“Chateau Chizay Wine Company” (Beregovo, Transcarpathian region) has launched a new cognac and grape drink production plant in Beregovsky district of Transcarpathian region, said the first deputy head of the regional military administration (OVA) Miroslav Biletsky.
“The launch of such an enterprise during the war is a powerful signal for everyone around. For Zakarpattians – despite objective circumstances – new jobs are opening in the region, for investors – our region is working and developing despite everything. This is important for the economy of the region, because the enterprise will regularly pay taxes and fill the budget. After all, this is another tourist and image bait, which will attract connoisseurs of quality Ukrainian product to Transcarpathia”, – he wrote in Facebook.
It is indicated that the production capacity of the enterprise will consist of an alcohol storage facility with a capacity of 600 thousand liters, distillation department – 1800 liters per day. For aging of strong drinks 60 oak barrels have been installed, and there are plans to increase them up to 300. The raw material base will be the vineyard, for which 2 hectares have been allocated.
The new plant has become a part of the winemaking complex of the enterprise, covering three vineyards, primary and secondary grape processing facilities, wine storage, laboratory and offices.
“The highlight of the new drink is that it will be aged in barrels from under wines, including the well-known far beyond the borders of Transcarpathia “Rose of Carpathians”, – added Biletsky.
Winery complex “Chateau Chizai” was founded in 1995 in the tract Chizai, near the town of Beregovo in Transcarpathia. The winery has its own raw material base – 272 hectares of vineyards, annually produces 1.3 million bottles of wine from their harvest and stores in its own cellar 250 barrels of original Transcarpathian wines.
In 2022, the net profit of LLC “Chateau Chizay” decreased to UAH 4.31 million from UAH 69.78 million a year earlier, the revenue of the company – to UAH 4.31 million from UAH 6.92 million.
The ultimate beneficiary of the company is a US citizen Gutman Hugo, who owns 100% of shares.
Chateau Chizay Winemaking Company LLC (Berehove, Zakarpattia region) plans to start producing sparkling wine, brandy and cognacs.
Investments in the launch of the last two products will amount to about $ 2 million, Hennadiy Hutman, the owner and founder of Chateau Chizay, said.
“We are planning to produce brandy and cognac. Now we are designing an alcohol storage facility for 63,000 dal. This will be a completely new line and a new direction in Chateau Chizay. Construction is planned at our primary wine-making plant, where grapes are processed. We also plan to produce sparkling wine that is another new direction for us. The target price of the project for brandy and cognac is approximately $ 2 million,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Under favorable conditions, the company plans to launch the production of brandy and cognac in January-February, sparkling wine in 2021.
Answering the question about the impact of the pandemic on the sales of Chateau Chizay wines, the owner of the company noted that sales fell by 50% in the spring 2020 compared to the spring 2019.
“Now the market is reviving, but the uncertainty of the situation with the coronavirus is scary. If in the first months of the pandemic the fall was 50-55%, then since August there has been an increase, now there will be a decline again,” Hutman said.
Despite COVID-19, the winemaking company continued to open up new markets for its products, so in 2020 Chateau Chizay began delivery to Britain, Denmark, and signed a delivery contract with Japan, Norway and Mexico.
“Now we are preparing a small delivery, but it is still very interesting, to one of the wine-making regions, Hungary. We have been delivering our wines to the United States, Canada, Israel, and Australia for several years. This year we have shipped 50,000 liters of wine to Kyrgyzstan, this is a good and interesting market,” the founder of the company mentioned
Chateau Chizay winemaking company LLC (Berehove, Zakarpattia region) in 2019 would boost wine sales by 15% compared with 2018, to 1.38 million bottles.
“In 2019, we intend to sell about 1.38 million bottles, despite the fact that the plans for 2018 are to sell about 1.2 million bottles,” Director of the company Anatoliy Poloskov told Interfax-Ukraine.
In 2017, the wine company grew and processed 1,500 tonnes of grapes, in 2018 it reached almost 2,000 tonnes. Due to the good yield, the company plans to sell some wine materials this year.
“Earlier, we didn’t have our own vineyards. We bought grapes in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Crimea, and produced and bottled 7-10 million bottles a year. Now we make wine exclusively from our own grapes, therefore, we have enough capacity,” Poloskov said.
At the same time, he said that Chateau Chizay faces with logistical difficulties due to the fact that the company’s two plants are located 25 km far from each other.
According to him, Chateau Chizay has 272 hectares under vineyards in three districts of Zakarpattia region.
He said that now the wine company is working on obtaining a land parcel.
Poloskov said that the company is mulling the possibility of resuming production of sparkling wine.
He said that 15% of wine is exported. The key markets are the United States, Canada, Australia and Israel.
“Today we are present on many continents. We also sent wine to Nigeria, but we don’t cooperate with the EU. Nobody is waiting for us there. I am talking about Ukrainian wines in general. Nobody wants us to bite off from their wine-making pie. And yet we now hope for Poland, we are actively working with it. We are mastering Asia, but so far there have not yet been supplies there. Also Sweden has become interested in our wine,” Poloskov said.
