AN INCREDIBLE STORY
A CLASSICAL HERITAGE
Artwine is a sparkling wine crafted by the traditional method, or “méthode traditionnelle” in French since the mid 20th Century. Originally produced under the label Artemivske by its maker Artwinery for domestic consumption, Artwine was first produced for international export in 2007.
The méthode traditionnelle process begins with the addition of a liqueur de tirage (a wine solution of sugar and yeast) to a bottle of still base wine. This addition triggers a secondary fermentation inside the bottle, which produces both carbon dioxide and spent yeast cells, or lees. After a time of aging “on the lees”, the lees are collected in the neck of the bottle during the riddling process. The lees are disgorged from the bottle and then replaced with a solution of wine and sugar, giving the sparkling wine its sweetness. All Champagne and most high-quality sparkling wine is made by this process.
Our bottles were produced in the world’s deepest sparkling wine caves, 236 feet below the surface across 60 acres of caverns. Unfortunately today, those same wine caves are under Russian occupation, in Bakhmut, Ukraine.
Artwine is scarce and eagerly sought after as only a few hundred thousand bottles are for sale in Ukraine, the United States and Japan.
THE INVASION
In March 2014, Russian troops provocatively took control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the need to protect the rights of Russian citizens and Russian speakers in Crimea and southeast Ukraine.¹
Armed conflict in the regions quickly broke out between Russian-backed forces and the Ukrainian military. Russia denied military involvement, but both Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reported the buildup of Russian troops and Russian cross-border shelling immediately following Crimea’s annexation.²
On February 24, 2022, the Russians escalated the conflict with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of Russian civilians on September 21, 2022, and moved to annex four occupied territories: Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.³
President Putin announced plans in February 2023 to take all of Donbas by March 2023 in an offensive surge. However, the attack made little progress and devolved into a months-long siege of Bakhmut, a town of limited strategic value with a pre-war population of seventy thousand.⁴
Ukraine and Russia remain at war.
Unfortunately the world’s deepest sparkling wine cave and our winery lay in the heart of Bakhmut. But in February 2022 as fears of Russian aggression spread throughout Ukraine, at great risk of gunfire and shelling, the winery began to smuggle out of Bakhmut, our incredible bubbly.
Source: 1,2,3,4 : Council on Foreign Relations
1950s
On his birthday in 1950, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was refused Champagne exports by the Republique of France. The dictator commanded the establishment of Artemovsk Winery to create Soviet sparkling wines (Sovietskoye Shampanskoe) in the labor-intensive Méthode Traditionnelle to match the French.
1980s
Approximately 30% of all Ukrainian vineyards are destroyed during Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign.
1990s
Ukraine officially declared itself an independent country 1990s on August 24, 1991.
2000s
Sales of Artemivske sparkling wine from Artwinery in Bakhmut becomes the number one selling sparkling wine in Ukraine and is recognized as the first national product of a newly independent Ukraine.
2007
Artwine is created for export.
TODAY
Workers continue the production of wine in secret locations as to not let the Russian’s stop their work. Some of the workers left to fight, leaving families behind and Artwinery understaffed.
HISTORY OF ARTWINE
BUBBLY SMUGGLING
From the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the men and women of Artwinery, heroically saved as much Artwine as they could by secretly moving it out of Bakhmut. In the face of war and possible death, Artwinery’s staff preserved this great sparkling wine and Ukrainian export. Their spirit and our bottles are unbreakable.
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