Wine "Black Doctor". Wine "Massandra" and "Sun Valley" and reviews about it. Crimean wines

The history of the Crimean wine-growing and winemaking counts more than 2000 years. Even in ancient times, settlers from Greek colonial cities, located on the Crimean Peninsula, gave so much wine that it was enough not only to meet domestic needs, but also to export to neighboring regions. And today the inexpensive and delicious wines produced here are known all over the world. In the "Sun Valley" there are several unique, so-called aboriginal varieties of grapes, from which produce a unique and special, such as "Black Colonel" and "Black Doctor", wine.

Features & Features

Unique taste qualities are produced from a vintage dessert wine grown in the Sun Valley, with a somewhat strange name - "Black Doctor". For its manufacture, only such varieties as Kefesia, Ekim Kara, Krona, Jevat Kara and some other indigenous species are used, which are grown only in the "Sun Valley". This Crimean dessert wine has a beautiful and deep pomegranate-red color and plays ruby shades in the light. The taste is deep and velvety, full and slightly tart, filled with the aromas of dry pears, cream and mulberry. The bouquet of the "Black Doctor" is harmoniously balanced, rich, bright and memorable, with the basic tones of bitter chocolate, prunes and light hints of vanilla and licorice. Interesting and aftertaste - bitter cocoa and milk cream. This fortified dessert wine, which includes 16% of sugar and alcohol. The aging time of this brand in oak barrels is small, only about two years.

Healing properties

A legend about the healing possibilities of the "Black Doctor" was born not in an empty place. Modern research has established that, in addition to unique taste characteristics, this wine has medicinal properties. Due to the organic acids, flavonoids, vitamins and trace elements included in it, as well as fructose and glucose in easily digestible form, it is recommended to use "Black Doctor" in therapeutic dosages for anemia and anemia of various etiology, physical exhaustion and chronic fatigue syndrome, to improve functioning Heart muscle and the state of the circulatory system in atherosclerosis.

Legend

Local residents tell a legend about how this unusual wine appeared. According to her, in the old days in the "Sun Valley" lived a doctor who knew not only the science of healing, but also practiced magic and studied the motion of celestial bodies. For medical talent, responsiveness and kindness, the villagers began to call him Doctor. This man was not only an excellent healer, but also an excellent wine merchant. On his site grew unusual varieties of grapes, from which he made drinks that can heal. Once his friend - the colonel - was badly wounded in the hunt. The villagers brought the dying man to the Doctor's house, but that was not at home. Then, trying to help, good people gave a drink to a wounded wine, but gave him not a small fraction, but a whole jug. A magical drink helped - the body was healed, but now the mind was confused. Returning to his home Doctor, the colonel did not recognize and killed. Sobered up the next morning, he realized what he had done, and from that moment did not drink a drop of wine. The villagers saved the doctors and his vines, and the memory of that incident, calling one kind of grapes Ekim Kara, which means "Black Doctor" and the other - Dzhevat Kara, translated into Russian - "Black Colonel".

A bit of history

Legends and legends are, of course, romantic, but the "Black Doctor" is wine, the true story of which is no less dramatic. In the 30 years of the last century on the Crimean peninsula began to establish the production of fortified and dessert wines. It was decided to use, among other things, an old local variety like Ekim Kara. On its basis began to produce "Ruby Crimean" - delicious wine and quality, but it was not popular, and in the second half of the XX century the question arose about the cessation of its production. The only thing that saved the wine from disappearing was that one of the high-ranking Soviet officials was a big fan of it. In 1965, "Ruby Crimean" was renamed the "Black Doctor". In the same year, it was first laid out for the collection endurance. This red grape wine, despite the rather high price, immediately fell in love with buyers in the Soviet Union, has become one of the most popular and famous. In the late 70s of the last century, most European, including Crimean vineyards, were virtually destroyed by a phylloxera, aphids imported from America. To save the vines had to inoculate all varieties of grapes that grow in the Crimea, on cuttings of American vines, resistant to this pest. Unique varieties were saved, but only the quality of the grapes and the special taste that Crimean wines possessed changed somewhat. This happened because American varieties take much more moisture out of the soil and accumulate significantly less sugars. Experts say that all this played a role in impoverishing the taste characteristics of wines.

Troubled Decades

By the end of the 70s of the XX century, the vines of the main grape varieties used for the production of the "Black Doctor", such as Kefesia and Ekim Kara, grew old and needed updating and re-laying. However, due to some incomprehensible bureaucratic "problems" in the Soviet bureaucratic machine, funds for this have not been singled out. In the next thirty years, the plant-state farm "Solar Valley" has undergone many organizational changes. During this time, he managed to get out of the Massandra, to join the plant, which produces champagne wines "New World" and to be transformed in 2001 into JSC "Solnechnaya Dolina". The "Black Doctor" did not produce "Massandra" from the 80s of the last century until 2003, as "Sun Valley", which came out of it, had all the information about the technology of formation, processing and aging, and in accordance with it produced This sort of wine from the original local grapes.

What now?

Relatively recently, the winery "Massandra" was allowed to produce the "Black Doctor". The wine, obtained here, does not possess those unique taste qualities, as the grapes of the variety Ekim Kara are cultivated in completely different soil and climatic conditions. In addition, the patented preparation for this wine is only in the "Sun Valley", and "Massandra" uses its composition and the quantitative ratio of different varieties of grapes during cooking. Thus, today the wine "Black Doctor" - Crimean pride - is produced by two different enterprises: "Sunny Valley" and "Massandra." And it differs significantly both in flavor and aromatic, and in biological properties.

Peculiarities of taste

What is so special about wine in this brand, how does it differ from others produced in the Crimea? Scientists from the Institute "Magarach" conducted a number of studies as a result of which it was concluded that the unique taste, bouquet and color palette of red dessert Crimean wines depends on the number of phenolic complexes and tannins contained in them. Unlike others, the "Black Doctor" - the wine produced by the "Sun Valley" - is more saturated with phenols, flavonoids, and also responsible for the aroma and taste of higher alcohols and esters. Also, scientists managed to establish that the differences in the composition of the wine "Black Doctor" from other brands produced in other areas are due to:

• Unique soils and climatic conditions of the area where grape varieties of local varieties are cultivated;
• Certain grades of segregation;
• Traditions of wine making in a particular region.

Reviews of connoisseurs

About unique Crimean wines: champagne and table, vintage and fortified, sweet and dry, semisweet and author's - you can talk endlessly. Comments on the majority of the Crimean wines presented in the modern market are professional sommeliers and tasters leave positive. In addition, many wines, such as the champagne "New World", was awarded at the International Wine and Spirits Contest in Moscow with a gold medal and received the Grand Prix, and "Massandra Madeira" is on the list of the world's best wines. The most beloved in the entire post-Soviet space is the "Black Doctor" from the "Sun Valley" - he has five silver and twenty gold medals.

How much is?

Already in the distant Soviet times, the fortified wine "Black Doctor" was quite expensive. The price today is also high - from 1300 in the Crimean stores, but in the cities of European Russia for less than 1500 rubles is unlikely to be found. Collectible copies of Soviet times are, like any rare and exclusive objects, very expensive. Many are interested in what determines the price of a particular wine. First of all, on the quality, quantity and quality of the grapes, the yield per year of wine production, the technological conditions for its production and the aging period, as well as other nuances. If you decide to try such a unique brand of fortified vintage wine, like "Black Doctor", you should buy it in branded stores, having carefully read the information provided on the label. Remember that today its production and bottling are engaged only in two Crimean enterprises: "Sunny Valley" and "Massandra." All other manufacturers simply do not have legal rights to produce it.