August 2026 turned out to be the perfect month to explore Moldova's wine country.
With the harvest still weeks away and the vines heavy with ripening fruit, the countryside was at its most photogenic — rolling hills stitched with vineyards, forests thick with summer green, and village roads leading to family-run cellars that rarely make it onto the standard tourist map. Over the course of a few days, the itinerary took in three very different wineries, each representing a distinct chapter of Moldova's winemaking story: Domaine la Prut in the Codru wine region, Javgur Winery in Ștefan Vodă, and Crama Mircești, also in Codru. Together, they offered a vivid cross-section of where Moldovan wine has been — and where it's heading.
Stop One: Domaine la Prut, Codru Region
The first stop was Domaine la Prut, tucked into the forested hills of the Codri Reservation near Gherman village, not far from the city of Ungheni. The estate is the work of Austrian oenologist Wilfried Pfanner, a third-generation member of the Pfanner winemaking family, who has spent more than three decades refining his craft before bringing that discipline to Moldovan soil. His 13-hectare vineyard sits surrounded by forest and apple orchards — an unusual and, as it turns out, defining combination, since the proximity of the orchards lends the wines a subtle, fresh aromatic signature that's hard to find elsewhere in the country.
Domaine la Prut works with a broad range of grapes, from international names like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Welschriesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, to regional varieties such as Fetească Regală, Fetească Neagră, and Saperavi — a palette that reflects the estate's guiding philosophy of blending Austrian precision with Moldovan tradition.
What made this visit especially interesting, though, was hearing about the winery's growing focus on sparkling wine. Rather than chasing volume, the estate is deliberately exploring the traditional method to develop more distinctive, characterful sparkling wines for both the domestic and export markets — currently working with a comparatively short second fermentation of around six months on the lees, a stylistic choice that keeps the wines fresher and more fruit-driven while the house continues to refine its house style. In parallel, Domaine la Prut is expanding its own vineyard holdings around Gherman village, close to its residence near Ungheni, a sign that the estate is investing for the long term rather than resting on its current 13 hectares.
Walking the rows with the forest at your back and apple trees interspersed among the vines, it's easy to see why Domaine la Prut is often described as a bridge between two winemaking cultures — Austrian rigor meeting Moldovan heritage, expressed one bottle at a time.
Stop Two: Javgur Winery, Ștefan Vodă Region
From Codru, the road east led to Ștefan Vodă and Javgur Winery — a family estate with more than 35 years of history behind it. It all began with Gheorghe Scutaru, who set out to prove that great wine could be made at home without sacrificing modern quality standards. Today the winery is a genuine multigenerational operation: Gheorghe still serves as the core oenologist, his son Vasile Scutaru is deeply involved in production, and his daughter Aliona Nazaria manages distributor relations and bottling, helping push Javgur wines into international markets. A turning point came in 2000 with the planting of the first modern vineyards, followed by a full re-equipment of the winery in 2018 that brought a new level of precision to the cellar.
Javgur now farms 94 hectares, split between international grapes — Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Traminer, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Saperavi — and indigenous varieties like Viorica and Fetească Neagră.
Talking with the family made it clear where the winery's heart currently lies: bold, complex red wines remain Javgur's calling card, built on structured Fetească Neagră, Saperavi, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
But there's a genuine curiosity about pushing the white wine program further, too. The clearest evidence of that ambition was a tasting of the Mariage Blanc, 2025 vintage — a wine that stood out for its freshness and precision and hinted at real potential for the winery to build a stronger white wine identity, both at home and abroad. It's an encouraging signal that Javgur's next chapter may be as much about elegant whites as it is about its already-established reds.
Stop Three: Crama Mircești, Codru Region — "The Little Tuscany of Moldova"
The final stop brought the journey back into Codru, to the village of Mircești, roughly 80 kilometers northwest of Chișinău. Perched on a hill more than 300 meters above sea level, surrounded by rolling vineyards and sweeping views, Crama Mircești has earned itself a fitting nickname: the "Little Tuscany of Moldova."
The estate's story is one of restoration. A noble family built the original manor here more than a century ago, but the property fell into ruin during the Soviet era, serving at various points as a kindergarten and a kolkhoz facility. It was entrepreneur Arcadie Fosnea who acquired the estate and rebuilt it — reviving the manor, replanting the vineyards from 2011 onward, and adding a guesthouse and restaurant to turn the site into a proper wine destination.
Sitting between 270 and 320 meters above sea level, the vineyards benefit from strong sun exposure, cooling air currents, and wide day-night temperature swings — ideal conditions for slow, even ripening. Across its roughly 17 hectares, Crama Mircești has positioned itself as a pioneer of the northern Codru PGI terroir and a genuine champion of Moldova's native grapes, growing Fetească Neagră, Rară Neagră, Fetească Regală, and Fetească Albă alongside an ambitious international lineup that includes Pinot Noir, Saperavi, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Rkatsiteli.
What stood out most on this visit, though, was the winery's bold step into traditional-method sparkling wine — and specifically into brut nature, the driest and most transparent expression of the style, with essentially no dosage to hide behind. The estate is experimenting with brut nature bottlings made from Fetească Albă, letting Moldova's own white grape speak for itself in sparkling form, as well as a Blanc de Noir made from Pinot Noir, extracting a pale, precise white wine from a black grape through gentle, minimal-contact pressing. Both projects reflect the same instinct that runs through the rest of the estate: honor the native varieties and the terroir, but don't be afraid to push into new styles.
Closing Thoughts
Three wineries, three regions, three very different personalities — yet all three point in the same direction: Moldova's wine industry is no longer content to simply preserve tradition, it's actively reinterpreting it. Domaine la Prut is refining its sparkling wine program while quietly growing its vineyard footprint around Gherman; Javgur is proving that a winery built on powerful reds can also produce whites with real international promise; and Crama Mircești is turning some of the country's finest native grapes into serious traditional-method sparkling wine. For anyone planning a wine trip through Eastern Europe, August 2026 confirmed that Moldova's Codru and Ștefan Vodă regions deserve a firm place on the itinerary.
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