The invading war for two months Russia has heavy consequences for the Ukrainian people. She also has less obvious on the wine industry. It is true for these two countries, but also for neighboring states, millennial vines, such as Georgia, Armenia or Moldova, long in the fun of the former Soviet block. It is also true for France, which exports part of its production to Russia, where French experts provide their advice.
With this number, we propose to explore a geopolitics of wine in a region of the bleeding or tormented world. With his stakes and conflicts. Crimea, of which we publish a bucolic image here, is the perfect example. The vast Ukrainian peninsula overlooking the Black Sea, renowned for its Mediterranean climate and covered wines of the TSARS, was annexed by Russia in 2014. Since then, in particular through its oligarchs, Moscow invests with force in this vineyard, Until plants intensely, wanting to make its wine shop and tourism development agent.
A complex equation
By losing Crimea, Ukraine was amputated half of its vineyard. But it has not been discouraged, developing its vineyards elsewhere for eight years, with the mission of welding a nation and support tourism. Until the war destroys this dynamism. Yet its actors are already thinking about rebuilding.
In Georgia, the world cradle of wine and countryside, both by the amount of bottles and the prestige of its wines, especially Nature, but also in Armenia or Moldova, the challenge is the complex equation: enlarge The surface of the vineyards, gaining in quality, always look more towards the European Union while emancipating Russia, where is consumed the vast majority of the flood of these three countries.
Russia is a different puzzle for France. Even though the shipped bottles represent a small market, the moral question is on the table: Should we still trade, especially Champagne, with a country that engraving Ukraine? A few months before the war, the Kremlin put in place protectionist measures in order to promote its vineyard. Thus, Russian sparklers can write the word Champanskoie (“Champagne”) on their labels. In defiance of standards. But the right, we know what Putin makes …