Friends Constantin Furculete and Onisim Popescu converted their wine-making hobby into a business in 2012.
The name of the winery, which is located on the sunny terraces of the Dniester River, comes from the Dacians, a tribe that settled the area in antiquity.
Some of Dac’s wines come from local grapes, some from Western European varieties grown in its vineyards and some from blends of the two. The Western European vintages are so good that Dac exports them to France, Italy and Germany.
Dac plans to open a wine tourism complex on the road to one of the area’s biggest visitor attractions, the Soroca Fortress, constructed in the late 1400s. The complex will include a wine cellar built from a centuries-old design, a restaurant specializing in local dishes, and an inn.

Waiting for opening – please confirm availability! Entrepreneur Andrei Pripa was producing such good wine on the 20 hectares of vineyards he bought in Purcari that U.S. and Swedish development agencies offered to help him get to the next level. Their faith quickly paid off. In 2016, Pripa used the equipment they supplied, including a bottling line, to generate his first sizable off-site commercial sales. Customers snapped up every bottle within three months. Meanwhile, he was restoring a mansion and wine cellars on the grounds of his property. Swiss and French immigrants had built the original wine-making operation in the 1800s. One of Pripa’s next projects is opening a wine tourism complex to take advantage of his quality production and the mansion and cellars’ interesting history.

Andrei Novak made a splash in Moldovan wine circles in 2017 when his new winery began creating blends based on a local variety called Alb de Onițcani. He became interested in blends when he saw 22 types of Riesling blends during a tour of a winery in Germany. “Why not bring the blend approach here?” he asked himself. One winning blend is 65 percent Alb de Onițcani and 35 percent Riesling. The first blend that Andrei entered in an international competition – Germany’s Mundus Vini Summer Tasting in 2018 – won a gold medal. His vision has prompted other Moldovan wine owners to rediscover the potential of indigenous grape varieties.

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.

Sălcuța Winery is a trailblazer in modern Moldovan wine making. Eugen Pîslaru was one of the country’s first winery owners to introduce vertical integration to his operation. This involved putting the entire production process – from planting and growing grapes, to harvesting, to fermentation, bottling and aging – under his control to assure quality. Sălcuța, whose leadership is now in the hands of Eugen’s son Sergiu.

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.

The Fautor Winery is a family operation that won more international awards for quality in 2017 and 2018 than any other Moldovan wine maker. One reason for the winery’s success is that its portfolio includes some rare vintages. The Fautor family said it approaches wine making like art, with the artist pouring beauty and emotion into their creations. The renowned American wine critic Robert Parker is one of the international experts who has praised Fautor vintages. He gave a Fautor Fumé Blanc a score of 90 and a Negre blend an 88 on his 100-point scale. Although Moldova’s wine-making tradition dates back thousands of years, the Fautor Winery is clearly one of the vintners that has taken it to a new level in recent times.

The Gitana Winery is a true family operation, with Petru and Svetlana Dulgher in charge, daughter Iuliana overseeing production and her sister Lilia heading marketing. The Gitana Winery started in 1999, when the Dulgers began renovating the decrepit Tiganca Winery that they bought in Plopi. They realized it would take hard work to create a winner, but they also knew they had a key to wine-making success – already constructed cellars with a constant temperature in summer and winter that were perfect for aging. The Dulgers obtain the grapes for their vintages from the best vineyards in the nearby Leova district. Contending that wine-making technology should only preserve what nature created when it made grapes, Petru and Svetlana decided not to buy enclosed fermenting tanks. Instead, they let their wine ferment in wooden tubs that allow the grapes to breathe.

Nicolae Tronciu takes pride in saying that he operates one of Moldova’s smallest wineries. His idea is to make small batches of excellent vintages that reflect the passion he puts into his product. Founded in 1997, the Tronciu Winery obtains its grapes from the modest-sized, two-hectare vineyard that Nicolae planted.  The Tronciu family likes entertaining visitors with terrific wine and lots of stories. Adding to visitors’ enjoyment is fresh-baked bread that Nicolae’s wife, Galina, makes in an outdoor oven.