A drink about which, without exaggeration, we can say "noble, luxurious, unique." Amazingly rich taste, heady aroma and magnificent ruby tone that distinguish bastardo wine make it a favorite not only of professional sommeliers, but also simply connoisseurs of tasty and high-quality drinks.
Worldwide recognition
Once the vineyards in which the Bastardo variety was grown were quite popular, vines with clusters of fragrant and very sweet berries of dark blue color were common in southern Europe.
Winemakers from Portugal were among the first to produce bastardo wine, their colleagues from France and Spain also favored this grape variety. True, although their drink was made from the same raw materials, it had an excellent name. The French, it was a resounding coward, and the Spaniards - Merensao.
The minus of Bastardo grapes was that he was quite susceptible to diseases, suffered from temperature extremes, and frost affected him simply destructively. All these factors have become the reason that the number of wineries producing just bastardo wine was rapidly declining. Breeders tried to grow such grapes in the Caucasus, and brought to Uzbekistan. However, the local climate did not fit the capricious plant. However, the Crimea coped with the task with a bang, and since the late nineteenth century, Bastardo grapes have been successfully growing on the peninsula.
Crimean wealth
It should be noted that Crimean bastardo wines are not produced from a “purebred” grape variety. In 1966, thanks to the fruitful and successful work of its director Pavel Yakovlevich Golodrigi, the Yalta Institute of Winemaking created a new hybrid, which had not yet a name but simply numbering - 217. This grape was obtained by crossing the same Bastardo variety from Portugal and Georgian Saperavi.
This choice was not accidental. The Georgian variety is distinguished by good yield and weather resistance, which took over No. 217, without changing the original taste and aroma. The resulting variety was ultimately incredibly successful. Its properties exceeded all expectations, the plant gave a good harvest, it produced excellent bastardo wine, which is popular all over the world, in addition, regularly receives well-deserved awards and honors from recognized winemakers and gourmets from around the world.
feel the difference
It is noteworthy that from the Bastardo grapes produce not only the drink of the same name. Probably, this practice remained only in the Crimean wineries, of which there are several on the peninsula. Among the most famous, of course, are Massandra, Inkerman, Koktebel, Magarach, and Crimean Wines.
Among these producers, not everyone has bastardo wine in their assortment. “Massandra” traditionally boasts this variety in its cellars, in addition, you can easily buy a bottle of dry “Bastardo Chateau Dulber”, which is offered to consumers by the company “Wines of Crimea”. Inkerman also left no admirers of a fragrant, viscous drink with a light chocolate aftertaste, soft and velvety, as if created by Dionysus himself.
Different manufacturers differ not only in the label on the bottle. Of course, quality, or rather its assessment, is the business of professional sommeliers who will point to the best bastardo wine . The price of a drink starts at 200 rubles (“Crimean Wines”), 400 rubles will need to be paid for a bottle of Inkerman, and the most expensive will be a vintage bastardo from the Massandra cellars (an average of 750 rubles).
One and a half centuries of quality
While Western winemakers prefer to make port wine from grapes of this variety, Crimeans were able to regain its former glory thanks to the spill of a beautiful bastardo. "Massandra" founded its own vineyards in 1830 and successfully grows wine materials of excellent quality. Another factor contributing to the fact that their wines are distinguished by good taste is their own cellars. The microclimate in them is maintained stable throughout the year, which is conducive to the fact that the drinks are aged under the right conditions during the entire ripening period. For bastardo this is especially important, this type of wine should be infused in oak barrels for two years. In this case, the temperature regime will be ideal if its range does not go beyond 10-15 º.