During the last two months a series of scientific and practical seminars-tastings of vintage drinks of 20-80 years old were held on the basis of Analytical center “Club of experts” with the assistance of a public association “Ukrsadvindindprom” and Charity fund “Reconstruction and development of Ukraine”. Representatives of Ukrainian wine industry, retail, mass media and other experts took part in these seminars.
All in all, participants of the workshops got acquainted with more than 40 kinds of vintage alcohol, produced in Ukraine and European countries in the second half of the last century. The total age of the drinks exceeds 3000 years.
In particular, such famous Ukrainian collection brands, as “Massandra sherry” from the 1980s and “Black Doctor” from 2007 were presented at the conferences. Among the European alcoholic brands the participants distinguished a rare sherry brandy “Hispano” 1870 (!), another Spanish drink “Ponche Rives” 1978, vermouth “Marsala” 1950-ies and other drinks. All in all 15 different vintage drinks were evaluated by the participants.
According to the words of the expert-collector of vintage alcoholic drinks Igor Magalas, the cost of the majority of samples which were presented at the seminars does not exceed the prices of similar drinks on supermarket shelves. At the same time, the taste and eco-friendliness of vintage drinks are an order of magnitude superior to many modern brands.
“The thing is that the automation of alcohol production lines, which became widespread at the end of the last century, led to a natural decline in quality for the sake of quantity. More than once I faced situations when at closed tastings sommelier experts preferred lower class vintage alcohol produced in the 1960s-1970s to modern expensive brands bottled in the 2000s-2010s,” Magalyas noted.
According to the expert, the reason for this is not the number of years the drink has been in the bottle, but the technological process of production at the initial stages, which largely affects the bouquet and taste of any alcohol.
Maxim Urakin, the organizer of the series of seminars, in turn, expressed hope for the further development of the vintage drinks market in Ukraine and for promotion of the culture of their consumption in the new year 2023.
“We will continue the promotion of vintage alcohol in the Ukrainian market. In Europe this product has a wide consumer audience for a long time, while in our country it is still considered “elite” and unavailable, although in my opinion it is a delusion. Therefore, the main purpose of our seminars, to make vintage alcohol more accessible to Ukrainians” – he stressed.
Vintage (molesim) in wine-making means the year of ripening of a certain grape variety which is used to produce wine, brandy, cognac or other vintage-based drinks. This indicator is important in determining the characteristics of the drink because weather and climatic conditions change every season, which may affect both positive and negative effects on the organoleptic characteristics of beverages of the same brand.
The Club of Experts is Kiev analytical center, which is engaged in researches in the field of economics, sociology and other scientific disciplines. In particular, with the assistance of the Club of experts during the last year there were held several events for the promotion of the national winemaking products.
Public Union “Ukrsadvindindprom” was a partner of the seminar and tasting. “Ukrsadvindwinprom” unites about 200 producers of fruits, berries, nuts and grapes, enterprises that process fruits and berries and produce wine, as well as scientific institutions for implementation of new scientific approaches in production.
The “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine” Charitable Foundation has been providing extensive volunteer support to the army and civilians since the war began. In particular, with the support of KNUSA Rector Petr Kulikov, the foundation donated a modern mobile hospital for the needs of the military.
CLUB_EXPERTS, CONFERENCE, SCIENCE, UKRSADVINPROM, URAKIN, VINTAGE_WINE, WINE, WINEMAKING
On Saturday, November 7, on the basis of the analytical center “Experts Club” with the assistance of the public association “Ukrsadvinprom” and the charitable foundation “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine”, the second scientific and practical seminar-tasting of vintage drinks aged from 20 to 80 years was held. The seminar was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian wine industry, retail, media, and other experts.
