MOLDOVA: wine, passion, ancient wonders and stranger things in Europe’s latest hotspot

Magnificent wines and extraordinary cultures make pocket-sized Moldova a superpower of a different sort. The little-known, fabulously fertile strip squeezed between Romania and Ukraine on Europe’s eastern flank is naturally full of good things and plenty of stranger ones too. One definitely for visitors to wonder over is the self-declared republic of Transnistria, a Soviet-style time warp that has broken away although officially still part of Moldova. Just as unforgettable though are the country’s sweet spots – its wines, monumental wineries and their epic tasting sessions. All this is explorer gold for visitors who in places find a pastoral idyll of wide skies and boundless green hills scattered with medieval fortresses and picture-postcard villages. Festooned with flowers and fruits, the cottages and their lush gardens often double as small restaurants, their home-cooked dishes paired with fine reds, sparkling whites and the melodious sounds of folk bands. But glimpses of rusting, deserted factories and half-finished buildings are a telling reality check too, a reminder that this country is seriously hard up, struggling with migration and a turbulent past that hugs it close. Moldova’s map, with its jagged borders, reveals much about those phenomenal fluctuations in fortunes. Situated at a porous crossroads between… Read full this story

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