Hi-Time's Top Wines from Eastern Europe
Our next area of wine discovery takes us to Ukraine, where winemaking has been going on since the Phoenicians. Welcome to Shabo Winery, in the Odesa wine region, located in southwestern Ukraine, along the Black Sea. Shabo was founded in 1822 by a group of Swiss winemakers. Between that time, the Soviets took over the winery and it went into decline. It was not until 2003 when the Ukrainian government sold the 3,000-acre winery to the Iukuridze family.
Striving to show the world that Ukraine can make noteworthy wines, CEO, Giorgi Iukuridze hired famous Bordeaux wine consultant Stephane Derenoncourt, further revitalizing and modernizing the winery and vineyards. Winemaking is state-of-the-art with a hands-on approach. Here, they employ 1,200 locals, with that number almost doubling near harvest. Since then, Shabo’s winery has been recognized, earning them places in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and the U.S. Shabo Winery also helps their neighbors by providing clean, bottled water to Ukrainian communities that have been cut off from their water supplies.
This dark red wine is a nod to the Iukuridze family’s Georgian heritage. Saperavi is a “teinturier” grape, meaning it is a wine grape with red skins and red. Soils are composed of limestone, clay and yellow sand. The wine matures in French oak barrels for six months. Deep red in the glass, this wine has flavors of blackberry and black cherry, and blueberry, with subtle notes of black pepper, mild tannins, similar in style to a Northern Rhone red.
Our next area of wine discovery takes us to Ukraine, where winemaking has been going on since the Phoenicians. Welcome to Shabo Winery, in the Odesa wine region, located in southwestern Ukraine, along the Black Sea. Shabo was founded in 1822 by a group of Swiss winemakers. Between that time, the Soviets took over the winery and it went into decline. It was not until 2003 when the Ukrainian government sold the 3,000-acre winery to the Iukuridze family.
Striving to show the world that Ukraine can make noteworthy wines, CEO, Giorgi Iukuridze hired famous Bordeaux wine consultant Stephane Derenoncourt, further revitalizing and modernizing the winery and vineyards. Winemaking is state-of-the-art with a hands-on approach. Here, they employ 1,200 locals, with that number almost doubling near harvest. Since then, Shabo’s winery has been recognized, earning them places in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and the U.S. Shabo Winery also helps their neighbors by providing clean, bottled water to Ukrainian communities that have been cut off from their water supplies.
This dark red wine is a nod to the Iukuridze family’s Georgian heritage. Saperavi is a “teinturier” grape, meaning it is a wine grape with red skins and red. Soils are composed of limestone, clay and yellow sand. The wine matures in French oak barrels for six months. Deep red in the glass, this wine has flavors of blackberry and black cherry, and blueberry, with subtle notes of black pepper, mild tannins, similar in style to a Northern Rhone red.
