Australia's most addictive velvety red returns ... and the new 2006 vintage is guaranteed to delight more than ever! That's because extreme heat during the vintage "slowed ripening ... and enhanced flavour intensity" (Australian Wine Corporation), which pushed concentration to levels we never thought possible. This is a wine with 'wow'! The Black Stump is handcrafted by John Casella, who practises his 'dark art' behind closed doors at his family's remote estate. The wine owes its name to an Aussie expression meaning 'the back of beyond', but its remote origins has not stopped it from winning medals at prestigious competitions around the world. Its secret is dark, captivatingly smooth Durif, a rare grape ("that takes no prisoners" The Observer), used as a 'turbocharge' to add inky-black fruit to other reds. Here, it's partnered perfectly with another big Aussie red grape, spicy Shiraz. Deep purple hue. Black, brambly Durif given a spicy, blueberry edge by dark chocolate Shiraz and sweet oak. Velvety, voluptuous, and irresistible served in large glasses with char-grilled steak or Sunday roasts.
You simply can't look past The Greatest Hits case to provide your liquid Christmas entertainment - it's so wonderfully varied and packed with quality. Highlights include the revered XV du Président, world class Pinot Grigio and Australia's brooding Black Stump.
Laithwaites the UK's no.1 independent wine specialist in everything from award winning wines to wine tasting accessories. With over 30 years of expertise dedicated to finding the best wines from around the world, Laithwaites pride themselves on wines of quality and above all, character.
The online store offers award winning, quality wines from around the world, mixed wine cases, accessories, special online promotions, expert's recommendations and much more - so you can be sure there will be a case to suit every budget!
Just 15 km (some 9 miles) North of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, Cricova mines lay deep underground. The mined limestone has been used for centuries to build the city of Chisinau and surrounding towns.
After the Second World War, someone came with this brilliant idea to use the empty space of this underground world for wine storage. Since the average depth of the caves is 60-80 meters (or 200-260 feet), the temperature is constant and low that makes it just perfect for the storage of wine and the fermentation of sparkling wine – about +12-14°C and humidity of 97-98%. Nowadays, the length of mines is about 100 km (or 60 miles) and the winery located there uses about 2/3 of them (or 53 ha). It is a labyrinth of subterranean streets, named after wine types, so you can stagger along Cabernet Street before crawling east into Pinot Noir Street and then on Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Feteasca, Aligote, Muscat Streets and so on. You need to have a guide not to get lost. The most fun is to drive a car in this world of large oak barrels filled with aged wine. It is so spacious down there that even a large truck can drive in. Don’t be surprised if you see a traffic light.
During the Soviet regime, Cricova cellar was closed to the public and only official delegations could admire its premises. In the guest book there are signatures of famous visitors, among them are Soviet political leaders, cosmonauts, like Brejnev, Gorbachiov and Gagarin.
Today, the market economy finally got there and anyone who loves wine and who looks for something unique can visit this amazing place. A tour includes not only a driving and working through these 'wine tunnels', but also a delicious dinner served with fine wines. At the end of the tour you will get a “take-home bag” with a few bottles of collection wines. Most famous names in the guest book: presidents of China (Zian ZeMin), France (Chirac), Poland (Kwasniewski), Romania (Iliescu), Russia (Putin), etc.
Cricova’s museum stores the country’s national collection of 1.2 millions of bottles of 653 names of local and world brands. The oldest wine is from 1902 named "Jewish Easter Wine" and the oldest bottle of liqueur is from the same year "Yan Bekher Liqueur". German Field Marshal Hermann Göring’s private collection of wine is also there. It was brought to Moldova by the general during WW II to be close to him at the Eastern front.
Just a bit smaller cellar than Cricova is Milestii Mici. Instead it has another uniqueness - the Milestii Mici's wine collection of 1.5 million bottles has been included in the Guinness World Records at the category The Largest Quality Wine Collection In the World.
Those of you who love to travel and are interested in visiting this man-made wonder, mark it in your tourist map. You would not regret it!
Wine fills the heart with thoughts of love and makes it prompt to catch on fire. All troubles vanish, put to flight by copious draughts. Then is the time for laughter, the poor man plucks up courage and imagines he's a millionaire. To the deuce with worries and troubles! Brows unpucker and hearts expand; every tongue's inspired by frankness, and calls a spade a spade. We've often lost our heart to a pretty girl at dinner. Bringing love and wine together is adding fuel to fire indeed.
