Every country seems to have at least one thing that travelers are told they absolutely have to do. In Moldova, that was visiting Milestii Mici. Believe it or not, I had never been on a wine tour before and initially wasn’t sure whether this was something I would enjoy. Thankfully I went, because Milestii Mici ended up being one of the most interesting places I visited in Moldova.
Even the entrance makes it obvious that wine is taken seriously here. Large fountains decorated with wine bottles and glasses greet visitors before they ever enter the underground complex.
The Underground Winery
What makes Milestii Mici so unusual is the enormous network of underground tunnels beneath the winery. The galleries were originally excavated for limestone, leaving behind miles of passages through the rock. The naturally cool and stable underground conditions eventually made the tunnels an ideal place for storing and aging wine.
Driving underground was one of the strangest parts of the experience. Instead of simply walking through a cellar, our tour entered as a convoy of cars and traveled through tunnels large enough to function like streets.
With our headlights illuminating the passages ahead, we drove past enormous wine barrels, storage areas, and intersections disappearing into the darkness. Calling Milestii Mici an underground city suddenly didn’t seem like much of an exaggeration.
One of the World’s Largest Wine Collections
Milestii Mici earned a Guinness World Record for its enormous underground wine collection. Around 1.5 million bottles are stored within the limestone galleries, with rows of bottles disappearing into room after room.
The scale was difficult to appreciate until I was actually underground. This wasn’t a single wine cellar beneath a building. We were driving through an entire network of tunnels filled with wine.
The bottles range from inexpensive everyday wines to vintages that have been aging underground for decades. Some of the oldest bottles looked as though they had become part of the cave itself, covered in years of dust and sediment.
I was told that if someone purchased one of these old bottles, the winery could clean it and replace the label, although buyers could also leave it exactly as it was. I’d certainly be curious to taste one of the oldest vintages, but spending thousands of dollars on a bottle of wine is a little beyond my curiosity.
Dining Underground
One of the biggest surprises came when what looked like another ordinary doorway along the tunnels opened into an elaborate underground dining area. After driving through dark passages surrounded by barrels and bottles, suddenly I was standing inside rooms that looked more like an elegant restaurant.
The underground rooms had large tables, fireplaces, decorations, and even live music. This was also where the wine tasting took place alongside a full meal. For someone who hadn’t even been sure about taking a wine tour, I was quickly realizing that Milestii Mici was about much more than simply tasting wine.
The Secret Wine Collection
One of the most interesting stories I heard during the tour involved the Soviet Union’s anti-alcohol campaign during the 1980s. Vineyards were destroyed and wine production throughout the Soviet Union was severely disrupted, creating a serious threat to Moldova’s long-established wine industry.
According to the story I heard at Milestii Mici, some of the winery’s valuable bottles were protected by hiding them behind a concealed section of the cellar rather than allowing them to be destroyed. The hidden collection survived, preserving wines that otherwise might have disappeared during the campaign.
Between the underground roads, seemingly endless rows of bottles, elaborate dining rooms, and stories surrounding the old wine collection, Milestii Mici was nothing like the winery tour I had imagined. Even if you’re not particularly interested in wine, the sheer scale and strangeness of the underground complex make this one of the most memorable places to visit in Moldova. I’m definitely glad I didn’t skip it.