At the seminar, Igor Magalyas, an expert collector of vintage alcoholic beverages, introduced the participants to the most popular varieties of Ukrainian and European vintage wines, brandy and other drinks aged up to 80 years. Ukrainian products were presented at the conference by such brands as Sherry Massandra 1983 and Black Doctor 2007. Of the foreign alcoholic brands, Curasao liqueur from the 1950s, the rare sherry brandy Hispano from 1870 and another Spanish drink Ponche Rives from 1978 received the highest ratings from the participants. In total, the participants of the seminar evaluated 15 different vintage drinks.
According to Igor Magalyas, all products presented at the seminar are in the budget price segment and their cost does not exceed the cost of modern branded alcohol on the shelves of Ukrainian supermarkets.
“Most of the drinks presented here were purchased by collectors in Europe at auctions or at sales of private collections. At the same time, they have a number of taste and quality advantages over more modern drinks that can be freely bought at retail outlets, even if it is the same brand,” he said.
According to the expert, the fact is that in the 80-90s of the last century, the automation of alcohol production, introduced in order to increase the volume of products sold, had a negative impact on the quality of wine and distilled drinks.
“In particular, in my opinion, the ability of the same brandies to improve their palatability as they age after bottling was practically lost. In other words, if we open a bottle of good brandy from 1970 today, then such a drink will have a much richer flavor bouquet than if we opened a bottle of the same brandy 30 years later, but, say, 2020 bottling,” Igor explained Magalyas.
The organizer of the seminar Maxim Urakin, in turn, emphasized the importance of developing the vintage drinks market in Ukraine and popularizing the culture of drinking them.
“Each bottle of such wine or brandy has its own history; it is a rather rare, almost unique product, but at the same time it is quite affordable and popular in Europe. If we add up the age of drinks at today’s tasting, we get an impressive figure of more than 700 years of the total age of drinks, which also makes our event unique,” he stressed.
Vintage (milezim) – in winemaking means the year of ripening of the harvest of a certain grape variety from which wine, brandy, cognac or other drink based on it is produced. This indicator is important in determining the characteristics of the drink, since weather and climate conditions change every season, which can both positively and negatively affect the organoleptic characteristics of drinks of the same brand.
“Experts Club” is an analytical center engaged in research in the field of economics, sociology and other scientific disciplines. In particular, with the assistance of the Club of Experts, several events were held last year to promote domestic winemaking products.
Public Union “Ukrsadvinprom” acted as a partner of the seminar and tasting. “Ukrsadvinprom” unites about 200 producers of fruits, berries, nuts and grapes, enterprises engaged in the processing of fruits and berries, wine production, as well as scientific institutions for the introduction of new scientific approaches to production.
Charitable Foundation “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine” carries out extensive volunteer activities. In particular, with the support of the rector of KNUCA (KNUBA) Petr Kulikov, the fund will soon hand over a modern mobile hospital. The head of the fund is Artem Goncharenko.
Organizers will send part of the proceeds from the event to purchase a mobile hospital.
CHARITY, CONFERENCE, EXPERT_CLUB, SCIENCE, UKRSADVINPROM, VINTAGE_WINE, WINE, WINEMAKING, АРТЕМ ГОНЧАРЕНКО
On the 28th of October the scientific and practical seminar on “Vintage (molesime) wines and cognacs” was held in Kiev analytical center “Club of experts” with the assistance of the public association “Association of gardeners, winegrowers and winemakers of Ukraine” (“Ukrsadvynprom”) and with the participation of an expert collector of vintage alcoholic beverages Igor Magalyas.
There were 17 kinds of wine drinks, produced in Ukraine and Europe, aged up to 80 years. During the tasting the expert group evaluated the individual qualities of drinks with different ageing and determined their organoleptic characteristics.
According to Maxim Urakin, the organizer of the conference, in the future holding of such events will help to develop the market of vintage beverages in Ukraine and increase the export potential of domestic producers.
“At the moment vintage wines and cognacs are considered elite and unattainable for the average buyer. In reality this is not the case. In EU countries this category of drinks is available for all segments of the population and their prices are not much higher than the average price for ordinary wine on the supermarket shelves”, he said.
