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Wine - the drink of gods, health and mood

03 June 2015 / 15:06:05  GRReporter
7038 reads

How to select wine?

Do not expect any universal and proven rules. In fact, there may be some only with regard to the choice itself, but there is no exact recipe for the best purchase, because of the fact that wine is made of crops and depends on the vagaries of the weather and the purely subjective experience. The easiest way is to select wine according to your budget and mood, the occasion and the type of food that will be consumed with it. And finally, according to your experience and personal preferences.

Because wine is an emotion, it would be better to try new tastes, which is not difficult in view of the global world in which we live and the great competition in the market, which makes wine more affordable.

Balkan wine

As our articles, interviews and news stories have made clear more than once, we in the Balkans are both identical and do not know each other. Food is an occasion for them to split while attempting to be recognized as the unique and only prime sources of certain types of foods. Wine is no exception. Although our region can be considered the cradle of wine as I mentioned, we seem to dare to "betray" domestic and familiar wines only when we are on tour or on holiday in one of our neighbours.

My visit to "THE BALKANS INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITON" that was accompanied by a wine festival confirms my impressions. While talking with many participants I found out that all in the Balkans are aimed at their domestic markets and the traditional markets of wine consumers. Far Eastern markets such as China should not be underestimated either.

My question as to why we do not know the wines of our neighbours received many similar responses. First is the mentality of local consumers to prefer domestic production, be it for sentimental and patriotic reasons, or price considerations. The latter are due to the protectionism that some of the Balkan countries have established. Bulgarian wine producers are of the opinion that of all the Balkan countries, only Bulgaria has no such policy to protect domestic winemaking. Greek producers with whom I spoke were more cautious, but their words suggested that the Bulgarian market is small and, unfortunately, not very solvent. Therefore, their hopes to enter our market are mainly related to the restaurant and hotel business and they are not planning direct sales in shops for the time being. However, Bulgarians know Greek wines from their visits to our neighbour, and Greeks who visit Bulgaria know our wines.

I talked to importers of Greek products, including wines, who said that the interest in Greek wines was growing. Unfortunately, I could not find a winemaker to share a lasting interest in Bulgarian wines on the part of Greece.


Some of the comments were that the traditional large wine producers are flooding the market, making local competition more difficult and there are concerns that the Bulgarian market has no real quality control to ensure that the writing on the label is what you get in the bottle.


Nevertheless, the fact is that we have the conditions and traditions to produce quality wines. Some of them win international awards and local wineries have their place on the market. As for wine quality, its major arbiter is his majesty the customer.


                      Konstantinos Lazarakis, BIWC chairman and Galina Niforou, BIWC manager

Toast with Socrates

To end this article about the drink of the gods, I will involve Socrates. They say his wife Xanthippe was contentious, evil and stupid. On this occasion Socrates exclaimed, "Every man should marry. If he finds a good wife, he will be the exception, but if he finds a bad one, he will become a philosopher." Here is to women whose husbands do not philosophize!

Wine guarantees good mood!

Tags: WineHistoryInteresting factsProductionVarietiesBalkan wine festival
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