Stakhovsky decided to engage in winemaking at the end of 2015 – after being exposed to wine culture while competing for Vila Primrose (Bordeaux, France). Sergiy rented 20 hectares of vineyards in Wester part of Ukraine in Zakarpattia reigon and began to cultivate the existing grape varieties Merlot, Saperavi, Rose Traminer, Chardonnay, Riesling, Zweigelt, and Cabernet Sauvignon. For two years the team of Stakhovsky Wines was planting vines, putting pillars, cleaning the parcels and replanting plots. In 2018 the first harvest was send for maturation in French oak barrels.
“As an elite tennis player, I was convinced that alcohol had no place in sporting life,“ says Sergiy Stakhovsky. But all that changed very quickly when he moved to France to the Bordeaux tennis team, Villa Primrose.
Stakhovksy arrived in 2010 in Bordeaux for his first match as the new guy in a team of seven. He was invited to a team dinner in the club restaurant on the first night. All of his teammates were from France or Belgium and their faces lighted up when the bottles were brought in. At that time Stakhovsky had no clue about the wines.
Stakhovsky was also offered a glass of wine, but he politely declined and for this grave offence earned himself the nickname ‘Crazy Ukrainian’ (crazy being a synonym of teetotaler in Bordeaux).
“I cannot say that I started to like the taste of wine straight away, but I completely fell in love with the culture of wine!”, says Stakhovksy.
Stakhovksy wines are made with high-tech equipment from Italy, Germany and France that allows processing grapes in gentle mode. White wines are labelled as “W” and red “Ace”.
