Wine "Black Doctor". Wine "Massandra" and "Solnechnaya Dolina" and reviews about it. Crimean wines

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The history of Crimean viticulture and winemaking goes back over 2000 years. Even in ancient times, settlers from the Greek colonial cities located on the Crimean peninsula provided so much wine that it was enough not only to meet domestic needs, but also for export to neighboring regions. And today the inexpensive and tasty wines produced here are known all over the world. Several unique, so-called native grape varieties grow in Sun Valley, from which unique and special wines, such as Black Colonel and Black Doctor, are produced.

Features and Features

The vintage dessert wine produced from grapes grown in the Sunny Valley with a somewhat strange name - "Black Doctor" has a unique taste. For its manufacture, only varieties such as Kefesia, Ekim Kara, Krona, Jevat Kara and some other native ones are used,grown only in the "Sunny Valley". This Crimean dessert wine has a beautiful and deep garnet-red color and plays with ruby hues in the light. Its taste is deep and velvety, full and slightly tart, filled with dry pear, cream and mulberry aromas. Bouquet of "Black Doctor" - harmoniously balanced, rich, bright and memorable, with the main tones of bitter chocolate, prunes and light hints of vanilla and liquorice. The aftertaste is also interesting - bitter cocoa and milk cream. This is a fortified dessert wine, which contains 16% sugar and alcohol each. The aging of this brand of wine in oak barrels is short, only about two years.

Healing properties

The legend about the healing abilities of the "Black Doctor" was not born out of nowhere. Modern research has established that, in addition to unique taste characteristics, this wine also has medicinal properties. Thanks to its organic acids, flavonoids, vitamins and microelements, as well as fructose and glucose in an easily digestible form, "Black Doctor" in therapeutic dosages is recommended for anemia and anemia of various etiologies, physical exhaustion and chronic fatigue syndrome, to improve functioning heart muscle and the state of the circulatory system in atherosclerosis.

Legend

Locals tell a legend about how this extraordinary wine appeared. According to her, in ancient times in the "Solarvalley" lived a doctor who knew not only the science of healing, but also practiced magic and studied the movement of celestial bodies. For his medical talent, responsiveness and kindness, the villagers began to call him the Doctor. This man was not only an excellent healer, but also an excellent grower. On his site unusual varieties of grapes grew, from which he made drinks that could heal. Once his friend, the colonel, was badly wounded while hunting. The villagers brought the dying Doctor to the house, but he was not at home. Then, trying to help, kind people gave the wounded man a drink of healing wine ", but they gave him not a small fraction, but a whole jug. The magic drink helped - the body was healed, but the mind became clouded. The colonel did not recognize the Doctor when he returned to his house and killed him. Having sobered up the next morning, he realized what he had done, and from that Doktor's fellow villagers preserved both his vines and the memory of that incident, naming one grape variety Ekim Kara, which means "Black Doctor", and the other - Cevat Kara, translated into Russian - "Black Colonel".

A bit of history

Traditions and legends are, of course, romantic, but the Black Doctor is a wine whose real story is no less dramatic. In the 30s of the last century, the production of fortified and dessert wines began to be established on the Crimean peninsula. It was decided to use, among other things, such an old local variety as Ekim Kara. On its basis, they began to produce "Ruby Crimean" - a tasty and high-quality wine, but it was not popular, and in the second half of the XXcentury, the question arose of stopping its production. Only the fact that one of the high-ranking Soviet officials was a great lover of wine saved it from extinction. In 1965 "Ruby Crimean" was renamed "Black Doctor". In the same year, it was first laid down for collection aging. This red grape wine, despite the rather high price, immediately fell in love with buyers in the Soviet Union, and became one of the most popular and famous. In the late 70s of the last century, most European, including the Crimean vineyards, were practically destroyed by phylloxera - aphids imported from America. To save the vines, all varieties of grapes growing in the Crimea had to be grafted onto cuttings of American vines resistant to this pest. It was possible to save the unique varieties, only the quality of the grapes and the special taste that the Crimean wines possessed have changed somewhat. This happened because American varieties take much more moisture from the soil and accumulate much less sugars. Experts say that all this played a role in the impoverishment of the taste characteristics of wines.

Disturbing decades

By the end of the 70s of the XX century, the vines of the main grape varieties used for the production of "Black Doctor", such as Kefesia and Ekim Kara, had grown old and needed to be updated and replanted. However, due to some incomprehensible bureaucratic "troubles" in the Soviet bureaucratic machine, no funds were allocated for this.

In the next thirty years, the plant-The Solnechnaya Dolina state farm has undergone many organizational changes. During this time, he managed to withdraw from Massandra, take over the Novy Svet champagne factory, and in 2001 be transformed into Solnechnaya Dolina OJSC. Wine "Black Doctor" "Massandra" did not produce from the 80s of the last century until 2003, since the "Solnechnaya Dolina", which came out of it, had all the information about the technology of formation, processing and aging and, in accordance with it, produced this wine is made from original local grapes.

What now?

Relatively recently, the Massandra winery was allowed to produce Black Doctor. The wine produced here does not have those unique taste qualities, since Ekim Kara grapes are cultivated in completely different soil and climatic conditions.

In addition, only Solnechnaya Dolina has a patented recipe for making this wine, while Massandra uses its own composition and quantitative ratio of different grape varieties when preparing. Thus, today the Black Doctor wine - Crimean pride - is produced by two different enterprises: Solnechnaya Dolina and Massandra. And it differs significantly both in taste and aromatic, and in biological properties.

Taste Features

What is so special about this brand of wine, how does it differ from others made in the Crimea? Scientists from the Magarach Institute conducted a series of studies, as a result of which it was madethe conclusion that the unique taste, bouquet and color palette of red dessert Crimean wines depends on the amount of phenolic complexes and tannins contained in them. Unlike others, Black Doctor, a wine produced by Solnechnaya Dolina, is more saturated with phenols, flavonoids, as well as higher alcohols and esters responsible for aroma and taste. The scientists also managed to establish that the differences in the composition of the Black Doctor wine from other brands produced in other areas are due to:

• unique soils and climatic conditions of the area where local grapes are cultivated;
• certain grade composition of sepages;
• winemaking traditions of a particular region.

Reviews from connoisseurs

One can talk endlessly about the unique Crimean wines: champagnes and table wines, vintage and fortified, sweet and dry, semi-sweet and signature wines.

Reviews on most of the Crimean wines on the modern market are positive by professional sommeliers and tasters. In addition, many wines, such as Novy Svet champagne, were awarded a gold medal and Grand Prix at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in Moscow, and Massandra Madeira is included in the list of the world's best wines. The Black Doctor from Solnechnaya Dolina, beloved throughout the post-Soviet space, is the most titled - he has five silver and twenty gold medals.

How much?

Already in the distant Soviet times, fortified wine "Blackdoctor". The price today is also high - from 1300 in Crimean stores, but in the cities of European Russia it is unlikely to be found for less than 1500 rubles. Collectible copies of the Soviet era are, like any rare and exclusive objects, very expensive. Many are interested in what determines the price of a particular wine. First of all, it depends on the variety, quantity and quality of grapes, the yield per year of wine production, the technological conditions for its production and the aging period, as well as other nuances. If you decide to try such a unique variety of fortified vintage wine as Black Doctor, you should buy it in company stores, carefully reading the information on the label. Remember that today only two Crimean enterprises are engaged in its production and bottling: Solnechnaya Dolina and Massandra. All other manufacturers simply do not have the legal rights to make it.