Underground wine city in Moldova owns nearly 2 million bottles, the world’s largest collection
The world’s largest wine collection can be found in Moldova, with millions of bottles stored in the underground tunnels of Milestii Mici.
Milestii Mici shares its name with the city in which it lies. It is the world’s largest wine cellar, in terms of the number of bottles it contains. Milestii Mici was recognized with this honor by Guinness World Records in 2007. There are around 1.5 million bottles of wine stored in Milestii Mici’s “Golden Collection,” with the oldest wines dating back to 1969.
The wines of the “Golden Collection” include “Pinot,” “Traminer,” “Muscat,” “Riesling,” “Feteasca,” “Dnestrovscoie,” “Milestscoie,” “Codru,” “Trandafirul Moldovei,” “Auriu,” “Cahor-Ciumai” and more, according to Milestii Mici’s website, filled with delectable flavor notes of vanilla, cherries, blackberries and other savory tastes.
Moldova is home to the largest wine collection in the world. The wine bottles included in Milestii Mici’s extravagant collection are stored underground, in a series of tunnels that can be explored by guests. (VADIM DENISOV/AFP via Getty Images)
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The wines of Milestii Mici are not just enjoyed by visitors to the underground tunnels and those in Moldova, but also those abroad, with wines being exported to places such as Japan, the United States, Finland, Greece, Taiwan, Malaysia and more.
The underground tunnels of Milestii Mici are ideal for wine storage. They were created through the excavation of limestone blocks to build the city of Chișinău, Moldova’s capital, and were later turned into a wine cellar in 1969.
The underground tunnels are always around the mid 50s in temperature and the humidity is always high, around 85 to 95%, according to Milestii Mici’s website.
The underground tunnels of Milestii Mici are named after the wines part of the collection. (Hannah Wagner/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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The wines in the cellar, which are stored in massive oak barrels, range in age, the oldest dating back to 1986, per the source. There are a number of different wines throughout the underground tunnels, including those of high quality, table wines and sparkling wines.
Milestii Mici is a popular tourist attraction, with 20,000 tourists exploring the underground wine cellar each year.
Milestii Mici’s is made up of 200 kilometers of underground galleries. The underground galleries can be explored by several different modes of transportation, including by electric train, car or by bike.
With a ride through the cellar, guests will be surrounded by the massive collection while traveling through tunnels named after the wines part of the collection.
Enormous oak barrels like the ones pictured above securely store the bottles of wine in Milestii Mici. (Hannah Wagner/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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Once you travel through the underground galleries and explore the “Golden Collection,” guests can, of course, sample wines themselves. While sipping on a glass of wine, visitors can also enjoy a meal in the tasting halls of Milestii Mici.
