Brands

Lhamour

Twelve days after opening, thieves stole everything. Khulan caught the thief at the airport herself, survived three floods, built Mongolia's natural beauty export leader

Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳

Perfect Diary

P&G insider who used multinational playbook against them. First Chinese beauty IPO. $4B valuation. Category-creating digital strategy.

Guangzhou 🇨🇳

SoleRebels

$6,000 on grandmother's land. 100,000 jobs created. Ethiopia's first global fashion brand. Artisan production as competitive moat.

Addis Ababa 🇪🇹

SUGAR Cosmetics

Rejected ₹1 crore after two failures. Third startup reached $500M. Solved what L'Oréal overlooked: makeup for India's diverse skin tones.

Mumbai 🇮🇳

Walk of Shame

Fashion editor turned founder. Dinner party joke became Galeries Lafayette success. Authentic Russian storytelling that sanctions couldn't silence.

Moscow 🇷🇺

Abrau-Durso

In 1870, Tsar Alexander II issued an imperial decree creating what would become Russia's answer to Champagne.

Novorossiysk 🇷🇺

Derbent Cognac Factory

₽2.7B spirits producer specializing in cognac and brandy, with minor wine production for local Dagestan markets.

Derbent 🇷🇺

Fanagoria Estate Winery

Russia's largest winery by vineyard area doesn't just grow grapes—it operates a Beijing flagship store, ships 800,000 bottles annually to China, and produces wines scoring 80-97 Robert Parker points from its own cooperage's Old Russian Oak barrels.

Sennoy 🇷🇺

Lefkadia Valley

How does a Russian winery crack the world's Top 30?

Moldavanskoe 🇷🇺

Novyi Svet

Prince Lev Golitsyn didn't just introduce méthode champenoise to Russia—he chose Novyi Svet in 1878 to prove Crimean terroir could rival Champagne.

Sudak 🇷🇺

Château André

28 French research trips over 6 years, Austrian consultant, authentic Provence château, daughter managing father's succession.

Khutor Shkolny 🇷🇺

Uzunov

Four generations: Soviet workers → Fanagoria Chief Winemaker (35 years) → Russia's first family farm license → both sons involved.

Posyolok Sennoy 🇷🇺

Elbuzd

A tax office worker with no business experience financed Russia's first three-level gravitational winery through bank loans at 24% interest.

Azovsky District 🇷🇺

Galitskiy & Galitskiy

After building Russia's largest retail chain, Forbes billionaire Sergey Galitskiy turned to wine as his legacy project.

Gostalgaevskaya 🇷🇺

Usadba Mezyb

The Russian Orthodox Church spent eight years preparing to enter premium wine production, then launched with a winemaker who became Russia's 'Winemaker of the Year' 2024.

Between Divnomorskoye and Djankhot, Mezyb River 🇷🇺

Inkerman

Fifty-five thousand square meters of cathedral-like chambers carved into Inkerman Mountain, where ancient stone quarries became Soviet sparkling wine cellars.

Sevastopol 🇷🇺

Kuban-Vino

Château Tamagne doesn't sound like a Soviet-era winery brand—and that's the point.

Temryuk 🇷🇺

Massandra

Prince Lev Golitsyn—the nobleman who introduced méthode champenoise to Russia—founded Massandra in 1894 to serve the tsars.

Yalta 🇷🇺

Millstream

Founded in 1936 during Stalin's industrialization drive, Millstream survived what most Soviet-era projects couldn't: Nazi occupation of Crimea, Soviet recapture devastation, and decades of infrastructure chaos.

Sevastopol 🇷🇺

Myskhako

Founded in 1869 by Fyodor Geyduk—one year before Tsar Alexander II decreed Abrau-Durso's creation—Myskhako stands as Russia's third-oldest winery.

Novorossiysk 🇷🇺

Tsimlyansk Wines

Red sparkling wine sounds like a marketing gimmick—unless you're in the Don Valley, where Cossacks have made it from Tsimlyansky Cherny grapes since the 18th century.

