KRASNODAR, November 16. /TASS/. The Lenin agricultural cooperative, one of the largest wineries of the Soviet Union in the Black Sea resort town of Anapa, will undergo reconstruction and welcome tourists since 2020, Krasnodar Territory governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Thursday.
On the brink of bankruptcy, the winery was purchased in 2016 by Ariant, one of Russia’s largest winemaking companies, which plans to reconstruct the facility and turn it into a center of wine tourism.
"This is an important event for the Anapa district," the governor said. "A modern winery producing 20 mln bottles annually should be shown to people. Tourists will be able to come to the winery after the reconstruction [in 2020]."
Kondratyev also said that the Krasnodar Territory produces more than 50% of Russia’s grapes.
Ariant, which annually produces some 10,600 deciliters of wine, plans to spend 2 bln rubles (more than $33 mln) by 2020 to build a factory making sparkling wines on the site of the Soviet winery and a wine tourist center.
"We will slightly alter the fa·ade of the vinery’s building built in the 1930s," the company’s press service told TASS. "Tourists will be able to observe the full cycle of the sparking wine production. We will also build a glass floor above the wine cellar."
In 2021, the company also plans to plant 2,000-hectare vineyards. Investments in the project are expected to exceed 1.5 bln rubles ($25 mln) in three years.