Story of sparkling wine in Russia

To champagne debut in Russia we are owing to duke Lev Sergeevich Golitsyn. He studied the French experience of preparation of sparkling wines for a very long time and finally adjusted champagne production in his manor called Noviy Svet (Western World) in Crimea. The first manufacture of sparkling wines in Russia began in the middle of the XVIIIth century and it was known as the Don sparkling wine. The technology of its distillation originally named in the old Cossack way (later Cossack), was created by the efforts and experience of many generations of the Don Cossacks. Sparkling wines were especially famous for they sparkle and long-staying froth. In the beginning of the XIРҐth century an economic executive A.F.Rebrov laid out the first vineyards in Kizlyar county, built a winery and started producing Rebrovsky champagne.

The first lots of sparkling wine produced on classical technology in Russia were let out in Sudak (Crimea) at a small factory in a manor of academician P.S.Pallas (1799). However, impassability of roads, lack of qualified workers and a relentless competition with the French champagne didn`t afford the academician to achieve appreciable success, so the factory was closed. In 1812 a Frenchman Large founded the first champagne winery in Sudak and in 1830 a businessman Krich started the second manufacture (his champagne was awarded with a silver medal in 1846 in Simferopol). Those years the champagne production volume reached 15 thousand bottles a year. In the 40s of the РҐIXth century the duke  M.S.Vorontsov made sparkling wine Ah-danil, the quality of it, according to contemporaries, didn't concede to the best French samples. The duke L.S. Golitsyn played a dominant role in development of a domestic production of sparkling wines. His parkling wine Novosvetskoye was awarded by Grand prix at the Parisian exhibition in 1900. In 1871, thanks to an agriculturist F.I. Geiduk, the first vineyards in Abrau-Djurso were laid out with 20 thousand cuttings of grape, which he brought from abroad. In 1897 the first lot of 13000 bottles of champagne was delivered. In early 1900s the vineyards of Abrau-Djurso conceded only to the Kahetinsky manor by the area, where they produced up to 23913 buckets of sparkling wine a year (294 thousand litres).

The Soviet champagne brand was developed in 1928 by Sovnarhoz (Council of National Economy) . It was promoted the scientist A.M.Frolov-Bagreev, who in 1920 developed a system of reservoir fermentation, which helped to increase a champagne yield thirty times, having reduced expenses on production. In 1937 the first bottle of Soviet champagne descended from the conveyor of the Don factory of sparkling wines. In 1940 3,8 million bottles of champagne were filled on the Rostov, Kharkov and Avchalahsky factories. The Moscow factory of sparkling wines and the Leningrad state factory of sparkling wines were the first post-war factories, which began producing the Soviet champagne. Now the capacities of factories of Russia can provide 220 million bottles of sparkling wine a year, more than 3 million of those are produced in the classical way. In the European countries and a number of other states of the world the name champagne is protected by the legislation as the name of sparkling wine made in the region of France with the same name and meet the standards established for this wine. According to the Madrid contract (1891), every manufacturer of sparkling wines, except Champagne, is not allowed to write champagne on labels. In Russia sparkling wines called Soviet champagne and Russian champagne are being produced, due to the agreement with the French party. The production of champagne and sparkling wines in Russia are controlled by three GOSTs (All-Union State Standard): GOST 13918-88 the Soviet champagne. OTU; GOST R 51165-2009 Russian champagne. OTU; GOST R 51158-2009 Sparkling wines and pearly sparkling wines. OTU.