Co-organizer of the conference, wine expert Igor Magalyas stressed the importance of popularization of Ukrainian brands of vintage beverages in Europe.
“The market of vintage wines and cognacs in the European Union is quite extensive. The main exporters of such products are Italy, Spain and France. Ukraine has no less potential in this direction,” Magalyas emphasized.
Vintage (molesim) in wine-making means a year of vintage of a certain type of grapes, from which wine, cognac or other drink on its basis is produced. This indicator is important in determining the characteristics of the drink because weather and climatic conditions change every season, which can both positively and negatively affect the organoleptic characteristics of beverages of the same brand.
The Club of Experts is Kiev analytical center, which is engaged in researches in the field of economics, sociology and other scientific disciplines. In particular, with the assistance of the Club of experts during the last year there were held several events for the promotion of the national winemaking products.
Public Union “Ukrsadvindindprom” was a partner of the seminar and tasting. “Ukrsadvindwinprom” unites about 200 producers of fruits, berries, nuts and grapes, enterprises that process fruits and berries and produce wine, as well as scientific institutions for implementation of new scientific approaches in production.
CLUB OF EXPERTS, CONFERENCE, SCIENCE, UKRSADVINPROM, URAKIN, vintage wine, WINE, WINEMAKING, Магаляс
Wine producer Shabo (Odesa region) remains the only large enterprise in the country that uses grapevine as an alternative fuel to ensure production processes, the company’s press service has said. The press service said that since 2014, Shabo has been using a 1.1 MW boiler house for heating premises and wine-making processes, burning grapevines collected at the enterprise.
“We have huge vineyard areas (1,200 hectares) and tens of thousands of square meters of production facilities. This entire area needs to be heated and heat supplied for production processes. How to do this if it is impossible to deliver gas to the enterprise due to the peculiarities of the location? So we drew attention to our own resource – grapevine,” the company said, quoting Chief Engineer Valentyn Klius.
According to the report, annually the enterprise collects about 1,200 tonnes of grapevine scion, which is pruned to regulate the growth and fruiting of vineyards. The obtained scion volumes are sufficient to heat tens of thousands of square meters of the production complex, the Shabo Wine Culture Center, as well as supply heat for wine-making processes.
In addition, the ash left after burning the vine is used by the company as fertilizer for the soil.
According to the company, the boiler house with a capacity of 1.1 MW was designed and built in 2011-2014 by Kriger (PJSC Zhytomyrremkharchomash, Zhytomyr). The heating season starts in August, with the start of grape processing, and ends in March-April, when the heating season ends.
Shabo is a large Ukrainian wine producer, founded in 2003. It is engaged in the cultivation and processing of grapes, the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Since 2005, the company has been producing cognac and brandy, and since 2013 Shabo grape vodka. The production capacity of the complex, which occupies more than 10,000 square meters, provide a full cycle of production of strong alcoholic beverages of grape origin.
The Shabo product range is presented in all regions of Ukraine, as well as in Georgia, Israel, China, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Azerbaijan, Japan, Norway and the U.K.
The processing capacity of the company per season is more than 20,000 tonnes of red and white grapes. Wine storage Shabo has a total area of about 10,000 square meters. Annually, Shabo produces 50 million bottles a year, a total of about 80 product names. Nine production lines are involved in bottling.
According to the public register of legal entities and sole proprietors, the ultimate beneficiary of Shabo Industrial and Trade Company LLC is Vazha Iukuridze, the ultimate beneficiaries of Agrofirma Shabo LLC (both are located in Odesa region, village of Shabo) are Iukuridze and Bela Cholikidze.
The Kyiv analytical center Experts Club hosted another event to promote Ukrainian wine and the development of the Ukrainian wine industry, as well as to analyze the products of the best domestic wine producers. The event was held with the participation and support of the Ukrsadvinprom association.
