The best Moldovan wines: and why they are worth tasting

Here are a couple of quiz questions you can try on your friends. First, which country drinks the most wine per person? Second, which country makes the most wine per person?

If you didn’t get Vatican City as the biggest drinker and Moldova as the largest maker, don’t worry. Very few people do.

It’s clearly thirsty work leading the world’s Catholics. But few people even know Moldova is a wine-making country, let alone such a significant one.

It’s not only the world’s largest wine producer per head, it’s also the world’s largest wine producer per acre.

This is a legacy of its role supplying the Soviet Union with wine from vast collective wineries. And they’ve left their mark on the country too.

The heart of Moldova’s capital city, Chișinău, is dotted with countless beautiful buildings made from gleaming limestone all excavated from vast underground cellars of the country’s largest producers.

The cellars at Mileștii Mici winery extend for more than 200km; nearby winery Cricova has over 120km of cellars and each contains millions of bottles. In 1966, Cricova welcomed cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin to the vast cellars. It is claimed that he re-emerged (with assistance) two days later. In 2002, Vladimir Putin held his 50th birthday there.

Putin doesn’t hold parties there any more. After all, Moldova is looking to sell its wine to the West.

Wines like the fragrant, lemony Orietto Pinot Grigio, 2021 (12.5%, £9.49), a supple, fresh, easy drinking white. Or the extraordinary value of Kew Gardens Blanc de Cabernet Brut NV (12%, £14.99), a curious (more accurately, bizarre) white sparkling wine made from red Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. But that’s its secret. It wins you over with a generous red fruit and frothy, drinkable, juicy character. Its label – made in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – is one of the most attractive I’ve seen.

Moldovan wines have also garnered some well-known fans over the years. Chateau Purcari Negru de Purcari 2020 (14%, £27.95) is known locally as ‘The Queen of England’s wine’, as the late Queen Elizabeth II bought so much of the 1990 vintage. It’s a rich, full-bodied red with black fruits and spice.

Alternatively, you could try its mid-weight, damson-scented Chateau Purcari Rară Neagră de Purcari (13%, £16.66), a tasty dry red wine with a lovely chocolatey finish.

But my pick of the crop has to be Carpe Diem Feteasca Albă 2021 (13%, £13.99 or £8.99 each for six), which is a fabulously versatile, elegant white with apple fruit and jasmine fragrance.

The grape Fetească Albă translates as ‘white maiden’ – a maiden, perhaps, even the residents of The Vatican couldn’t resist.