The Company
Historical Background
The production of drinks of the “cognac” type in Ukraine dates back to the late 19th century. Initially, it was associated with viticulture and wine-making, which was becoming popular in the south of Ukraine, namely in Kherson and Odessa regions. In the village of Osnova (present-day Nova Kahovka), the colonists from Switzerland, Germany and France cultivated grape vines and set up first vineyards in the sands of low Dnieper area. The farmstead of today’s leading Ukrainian brandy manufacturers, the JSC Agrofirm “Tavria” was being formed.
The history of the trademark “Tavria” starts with the founding of the Osnova settlement by the Swiss colonists Louis Gekhler and Caesar Zhaton in 1889. Both were devoted wine-makers, who set up a small winery in their mansion. The hard-working colonists turned the seemingly waterless sands of the low Dnieper to flourishing and fertile soils, and planted the first grape vines in this area. Today, Gekhler & Zhaton’s winery has grown into the major wine and brandy-making enterprise in Ukraine – the JSC Agrofirm “Tavria”.
The founders of Osnova have brought old European traditions of wine-making to this area. In 1898, the Osnova winery was already a thriving industry, as noted in “Dnieper county community decisions of 1898”. According to this source, the total area of Osnova’s vineyards was over 300 hectares, with overall volume of grape crops over 30 000 pounds and over 5 000 deciliters of wine each year.
In the collection of scientific labors, devoted to the 40-th year of scientific practice of Â.Å.Tairov (Odessa, 1925), an article about Caesar Zhaton, one of the founders of wine-making industry in Osnova, was published. The article was titled, “Viticulture at Dnieper quicksand soils”. Also, M.A. Sheptitskiy noted the pioneers of viticulture in Kherson region, such as Zhaton, Gekhler, Meyer, in his article “Historical overview of viticulture in Kherson area”. What’s special in today’s vineyards of JSC Agrofirm “Tavria” is that these soils have been the ancient river-bed of the river Dnieper millions of years ago.
Unique soil, favorable climate and hard-working people created the basis for growing different vine sorts in this area, and for the production of wines and brandies from selected raw materials. Besides, JSC “Tavria’s” vineyards are located at the same geographic latitude as the world-famous French province of Sharanta, which is considered to be the home of cognac
After decades, in 1921, a commonwealth of wine-makers titled “Quick sands” was created on the basis of several private proprietorships in Osnova. Then, after the collectivization in 1929, a commonwealth was reorganized into a kolkhoz, which in 1960 became a collective enterprise “Tavria”. In 1998, the enterprise was reorganized as a joint-stock company and became known as the JSC Agro-Industrial Firm “Tavria”.
