There are lots of unique places along the Black Sea shore
Talking about Russian resorts in the Caucasus, everyone thinks first of all of Sochi, particularly after it became the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
But there are lots of unique places along the Black Sea shore that haven't been promoted by the tourist trade to such an extent. Of them, Abrau-Dyurso stands apart - a place known not so much to tourists as to champagne lovers.
This immensely beautiful place in the neighborhood of Novorossiisk finds great favor with experienced tourists. Mountains covered with ancient forests tower above the smooth surface of Abrau (which can be translated from Circassian as "precipice") - the largest lake of the northwestern Caucasus. Everything blooms from early spring till late fall, due to the warm mountain-sea climate. The Dyurso River (Circassian for "the four waters") flows along a valley planted with vineyards before slipping into the Black Sea.
Once upon a time there were two neighboring mountain villages, one rich and one poor. The most beautiful girl from the wealthy village fell in love with a poor shepherd. The beautiful Circassian was the daughter of a prosperous and distinguished inhabitant of the village, who in every possible way opposed her relationship with the poor youth. One day, the rich Circassians held a festival, an element of which was an extraordinary entertainment - the mountain dwellers threw with flat cakes at each other. Infuriated, Allah punished those who were too well off for their own good for defiling the bread. The earth yawned and the village disappeared into the abyss, which was immediately filled with water. Everybody perished, except the main heroine of the legend, who didn't participate in the godless act, because she had gone to meet the shepherd from the neighboring village. Having returned home, she saw only the mirror-like water surface. It apparently didn't occur to her that all the obstacles to her union with her beloved had been removed. Or if it even occurred to her, the horror of losing all her relatives and friends pushed it to the back of her mind. Somehow or other, out of grief the girl decided to drown herself and leapt from the rock into the lake that had appeared in the place where the village had been. But the deep didn't swallow her up. The girl, as in the scriptures, ran across the water to the far shore. There she also didn't find anything so then, having remembered the shepherd, ran to him. But he had also disappeared. As it turned out, the youth, having seen his sweetheart throw herself into the water, believed that she drowned. He then threw himself off the precipice, and, in contrast to the girl, died. It is said that since then the Circassian girl dwells in woods around the lake and each full moon runs over the water, with her footsteps glittering along her path. Although non-romantics say it is just the moonlight.
The mountains, the lake and the forest, the river, the sea and the fresh air enraptured not only narrators. The combination of natural factors here created a unique microclimate for viticulture. The region around the north of the Black Sea was known for its wine-making since earliest times. And 140 years ago according to the decree of Alexander II there was established the Abrau-Dyurso estate. Later, there appeared industrial wine-making nearby. In 1891, Prince Golizin was appointed the manager of estate winemaking. Within three years, there was a cellar for 10,000 flagons of wine, where was concentrated champagne-making. In another two years five such cellars had been built in Abrau-Dyurso. Wine was produced exclusively under the direction and guidance of the French. In 1898, there started being produced champagne under the brand of "Abrau" - but only for the tsar's court and aristocracy.
After the Revolution, when the French winemakers left Russia, the Soviet authorities didn't ruin the brand. In 1920, on the basis of the former tsar's estate, the state wine-making farm Abrau-Dyurso was created. The enterprise was headed by Anton Frolov-Bagreev, considered a founder of the tank-fermentation method of producing sparkling wines. But the Soviet winemakers preferred to dispense with the help of bourgeois specialists. Gradually, production was increased and by the beginning of the 1980s had reached 3 million bottles per year. But in the course of Gorbachev's struggle against alcoholism production was halted. Before then, it had been stopped only once - during World War II. It was even said that then the winemakers, trying to hide champagne from the approaching Nazis, sunk 40,000 bottles in the lake. However, since the lake is shallow, and they were after all not found over dozens of years, it must be just the same a legend.
Nowadays, holidaymakers in Abrau-Dyurso go on tours of the wine cellars, where they can take beginner courses in wine tasting and pick up a bottle of vintage wine as a souvenir.
Pavel Martynov, exclusively for VC
