KRASNODAR, May 25. The Fanagoria winery harvested the first harvest of grapes grown on the slopes of one of the mud volcanoes of the Taman Peninsula, similar The production of a limited line of wine will be the first in Russia, said Igor Serdyuk, deputy general director for development of the company’s premium line.
According to him, mud volcanoes on the shores of the Taman Bay have been known since ancient times — back in the 6th century BC, the Greeks who founded their colonies here associated them with the cult of the goddess of fertility. The mud that splashed out of the vents and flowed down the slopes of the volcanoes largely determined the mineral character of the Taman terroirs. 
The agency's interlocutor added that these volcanoes have gentle slopes, so it was always “tempting to try to grow grapes” on them, but until recently such land was considered not “grape-growing” due to the high concentration of salts. “But we live in the era of new winemaking, which is less afraid of salty soils,” Serdyuk said.
“The planting of these vineyards took place four years ago. We received the first harvest suitable for high-quality winemaking in 2023 and have now started aging the wine. The first tastings gave very interesting results and encouraged us. We believe that this will be an unexpected level of density and concentration wine, which promises a breakthrough in the field of elite winemaking, we will probably be able to evaluate the condition of the wine after the first stage of aging in oak barrels closer to the fall,” Serdyuk noted, pointing out that such an experiment was the first in Russia and, perhaps, has no analogues. in the world.
Planting vineyards on the slope of a volcano, according to him, became possible thanks to the system of selecting rootstock-scion pairs, where the scion is the upper part and the rootstock is the lower part of the root system. Such root systems are resistant to different types of soil, some of which make it possible to grow grapes in saline soils.
«We used dense planting on an area of 22 hectares. On one slope of an inactive volcano, we planted several interesting varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a domestic autochthonous variety — Krasnostop. Now the question is whether it will be possible to make grapes from this independent wine, or it will become part of another blend,” the agency’s interlocutor said, adding that production will be on an industrial scale, and the product will become a limited product.