Cossack Food in TRADITIONAL Ukrainian House + Private Winery Tour | Odessa, Ukraine

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🍷 ALEJANDRO:   / don_alejandro_vino  

My adventures in the seaside city of Odessa continued with an incredible local food and wine experience. Come along with me as I try traditional Cossack food in a traditional Ukrainian house and go on a private winery tour in Odessa, Ukraine!

My guide Natasha from Tours by Locals and I began our afternoon at Don Alejandro Winery, a boutique winery just outside of Odessa. There, I met Alejandro and ran into a guy I met earlier in the day at the Shustov Cognac Museum!

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The winery is located in Alejandro’s family’s home. It was freezing outside, so Alejandro let me borrow a jacket!

We started in the wine tasting room, where there were shelves full of different wines. The property was beautiful! There were several houses and buildings on the property made to look like mosaics.

There were even wine bottles set into the tables and concrete walls. There are 600 bottles in the outdoor table and 1400 in the outdoor barbecue! It was so unique and I’d never seen anything like it!

There are also underground cellars that contain 93,000-liter barrels! Then, I saw the original winery, which is now used to store wine. It looked like there were thousands of wines stored there. They also make champagne, which ferments vertically on racks.

Each shelf holds 600 bottles. There are also 170,000 bottles in the cellar in the catacombs! Then Alejandro opened a vat filled with fermenting wine and filled up 4 bottles. He was so nice!

Then, we saw another underground storage area and the bottle labeling room. It’s all done by hand here! From there, we saw a bathroom where they have 1950’s post-war era posters on the walls.

Then, it was time to try some of their Young Champagne. Then, Alejandro showed me their liver sausage and let me try some smoked salo.

He then fed me some sausage, more salo, Bryndza cheese (which tasted like feta), and blood sausage. Everything was so good, I would be a blimp if I stayed in this country for too long!

Next up was some Ukrainian Saperavi dry red wine, which they say is similar to Georgian wine. I loved the aroma, and the flavor was excellent. Everything was made locally, including the bread.

Then, he gave me a bottle of wine as a gift, which I was planning on giving to my dad. Next, we tried their tropical and earthy Quintessence Grand Reserve.

Next was an aged champagne that was like a bubbly farmhouse champagne. Then, Alejandro took me upstairs, past lots of vases from India set into the walls. There were some great views of the estuary and the distant vineyards.

Then, Natasha and I drove 20 minutes to Kumanets in the city. Inside, I tried some spicy horseradish vodka and creamy salo spread on bread.

Then, we went for a flight of vodka, starting with a sweet and spicy honey pepper vodka. Next were cranberry vodka, tangy sea buckthorn vodka, and horseradish vodka. We also had smalets, which is a melted pork lard spread made with salt and garlic.

They also brought me some lazy dumplings stuffed with cottage cheese. The “Lazy” dumplings came with veal and cranberry sauce. The cranberry gave it a nice sweetness that paired nicely with the savory, slow-cooked veal.

Next was stuffed cabbage, which contained rice and pork. They also brought me Goby fish. The stuffed cabbage were right up my alley and unreal!

Then, I picked out the spine and bones in the goby fish. It was an amazing Black Sea Fish with a spicy horseradish mustard sauce. It was so flaky and tasty, I had to go in with my hands! The cheeks were excellent, but the spicy sauce was really hot!

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About Me:

My name is David Hoffmann. For the last 13 years, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,200 destinations in 83 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.

I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.

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