You can spot the first weekend of October in Chișinău from a distance. A whole village of wooden pavilions springs up on the central square, the smell of grilled meat and plăcinte hangs over it, and a glass on a lanyard becomes the accessory of the season. This is National Wine Day. This year it falls on 3 and 4 October, the festival turns twenty-five, and more than a hundred wineries are coming to the Great National Assembly Square. Tens of thousands of guests are expected, and a good share of them fly in just for these two days.

For the anniversary the organisers are promising a record too: the world's largest vine made of people, to be submitted to Guinness World Records. The country is used to it. Mileștii Mici already has its line in that book, for the largest wine collection on the planet.

At CarPoint we know this weekend from the other side. The phone starts ringing a couple of weeks ahead, and the question is almost always the same: "We're coming for Wine Day, but we have three or four more days. Where do we go, and how?" The answer comes down to one simple thing: is anyone in your group willing not to drink that day.

The square shows the wine, the wine lives out of town

Wine Day is built like a shop window. A hundred-odd producers in one place, from big houses to family cellars, each with a pavilion, its own ten varieties and someone ready to talk about them until dark. In two days you can taste everything the country is proud of and still have no idea where it comes from.

It comes from out of town. Cricova, where the tasting starts as a tour and ends with a walk through an underground city with streets of its own. Mileștii Mici, with that record-breaking collection. Chateau Vartely near Orhei, where a tasting pairs naturally with lunch at the winery's restaurant. Purcari in the south, an 1895 winery in Comrat, a small family cellar in the Codri forests. All of it one drive from Chișinău, and most festival guests never see it, because they never leave the square.

Here for more than a day: get a car

The most honest scenario for anyone who flew in for a week. Give Saturday to the square, and from Sunday the country is yours: Orhei in the morning, Chateau Vartely for lunch, and by evening you're already arguing whether tomorrow is south to Purcari or north to Soroca fortress. No timetables, no "the group meets at nine". Stop at a roadside stall for grapes, turn off towards a monastery because it looked good on the hill, stay longer wherever you liked it.

Pick your car in the catalogue on the site: carpoint.md/en/webcatalog. Availability and prices there are live, and we don't quote them over the phone precisely because they change with the date and the model. Worth knowing in advance:

the deposit is cash only: 200 euros without the CDW option, 600 euros with it. What CDW is and why you might want it, we explained on carpoint.md/en/asigurare;
250 km a day are included, beyond that it's 0.20 euro per kilometre. For wine routes around Chișinău the limit is plenty, for a dash to the south and back it's worth doing the maths;
at least three years of driving experience;
a day before the rental we need photos of your licence and passport plus your flight number. From there we watch the arrivals board ourselves, and before handover we send you a photo and the plate number of the car that's waiting;
navigation: Waze. Google Maps is good here for reading about places, not for getting to them.

One "but", and it matters. Someone in the group is behind the wheel that day, which means they don't taste. At all. Roads and wine don't mix, and on a wine weekend least of all. If there's someone among you who will happily spend the day on mineral water, rental is for you. If there isn't, read on.

On booking. For Wine Day people come to Chișinău from all over the country and from abroad, and cars for those dates get taken early. For August, for instance, people write to us as early as March. October is calmer, but we wouldn't leave it to the last week.

Don't want to hold back at the tastings: car with a driver

The option we recommend most often ourselves. Our driver takes the wheel, you take the back seat, and Wine Day finally becomes Wine Day for everyone. Nobody counts glasses, nobody looks at their watch thinking "I still have to drive". The driver's drink of the day is, at most, a coffee.

The car: a Toyota Prius+, up to three passengers. More of you? Write to us, we'll work out something for the group.

The rate is simple:

the first four hours at 25 euros an hour, minimum booking four hours, so 100 euros;
from the fifth hour, 20 euros an hour;
an English-speaking driver adds 20 euros to the day's total, not per hour.

Everything is already in the price: fuel, the driver's work, border crossings if the route happens to swing into Transnistria. No separate "zone access" fees like with self-drive rental.

What it looks like in practice. Leave at ten, Cricova until lunch, then Chateau Vartely with a restaurant lunch, back in town by five. Seven hours, 160 euros for the whole group. Want the driver to keep up the conversation in English too, add 20. Payment on the spot.

And if you want the story to go with the glass, who built all this, when and why, and what to taste first, have a look at the guided routes on Corneliu Scurtu's site: corneliuscurtu.md/tours.

How the days fall into place

Saturday: the square. If you already have the car, leave it in the car park, downtown on these days it will only get in your way. Sunday: the cellars. Cricova or Mileștii Mici in the morning, lunch in Orhei, one more lap of the square in the evening. From Monday: south, north, Gagauzia, depending on how many days you have left and who's driving.

Choose a car in the catalogue at carpoint.md/en/webcatalog, and if you've settled on the driver option, write to us via carpoint.md/en/contact or on WhatsApp, tell us the date and the number of people, and we'll put the rest together.