Wine pavilion opens at VDNKh in Moscow

Quiet and sparkling drinks found their place of power in the 510th pavilion. It is easy to find it – opposite the Moscow Sky restaurant, and next door is the VDNKh Wedding Palace. The building, built in the 50s in the neoclassical style, was first called “Glavkonservovom”, and then a simpler name was chosen for it – “Canned Food”. In recent years, there was a sign “Gastronom No. 1” flaunting there, where an ordinary grocery store with echoes of the Soviet flavor worked. And here is a new guest – a wine center. By the way, the first in the country.

The place is not accidental: the wine has been exhibited at VDNKh since its opening. There were even vineyards growing here. The new space, as conceived by the creators, will help the promotion of domestic wine, the development of enotourism and the industry as a whole. I must finally break the stereotypes: they say that there is no good wine in Russia. As a person who is fond of enotourism and has visited various wineries, I will say: they do it, even if not everyone succeeds so far, but it is there. Micro wineries produce sometimes even better products than wine giants.

The wide geography of domestic drinks is demonstrated by the wine cellar in the large hall on the first floor. Here, the general director of the pavilion Artem Musaelyan says, 500 wines are presented. There are sparkling, white, pink, red and orange. Not all are supplied to retail chains, so they can only be bought at wineries and in individual stores. Not missing a chance, I ask the kavist to pick up a red dry, but not dense. Offers Crimean, two popular varieties – Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. I try it, it tastes fruity, with a soft and long aftertaste. What you need! I run around the hall: the “family” is really big. I see Pinot Noir from the Stavropol Territory, next to it is a Traminer from Dagestan, a Redstop from the Rostov Region, and even a Riesling from the Samara Region, where the northernmost winery in the country is currently located.

Photo: Arkady Kolybalov / RG

Prices for bottles start from a thousand rubles, but there are also over three thousand and five thousand. Behind the bar counter poured into glasses. True, only 35 positions, but they are rotated. The cost of a glass is from 250 rubles. Snacks from Russian-made products are sold with wine. For example, a chicken sandwich or mussels with Krasnodar tomato sauce. You can talk with friends, say, over a glass of white at the tables inside or on the veranda. The historical atmosphere is conducive to refined conversations: wooden counters, mosaic floors, chandeliers have been preserved.

Photo: Arkady Kolybalov / RG

Project manager Anastasia Tretyakova told RG that the center is going to form a wine culture, so there is no liquor or drink here. “There was a fear that we might not find our audience, but to our surprise we saw that knowledgeable people come to us,” she says. “Some of them are looking for wine of a particular variety and producer, they can communicate with our cavists for a long time and in detail.” From the unusual – cyclists also drop in here. From June, Tretyakova added, the center plans to hold lectures, meetings with winemakers, tastings for amateurs and advanced aesthetes. There are rooms on the second floor for this.