“LET’S try this!” Victor Bostan selects a 1984 red from the cellar of his Purcari winery. He is in a bullish mood. Last month Purcari shares began trading on the Bucharest stock exchange. In 2017 sales from his four wineries were up 35% on 2016. Bad weather in the big western European winemaking countries caused production to plummet to its lowest level in 60 years. But in Moldova, where the weather was good, producers cannot contain their excitement at how well things are going.
In Soviet days almost all Moldovan wine went to the rest of the Soviet Union. In the 1980s its vineyards were uprooted when Mikhail Gorbachev began his anti-alcoholism campaign. With the collapse of the Soviet Union much of Moldova’s industry also collapsed; but the wine and brandy businesses did not. Indeed, says Mr Bostan, these were the best times ever since 80% of the country’s booze went to Russia.
Moldova is controlled by Russia. In 2006, when Moldova rejected a deal to end the frozen conflict over Transdniestria, Vladimir Putin’s Russia slapped an embargo on Moldovan wine. Millions of bottles already in Russia were poured away or never paid for. “The sector was dead,” says Gheorghe Arpentin of the National Office for Vine and Wine. The embargo was relaxed a little later, but Mr Putin redoubled it in 2013 when Moldova annoyed him by signing an association agreement with the European Union.
Since then the industry has transformed itself. Like Purcari, all Moldova’s wineries have redirected their sales to the EU. The main customers are former communist countries where Moldovan wine was already known, such as Poland and Romania. Chinese buyers are interested, too.
The Moldovans’ hard work is paying off. In 2017 exports were 19.4% higher than in 2015. Winemakers, unlike grapes, cannot easily be crushed underfoot.
From The Economist
