User:Murgh/Magaratch

Magaratch

Wine research institute at Yalta in the Crimea, the most important centre of wine academe in the Soviet Union, now CIS. The Institute Magaratch was founded in 1828, more than 50 years before Davis or the Institute of Oenology at Bordeaux University. Although its activities have been unusually wide ranging (including some innovative by-product recycling), the Institute Magaratch has been particularly distinguished in developing crossings and special vinification techniques.

Its three experimental vineyards cover nearly 2,000 ha/5,000 acres and include one of the largest collections of vines, with more than 3,000 varieties, in the CIS. Some of the most successful of 30 vine varieties designed to combine quantity with quality are Magaratch Ruby or Roubinovyi Magaratcha (Cabernet Sauvignon × Saperavi), Magaratch Bastardo or Bastardo Magaratchski (Bastardo × Saperavi), and Ranni Magaratcha. A newer generation of disease-resistant varieties has since been developed with specific resistances to various pests and diseases.

At one time much of Magaratch's effort was directed towards producing convincing copies of various classic wine styles (Magaratch Malmsey, for example). The institute's own cellar harbours nearly 20,000 sample bottles, some of them containing wine from the mid 19th century.

Specific research avenues have included a refinement of continuous fermentation techniques and tend to have a particularly practical aspect, involving hundreds of patents.