“Dionysos-Mereni” is situated in the central part of the Republic of Moldova in Merenii-Noi village. It is about 20 km from the capital of the republic – city of Chisinau (Kishinev). The relief in this part of the country is mostly hilly. Fertile lands intermit with the deep forests – Codru. About 50 % of all Moldavian vineyards are concentrated in this area. Thanks to the landscape features, vineyards are kept protected from the extreme frost in winter. It also helps to accumulate sugar and minerals in optimal quan-tities in summer. The winery was built in the 1959. Initially it was meant for the primary processing of the grapes. During 37 years the best wine material was transported to the bottling plants throughout the former Soviet Union. In the year 1995 the process of renovation has begun. The winery has been privatized and reorganized into the joint-stock company ‘Dionysos-Mereni’. In the same year the new filling line «Techno Food» was installed. ‘Dionysos-Mereni’ became a full-cycle winery. In the year 2000 the Board of Directors decided to launch a program of quality wines production. This has been a point where the new history of the winery started. Source:
Winery of is the founder of production of high-quality elite wines and is truly considered the pearl of Moldovan wine-making. The year of 1952. This is the year of foundation of the unique, majestic wine temple, known not only in Moldova, but widely abroad. While visiting in 1952 the abandoned underground adits, where sawed stone of shell-rock has been mined and used as a building material for civil-industrial sites, the ancestor of wine production, Mr. Piotr Ungureanu and others, discovered a microclimate, ideal for dry and sparkling wines storage. Here, a constant temperature of 10-14 C and high level of humidity of 95-98 % are kept all the year round. After the clearing of sawed stone waste and some insignificant works on deepening, communication and asphaltation, fine wine materials of 50 thousand dal. per year has been brought here, and, firstly in the Republic, in 1955 it has been started the production (in small installments of 50 -150 bottles per year) of sparkling wines by "CHAMPENOISE" method - with the second fermentation of wine in the bottle The winery is situated at a depth of 50-80 meters under the ground. Natural lime-stone mines, that stretched out as a 60-kilometres ribbon on the slopes of a shallowed river, turned into the operating workshops. But under the ground - there is an entire town! There are avenues, streets… there. Only their names are unusual: Feteasca Avenue, Caberne, Riesling, Aligote Streets. A prominent scientist - the wine-maker, Professor M. Gherasimov, after a visit to Cricova, wrote: "Cricova wine cellars in their capacities and wine storage facilities have no match in what I have seen before neither in our country, nor abroad".
WORLD WINE PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY (HECTOLITERS 000) 1997 – 2001 AVERAGE 1997 – 2000 AND PERCENT CHANGE 2001 v. 1997-2000
AVERAGE
2001 VS.
COUNTRY (1)
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
1997-2000
1997-2000
WORLD TOTAL
261,46
257,3
282,21
283,88
266,8
271,212
(1.70%)
FRANCE
53,561
52,671
60,535
57,541
53,39
56,077
(4.79%)
ITALY
50,894
54,188
56,454
51,62
50,09
53,289
(6.00%)
SPAIN
33,218
31,175
33,723
