Abrau-Dyurso Wine Cellars

The estate was founded in 1870 as an imperial appanage on the shore of Lake Abrau, a freshwater lake in the hills above the Black Sea, and sparkling wine has been made there since - initially with French winemakers brought in, later under Anton Frolov-Bagreyev, who developed a continuous tank process in the 1930s that became the basis of mass Soviet sparkling wine. The estate still makes wine by the traditional bottle method as well. The tunnels are the visit: about five kilometres of galleries cut into the hillside in the nineteenth century, holding bottles at a constant cool temperature, with riddling racks and disgorging shown along the way and a tasting at the end. Above ground is the lake, a promenade, restaurants and a good deal of recent tourist development. Russian sparkling wine is taken more seriously than it was, and the estate is the reference point people argue from.

What you actually see

• The tunnels - about five kilometres of nineteenth-century galleries under the hillside.
• The bottle method - riddling and disgorging shown on the traditional line.
• The 1870 foundation - an imperial estate with French winemakers at the start.
• The lake - Abrau, freshwater, in hills directly above the Black Sea.

When to go

May to October. Half a day. Tours are booked ahead and sell out in summer.

Honest expectations

Tours must be reserved and run to fixed times, mostly in Russian. The village above has been heavily developed for tourism and is crowded in summer. Tastings are short and steer towards the shop. The tunnels are cool - bring a layer.

Nearby

Novorossiysk and the Black Sea coast are below; Anapa is west.