On a crisp, sunny morning late last month, a lone black official Škoda draws up at a family wine farm in southern Moldova. This sliver of land was one of the great wine-producing regions of the Soviet Union and it aspires to play the same role for Europe today. It is a stunning setting of rolling orchards and vineyards stretching down to the Black Sea 20 miles away. It is also just a few miles from the border with war-torn Ukraine.
As the passenger alights from the Škoda, I assume she is a regular at Et Cetera, whose cellar, restaurant and lodge were in recent years a draw across the region and beyond. Before the war, guests flocked here from Odesa, just an hour or so away by car. But my guest shakes her head wistfully when I ask how often she has eaten here before.
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