April 07, 2006

Wine Embargo


Wine Embargo

Russian Wine Blockade

Russia may face another politically-induced deficit. This time it is wines.

Reds and whites from Georgia and Moldova became non grata in Russia, after consumer rights watchdog Gennady Onishchenko called for a suspension of wine imports from the two countries on health and sanitation grounds. Georgian and Moldovan wines were found to contain high levels of pesticides and heavy metals, Onishchenko said. Both countries stood up to defend the quality of their wines, saying it was political, not ecological concerns that were at issue.

Russia's ban on wine was soon followed by bans on champagne and cognac.

Although never truly a wine-drinking country, Russia is a principal export market for both Georgian and Moldovan wines.

Before the ban, Moldova sold up to 95 percent of its wine and cognac to Russia, while the European Union bought just 2.5 percent of all Moldovan spirits, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Wine comprised 60 percent of all Moldovan exports to Russia, Bloomberg reported.

Georgian wines presently have a 12 percent market share in Russia. Over half of Georgia's wine exports go to Russia, accounting for annual sales between $100 and $200 million, according to Georgian Deputy Agriculture Minister Mirian Dekanoidze.

Fake and low-quality wine has long been a problem for Russia. According to some estimates, as much as 80 percent of some brands are faked. Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that, aside from the embargoed Georgian and Moldovan wines, over half of recently sampled wines from Russia, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, France, Argentine and Portugal do not meet Russian health standards. Part of the problem is Russians' low income, combined with high consumption, which makes them opt for cheaper wines in bigger bottles. And wine-makers are just following the demand.

However, Georgia and Moldova say Russia is using the wine embargo as a stick to punish them for their souring relationship with Moscow, for moving closer to the European Union and the United States, as the Associated Press reported. Moldova may challenge Moscow's decision in court, ITAR TASS said, and Georgia announced it may follow suit.

The wine ban, which has already bared some Russian wine shelves and may raise the price of cheaper wines by at least 20 percent, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda, comes right after a salt frenzy in Russia, induced by the Russia-Ukraine row over natural gas early this year. Russians swept salt off the store shelves in fears that Ukraine would stop exporting salt to Russia in revenge for the gas crisis.

RL on Russian drinks:

While wine accounts for less than 10 percent of Russian alcohol consumption, vodka remains far more important. Read Russian Life advice for buying real vodka safely, and the right appetizers to go with it. Even more prominent among Russian drinks is tea, somewhat unexpectedly, while such drinks as medovukha and sbiten are making a bit of a comeback.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955