MOLDOVA CELEBRATED THE NATIONAL WINE DAY

After a two-year break, the National Wine Day has returned to the central square of Chisinau – Piața Marii Adunări Naționale, with the slogan “My wine brings peace and turns hate into love”.

The nominee and winner of the Wine Travel Awards 2021-2022 in the category Enogastronomic Events/Magnet of the region – The National Wine Day of Moldova – just as always, was hospitably receiving the visitors: over 120,000 local and foreign wine lovers had visited the event in 2 days.

The official opening of the National Wine Day took place at the stand of Vinul Moldovei, attended by the President of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Natalia Gavriliță, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea, as well as official guests from the USA and Romania.

High-ranking guests and industry professionals had the opportunity to taste the award-winning wines.

Many guests and organizers of the holiday were wearing their national embroidered blouses, which are incidentally very similar to the Ukrainian vyshyvanka.

The organizers of the event – USAID and the National Bureau of Grapes and Wine (Republic of Moldova) invited Ukrainian wineries to participate in the National Wine Day, as a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine and support of fellow winemakers. The company “Vinhol Oksamytne”, TM Villa Tinta, took advantage of the kind offer regarding free participation.

The National Wine Day in Moldova was attended by all nominee wineries of Wine Travel Awards 2021-2022, specifically: Milestii Mici Winery, CRICOVA Winery, Château Vartely, Castel Mimi, Crama Mircesti SRL, Vinuri de Comrat, Vinaria Purcari.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, about 90 winemakers and spirits producers, including small winemakers from all over the country gathered to demonstrate, what they can do best.

More than 4,000 types of quality wine products were offered for tasting and sale: dry wines, sparkling wines, wines with/without protected geographical indication, wines obtained from ecological grapes, divin. A total of 108,000 bottles were consumed, of which 20,000 were offered for tasting and over 108,000 bottles for sale.

Each year, the National Wine Day receives many foreign tourists; this year was no exception – guests from 15 countries of the world visited the holiday, including the USA, Romania, Ukraine, China, Japan, Turkey, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Great Britain , Czech Republic, Latvia. Wine experts from different countries who came with the specific purpose of taking part in the event, were among the tourists.

But there were also many who came just to enjoy life and quality Moldovan wines: people of all ages, with families and companies, with loved ones and with pets 🙂

Wine Day could be celebrated both on the main square in Kishenev and by visiting wineries. 10,000 visitors, including foreign tourists, had the opportunity to become participants of the Drumul Vinului (Wine Roads) and went on a journey through more than 20 wineries; the voyage was enjoyable for both guests and producers, and 8,000 bottles of wine were purchased by wine lovers directly from the wineries.

Visitors took part in workshops, craft workshops and attended the “Wine School”. 300 people took part in the “Wine School” master classes. In two days, 10 master classes had been held as part of the “School” program, and winemaking experts as well as sommeliers shared tasting secrets and pairing rules.

The wine festival was emphasized by a cultural and artistic program with more than 100 artists and included dances, concerts with folk music orchestras of ethno-folk groups of Moldova and solo concerts of well-known bands: Zdob și Zdub, Advahov, Pasha Parfeni, Surorile Osoianu, Ansamblul Ștefan Vodă, and Vali Boghean band.

You can find out more about the grand holiday program here.

Goodbye, National Wine Day in Moldova! See you in 2023!