I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone to our brand new blog, which is aimed at becoming a wealthy source of information about unknown but enthusiastic winemakers, fine old wines, picturesque regions and all of the finer things in life. I will write the first few blogs and present some background information as to why Exquisite Wines was founded as well as introduce our Wine Masters who will occasionally contribute to this blog. However, there is a space open to anyone that wishes to submit their experience, views or even delicious recipes for publishing. Please get in touch via the contact us page for guidelines on how to become an Editor on our Blog.

So, where do we start? I suppose I should introduce myself! I am both your humble blogger and the founder of Exquisite Wine.
I was born in 1978 in a Soviet Moldavian village named Colibash and raised in a transitional ‘communist- entrepreneuristic’ time when it was ok for the farmers to make their own wine although at the time Gorbachev had just introduced a limit on vines per household. In the mid 90’s I attended college to study International Trade Relations after which I immigrated to the UK. At my new home, I finished my studies in Accounting and Finance at the University of Southampton. I subsequently founded and ran a computer business specializing in bespoke designs and have now finally found my way back to my roots in the wine world.

Just for the record, in Moldova practically every villager grows his or her own vine at home and it’s considered normal to find in one’s cellar a few hundred decaliters of homemade wine. Interestingly, everyone makes wine in their own way, from the variety of vine planted to the type of barrels used. I can’t say that I particularly loved agricultural works in general, but I did find the grape harvest to be a fun activity as you can see from the picture. Even at the end of the day our eyes were filled with joy – great fun!

Furthermore, you won’t have too much trouble finding a parent who allows their child to taste wine well before turning 16 and that’s considered perfectly normal over in Moldova. However, please do note the use of the word ‘taste’ rather than ‘drink’ . Without going into too much detail, I would like to share my FIRST real life wine-adventure. But please don’t expect to find out how I got drunk for the first time, that story will have to wait for another time. This was my first real-life winemaking adventure!

As a part of a Soviet village school curriculum, every autumn pupils had to help the local community (Colhoz) with the harvest. It was lasting a good few weeks and - honestly speaking - I never enjoyed it. Nonetheless, I had no say in the matter and woke up at 7am to make my way down to the village centre to be picked up in an a big old open truck and be assigned to a different lots each day. Apples, grapes, nectarines, tomatoes – you name it. They even paid us though - I can’t remember for sure how much - but suffice to say we always were getting ripped off à la soviet style and so my motivation was down year on year.
I was 12 years old when we got assigned to a lot of Cabernet-Frank for a full week. We were allowed to take home up to 3-5kg of whatever we were picking on the day and it didn’t take long for me to think - ‘what if I make my own cabernet wine?’ My parents had always mixed different grape varieties, however I had heard that the Cabernet grape can do a great job on its own. So there I was, for one week bringing cabernet grapes home and then by the end of the week I was hand crushing the grapes to minimise maceration, adding a little white Muscat (one of my favorite grapes) from our own vineyard. The yield was aromatic and really enjoyable and it later transformed itself into a slightly bitty, alcoholic drink with ruby sparkles.
And so my task was accomplished. I had made my first wine but was next? I can’t drink it; I’m 12 years old! And then I had an idea. What if I store it nicely and open it when I am 16 or 18 or even for the millennium? I had heard that the wine gets better as it ages and I asked the parents for a suitable container of some kind in which to store it. My father suggested a 15l glass bottle we had in our cellar (I’ve no idea where it came from). So there we were – I poured all the wine into that gigantic bottle, screwed the plastic cap on, wax-sealed it and placed it right into the back of the cool, humid and dark cellar, to forget about for a few years. Occasionally I was inspecting it and saw that sediment on the bottom becoming thicker and thicker. I will tell you the truth – I opened it when I was 16! I can remember enjoying it with friends and family. It was very easy to drink, fruity and not much alcohol - very different to our other homemade wine - and perfect for wine beginners such as my young self.
This experience put another tick on my self-taught list that I didn’t remember about until a few years back when I was given a Cricova Collection Wine. I found the exact same finesse in that wine to stir the memories of how fascinating wine can become simply by in-the-bottle maturation. Both my wife and I loved the wine so much that thought wondered why it is not so popular in the UK. For the price it is incredible value so whenever I flew back from a visit to Moldova I always brought a few Cricova Collection Wine bottles with me to enjoying with friends. It always felt great observing their appreciation of being taken by surprise.
After all, experiencing a wine from a country that few people have heard of and finding out that it gives other more famous regions a damned good run for their money to would be surprising indeed. So, another few years later and here we are at Exquisite Wine in the quest of discovering all the hidden gems of the great winemakers, starting with Cricova!

Finally, we have 2 Wine Masters that will occasionally contribute to the Exquisite Wine Blog and hopefully forums too.

- Clive Barlow MW, will share tips and tricks for a more complete wine-enjoying experience. Clive has been in the wine trade for almost 30 years. He began working for Safeways (now Morrisons) in the late 1980s subsequently moving onto Peter Dominic’s and Wine Rack, establishing his own wine sales and consultancy business Press Wine Services in 1998. He passed the Master of Wine in 1999 and has been a member of the Wine Education Committee for 7 years

- Caroline Gilby MW, will contribute a wealth of knowledge on Eastern Europe. Caroline has been a Master of Wine since 1992, after abandoning a life behind the microscope as a professor (PhD) of plant science. Caroline has also held various roles in the wine industry such as Senior wine buyer, Board director for the Wine Standard Board, Lecturer for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, Wine writer, and Wine Consultant to name just a few. Although Caroline has sampled and bought wines from pretty much every winemaking country, her particular interest is Eastern Europe and one of her publications is the Eastern European Yearly Wine Report for Harpers.

Last but not least, please do not be shy to comment on the blog or post on the forums. Be it about food, travel, wine, computers or cars, we look forward to hearing from you.