Region
Ukraine › Crimea
Type
white · still · sweet · fortified
Alcohol
18%
Volume
700 mL
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This is a Soviet-era bottling of Massandra's white port from the South Coast of Crimea. The label is in Ukrainian and names the Ukrainian SSR's food ministry and its wine directorate, Ukrholovvyno, which Massandra then belonged to. Together with the 1970 state standard printed on it, that places the bottling in the early 1970s: in 1972 the republic moved winemaking out of the food ministry into a new directorate for horticulture, viticulture and winemaking.
Port here is a style, not a place. Port-style wines are made by stopping the fermentation early with grape spirit and ageing the wine warm; for vintage-grade ports, traditionally in casks left out in the sun for two or three summers. This one stands at 18% with 10% sugar. Older vintages of this wine are built on Semillon, Muscadelle and Aligoté, with other varieties.
Massandra is a Ukrainian state enterprise, seized after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014; Ukraine regards the seizure and the 2020 sale as illegal. This bottle comes from long before.