Castel Mimi

The estate and its history

Constantin Mimi was born in Chișinău, studied law in Odessa and then spent two years at the agricultural school in Montpellier, where he immersed himself in grape varieties and winemaking. Back in Bessarabia, in 1893 he began building a castle with a wine cellar on his estate in Bulboaca. The building was finished around 1901; the cellar could hold about 300,000 litres of wine in casks. In 1926 Mimi moved to Bucharest, where he became a director at the National Bank of Romania.

In the 20th century the castle fell into decay. In 2011 a restoration began that took about five years; in September 2016 the estate reopened. The building is a protected architectural monument of the Anenii Noi district.

The cellars and the wines

The estate makes wine again and, according to Wine with Seth, works some 170 hectares of its own vineyards in the surrounding area. The range is broad, with lines such as Symbol, Elements, 9 Muses and The Governor, a nod to the founder, and the sparkling wine Diva. Alongside international varieties, native grapes appear on the label, including Rară Neagră, Fetească Neagră and Fetească Albă. In total the range has more than eighty labels, from dry white to dessert wine.

Visiting and tasting

Castel Mimi is set up as a wine resort: there is a hotel, a spa, a museum section, a conference hall and several restaurants, including White Owl. The estate clearly aims at a broad public, from wine lovers to wedding parties and corporate events. Visitors choose from various tour packages, from a guided tour with tasting to packages with lunch or dinner; booking via the official website is recommended. By car the drive from Chișinău to Bulboaca takes about 50 minutes. The estate is not far from the Dniester and the town of Bender (Tighina), which lies in Transnistria; bear in mind that in 2026 the Belgian travel advice strongly advises against travel to that region.