“Troyanda Zakarpattya” 1986. Where is it?

Legendary wine that could not be reproduced in any other wine-growing regions of Ukraine, which was made in Soviet times in stagnant 1986, can still be tasted in the tasting room in the basement of agro-industrial commercial enterprise "Bobovyschanske." However, now it is called not wine, but wine material. "Bobovyschanske" has not been bottling wine for 10 years due to half a million license costs which killed most Transcarpathian wineries. 

Expert Council of "Leader of the Year" annual ranking visited Bobovysche at the beginning of last week . Now the company only compares the current status with former success: in the past the company employed 1,200 people, now – only 87, there were about 1,000 hectares of land, mostly vineyards, and now only 260 hectares of vineyards and old, but still good gardens; in the past they collected more than a thousand tons of grapes, now – only 57. In the past they also preserved cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, vegetable mixtures, made juices. For more than 10 years the company has not been even bottling wine – only occasionally they held tasting tours and take out their "wine materials" to various festivals and wine workshops.

Once the wines of Bobovyschanske collected the "harvest" of medals and awards, especially red ones which were present the "diet" of submariners and astronauts, 50 tons of wine were sent to victims of the Chornobyl accident for radionuclides removal. 

Today the company standsstill, equipment was saved from Soviet times, and, as per director Victor Derevnyk, it is still technologically suitable.

Soda machine is also a part of the "standstill" factory equipment

Victor Derevnyk said they had a lot of potential investors. But with them, especially with foreigners, all the negotiations end with the question of ownership. When they hear that the factory is state-owned, they just negatively spin their heads and refuse from the idea. The trouble "Bobovyschanske" is even greater than in other former state farm-factories that are only subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture. Here, among other things, the basements were not hollowed out like in Serednye or Berehovo, but were constructed in 1969-71 by Soviet builders at the depth of 30-60 meters using the principle of subway construction, and now are considered to be a strategic defence object that "in combination" had to be the repository in case of the third world.

So the company is waiting for years: for reduction of licensing costs, which is promised by all the officials (former president Yushchenko insisted on it while visiting "Chervene vyno" festival in Mukachevo) and permission to change ownership. And only after that one may just think how much money should be to restore the winery.

Meanwhile, "Bobvyschanske" still "breathes". And the winery still offers 11 sorts of "wine", among them the legendary "Troyanda Zakarpattya (Rose of Transcarpathia)."