in the second year of anti-alcohol lawlessness, with the yield of vineyards and orchards, about 47 and 116 c/ha, almost three thousand tons of grapes and fruits were grown and harvested, respectively.

Since 1996, now AOZT "Beshtau - Tempelgof" is led by Batrak Vitaly Vasilievich. After graduating from the Krasnodar Polytechnic Institute in 1976, he works at a winery, having gone from a technologist to a chief winemaker. During the years of anti-alcohol plague, or rather, its consequences, when there were no fruit-bearing vineyards left (technical varieties were mercilessly destroyed), the winery specialists, purchasing grapes and fruits wherever possible, reoriented to the production of fruit and grape juices, using the aseptic storage method. Later, they started brandy production here, producing ordinary cognac in small quantities, calling it the mysterious word "Tais." Currently, two new farms have been formed on the lands of this farm: LLC SKH Kavkazinvestagro - is engaged in the cultivation of agricultural products, including grapes. Also leads the laying of young vineyards of European varieties. The second - LLC SKH "Tempelgoff" is engaged in the processing of grapes and bottling of wine. On the territory of the modern winery there is a tasting room. Frequent guests are tourist groups of vacationers from near and far abroad at the resorts of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. Prikum wines have always been distinguished by aristocracy, subtlety of aromas, excellent taste and an impeccable game of color saturation.