Артемівська

Artwinery

Useful Information

Location:	м. 84500, Patrisa Lumumby St, 87, Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast. (48.597601, 38.029682)
Open:	currently no tours. [2023]
Fee:	currently no tours. [2023]
Classification:	Cellar Gypsum Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	AR=250,000 m².
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Artwinery, м. 84500, Patrisa Lumumby St, 87, Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Tel: +380-800-401-950. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1880	gypsum mine opened by the German engineer Edmund Farke in the small town of Bachmut.
1950	gypsum mine used by decree to establish a wine factory for the new Soviet sparkling wine.
1954	the first 500,000 bottles of the legendary "Soviet champagne" were produced.
1991	after the independence the sparkling wine is sold under the brands Артемівська (Artemivska, Artwinery) and Крим (Crimea).

Description

Артемівська (Artwinery) is the largest producer of sparkling wine in Eastern Europe and the only one in Ukraine. They are produced according to the classic Champagne methods. The cellars are an abandoned gypsum mine, which was transferred in a wine cellar.

Wine growing in most of Europe originates from the Roman Empire. Georgian wine growing is even older, and there was also a long tradition of viticulture in Ukraine, but it was completely destroyed during the Crimean War. In 1882, Prince Lev Golitsyn bought an estate in Novyi Svit in order to revive the Crimean wine industry. He also introduced the production of sparkling wine with the traditional method from the Champagne, which became quite popular at that time.

The Сове́тское шампа́нское (Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, Soviet champagne) was invented by the Soviet Union government in the 1920s, a new 'champagne for the people' that would be cheap, quick to produce and accessible to the working masses. It was a political statement, that the goodies of the rich and mighty would become available for everyone. The government asked the Russian wine-makers to create such a sparkling wine, and the new brand was created in 1928 by a Sovnarkhoz team. A former employee of Prince Golitsyn at Abrau-Dyurso, Anton Frolov-Bagreyev, developed a method for large scape sparkling wine. It was then produced in numerous factories all over the Soviet Union. But it was not as good as Champagne, and the government wanted to show their greatness by providing a Soviet champagne, as good as the French one, to celebrate the victory in World War II. In 1950, the underground galleries of the gypsum mine were used by decree to establish a wine factory for this new Soviet sparkling wine. According to legend Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin commanded the establishment on his birthday. The transformation into a wine cellar required some modifications, but in 1954 the first 500,000 bottles of the legendary "Soviet champagne" were produced. The result was very good and soon became so popular, that it became the most hard-to-find sparkling wine in the USSR. It was sold only in stores for party members, off-limits for ordinary citizens.

When the Ukraine became independent in 1991, the winery was able to create sparkling wines under its own brands – Артемівська (Artemivska) and Крим (Crimea). In 2007 the winery was completely modernized, machinery replaced, manual processes automated. The productivity was increased to 25 million bottles per year, the underground inventory swelled to 50 million bottles. In 2016, it was renamed Artwinery, obviously for the international market.

The huge cellars are an abandoned gypsum mine. It was opened by the German engineer Edmund Farke in the small town of Bachmut, today Bakhmut. He signed a contract with the government and constructed alabaster factories, the required anhydrite was mined underground. The tunnels soon extended for kilometers, as his enterprise was thriving. The cellars are located 72 meters below the ground. The winery offers cellar tours.

The Donbass is the area which was invaded by Russia in March 2022. The salt mine at Soledar and the wine cellars at Artwinery are both of great strategic importance for both opponents. After all, the mine and the cellars are ideal bunkers and absolutely safe storage rooms for weapons and material. They have been used by the Ukrainian army so far, and the Russians are doing everything they can to get into these facilities, because logistics have been a weak point of the Russian offensive from the beginning.