The event was organized by the Agricultural Department of Kyiv Regional State Administration, the Department of Tourism of Kyiv Regional State Administration, Ukrsadvinprom, the Experts Club, NGO Ukrainian Association of Winemakers and Sommeliers, NGO Association of Cavistes of Ukraine.
The event was held to promote Ukrainian winemakers. Among the winemakers the event was attended by Hryhoriy Kulinichenko Winery, Wine Idea winery, Biologist Craft Winery, Cassia family winery, Trypilske Nouveau winery, Willa Lamash winery, Narovylo winery.
Among the guests and tasters of Ukrainian wines were Volodymyr Pechko (the head of Ukrsadvinprom), Maksim Urakin (the founder of the Experts Club), Natalia Blahopoluchna (the head of the Ukrainian Association of Winemakers and Sommeliers), Olena Pavlenko (the director of SOPHIENWALD Ukraine) , Mykola Blahopoluchny (the director of the Ukrainian Association of Winemakers and Sommeliers), Andriy Kravchenko (a representative of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine), Andriy Ponomarenko (a representative of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine), Kostiantyn Dovhal (the head of the agro-industrial department of Kyiv Regional State Administration), Hanna Kutsenko (the head of the tourism department of Kyiv Regional State Administration), Olha Zhurova (the deputy chief of staff of Kyiv Regional State Administration), Maryna Radova (the head of the tourism and promotion department of Kyiv City State Administration), Petro Levchuk (the deputy head of the economic development department, the head for entrepreneurship and investment in the economics and digitization department of Kyiv Regional State Administration) and others.
Within the framework of the meeting, an organoleptic analysis of the quality of samples of the leading Ukrainian wine producers was conducted.
Tasting wine from Kyiv region was held in glasses of the Austrian company SOPHIENWALD.
BLAHOPOLUCHNA, EXPERTS CLUB, MAXEVENTS, TASTING, UKRSADVINPROM, URAKIN, WINE, ПЕЧКО
The public organization Association of Gardeners, Grape Growers and Winemakers of Ukraine (Ukrsadvinprom) and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food have begun work on the creation of a viticultural register to record the production and consumption of grapes and wine in Ukraine, which will allow to cancel the licensing of wine and remove it from the list of excisable goods.
This was announced by Head of the public organization Volodymyr Pechko at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
Ukrsadvinprom and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy begin to work on the creation of a viticultural register, which is necessary for the correct regulation of the market, namely, on the creation of three types of obligatory declarations: how many grapes you produced, how much wine you made from these grapes, and how much wine you have left at the end of the year,” Pechko said.
According to him, the state with the help of these three declarations will be able to effectively analyze the production, sales volumes and carryover stocks of grapes and wine in the country, which in the future will allow it to abandon the need to license wine and abolish the excise tax from it.
He added that, according to Ukrainian law, wine is a food product that should not be subject to excise tax.
“I believe that this will lead to an increase in the number of wineries. We are working to ensure that such ‘chateau’ [wineries] are created in Ukraine. These do not have to be giant enterprises,” Pechko said.
In addition, Ukrsadvinprom intends in 2022 to join the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine), which controls 85% of the world wine market.
“We are planning to enter the international organization OIV. This is an organization for wine, which includes 47 states. It is 85% of the world wine market, which is created by the leading countries: China, France, Spain, the United States – and which everyone is striving to join. It is engaged in the harmonization of accepted standards for the production of wine products,” Pechko said.
According to him, this initiative is also supported by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. The head of the organization said that the issue of joining the OIV is only how much time is needed to complete the association procedure. He admitted that it will be possible to do this next year.
Interfax-Ukraine and the Experts Club acted as partners of Odessa Wine Week.
AGRARIAN MINISTRY WANT, EXCISABLE GOODS, EXPERTS CLUB, KHANAMERYAN, ODESSA WINE WEEK, UKRSADVINPROM, URAKIN, WINE, ВИШТАК, ПЕЧКО, ТКАЧЕНКО
