It’s considered the norm today to buy young wines and age them though perhaps even more normal is simply to go ahead and drink them right away. Browsing through high-street wine retailers, it can be hard to buy anything older than the year 2000 (with the possible exception of the shop assistant in the more reputable outlets). I bet there are many people that might even think that a wine that old would only be good in a dressing of some sort. And they would be right if we talking about a cheap wine that has been on supermarket shelves for more than a few years.
When looking to buy proper old wine you more often than not have to shell out a larger sum of money and get in touch with specialised sources and with good reason. Not every wine can or will age well. Even if a wine will age well, that’s only half the battle as it needs the right conditions to properly release its finesse as time slowly slips by. These right conditions must consist of a dark and humid place at temperatures between 12 and 16°c and ideally in a vibration-free environment, which unfortunately rules out having a wine cellar anywhere near London’s tube system. Although a good cellar will provide these conditions, they do not come cheap which is probably the reason why not many winemakers can boast about their wine storage facilities.
Whether fortunate enough to have cellars to be proud of or not, most winemakers are in the business of selling their production as soon as possible. This way, they can enjoy the profits of their labor rather than take the risk of finding out that that year’s grapes has produced a wine that will not age well, potentially make for a big loss.
 
Today, however we would like to present another way - thanks to the Cricova Winery. The current Cricova Collection includes wines aged 1986-1995 at prices between just £14 and £30.
Many will be that this is too good to be true but only because you are judging by what you consider to be an acceptable price for such mature bottles of wine. You can rest assured that Cricova deals in genuinely mature and very fine wine. While I believe we could have asked double or even triple this amount and still find customers, at Exquisite Wine we are not about making premium profit margins, but rather about passing on our discoveries to others that have a passion for the finest!
Cricova Collection Wines are just the first gem that we would like to introduce to the UK market and we are so confident in our wines, that we offer a full money back, no questions asked guarantee in case they are not to your taste. It really is as simple as that.

Now, in the interest of sticking to the point of this article let’s talk more about the Cellar Collection Wines from Cricova and why they’re so special. Here are a few facts to give you an insight into what they are all about.

• Cricova grow several a well known grape varieties such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Pinot-Noir, Chardonnay or Merlot and grow them in accordance with the highest standards.
• Just the absolute minimum amount of pesticide is used for growing their grapes on the sunny slopes of South and Central Moldavian Hills which share the same latitude as Burgundy in France.
• Cricova does not produce wine in the years of bad crops and it has full control over the grapes provenience and growing techniques used.
• The finest wine that shows the best potential is marked ‘for collection’ to initially mature for up to 5 years (depending on the variety) in French oak casks.
• Then, using only the best imported cork, the wine is bottled, wax-sealed and stored in cellars where the year-round temperature of 12 to 14°c, humidity of over 90% and vibration and light-free environment creates perfect conditions for the wine to mature.
• Only years later when the wine approaches the right age to reveal its elegance and finesse is it finally labeled, individually packed in its own clear plastic packaging and then placed into a Cricova gift box.
• Last, but not least, Cricova owns an enormous 120km long Cellar that is perfect for wine maturation. This enormous space means they are not limited to storing several cases for experimenting in a bid to find the best results. Over the years they have become experts at wine maturation. Testament to this is that Cricova has been used by Soviet leaders as their Cellars of choice for visits to Moldova, and Stalin himself even donated the confiscated Göring’s wine collection for storage there.

As an ending note, I would like to mention that these specific gems of Cricova were the very trigger to start Exquisite Wine and provided me with the inspiration of sharing the fascinating wines from the hidden regions of the wine-making world! Hopefully soon, we will add more similarly unknown, yet outstanding winemaking regions from Croatia, Georgia and other often overlooked countries so if you haven’t signed up for our exclusive newsletter, please do so now and feel free to leave your comments below