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The site of the former winery at 7 Pokrovskaya Street in Vitebsk was one of the largest industrial facilities in the Vitebsk region, which had been vacant for over 7 years.
The complex of winery buildings is located in the historical part of the city, in the area where Chagall once lived.
Analysis of archival documents indicates that the Vitebsk Winery was established on the basis of an existing oil production enterprise at this location. In 1898, with the permission of the provincial administration, Nizhny Novgorod merchant's son Leyba Shmerkov Mnukhin and Vitebsk merchant Abram Leybov Sverdlin built a brick factory with a steam engine for the production of vegetable oil from hemp, flax, and other seeds.
During a fire on April 13, 1904, two buildings burned down. One housed a steam boiler, and the other stored seeds. The buildings were subsequently restored.
It should be noted that throughout 1913-1915, local residents repeatedly complained to the provincial administration about the factory owners Mnukhin and Sverdlin, stating that the roar of machinery, the smell, and the suffocating gas disturbed the peace and quiet in the area, and that sparks flying from the diesel engine's chimney could cause another fire.
Subsequently, the oil mill was converted into a winery. Before the Great Patriotic War, it produced 100 thousand decaliters of wine, 50 thousand decaliters of juices, 20 tons of extract, and 200 tons of jam. The factory operated even during the German occupation, producing small quantities of wine and water.
In the post-war years, production capacity was significantly increased, with an annual output of 150 thousand decaliters of fruit and berry wine and 100 thousand decaliters of grape wine.
To this day, the administrative and economic building has survived with a significant loss of its historical appearance. The main changes occurred in the post-war period. After reconstruction, an office, a club, and a canteen were added. The building is an example of Vitebsk's civil construction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After the liquidation of the winery in 2017, the state retained an unused complex of facilities, including an administrative building, which holds the status of a historical and cultural value object of the 3rd category.
Also located here are two production buildings, an oatmeal cookie workshop, a wine storage facility, a spirit storage facility, a warehouse, a gatehouse, and utility networks. The total area of the capital structures exceeds 5000 sq.m.
Over the past years, the winery has been put up for auction 12 times unsuccessfully, with no buyers found.
On November 25, the property was put up for auction again, with an 80% reduction in the sale price. As a result, for 462 thousand rubles, the former winery was acquired by an investor from the Russian Federation.