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This visit is led by Alfredo Ferrari
9:00 am departure by car/minibus for the town of Hincesti and subsequent visit to the castle and the Manuc Bei estate with the adjoining ethnographic museum.
11:00 am continuation of the excursion to the village of Puhoi with a visit to the Asconi winery followed by a tasting of 5 wines.
1.30pm lunch in the characteristic restaurant of the cellar.
3.00 pm departure for the return to Chisinau scheduled for 4.00 pm
The Manuc Bei castle in the town of Hincesti is one of the pearls of 19th century Moldavian architecture which was conceived as a luxury residence with an adjoining orchard, an indoor swimming pool with underground exits, beautiful fountains and a small lake, as well as several internally lined galleries made of glass connected the various adjacent structures with the central body of the castle.
In the early 19th century, after the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, Manuc Bei Mirzoian, dragoman of the Ottoman Empire (governor in charge of Turkey's diplomatic relations with European states), for his services in talks with the generals Russians in negotiations with the Turks, had received permission from the Russian Tsar to settle, of his choice, in one of the villages of Bessarabia.
And the choice fell on the town of Hincesti where he purchased a small palace owned by Countess Dolgorukaia. With the advent of the Manuc-Bei dynasty, an era of prosperity, expansion and rapid development of its territory began for Hincesti. The following year he built this beautiful castle, designed by the Italian/Ticino architect Alessandro Bernardazzi, right on the newly acquired property.
Manuc Bei during his stay in Hincesti built roads and erected many buildings with public and socially useful features as well as the Armenian Basilica since his origins were Armenian. After his death the work was continued by his eldest son, Oganes. In 1870 the first elementary school was opened, in 1872 the first telephone line Chisinau-Hincesti as well as the first city hospital.
In 1940 the city was renamed Kotovsk (in honor of Grigori Kotovski, leader of the Red Army during the civil war who was born here) and from that moment it became the provincial capital. In 1990, in the wake of the independence movements from the USSR, the city returned to its old name of Hincesti.
Nowadays the Manuc Bey estate, with its interesting museum of Moldavian history and ethnography, is open to the public after the restoration, not entirely completed, from Tuesday to Sunday.
Asconi is young as the Moldavian population is also young, it was founded as a family-run winery only in 1994 on the ashes of what was the old cooperative winery of the village of Puhoi, a small town in the province of Ialoveni within the wine-growing region called “Codru” about 35 kilometers from the capital Chisinau.
The winery currently owns over 500 hectares of vines in the adjacent village of Geamana including Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon-Blanc and Moscato (Muscat) as well as Riesling, Malbec, Pinot Noir as well as the native and prized Feteasca Albă and Feteasca Neagră.
Today Asconi is a modern company equipped with the latest international technology and stores most of its red wines in 225 liter barriques for periods varying between 6 months and 2 years.
The export of its wines represents 99% of the total annual production and only 1% is sold on the domestic market, mainly in the HORECA sector and to visitors/tasters of the cellar.
The flagship of Asconi production is the range called Sol Negru, high quality white and red wines with an excellent quality-price ratio.
What will certainly amaze the visitor the most, in addition to the excellent tasting, will be the visit to the traditional Moldavian village located within the estate made up of various cobbled alleys on which there are some small restaurants as well as a hotel made up of typical little houses with roofs barrel which will be inaugurated in the spring of 2019.
Excursion time:
Every day with departure at 09.00 from your hotel or accommodation in Chisinau
