The Culture of Wine: Former Communist Europe

“Former Communist Europe” is the only term I can think of to describe the many countries of Central and Eastern Europe as they are hard to define as geographical concepts. In the twentieth century, Eastern Europe was shorthand for communist Europe but historically Central Europe extended across all the countries that now border Germany and Austria.

Describing them as “Former Communist Europe” also helps explain why wine culture in many of these countries stagnated in the twentieth century. The Soviet Union deliberately disregarded quality wine production. They also ascribed agricultural industries to each country. Bulgaria was the only country to thrive because that was decreed the primary source for wine across the bloc. Georgia, meanwhile, was for brandy rather than wine.

In these countries, wine has been made for centuries and centuries but, with the exception of Hungary, they have, at most, been on the fringes of wine culture. Politics, location, and drinking fashions account for the lack of recognition, but we shouldn’t overlook the importance of wine to the cultures of these varied countries.

former yugoslavia

The country known for much of the twentieth century as Yugoslavia encompassed many disputed territories, ethnic and religious conflicts, and dictatorships, none of which helped develop a stable wine culture or industry.

Yugoslavia was formed after the First World War, and became a communist dictatorship under Tito after the Second World War, holding together a very delicate set of nations, each with different identities, cultures, and religions: this is where Muslim Europe meets Christian Europe. After his death in 1981, the grouping slowly began to fall apart, culminating in the Civil War in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It’s therefore no surprise that wine culture did not advance during the twentieth century, but it’s slowly being recognised internationally. Slovenia’s wines have strongly influenced the trend for skin-contact wines. Croatia has been recognised as the origin for Zinfandel/Primitivo. The wines of the other countries are still harder to find, but they retain a local historical character which makes them distinctive.

bulgaria

Back in the 1980s, Bulgarian wine had a significant presence not just in the Soviet market but in the UK too. Receiving financial backing from the Soviet government, the industry flourished even if quality was not high: £3 Cabernet Sauvignon was a popular, good-value go-to in the UK.

Ironically, in contrast to other neighbouring countries, the wine industry declined after the fall of the Soviet Union. It had been based on industrial scales of production and any tradition of quality had been lost. There is a small amount of good quality wine made now in Bulgaria, but not that easy to find.

romania

A country ruled by a dictatorial tyrant until his death in 1989, part of the overthrow of the Soviet communist regime, Romania was mired in poverty. Since then, there has been much economic migration out of Romania: many wine producers depend on Romanian labourers during harvest. There is good wine made in Romania and neighbouring Moldova, but it’s not widely available maybe because a lack of a domestic wine culture makes it difficult to develop the industry. And there’s yet another example of how disputed territory is in Europe: Transnistria is a want-to-be independent country between Romania and Moldova with a strong connection to Putin’s Russia.

czechia and slovakia

Czechoslovakia peacefully separated after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Although Czechia and Slovakia are not particularly known for wine, they border Austria and Hungary and there is a revived wine culture. The Velvet Revolution is an example of how important writers and artists were to the downfall of the Soviet Union: it was led by playwright Vaclav Havel and was named after the Velvet Underground.

armenia and georgia

This is where wine begins. The oldest wine cellar was discovered about fifteen years ago in Armenia, dating back 6,000 years. Georgia, too, has an ancient wine history, and vitis vinifera originates in the Caucasian area that the two countries occupy. But both Armenia and Georgia are crowded in by their neighbours. Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey are closed: the Turkish genocide of Armenians saw over a million people killed and created a vast diaspora around the world. The border with Iran is open, but that’s not a country to export wine to. Wine is therefore exported through Georgia, a country constantly under threat from neighbouring Russia: geopolitics is real in these countries.

Georgia has become trendy, because of its historic origins and unique styles of wine. Some of the reds are sweet, though dry wines are now more common. Amber wines are fashionable, part of the trend for skin-contact white wine: these wines are new to many countries, but historic to Georgia. Skin contact helps protect the fermenting wine from oxidation; so too do qvervi, amphorae vessels buried underground. Many of these countries’ wine industries may have been stymied by Soviet rule, but traditions were maintained and we can taste the past.

russia

Which brings us to Russia, the largest country in the world which has had a huge—and often negative—influence on surrounding countries and those beyond. The Ural mountains are the border between Europe and Asia, and Russia is in both continents. To the east it has (uneasy) ties with communist China; to the west, it looks at Europe with envy and desire. In Riga, Latvia’s capital city, there is an historical Russian population seen in language, cafés, and architecture, grand and golden. I once did a speed tasting in the south of England with a Russian producer. The wines were sparkling, because Russians like bubbles. The two men representing the producer were terrifying, dressed in ill-fitting suits and projecting a mafiosi aura: I tasted the wines even quicker than the speed tasting had allocated and quickly walked away.

The vast spread from central to eastern Europe covers many different cultures, territories, and languages which have led to many, many wars. Wine forms a part of those many cultures, although spirits such as vodka are a more dominant image of many of the countries’ identities.

One can think of these countries as former communist Europe, as central Europe, as eastern Europe, as a Europe which lies between Asia, as a Europe where everywhere European—especially wine—begins yet feels like a very different Europe.