The wines of Novak

Novak is a young Moldovan winery led by winemaker Andrey Novak. He has his vineyards in the south of Moldova, near the towns of Comrat, Tartaul and Ciobalaccia. Where his father grew grapes for bulk wine, Andrey wants to make his own wines on a relatively small scale. He distinguishes himself from other Moldovan wineries by focusing mainly on (forgotten) indigenous grape varieties. He has now bottled several forgotten Moldovan wines, giving them a second life.

Check out our 6 wines made by Novak

Andrey trained as an economist, but blood will out. What do you do when you have a father in the wine world with a considerable arsenal of vineyards? Unlike his father, Andrey wanted to make the wines himself rather than sell the grapes to large producers.

Andrey wants a small, distinctive 'boutique winery'. For this, a winery with a cellar and modern equipment was built first. Since 2016, Andrey has made his wines there - initially from international varieties, but increasingly focusing on indigenous grapes.

That actually happened by chance. He wanted vines when he hadn't received enough vines from France to plant an entire vineyard. He found a grape variety in his own country that wasn't very popular but fascinated him because he'd never heard of it before: Alb de Onițcani. On impulse he decided to buy vines of it and plant them.

At first he didn't quite know what to do with the Alb de Onițcani. This grape ripens very late, into November, and still has fairly high acidity even then. At first he made an oak-aged wine from it, but that turned out not to be a good idea, so nowadays the grapes are fermented in steel tanks.

Today Andrey Novak also makes wine from the completely forgotten Floricica grape, alongside better-known indigenous grapes such as Fetească Albă, Fetească Regală, Fetească Neagră and Rară Neagră. International grapes like Pinot Noir, Merlot and Chardonnay also pass through Andrey's cellar. Novak makes several quality lines, from fresh, relatively light 'entry-level' wines to oak-aged wines that can age for years. We currently have six wines from Novak in our range. You can view all our wines from Novak here.

If you want to know more about this winery, here you will find the link to the website of Novak.