Following our presence at the Wine+ Trade Show, we had been approached to sponsor the Country Living Magazine Gala Evening and exhibit/organise wine tasting at the fair. It didn’t take us much hesitation to accept the offer and there we were - last week busy at the fair.

The show took place at the London Business Design Centre in Islington lasting 5 days between 11th and 15th of March with some 20-30k visitors attended. On the day one, there was this Gala Evening where £4 from each ticket sold was donated to charity as well as each visitor could serve a glass of Cricova wine. The wines have been received very well by the general public and I managed to take a few pictures from the evening.

I had the opportunity this year to visit ExpoVin Moldova 2009 held at the National Exhibition Centre between 18-21 Feb. ExpoVin Moldova is an annual event for the wine industry that is attended by everyone who has or wants to have anything to do with Moldavian wine industry - winemakers, cork producers, packaging and labeling companies etc.

As every other exhibition, ExpoVin Moldova this year didn’t enjoy the usual demand even though the Moldavian politicians strongly argue (elections soon will change that) that Moldova hasn’t been affected by the credit crunch. The real life situation is that the winemakers struggle - a few key players weren’t present, so the show was not what it used to be. Still, the companies that could make it, had beautiful stands as well as a few nice looking … girls… Well, a picture does a thousand words, so enjoy them below:

Decanting is probably more necessary than you think and it is likely to be easier to do than you can imagine. Although there is much paraphernalia available to assist you in decanting wine from bottles, such a number of the items are unnecessary and merely add to the idea that decanting is a laborious task requiring great skill and equipment. Decanting is done for three main reasons and it can be achieved quite simply with the minimum of fuss and a little practise. The result of decanting is that the wine you taste and drink will be cleaner, brighter, better integrated and more flavoursome.

So why decant? Well, quite simply, the process takes the wine off the sediment, it removes off odours and allows oxygen to react with the wine to enhance its aromas and soften the tannins. Red wines that have aged for a number of years will create a sediment of long chain tannins. These will look like a dark sludge at the bottom of the bottle, or early on in the aging process like a collection of dust. The tannins should not be consumed; other than a potential headache they will not harm you but they have a bitter taste and will detract from the wines appearance and taste. Read the rest of this entry »

Cricova is probably the most respected winemaker in Moldova being the home of the magnificent underground galleries founded in 1952 out of a limestone quary. The hard work of Moldavian people turned that into the vast wine cellars we have today. These underground galleries are spread accross a total lengh of 120km, out of which 60km is being populated with wine. I have reproduced below a short indroduction from Cricova’s History and hopefully later we will publish a more detailed ‘Cricova full story’.

Most of Cricova’s production facilities are placed at a depth of 60-80m under the ground, representing a huge Underground City of Wine. These labyrinths have a truly unique, exclusively favorable original microclimate: the year around constant natural temperature between +12°-+14°C and the humidity of about 97-98%, which are the most propitious conditions one can imagine for the birth, development and ageing of exquisite fine wines.  Namely this humid, chilly environment contributes the most to the formation of the unrepeatable, authentic character of  Cricova wine products.
Not only that, Cricova is also one of the very few wineries in the world producing sparkling wines according to the classical French method, invented centuries ago by the well known monk Dom Pierre Perignon – ‘Methode Champenoise’, by means of the secondary in-the-bottle fermentation and an ultimate maturation cuvee in horizontal position of at least 3 years.

The Grand Cellars of Cricova is the home to a remarkable collection of wines – The National Oenotec, with the unique exhibits such as ‘Jerusalem of Easter’ vintage 1902, the liqueur ‘Jan Becker’ vintage 1902, together with other 158 brands from Bourgogne, Moseley, Tokay, Rein, etc. make up the precious treasure of 1.3 million bottles.
However, the pride of the Oenotec are first and foremost the wines bearing the name Cricova, with their numerous National and International tasting awards including 80 Grand Prix, gold and silver medals.
Cricova as a whole is an extraordinary underground complex with a huge production capacity. That is why not long ago, it has been clasified as ‘object of national cultural patrimony’ and granted the supreme state award – ‘The Order of the Republic’, as a sign of acknowledgement of its remarkable contribution to the development of the Moldavian economy and its special accomplishments in the field of the winemaking.

While visiting Cricova this summer, I had the opportunity to take a few pictures which I would like to share below, as to give a better idea as to what Cricova Cellar is all about.

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