Cricova Winery

Moldova was the major wine producer in the Soviet Union. Cricova Winery was originally a limestone quarry; in the 1950s it was converted into the world's second biggest wine cellar (the first is Milestii Mici, also in Moldova).

There are over 200 kilometers of tunnels filled with wine at the Cricova compound. A small bus is required for tours of the facility.

Wine flying by

Cricova wines are stored for maturation in the caves as well. These bottles are turned by hand to aid in the sedimentation gathering process.

Each tunnel has a street name.

There are stories of Yuri Gagarin getting hopelessly lost down here after drinking too much wine.

Every good underground winery needs a church.

Some of the "noble wines" of the collection on display

These passageways of very old and valuable wine also stretch quite a ways.

There's wine from all over the world here, including the Republic of Georgia!

Putin's wine collection is right across from...

John Kerry's wine collection.

A wine from 1902

There are a number of beautiful rooms in the winery heads of state taste wine in when the visit Cricova.