41,692
30,5
34,952
(12.74%)
UNITED STATES (2)
21,606
21,404
20,222
24,963
21,3
22,049
(3.40%)
ARGENTINA
13,5
12,673
15,888
12,537
15,84
13,649
16.01%
CHINA
3,2
3,55
10,261
10,5
10,8
6,878
57.03%
AUSTRALIA
6,174
7,415
8,511
8,064
10,16
7,541
34.77%
GERMANY
8,495
10,834
12,123
9,852
8,891
10,326
(13.90%)
PORTUGAL
6,124
3,75
7,844
6,71
7,789
6,107
27.54%
SOUTH AFRICA
8,115
7,703
7,968
6,949
6,471
7,684
(15.78%)
CHILE
4,549
5,475
4,807
6,674
5,658
5,376
5.24%
HUNGARY
4,472
4,334
3,339
4,299
5,406
4,111
31.50%
ROMANIA
6,688
5,002
6,054
5,456
5,09
5,8
(12.24%)
GREECE
3,987
3,826
3,68
3,558
3,477
3,763
(7.59%)
RUSSIA
2,23
2,18
2,56
3,05
3,43
2,505
36.93%
BRAZIL
2,743
2,782
3,116
3,638
2,968
3,07
(3.31%)
AUSTRIA
1,802
2,703
2,803
2,338
2,531
2,412
4.95%
BULGARIA
3,371
2,129
1,715
3,305
2,26
2,63
(14.07%)
YUGOSLAVIA
4,025
3,15
1,366
1,973
2,1
2,628
(20.10%)
CROATIA
2,26
2,277
2,094
1,891
1,95
2,131
(8.47%)
MEXICO
1,524
1,112
1,443
1,305
1,411
1,346
4.83%
MOLDOVA (3)
3,123
1,7
1,332
2,5
1,4
2,164
(35.30%)
GEORGIA
830
830
1,3
1,138
1,326
1,025
29.43%
UKRAINE
990
900
856
788
1,296
883
46.70%
SWITZERLAND
1,045
1,204
1,312
1,276
1,113
1,209
(7.95%)
JAPAN
1,301
1,301
1,328
1,154
1,1
1,271
(13.47%)
URUGUAY
1,028
1,05
1,05
1
1
1,032
(3.10%)
MACEDONIA
1,136
1,227
912
1
1
1,069
(6.43%)
SLOVENIA
894
894
367
412
645
642
0.51%
NEW ZEALAND
458
606
602
601
530
567
(6.48%)
CZECH REPUBLIC
405
560
413
525
518
476
8.88%
CYPRUS
534
710
555
570
503
592
(15.07%)
SLOVAKIA
586
497
497
463
480
511
(6.02%)
CANADA
343
371
512
428
445
413
7.73%
UZBEKISTAN
1,47
1,14
590
410
435
903
(51.80%)
ALGERIA
357
360
422
424
420
391
7.54%
AZERBAIJAN
600
650
373
400
400
506
(20.93%)
TUNISIA
372
352
468
411
321
401
(19.90%)
KAZAKHSTAN
111
191
227
401
300
232
29.08%
MOROCCO
376
298
493
299
286
367
(21.98%)
TURKEY
336
278
257
230
265
275
(3.72%)
TURKMENISTAN
180
360
354
360
240
314
(23.44%)
LEBANON
248
186
188
188
195
202
(3.64%)
ALBANIA
168
105
127
74
142
119
20.01%
LUXEMBOURG
75
160
184
132
135
138
(1.98%)
PERU
120
120
127
130
128
124
3.08%
BELARUS
232
195
238
75
99
185
(46.46%)
MADAGASCAR
89
90
91
89
89
90
(0.84%)
PARAGUAY
92
92
74
56
60
78
(23.44%)
LITHUANIA
35
45
62
40
60
46
31.60%
TAJIKISTAN
195
163
52
39
56
112
(50.38%)
ISRAEL
90
90
80
75
50
84
(40.30%)
BOSNIA - HERCEG
54
54
58
48
50
53
(6.41%)
MALTA
32
32
35
43
50
36
40.85%
EGYPT
26
27
27
30
42
27
53.01%
ARMENIA
65
24
35
36
35
40
(12.55%)
ESTONIA
7
18
24
33
21
20
2.94%
BOLIVIA
20
20
20
20
20
20
1.19%
KYRGYZSTAN
20
8
21
22
17
18
(3.98%)
UNITED KINGDOM
6
12
13
14
15
11
31.83%
BELGIUM
1
1
2
2
2
1
45.45%
LATVIA
56
10
0
0
0
17
(100.00%)
LISTED COUNTRIES
260,64
257,26
282,18
283,85
266,8
270,148
(1.24%)
OTHER COUNTRIES
815
35
30
29
29
227
(87.41%)
WORLD TOTAL
261,46
257,3
282,21
283,88
266,8
271,212
(1.70%)
(1) Ranked by production in 2001 (2) Source: U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Monthly Statistical Report for December 31 of the year indicated. The Bureau of Tariff and Trade (TTB) which is now responsible for regulation of alcohol beverages and tobacco has not issued the December 31, 2001 report indicating wine production for 2001. The production indicated for 2001 is an estimate made by Ivie International based on historical data. To convert hectoliters to gallons, multiply hectoliters times 26.418 to receive gallons. (3) I live in this country :)
