The first wine city in Russia and indeed the world, with the name “Belyy Mys” (White Cape) will kick off in the city of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea this year. This was reported by the gastronom and project manager, Dmitry Levizkij, in an interview with the news agency RIA Novosti. Originally, the plan was to present the project in stages, according to Levizkij, but this idea was then abandoned:
“We initially planned to open the city in stages, we wanted to start with two objects: our Enoteca with the largest collection of Russian wines and a café-bakery on the Strandpromenade by the gastronom Arkadi Nowikov. They were supposed to be put into operation at the end of the spring. But recently, we made the difficult decision not to start in stages. We do not want to lure people into the ‘entrance hall’ if the rest is still under construction, even if it is a ‘beautiful entrance hall’. That’s why the entire complex will now be opened at once – we plan to present it at the end of the year.”
Levizkij also emphasized that not only in Russia, but also worldwide, there is no comparable project. In Bordeaux, there is a wine center with an attached museum, restaurant and shop, but it is four or five times smaller. Therefore, the Russian winemakers had to start from scratch – there were no role models for them in this project. And then there are the Western sanctions – a part of the equipment they expected had to be replaced, as it came from the West.
Now, the area of the wine city by the sea covers over 40,000 square meters. It will house a wine laboratory, a 900 square meter wine library, a museum dedicated to the Russian wine industry and other facilities. The wine city “White Cape” is expected to host between 3,000 and 5,000 guests per day during the main season. The newspaper Kommersant writes about the project:
“Dmitri Levizkij explained that a school for sommeliers, winemakers and winegrowers will be opened in the wine city, where educational programs from the wine market experts will be presented. This school will also offer special courses. The laboratory center on the territory of White Cape offers the possibility to carry out more than 300 different types of tests. Within its scientific activity, the laboratory will also conduct research in the field of wine products and propose possible solutions to improve wine quality.