The European Country With The World's Largest Wine Collection

When talking about wine, you tend to get discussion of a lot of the same areas: France, Italy, Spain, California, and maybe Australian or Chile. But the world's largest wine collection is located in a region you may not be as familiar with. The love of wine crosses borders, and in Europe especially, there are robust local wine industries in almost every country south of Scandinavia. There are underrated international wine regions from the mountains of Switzerland to the beer-loving countryside of England. Many of these regions aren't just locally famous, either, and have long histories of exporting wine without the American name recognition we mostly give to the Mediterranean. That's a big reason why the world's largest wine collection is in the small country of Moldova.

Nestled between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova is a country of only 3 million people, but wine production is a major occupation, and the winery of Milestii Mici is home to a collection of more than 1.5 million bottles. Sharing a name with the town where it is located, Milestii Mici's massive underground wine cellar has over 34 miles of passageways, which can be traversed by car, bike, or even train. Located only 11 miles from Moldova's capital, it's a major wine tour attraction that has tens of thousands of visitors per year. While Milestii Mici's collection leans heavily towards red wine, it also includes a "Golden Collection," with bottles dating back to 1969, which include wine varietals like muscat and riesling.

Despite thinking of Eastern Europe as a colder region, Moldova's more southerly location near the Black Sea gives a moderate climate that is great for producing wine. The industry in the region goes back thousands of years, with modern wines being exported all over, from neighbors like Greece to Japan on the other side of the world. Moldova was formally part of the Soviet Union, and its wines were particularly popular there, with almost half of the wine consumed in the USSR coming from the small country.

Milestii Mici's cellar actually dates back to the Soviet era. Limestone blocks in the town were mined to help build Moldova's capital, Chișinău, before it was shut down in the late '60s. The underground space stays at an even and cool temperature in the mid 50s, while also being quite humid, which are great conditions for storing and aging wine.

The wine cellar was opened in 1969 and actually has over 120 miles of space, even though only 34 are currently occupied. The "streets" of wine are organized by wine type, which range from well known names like Pinot, to more local Eastern European specialties like traminer and ciumi. The fact that the world's largest wine collection isn't in a place like France or Italy is a good reminder of the diversity of the wine world. Now we just need to get Moldovan wine to take hold in the States.