Enjoy wine tasting at MIMI Castle in Chisinau, Moldova

Summary: Arrived by taxi from Chisinau (approx. 45 minutes drive. I was charged 825 lei on the way there. The return trip, arranged by the helpful staff at the winery, only cost 325 lei. You have to be extremely careful with taxi drivers...). The castle has been carefully restored and new buildings have been added for events and hotel overnight stays. The one-hour "Iconic Tour" was informative and entertaining, with a young guide speaking excellent English. Lots of interesting insights into the history of the castle, the local wine-growing tradition and, above all, the variety of Molavian wines. The tour concluded with a very delicious wine tasting with delicious snacks. I couldn't help but order some vineyard cheese and a breast in this stylish restaurant. The brandy is also highly recommended! The staff in all areas are very accommodating. All in all, a great half-day trip from the capital of Oldau. Highly recommended!

Summary: The tour shows a lot of the winery, not only the place they store the wine in the barrels but the actual industrial production site, which is not something that is shown. It was interesting to see the difference between the Soviet era tanks and the new technology acquired from Italy. There’s also a lot of historical facts of what the castle was before Soviet times, how it was transformed and what they did to return it to its current beautiful status. The actual tasting was nice, 5 wines (2 white, 1 rose, 2 red) and they actually gave us a couple of their wines that have won prices abroad which were very good. It comes with 5 short pairing foods which were also good. Their plans for expansion are interesting and this might become a place were you can actually go and spend a couple of days there relaxing and drinking and eating nice wines.

Summary: This was my first time at a winery, loved the tour, very interesting. We chose the "National Heritage" tour. Our guide spoke excellent English and gave interesting and pertinent details without dragging it out with too much detail as some tour guides tend to do. The exterior is gorgeous, the renovation work was done with excellent workmanship. The interior that we were able to see was also very nice. I loved the wine cellar and the specialty wine storage cage which included a $50,000 bottle from the 1800's. The pool, guest houses, glass meeting hall, hedge maze and museum were not completed. Also the interior storage tanks were still being renovated, but we were able to still see those including sticking my big fat head in one :) We enjoyed a meal afterwards with a good assortment of Hors d'oeuvre and main course meats and vegetables which were all tasty. Chocolate cake was served as desert in European fashion (bland to the American palate). My Moldovan guests also commented that the cake was bland so I do not think it was my American taste. everything else was excellent though. I do not drink alcohol, so I relied on my guests opinion on the wines which they said were all excellent, being able to sample six different wines. I enjoyed the detailed explanation of how each wine was made and the differences in production that accounted for the varied tastes.