Press release
MOLDOVAN WINE GUILD’S PRESS RELEASE
The National Day of Wine became still another phase in the implementation of the Moldovan Wine Guild’s promotion strategy Within the framework of its Western Markets promotion strategy, the Moldovan Wine Guild invited wine journalists, wine writers and independent experts from the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Germany to visit the Guild’s wineries with the objective to introduce them to Moldovan wines and to obtain their opinion on the wines produced by the Guild’s members.
Notwithstanding the difficulties and problems faced by Moldova’s wine industry, considerable progress has been registered in the national wine-making during the last few years – in terms of both understanding of quality, and development of the facilities. It is impossible, however, to promote the Moldovan wine at the Western markets without promotion of their country of origin or development of its positive image. A step in this direction is extension of invitations to visit to groups of foreign wine journalists, wine writers and key opinion leaders. Quite often the opinion expressed by a popular Western wine writer is a key tool to shape the public attitude and to generate higher sales at the respective markets, attracting the genuine interest of consumers to the highlighted wines.
Another means to shape the public opinion in respect of Moldovan wines is the establishment of informal contacts in the professional media writers community and provision of the opportunity to the invited groups of Western journalists to experience Moldova as a wine-making country. The program of visits to Moldova developed for the Western journalists by the Guild provides for the establishment and development of contacts with the Western European and Russian media to shape the public opinion and to highlight the processes taking place currently in the Moldovan wine industry. Visits to Moldova were organized under this program on October 11 to 14, 2007 for: Jane Parkinson, Wine & Spirits Magazine (UK), Kevin Moor, Harpers (UK), Wojciech Bosak, independent wine writer, expert of the Wine and Wine-Making Research Institute (Poland), Martin Kristec, wine writer, Beverage & Gastro (Czech Republic), Lucia Parvu, oenologist, wine writer and expert taster (Romania), Anthony Brown, wine consultant for Wine Consulting and businessman (UK), Alain G. Schneidenbach and Elke Hamel, advisors, European Culture & Event Consult (Germany).
They experienced a very intensive agenda including both participation in the festivities of the National Day of Wine and visits to wineries with tastings of the products offered by the Guild member companies - Acorex Wine Holding, Vinaria-Bostavan, Chateau Vartely, Dionysos-Mereni, Lion-Gri, DK-Intertrade and Vinaria-Purcari. The implementation of the program became possible owing to the support and assistance kindly extended by CEED (USAID Project), Support to MEPO/MIDA TACIS Project and the Agroindustrial Agency “Moldova-Vin”. On the occasion of this visit, the USA Embassy in Moldova held a reception at the Ambassador’s House, which included the tasting of the wines produced by the 7 Guild members. That was a familiarization visit for some of the journalists; however, even the first impressions were sufficiently bright and strong. According to Jane Parkinson, what she was able to see during the winery visits by far exceeded her expectations. Moldova produces excellent wines and she would like to write about it.
However, tremendous preparatory work is required prior to any serious launch at the UK market in terms of building the wine portfolio which would be Moldova’s business card. For instance, Kevin Moor believes Moldova should develop its own wine style rather than focus on the adaptation to consumer preferences of those who are fond of traditional varietals. E.g. the national color can be represented by the local varietals such as Rara Neagra, Feteasca, etc. Wojcech Bosak demonstrated good knowledge of the Moldovan wine-making history and announced his intention to study this subject in more detail. He was particularly impressed by the visit to the National History and Archeology Museum showing ancient amphoras found by archeologists and evidencing the roots of the Moldovan wine-making going well back in the ancient times.
The program awakened the journalists’ keen interest to unbiased research on the Moldovan wines. It marked the emergence of a new information channel providing an impartial coverage of the Moldovan wine industry and Moldovan wines. The writings published by the journalists based on their impressions from this visit will contribute to the promotion of the wines produced by the Guild members at the international markets as well as promotion of Moldova as the country with the wealth of wine-making traditions.
