If you wanted the perfect vineyard setting for a movie, you need look no further than the Poiana Winery. And in fact, a famous film was made here — Romanian-born director Emil Loteanu’s 1976 epic about gypsies, “O Șatră Urcă în Cer.”. It doesn’t get any better than sipping on an extraordinary glass of wine while taking in the magnificent views of Poiana, which is in the heart of a forested area. Many wineries contend their products are world-class, but Poiana can prove it. Its vintages have won many international competitions. One reason may be that it grows, harvests and processes its grapes in a traditional organic way. The picking is done by hand with much love and care. Hard work, but worth it. As you might guess, the Poiana’s food is as exceptional as its wine. Rather than going on and on it, we’ll let you come see for yourself. Hide full description

Arcadie Foșnea, who honed his wine-making skills in Germany, has achieved his dream of creating his own winery in his native village, Mircești, in the heart of the famed Codru grape-growing region. Crama Mircești is not only producing terrific wines thanks to the area's terrior and elevation, but also improving villagers’ lives. Mircești Winery is the settlement’s only employer, with 15 full-timers. When the harvest and production seasons roll around, employment climbs to 35. A proponent of wine tourism, Foșnea has opened a restaurant with a terrace that overlooks the countryside and an eight-room hotel. Hide full description

ATÚ, located on a road connecting Chisinau International Airport to the capital, is Moldova’s first urban winery. The boutique operation, opened in 2016, specializes in limited editions of 1,000 to 3,000 bottles of each variety it makes. The owner, Victor Vutcarau, believes small production runs ensure every drop is perfect. Guests say the food he serves with his wine is fabulous, too. ATU focuses on wines made from grapes grown exclusively in Moldova, including Viorica, Fetească Albă, Feteasca Neagră and the rare red Codrinschii. Visitors delight in the gigantic murals on the winery’s walls, which artists created when ATU hosted an urban festival. They also are delighted about Victor’s eagerness to talk about ATU’s founding and the qualities of his various vintages. Hide full description

Ilie Gogu’s family operation produces small batches of top-quality vintages. The Gogu Winery’s vineyards are in Moldova’s best wine-growing area – the Ștefan Vodă region in the country’s southeast. The Gogu family began producing wine four generations ago, but they realized their dream of having their own label only in 2014, when Ilie officially registered the operation’s name. One reason the Gogu Winery produces such excellent vintages is that Ilie knows every nuance of wine-making technology. Although the company expands its vineyards each year, it remains committed to producing only top-quality elite wines. Hide full description

Located in the village of Zaim, Causeni, the Alexei Mateevici house-museum was founded in 1988, on the poet’s centenary. The current museum building was built by the poet’s father, the priest Mihail Mateevici. The museum has six rooms that reveal the poet’s contemporary atmosphere through paintings, sculptures, household objects and documents, a library of rare books and antique furniture. In one of the museum’s halls you may find the “Table of Silence”, which stores both soil from the graves of Romanian literature classics such as Mihai Eminescu, I.L. Caragiale, George Coșbuc, Mihail Sadoveanu as well as from the graves of Alexei Mateevici’s parents. The Museum holds over 7000 articles, photos and personal items. Hide full description

The family-run Leuntea Winery enjoys one of the most storied histories in Moldovan wine making, with its vintages supplying the Russian imperial court beginning in Tsar Alexander I‘s reign in the early 1800s. The Cissa family’s operation also boasts Moldova’s oldest wine cellars. Turkish occupiers built the tunnels that would become Leuntea’s wine storage area in the 1500s. The winery began using them to age vintages in 1817. Making the winery’s reputation even more lustrous is the fact that many celebrities have visited the operation in the past two centuries. They included the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and two Russian generals. One general, Mikhail Vorontsov, helped defeat Napoleon, then became governor-general of the Moldovan and Ukrainian territories of Bessarabia and Novorossia. The other general, Ivan Liprandi, who also took part in the Napoleonic wars, provided material about them to Leo Tolstoy for his epic novel “War and Peace.”  Two generations of the Cissa family are involved in the Leuntea Winery’s operations these days. In addition to the cellars and 18 hectares of vineyards, the family owns a mansion that is the centerpiece of the complex. Although the winery’s heralded past is always in the back of the family’s mind, it works hard to produce vintages that tantalize today’s consumers. Hide full description

You’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime treat at the Mester Faur, a treehouse inn with thatched roof that you reach by walking up an outdoor staircase. The thatch is a great fit for Cioburciu, whose history dates back 650 years. Around the village is one of Moldova’s loveliest forests. If you love soaking up nature, then a walk through this relaxing woodland is for you. You can also go boating or fishing or tour the Purcari winery. Hide full description

Casa Veche is a more than 100-year-old village house that will give you an idea of how rural Moldovans lived at the turn of the 20th Century. Its owners decided recently to turn it into a bed and breakfast for those looking for a traditional country experience, which can include seeing horse-drawn carts. The food at Casa Veche, which is close to the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border, is all-natural. An interesting story about Palanca village is that an agreement in 2012 that ended a border dispute between Ukraine and Moldova meant that many villagers’ homes were still in Moldova while their farmland suddenly ended up in Ukraine. A new border checkpoint in 2018 has made it easier for the villagers to tend those plots. Hide full description

The Et Cetera winery is a slice of Moldova that is so enchanting that it is easy to feel like you’re in another world. The oasis that the Luchianov family created at Crocmaz features breathtaking views, postcard-perfect vineyards, peach orchards, fragrant lavender fields, a small but fancy winery, a mouth-watering restaurant and an exquisite hotel with swimming pool. Nina Luchianov, the mother of the winery’s owners, Igor and Alexander Luchianov, helps ensure that the food is exquisite. As an example, she hand-makes the pastry that goes into the restaurant’s famed Bride’s Pie, ensuring that it is tender and has the perfect buttery taste to complement the cow’s cheese or onion and potato filling.One of Et Cetera’s specialties is rabbit. You can get it cooked with potatoes in a pot or you can try the tangy rabbit liver pate. The Luchianovs grow a lot of the vegetables they serve to guests in their own garden. If you visit Et Cetera in August, jump on a bicycle and pedal over to the peach orchard to eat your fill of the succulent fruit. Coming in October means you can participate in the grape harvest. Not only will the Luchianovs let you pick grapes, but you can also crush them with your own feet, observing a wine-making tradition that goes back thousands of years. Hide full description