📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vinnaya Bukhta (Wine Cove)
- 🌍 Origin: Popular dark tomato circulating in the Russian heirloom community. The name translates literally to “Wine Cove” (or Wine Bay).
Grower’s Note: While some speculate this might have originated from a mistranslation of Wine Jug (Vinnyi Kuvshin), “Wine Cove” is traded as a distinct, highly stable line known for very specific physical traits. - 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. There’s a bit of debate on its growth habit—some growers find it to be a very compact indeterminate, while others report it easily reaching over 6.5 feet (2 m) in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Oblate, dark purple/mahogany fruits, typically with green shoulders. Most growers get consistent beefsteaks weighing around 10-14 oz (300-400 g).
Standout Feature: It has a very distinct, neat little dimple (or inverted funnel) at the blossom end, and it almost never suffers from catfacing! - 👅 Flavor: An outstanding, rich “black tomato” flavor profile. Very juicy, sweet, but perfectly balanced with a noticeable acidic tang.
Semochkina wrote:
Wine Cove turned out to be the absolute tastiest variety for me, it sweeps the top ten spots on my list. 🙂
The variety description from the internet says: “Indeterminate, compact variety. Dark purple fruits with green shoulders, round and oblate, weighing 3.5-6 oz (100-180 g). Very juicy.”
This variety takes first place for me this year too. Easily the most delicious of all the dark tomatoes I’ve grown. The fruits are beautiful, uniform, and mostly all the same size around 10-14 oz (300-400 g). Juicy, with both sweetness and a nice tang present in the flavor profile. So far, it’s the only variety I know I want to grow every single year. I don’t know what that internet description is talking about, but I didn’t get any small 3.5-6 oz (100-180 g) fruits. My seeds were from Angelina.
Tall plant (over 6.5 feet / 2 meters in the greenhouse), heavy yielder, mid-season maturity. The fruits were medium-sized, purple-colored, and oblate. Very tasty, sweet with a nice little bite to them.
I really liked this variety. Grew it in a poly greenhouse, but it wasn’t overly tall, which matches Ludmila’s internet description: a compact variety. Dark purple fruits with green shoulders, round and oblate. But I only saw 3.5 oz (100 g) weights at the very end of September; otherwise, they were solidly 10-14 oz (300-400 g). The pros are definitely its compactness and yield. The cons: fruits are prone to cracking, the green shoulders, and a sweet-and-sour flavor (I personally prefer strictly sweet tomatoes). But it’s staying on my permanent grow list regardless.
Loved this variety. The plant is tall and vigorous. Yield is really good. The fruits are large and extremely tasty. Not just sweet, but with a little acidic kick, a very rich, deep flavor. Wonderful variety.
I liked this one. Beautiful, tasty, and juicy fruits. I noticed that this variety has a neat little dimple (like a tiny funnel) right at the blossom end. I haven’t seen that on other varieties. Maybe it’s a specific trait of Wine Cove? )
Yes, it’s absolutely a characteristic of the variety. This is my third year growing it, and that little dimple is always there. Catfacing on the blossom end is super rare for this one. I’ve actually noticed the exact same dimpled feature on the Divo Divnoe variety.
Wine Cove. A very good, heavy-yielding variety. The fruits are all nice and uniform, oblate, and red-brown in color, weighing about 7-12 oz (200-350 g). The little dimple on the blossom end is definitely there 😁 Excellent rich flavor 😋 My seeds came from the Moscow meetup, courtesy of TatianaSh 🙏
My Wine Cove seeds are also from Tatiana @TatianaSh 🙏 An excellent, delicious dark tomato. And the yield is great too.
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