Tsimlyansk 🇷🇺

Vedernikov Winery

A single bottle sold for 750,000 rubles at auction—a record for Russian wine.

Konstantinovsk 🇷🇺

Zolotaya Balka

Balaklava harbor witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

Sevastopol 🇷🇺

Antonenko Family Winery

Family hobby-to-business transition with two Anapa tasting rooms and full family operational involvement.

Anapa 🇷🇺

AYA Organic Vineyards

Russia's first mandatory organic certification (2024), 'Wine Roads of Russia' winner—exceptional quality on disputed Crimean territory.

Rodnoye 🇷🇺

Château Sort

Lefkadia alumnus pioneering 1m x 1.5m ultra-dense planting and monosortovye (single varietal) wines in premium restaurants.

Krasnodar 🇷🇺

Dva Romana

Two friends named Roman (lawyer + engineer) running a 5,000-bottle nano-winery with entirely manual production.

Krasnodar 🇷🇺

Isa Musaev Winery

'Best sommelier/winemaker of Dagestan' making 5 ultra-premium wines integrated with Caspian wine tourism.

Dagestan 🇷🇺

Krinitsa

French enologist (now Russian citizen) + young Russian winemaker = Double Gold Terravino 2024 winner with gravity-flow facility.

Krasnodar Krai 🇷🇺

Levokumskoye

237-year-old Stavropol flagship (1788) undergoing complete 2022 reconstruction and 700ha→1,200ha expansion.

Stavropol Krai 🇷🇺

Marko

Grandfather's 20-year passion project: Stavropol's sixth farm winery with ungrafted Krasnostop vines, named for grandson Mark.

Stavropol Krai 🇷🇺

Shumrinka

Decanter World Wine Awards winner combining Serbian Probus grapes, drone monitoring, and traditional handwork at scale.

Krasnodar 🇷🇺

Skalisty Bereg

ArchDaily Building of the Year 2021 finalist: Architectural landmark gravity-flow winery with 2022 debut vintage.

Krasnodar 🇷🇺

Usadba Sarkel

Reviving 1,400-year-old Khazar winemaking site and Pushkin-era 'Kazachka' sparkling tradition with Forbes Top 100 recognition.

Tsimlyansk 🇷🇺

Villa Zvezda

The winemaker incubator: Co-founders later launched Usadba Sarkel (Forbes Top 100) and Vinabani (30+ autochthon varieties).

Konstantinovsk 🇷🇺

Vinabani

Four generations preserving 30+ nearly extinct Don autochthon grape varieties that survived Soviet anti-alcohol campaigns.

Malaya Martynovka 🇷🇺

Belbek

A ceramic artist from Sevastopol planted experimental vines in 2012. Three years later, his Cabernet Sauvignon won Grand Prix as Russia's 'Best Red Wine.'

Fruktovoe village, Belbek River valley 🇷🇺

Dacha Serdyuka

Ten kilometers from where the Krasnostop Zolotovsky grape was born, Sergey Serdyuk makes Russia's only wine without sulfur dioxide.

Kanygin village (vineyards), Novocherkassk (production) 🇷🇺

Domaine Lipko

A lawyer and Florida-trained golf professional turned winemaker on a Crimean Paleolithic archaeological site.

Sevastopol, Balaklava district, Chernaya River valley 🇷🇺

Yaila

Russia's first still wine from Pinot Meunier. First orange wines from Kokur. First bourbon barrel aging.

Sevastopol (winery), Gurzuf terroirs (vineyards) 🇷🇺

Domaine Côtes de Saint-Daniel

Sennoy 🇷🇺

Château Le Grand Vostock

When French winemaker Frank Duseigneur arrived in Krasnodar in 2003, Russia's wine industry was still stuck in Soviet bulk production.

Sadovy 🇷🇺

Derbent Wine Factory

Russia's leading sparkling wine producer, commanding 2,300 hectares in Dagestan's ancient terroir—every fifth bottle of Russian sparkling wine comes from Derbent.

Derbent 🇷🇺