Abrau-Dyurso Winery

Abrau-Dyurso is a winery village and resort complex about 25 km east of Anapa along the coast, set around a lake and producing sparkling wine by the traditional method since 1870. It is the oldest and most prestigious sparkling wine producer in Russia, and visits include a tour of the chalk caves where the wine matures, followed by a tasting.

The setting is picturesque — the lake, the vine-covered slopes, and the old estate buildings give it an atmosphere quite different from the flat beach resort of Anapa. Accommodation and restaurants are available on-site, making an overnight stay possible. The tour and tasting run throughout the day; book ahead in summer. Getting there independently requires a taxi or a guided excursion from Anapa; buses run occasionally but not frequently.

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A story
Abrau-Dyurso was established in 1870 on the orders of Tsar Alexander II, who wanted Russia to produce its own sparkling wine rather than relying entirely on French Champagne. The estate's winemaker, a Frenchman named Victor Dravigny, introduced the traditional method of secondary fermentation in the bottle. After the revolution, production continued under Soviet management and the wine was rebranded as a workers' luxury — Sovietskoye Shampanskoye — making sparkling wine accessible to millions of ordinary Russians for the first time.