Mila Liles.com
the WINES that make Moldova Famous
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The Republic of Moldova is
a fertile country in the South-East of Europe, situated at the latitude of 47o
(the latitude of Burgundy) and has a surface of 33.7 square kilometers. Moldova
is bordered by Romania in the West and Ukraine in the east Most of it's territory
is undulating with green hills and valleys and it's highest point rises at 429
meters above sea-level. A large forested (oak) area - Codru - covers the Central
part of the country. The two main rivers, the Nistru and the Prut, border the
country from East and West and flow from North to South towards the Black Sea.
Moldova's most important assets are it's fertile soils and the bright sun which
makes it ideal for the production of fine wines.
The soil cover consists mostly of chernozyoms (80%), grey and brown forest soils,
valley swamp soils.
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THE WINE INDUSTRY
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grape production in Moldova has a very long history. The imprints of Vitis
teutonica vine leaves near the Naslavcia village in the north of Moldova,
prove that grapes have grown here approximately 6 to 25 million years ago.
The size of the gape seed imprints found near the Varvarovca village and
which date to 2800 BC, prove that at that time the grapes were already cultivated.
The grapegrowing and winemaking in the area between the Nistru and Prut
rivers, which began 4000-5000 years ago, had periods of rises and falls
but has survived through all the changing social and economic formations.
At the end of the 3rd century BC, links between the local population and
the Greek were established and beginning with 107 with the Romans, a fact
which influenced a lot the intense development of the grapegrowing and winemaking.
A big disaster for the agriculture of this area was the invasion of the
Huns in 376. Only after the formation of the Moldovan feudal state in the
14th century the grapegrowing began to develop and has flourished in the
15th century during the kingdom of Stefan cel Mare, who was promoting the
import of planting material of high quality varieties from other counties
and the improvement of the quality of the wine. In the 300 years under the
Turkish Ottoman Empire Moldova has seen a big decline in grapegrowing, as
e winemaking was forbidden by law. After the peace treaty in 1812 the wine
industry started flourishing again. The main varieties were the traditional
ones: Rara Neagra, Plavai, Galbena, Zghiharda, Batuta Neagra, Feteasca Alba,
Feteasca Neagra, Tamaioasa, Cabasia and many others of local, Hungarian,
Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish origin. In this period the grape growers gained
governmental support and already in 1837 the vineyard are in Bassarabia
(the territory of today’s Moldova plus the Black Sea coast) has reached
13000 d., and the wine production has reached 10 million litres. In the
second half of the 19th century has seen an intensive planting of French
varieties have been introduced. Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Aligote,
Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Muscat Blanc and others. It
was at this time that wines like Negru de Purcari and Romanesti which were
making Moldova famous as a fine wine producer started to be produced. A
big damage was caused to the industry by the phyloxera at the end of the
19th century. Only in 1906 the vineyards have started be re-established
with grafted planting material. By 1914 Bassarabia had Russia’s biggest
vineyard area. Both World Wars have considerably damaged the Moldovan vineyards
and the wine industry. Many vineyards have been destroyed.
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On the territory
of the Republic of Moldova there are 4 natural-agricultural zones: North, Central,
South and South East. In all zones except the North zone the wine growing and
winemaking have an industrial meaning. Moldova is divided into 19 winemaking
centers. The most known are Cricova, Mereni, Cahul, Taraclia, Comrat, Codru,
Romanesti, Ciumai, Purcari, Hincesti, etc.
In the country prevails the uncovered wine growing using the climbing form of
the bushrepresenting 70% from the whole area of vines. Only insignificant areas
of vines are irrigated.
After the variety composition of the vines (the data from 1998) the white sorts
represent about 69% with a total area of 71 th. hectares. The following white
sorts are presented: Aligote (22%), Sauvignon blanc (9%), Chardonnay (6%), Feteasca
alba (6%), Traminer (3%) and Pinot Noir (2%). The most popular red grape varieties
are Cabernet-Sauvignon (8%), Merlot (9%) and Pinot Noir (8%).
The climate is moderate continental. The average temperature in July is 20C
in the central zone and 27C in the south zone. The amount of active temperatures
in the limits of 2900-3500 precipitation per year is from 400 mm to 550 mm.
The common and carbonate (80%) cernozems prevail in the soil cover. The gray,
grayish brown forest, waterlogged field, saline soils are also widespread. The
Moldavian wines differ considerably. Depending on the soil, climate and methods
of wine growing used in different winemaking regions, varied wines, distinguished
by colour, aroma, character, style, are made.
At the end of 1999
in Moldova have been registered 162,000 hectares of vineyards. Out of which
110,000 hectares of wine grapes, 15,000 hectares of table grapes and 37,000
hectares of small private vineyards, the source of 'house wine'.
There are 127 wineries in Moldova producing between 1 and 1.4 million hectoliters
of wine per year.
90% of the wine produced in Moldova is exported. Moldova's biggest export markets:
Russia - 82%
Ukraine - 7%
Cazahstan - 3.8%
Latvia - 1.6%
Estonia - 0.8%
Romania - 0.8%
USA - 0.5%
UK - 0.1%
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