From Ukraine with love

Should we have carefree wine tastings when bombs are falling, people are on the run from their homes and a whole country is turned to ashes by their neighbor? We discussed that at length together with our Russian and Ukrainian friends here at the shop and the common understanding was a clear - yes. Which brought us to the first part of the question: Is there wine production in the Ukraine? Time to do a bit of research.  Yes there is and quite a lot as well. Officially nearly 42.000 hectares are planted with vines, that is nearly as much as they grow in Austria. In 2019, 50 wine farms and cooperatives, produced 133,4 million hectoliters of wine. Traditionally wines were produced in the southern part of the country near Odessa, the Krimea and Cherson, that are now under Russian control as well as in Mykolajiw. But in the last 20 years also the northern and western parts of the Ukraine have become wine producers. Just outside the capital Kiev but also in Liviv one finds wineries.

This is Anton three weeks ago he worked as a sommelier at Good Wines now he is a soldier at the front.

  What does the war do to the wineries in Ukraine? Until the 24^th of February Ukrainian winemakers were busy cutting the vines in preparation of the growing season. Now they are carrying machine guns and defend their country, everything else is less important and therefore cellars are abandoned - winemakers have become soldiers. If there is a harvest in 2022 no one can say. The lively wine bar scene in Kiev doesn’t exist anymore which was confirmed by Zorick Umanski, a wine professional from Kiev. He was the general manager of the wine importer Good Wine that had 800 employees. Just after the invasion he and his family fled by car to Moldavia and from there they went to his parents in Israel from where he now organizes humanitarian support for his colleagues back in Kiev. The warehouse of Good Wines which is 15 kilometers outside the capital, was hit by a bomb and is totally destroyed and with its 15 million euros of wine and food products. Good wine is not only an importer but also operated the biggest wine bar in Kiev which is now closed, as alcohol sales are forbidden in the whole of Ukraine. Instead the facility is now distributing basic food for the remaining people in Kiev.

 

Also in Mykolajiw, another important wine region, Ukrainians fight for every meter of land. The British wine journalist Chris Boiling of the magazine Canopy International had the chance to speak with Ukrainian winemakers. According to Georgiy Milchanow, (owner of the wine farm Silvino Village) the field has been hit during various mortar attacks, so no one dares to do any work outside. “Right now we don’t know if there will be a 2022 harvest at all”. During the time of the USSR the Urkaine was the most important producer in the Soviet Union. During that time predominantly sweet wines were produced. That changed only in 2014 when a generation of young winemakers changed their production to dry wines and started a quality revolution. “The Soviet model was a lot of wine for little money” explains Eugene Shneyderis owner of Beykush winery, that is located in the heavy fought old city of Otschakiw, east of Odessa. The least fought over area of Ukraine is Transkapatien, located in the triangle with Rumania and Hungary. There you find the winery of the former tennis star Serggij Stakhovsky that he started in 2015. The 36-year-old family man had the chance to leave the country after the invasion but he joined the army and fights right now in Kiev. “I think this year there won’t be any harvest” he declared to Canopy Magazine.   At the winery ‘Fathers Wine’ the employees don’t fill bottles with wine but with gasoline to produce Molotow cocktails. They sew cushions and blankets & collect money for humanitarian aid and feed the local conscripts that are stationed around the area. “We do everything to defend our country” says the owner Oksana Buyachok. Signs of Hope But the Ukrainian wine industry is resolute. The Coop ‘Wines of the Ukraine’ will exhibit in May at Prowein the world largest wine fair in Düsseldorf. ‘What has been built in the last 8 years will not be done in vain. Nothing and nobody will stop the development of wine in the Ukraine’ says the MD of Wine & Spirits Ukraine, Victoria Agromakova. But nobody dares to give a prognosis of what will happen in the next month, as every new day in this war can change everything. “If I can imagine to go back to my old life? We all hope it is a question of time but first we must defeat the enemy and rebuild what has been destroyed” said Zorik Urmansky. Source: Mag. Wine Plus    

Just after reading this report I got a call from Dewaldt Heynes, winemaker and mastermind behind Saronsberg wines. I was still full of the story & told him what I have just learnt. “Well I think I know how that must feel for these poor guys, when I started Saronsberg, we had a huge wildfire that practically destroyed the whole farm. So we had to replant everything.”He told me. “Quite frankly it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we planted other varietals which we would never have done, if the disaster hadn’t of happened” he explained. “Without the fire there would not be any Full Circle wine which you like so much” he added. So my evening wine today is Earth in Motion. This wine was created in remembrance of a tragedy. On the 29th of September, the village where Saronsberg is situated, was hit by the strongest earthquake that ever hit South Africa, destroying most of the town. And with the first sip I hope there will be no more manmade disasters and I raise my glass to peace.