Two-Thirds of Ukraine’s Vineyards Are in Odesa Oblast: Wine Regions and Geographical Indications

Ukraine’s vineyards are concentrated in the south, near the Black Sea. According to figures from the State Statistics Service, of the 27,000 hectares planted with grapevines in 2024, about two-thirds were in Odesa Oblast. This article looks, through official materials as of September 2026, at how the growing regions are distributed according to statistics, the Shabo settlement founded by people who came from Switzerland in the 19th century, and the wine “geographical indications” whose registration began in 2023.

This article is about regions and institutions; it does not introduce any specific wine or producer.

Two-Thirds of the Vineyards Are in Odesa Oblast

Ranking the oblasts with the largest grapevine-planted areas, based on the crop area and harvest statistics published by the State Statistics Service (updated February 2026), gives the following.

In 2024, Odesa Oblast’s 17,800 hectares made up about 66% of the total, and together with Mykolaiv and Zakarpattia oblasts the share exceeds 90% (calculated from the table figures). The other oblasts have at most a few hundred hectares each. The national total fell by 40% from 2015 to 2024, reaching 24,000 hectares in 2025. In the same statistics, the grape harvest was 264,000 tonnes in 2021, 214,000 tonnes in 2024, and 217,000 tonnes in 2025.

The near-disappearance of Kherson Oblast’s figures is partly because the Statistics Service does not count occupied areas and some areas of fighting. The left bank of the Dnipro River remains under Russian occupation as of September 2026.

Crimea, Not Counted in the Statistics

The “Crimea” entry (updated 2022) of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, describes Crimea as “the center of viticulture in Ukraine,” stating that bearing vineyards covered 90,250 hectares there in 1959. Crimea has been occupied by Russia since 2014 and is not included in the State Statistics Service’s figures.

The Shabo Settlement

A name that often comes up in the history of Odesa Oblast’s wine region is the village of Shabo, on the estuary (liman) of the Dniester River. According to the IEU’s “Switzerland” entry (first published in the 1993 print encyclopedia), the government of the Russian Empire, from 1820 to 1846, encouraged French-speaking people from the Swiss canton of Vaud to settle in southern Bessarabia. Led by L. V. Tardan (Louis-Vincent Tardan) of Vevey, these settlers founded the Shabo settlement near Akkerman (present-day Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), and spread the cultivation of grapes, winemaking, and fruit growing.

According to the same entry, 300 Swiss people lived in Shabo in the 1850s, and people from German-speaking cantons also arrived in the 1860s and 1870s. The settlers brought in Cabernet, Sauvignon, Riesling, and Muscat varieties. Romania’s 1930 census recorded 300 German-speaking Swiss and 250 French-speaking Swiss. When the Soviet Union occupied the region in 1940, most of the settlers returned to Switzerland.

A history published by the Shabo local administration (the Shabo village hromada) likewise states that in 1820 the botanist and educator Tardan came to Akkerman and, with the support of General Inzov, who governed Bessarabia, conceived of a wine-growing settlement. The origins of the town of Odesa itself are covered in our article on Odesa and its free-port era.

The New Wine Law of 2024

The basic law on grapes and wine was replaced in 2026. Law No. 2662-IV of June 16, 2005, “On Grapes and Wine,” was superseded by Law No. 3928-IX of August 22, 2024, “On Grapes, Wine, and Viticultural Products,” and ceased to have effect on January 1, 2026, the date the new law took effect (some provisions took effect the day after promulgation).

The new law sets the required proportion of local grapes for wine bearing a geographical indication. A wine registered under a “designation of origin” must be made entirely (100%) from grapes grown in the defined area, while a wine with a “geographical indication” must be made from at least 85% local grapes. Producers have until January 1, 2028, to come into compliance with the law.

The transitional provisions also address the relationship with the EU. Once the ten-year transition period set out in Article 208 of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement ends, Ukrainian-made spirits and wines will no longer be able to use the EU-registered geographical indications Champagne, Madera, Porto, Jerez/Sherry, Marsala, Malaga, or Tokaj in their names, and derivative terms such as “champagne-style” or “Tokaj-style” will also be prohibited.

Wine Geographical Indications

Since December 2023, wines bearing the names of Ukrainian growing regions have been added to the register of geographical indications kept by Ukraine’s intellectual-property office (UKRNOIVI).

A May 2023 UKRNOIVI article explains the origin of the name: a settlement founded on the site of Shabo about 500 years ago was called “Asha-Abah,” later “Shabah,” and it also mentions Tardan’s 19th-century call for a community of Swiss producers to settle there. Yalpuh is the name of a lake. Regarding “Zakarpattia / Zakarpattia wine,” the office explained in May 2024 that the designation may be used for white, rosé, and red wines made in the Berehove, Uzhhorod, Khust, and Mukachevo districts in the southwest of Zakarpattia Oblast.

The same register also lists “designation of origin” wine names registered under the earlier system between 2007 and 2013 (such as Сонячна долина, Золота балка, Таврія, Меганом, Балаклава, and Магарач). Of these, Магарач and Золота балка appear in the IEU’s “Crimea” entry as the names of a Crimean wine research institute and a company, respectively. As of May 2024, the intellectual-property office counted 12 of Ukraine’s 25 geographical indications as wines.

Vineyards Since the Full-Scale Invasion

According to an explanation from the industry association Ukrvynprom, reported by UKRNOIVI in April 2023, many vineyards and warehouses were occupied immediately after the full-scale invasion began, and vineyards came under shelling or were mined. On the banks of the Dnipro-Buh estuary, about 585 hectares of vineyards were damaged by cluster munitions and are considered unlikely to be usable for growing again.

The procedures for importing food from Ukraine to Japan are covered in our article on food imports. Importing alcoholic beverages is not covered in this article.