Cádiz, (EFE) history and which is now beginning to be known outside its borders.
“In the last year there has been a ‘boom’ in the production of small wineries. Some wine producers have taken up arms to defend Ukraine, but others have remained defending their vineyards and their productions. It is like saying to the Russians, you want to annihilate us, but we are going to make more, better and faster wine”, says Nataliia Burlachenko, who led a tasting of Ukrainian wines at the 44th World Congress, in an interview with EFE. de la Viña y el Vino that is celebrated this week in Cádiz.
A white wine from the native grape Telti Kuruk, and another rosé, from another native grape called Jupiter, both from 2022, have shown at this Congress that Ukraine keeps its wine production alive, despite everything.
In 2014, it lost all 17,500 hectares of vineyards in its largest wine region, Crimea. When this territory is annexed by Russia.
36,000 hectares of vineyards before the war
“The loss was tremendous, not only the territory, but also the types of grapes, research institutes that were there…. but at the same time, many Ukrainian producers moved to other territories, began to experiment, so it was a push for the development of wines in other regions”, explains Nataliia Burlachenko.
In addition, the country has four other traditional wine regions, and, with climate change, the vines have been able to spread to the north and center of the country.
Before the Russian invasion, it had 36,000 hectares of vineyards, one hundred wineries that produced 165 million liters of wine a year (Spain produces 3,570 million liters), with 200 varieties of grapes.
The war has had a resounding impact on this industry, but it has also brought opportunities.
“The internal market has fallen dramatically because of the war, but the external market is now expanding. People, consumers, are more curious and pay more attention to Ukrainian wines. Many importers want to have them in their portfolio, it is like showing that you are on the right side of history, so our wines are finding an opportunity there”, he explains.
UK, USA, Japan, Poland and the Baltic and Nordic countries are the main destinations that Ukrainian wines are now exploring.
Areas occupied by Russian troops
The foreign market began to open up already from the early days of the Russian invasion: “when the war started, for three months you couldn’t buy or sell any alcohol, it was prohibited by law in Ukraine. So the producers who had wine began to look for clients abroad to sell it”, explains Nataliia Burlachenko.
Some Ukrainian wine areas have been occupied by Russian troops, others have been looted and destroyed by their passage, others maintain their activity just seven kilometers from the front, and in others the situation is more normal.
“The impact will last for many years after the war ends,” he says, while describing how there are producers who, in order not to wait their turn for the government to provide them with machinery to clear their land of mines, they themselves buy and use to remove them. and continue your activity.
“They are unstoppable, nothing can stop them because they don’t care so much about their lives as they do about maintaining their passion for making wine, they fight to show that they will not be able to make this activity disappear from Ukraine,” he says. EFE