Maldova

rrawhide · Sep 10, 2009

Hey

My wife's cousin, Loren, is in Maldova which is a Russian break-up country. He is an economic phD and is there on assignment. Maldova is a big wine culture and thought you would like to see a couple of pictures and read a couple of his comments:

"Greetings from Moldova

I’m in the capital Chisinau (pronounced Keysheeno) this
weekend, and have about a week to go on this assignment to generate a marketing
plan for an agricultural cooperative in the village of Balauresti .
I have spent about half my time at my intepreter’s house in Balauresti,
which is west of the capital on the border with Romania . The
village has a population of 2,700, and infrastructure is lacking.
There are a few paved roads but mostly dirt. Everybody
works in agriculture because that’s all there is unless they commute to
Nisporeni. The family tries to overfeed me, and papa keeps
putting food on my plate and wine in my glass until I just leave it
there. This is a wine culture. They make their own
wine and do their best to consume all of it. They don’t mess
around with bottles; they fill pitchers direct from the barrel. We
have wine with lunch and dinner, and they would serve it for breakfast if I
would drink it. The downside of rural living is the absence of
water in the house during the summer; all of it is used for irrigation.
Well water is used, and I have a bucket bath every night I’m
there. The toilet is an outhouse with a hole cut in the wooden
floor. My interpreter, Andrei, is 25 years old and has a master’s
degree in Diplomacy from Estonia . He is taking care of me while
he looks for a job. Andrei is very proficient with computers, and
has helped me quite a bit with the odds and ends I need done here to
communicate. He has a DSL line at the house. 
I have attended the Independence Day ceremony
at the County Seat town of Nisporeni , and inauguration of the new school in
Balauresti. Lots of wine and champagne accompanies every
event. Also, I visited a convent, a monastery, and the Milestii
Mici winery which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest wine
storage in the world. They have over 1.5 million bottles in
storage, and a total storage capacity of 65 million liters. And
they aren’t selling much of it. Markets have dried up in during
the economic crisis. The storage is all underground where
limestone used to be quarried. For our tour we drove our car
through the tunnels which, if connected end-to-end, would extend about 200
kilometers."entrance to Milestii Mici Winery

the underground storage 'tunnel' cellar - 200 kilometers = 124.3 miles(I think that this is WADE's DREAM CELLAR!!!)

and papa - Loren on left. Check out all the wine bottles they use for
decoration on their wall.

hope you enjoyed.rrawhide

Bartman · Sep 10, 2009

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for sharing that message and the images.

Can't say I am familiar with Maldovian (?) wine, but I have heard of the country before. It's right next to lower Slovovia, right?

Seriously, I know many parts of the world have long histories and complex cultures and customs that have developed around wine and beer over the millenia. Which is part of why it is so puzzling to me that modern culture has developed such difficulties with alcohol over-consumption in the last 100 years or so - in our society, we would consider such frequent drinking "excessive" and the drinkers "alcoholics," probably, and yet it is simply normal behavior to Maldovans. I imagine it has to do with the pride they feel for growing and making their own wine, whereas industrialized societies have no such "pride-of-authorship" to cherish as we drink our purchased wine.

I'd be curious to learn about their overall health and diet and whether it has changed much in recent times.

Bart

grapeman · Sep 10, 2009

Hey now, that's a serious storage cave they have! Can I borrow a half mile please?

Wade E · Sep 10, 2009

WOW, that is a beautiful cellar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JimCook · Sep 10, 2009

As my beautiful bride grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, she helped explain about the wine growing areas of the old U.S.S.R., especially Moldavia, Georgia, and Armenia. Most of the wine made there is sweet, actually. The Russian community here around Chicago tends to prefer this kind of wine and when you mention 'vino' that's what they think of. However, сухое красное вино (dry red wine, if my Russian spelling is correct) is not normally found in these areas in major production quantities. You can find these wines generally in funny shaped bottles in ethnic grocery stores around areas with Russian communities. If you can't read anything on the bottle, you're probably headed in the right direction.

Of course, for some people from the old Soviet Bloc regions, like my brother-in-law, their favorite wine is vodka.

- Jim

AlFulchino · Sep 10, 2009

fascinating...thanks for sharing

i am curious....age of that cellar and soil/rock composition...i am sort of assuming it was dug by hand by the sound of heir circumstances...or perhaps all is actually a raised area instead????

Big Ike · Sep 10, 2009

My admin assistant is from Uzbekistan and I've tried to give her wine, but she politely refuses and tries to explain that Vodka is the beverage of choice for her and her husband.