Ukraine

The Republic of Ukraine (Україна Ukrajina) in Eastern Europe with the capital Kyiv covers 603,700 km². The country borders Russia to the east and north-east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the south-west and the Black and Azov Seas to the south. The former USSR state became sovereign after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ukraine is divided into 24 districts, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (capital Simferopol) and the two cities Kyiv and Sevastopol with special status.

Civil war-like conditions broke out in February 2014. The "Crimean crisis" subsequently led to a referendum in which the majority of the population voted in favour of joining Russia (there was no option for the status quo). Crimea and parts of the Donbas have been under Russian control ever since. Ukraine continues to see Crimea as an autonomous republic and part of its own territory, while Russia sees it as a separate federal district. The UN declared the referendum invalid by a large majority. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine in violation of international law and recognised the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. This led to the bombing and destruction of many cities.

History

There was already a wine culture on the southern coast of Crimea in the 4th century BC, and wine presses and amphorae have been found from this period. In the northern part, it was not developed until the 11th century by monks. Under Catherine II (1729-1796), the Crimean peninsula became part of the Russian Empire in 1783. Her favourite Grigori Alexandrovich Potyomkin (1739-1791) reclaimed it and also promoted viticulture. The count imported vines from Italy, Spain and France. The soil around the town of Sudak was particularly fertile. Here lies the aptly named Solnechnaya Dolina (Sun Valley) with 300 days of sunshine a year and a large winery of the same name. In 1820, Count Mikhail Vorontsov (1782-1856) had vineyards planted and a large winery built near Yalta. He then founded the Magarach Wine Institute nearby in 1828.

The German scientist Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), who was brought to the country by Catherine II, deserves special credit for establishing large vineyards in the Sudak region. He described around 40 indigenous grape varieties in detail. Prince Lev Golizyn founded the still existing Nowyj Swet (New World) winery in Sudak in 1878. Sparkling wine was first produced in 1799 in the climatically favoured towns of Sudak and Alushta. Golitsyn is considered the founder of the famous Crimean sparkling wine (Shampanskoye Krimskoye). He was also commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918) to found what is now the Massandra state winery. In the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022) initiated an anti-alcohol campaign. Extensive deforestation reduced the vine population from 225,000 hectares to less than 100,000 hectares. This set viticulture back decades.

Cultivation areas, vineyards & grape varieties

Ukraine consists of four large wine-growing regions. This is by far the largest area in the south-west around the city of Odessa with around half of the total area, the peninsula of Crimea on the Black Sea with around a third, the Transcarpathian region bordering Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and the area south of the Dnieper River near the cities of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk. The continental climate is characterised by hot summers and harsh, frosty winters of over minus 30 °Celsius. Well-known brand wines are Kagor, Naddniprjanske and Tschorny Doktor.

In 2021, the vineyards covered 41,800 hectares of vines and the wine production volume was 660,000 hectolitres (2019: 1 million hectolitres). Around 180 grape varieties are cultivated, the majority of which are indigenous.

Map: © Goruma
Flag: by Government of Ukraine, Public domain, Link
Coat of arms: by Alex Khristov, Public domain, Link
Source 1st and 2nd paragraph: WIKIPEDIA Ukraine