Beykush

Beykush was founded by Yevheniy Shneyderis, a telecom entrepreneur, on the Beykush peninsula near the village of Chornomorka in Mykolaiv Oblast, southern Ukraine. Roughly a hundred metres from the Black Sea coast, between the Berezansky estuary and Beykush Bay. He began soil analysis around 2010, planted the vineyard in 2012, made his first vintage in 2014, and obtained the winery licence in 2017. The estate also opened an eco-eno hotel at the vineyard and later the Artaniya wine bar in Kyiv.

Eleven hectares on red clay and loam, plus an experimental vineyard. The grape portfolio is genuinely international: whites include Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Rkatsiteli, and experimental plantings of Telti-Kuruk (a somewhat-native-to-Ukraine variety), Alvarinho, and Timorasso. Reds include Pinot Noir, Merlot, Saperavi, Cabernet Sauvignon, and experimental Tempranillo, Malbec, and Pinotage.

The winery sits a few kilometres from Mykolaiv city, which has been under daily missile, artillery, and drone attacks since the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022. Despite this - and this is the part that matters - Beykush not only maintained operations but grew its exports during wartime, expanding distribution to the UK, USA, Japan, Canada, and more than ten European countries. At the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards: gold for Arbina, silver for Loca Deserta, two bronzes.

Making wine a hundred metres from the Black Sea in a country at war is not a marketing position. It is a daily decision.