The Ismaily area is one of the main areas for wine production in Azerbaijan,
And in the region, one small village of indomitable Russians still holds out against the capitalism system: a place called Ivanovka. Located in the center of the country, 3 hours from Baku, few minutes from Ismaily, this place belongs to a Russian community and Marxism still rules the local economy. Most of the inhabitants of Ivanovka stay in the village for their entire life, working as farmers, it is kind of a Russian “Little House on the prairie”. Totally worthes the ride from Baku. The village produces a wine, which is sold in the country and that we have tasted during our visit of “Ismaily waterfalls”.
Unfortunately we could not have been further in this discovery, the winery of the village being closed to any visitors. But we are resilient and if we want to visit a winery, we will. So we heard about a big winery, just nearby the village of Ivanovka, owned by an Azerbaijani guy: Sato 
Monolit (to pronounce “Chateau Monolithe”, of course). This winery considers its wines as “Ismaily wines”, which is a region famous for its vineyards in the region. The location is beautiful, 1100 meters above the sea level, with the great Caucasus on the horizon. This part of the country is abundant of farms and wheat fields, the climate being nicer than the eastern part of the country, nicer than Baku where the wind and the sun seem to hate the human presence
So we visited this big winery with a guide who didn’t speak either English or Russian and who basically simply opened the doors of the winery letting ourselves with our sense of analysis to guess the different steps of the wine making. Hopefully, you can see on the picture that we like to go deep into things.
Our guide started the visit with a room presenting the different bottles and the main varietals produced are cabernet Sauvignon and the typical Matrasa for the red and Rkatsiteli for the whites. Sato Monolit also produces an Ice Wine, with Rkatsiteli grapes harvested at the end of December.
Then we headed to a huge cellar which is used to keep the bottles in cool temperature. Bottles of rosé, white and red are displayed everywhere, in this vast cave, waiting to be sold towards Russia.
Thereafter our quiet guide led us to the place where the barrels are stored. Considering the age and the appearance of these barrels, they are more used for brandies or the local “kognak”.
Unfortunately we could not taste the wine because it cost 5 manats. Yes, we could have given 5 manats to give you a complete overview of the winery but paying a tasting is not in our habit, and that mattered the most at that moment. But we will try to find a bottle in Baku to share our thoughts about these wines to fulfill your desires.
All the conditions are gathered to produce quality wine and the winery has been upgraded to the international standards in 2006. This winery is one more proof of the wine culture revival in Azerbaijan and we are very glad to assist and to contribute to this renewal!
Related articles
- Ismaily’s waterfalls (frenchiesinbaku.wordpress.com)
FrenchiesinBaku 