Studying Russia Wine Project that was published by the Government of South Australia in 2006, I found some conclusions, that would be nice to sound to understand better the «Russian wine» situation. Here are some excerpts from the report. Though I am sure, there’s more fresh data.
«Russia has many unique viticultural practices, partly a factor of climate and partly a factor of low labour costs. For example, sub zero winter temperatures of -30C require some vines in the Stavrapol region to be removed from their cordon wire and laid on the ground and covered with earth to survive the sub-zero temperatures».
«Like the United Kingdom, substantial Russian consumer wine purchases are made through supermarkets. Specialised wine shops also operate and the total retail market is currently very active following a number of significant events during 2006 (including the bans on wine from Moldova and Georgia)».
«Perhaps the most significant event though was new legislation regulating the Russian alcohol market that came into effect on 1 January 2006. This legislation covers regulation of both domestically produced and imported alcohol products. Fundamental to the new system is the requirement that all producers and importers must notify taxation authorities about production and unit movement from importer to retailer. A primary tool in this system is for the application of excise taxation stamps in the form of a ‘banderol’, a small label across the bottle’s closure. The introduction of this law in January significantly limited real ‘market’ activity in Russia in the first four months of this year, though Austrade reported that by May 2006 the majority of importers had installed the necessary labelling equipment and that imports of larger quantities of bottled wine had recommenced. However, supplies to supermarket shelves remained noticeably patchy throughout the second half of 2006″.
«In general Russian winemakers appear to be producing structurally sound wine, under difficult and challenging conditions. With the exception of Chateau Le Grand Vostock, which was a relatively new and modern winery
with high levels of new technology, the other wineries visited had varying challenges, from poor hygiene to old equipment and poor levels of occupational health and safety and low training of winery staff. Significant improvement in Russian wine quality is possible with immediate attention to winery hygiene».
«It was noted that many of the Russian wineries visited process fruit through a variety of heavy crushing facilities. Modern practices now favour the more gentle extraction of juice from grapes by lighter crushing or rolling during this phase».
The full report is available here.