528 WINE LAW hinterland behind proposed little more than cold weather and desolate steppes. During centuries, Goths and Bulgarians, Khazars and Tartars, Genoese and Turks, tried, by turns, to settle these shores. Finally, in the 18th century, the Russians anchored here their Southern dreams for sun, warm sea and unusual vegetation; they would never have any idea to look for lands in the Caribbean or Polynesia – the Black sea became their Southern hemisphere, and their Equator was established in-between the latitudes of Ravenna and Florence. Indeed, geography explains almost everything. The mighty Caucasus Mountains stretch from the Caspian to the Black seas in a regular line from south-east to the north-west and, emerging from the promontory of Baku in the Caspian, it goes for more than 1.100 km to the north-west, distinctly separating, in this part of the world, Europe from Asia. The mountain range has the highest point in Europe, Mount Elbrus (5.642 m), and then begins an extended lowering, going in parallel with the Black Sea’s coast for about 300 km and sinking shortly in the Strait of Kerch to reemerge for its last section at the Crimean Peninsula. In such a way, this long chain locks the coastal strand of the eastern Black Sea and the south Crimean, thus preventing the direct intrusion of cold air from the north; such a convenient disposition creates the exceptional seaside climate for this region, with mild winters and warm summers. Here, among cypress and palm tree silhouettes, lie the most improbable European subtropics – the Russian Riviera, with one of the northernmost olive orchards in Crimea and its tea plantations in Sochi. Depending on the same auspicious influence are the viticultural production areas, which extend far beyond the mountains. The grapevine, being a plant robust enough to endure the amplitudes of the temperate climate, has its habitat spilling over in the north Caucasian plain to reach River Don’s downstream, to the north, and the Caspian Sea, to the east. Russia’s territory of potential grape cultivation is vast and variegated, with, presently, a total area dedicated to the wine production amounting to 95.000 ha2, predominantly concentrated in the south, even though small patches are curiously viable even in the southernmost areas of the Urals and Russia’s Far East, near Vladivostok3. The five most important wine-growing regions (Crimea, Krasnodar, Rostov, Stavropol and Dagestan) date their modern viticulture history back to the late 18th century, when the local traditions were resuscitated and put systematically on a large scale with the highest imperial approval. Profiting from the at the time 2 The agriculture in Russia in 2019, an official edition of the Russian state statistics service (Rosstat), p. 54; available in https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/sh_2019.pdf. 3 The most resistant to cold weather species (Vitis amurensis) is an endemic for the Russian Far East, it grows in the region of the lower Amur River, and its crop is suitable for wine making.
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