Wine Museum at the Khavrenko Winery (founded in 1868 by merchant D. L. Filatov)

About

Wine was taken seriously in this land long before any factory. In Zoroastrianism, dominant across Central Asia, the ritual use of wine mattered, and its medicinal properties had already been noticed. The Greco-Bactrian culture brought by Alexander only encouraged winemaking — and it was observed even then that the grapes growing around what is now Samarkand were particularly sweet, which is fundamental to wine.

In the seventh and eighth centuries the Arab conquerors began systematically cutting out the wine varieties and planting raisin grapes in their place.

Uzbek winemaking was reborn in 1868, thanks to the Russian entrepreneur D. M. Filatov. He set up production of wines that quickly became known on the world market, and bred new grape varieties alongside. One of them, Biishty, won a gold medal at the International Exhibition of Wines and Brandies in Paris in 1883.

The factory was later headed by M. A. Khovrenko — a gifted man who managed not only to preserve but to build on his predecessor's work: he improved the plant and bred new varieties on which wines are still made, and not only in Uzbekistan. Filatov's reserve of fine wine was found half a century later.

A house-museum now works at the winery, telling this story and running tastings. The place is interesting even to those indifferent to wine: it is a rare Samarkand story about the nineteenth century and industry rather than about mausoleums.