John Kerry says cheers with Moldovan wine
It’s not every day you hear urging Americans to drink wine. But that’s what John Kerry did today during a brief stopover in Moldova.
The Secretary of State wasn’t modeling his actions on Thomas Jefferson. Instead, by visiting a winery and raising a glass of Moldovan red, he was trying to help the agrarian economy of the Europe’s poorest country, one glass at a time.
Wine plays a central part in foreign trade for the landlocked country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania where the GDP per capita of just over $2,000. But the lion’s share of those exports have gone to Russia, which has blacklisted Moldovan wine in a trade dispute. So Kerry’s trying to create a new market for Moldovan wine and announced a trade mission that will bring Moldovan wine makers to the US to learn about the American wine market. Look out for a merry band of Moldovans at your local wine shop–it may be as riotous as the Borat wine tasting.
More: “Why John Kerry Wants You to Drink Moldovan Wine” [ABC News]
“Russian media deride Kerry visit to Moldova” [LA Times]
On December 5th, 2013 at 6:01 pm ,RobinC wrote:
Maybe he’ll go to France and help out there.
On December 7th, 2013 at 1:37 pm ,Joel Goyette wrote:
I’ve been looking into and watching the Moldovan wine market for several years now and think it could be a really interesting opportunity to introduce something new to wine drinkers.
Having tasted through a handful of samples friends have brought back (whites, reds and sparkling), it’s clear there are some high quality producers, though lot’s of talk about consistency issues and overall differences in winemaking styles.
On December 8th, 2013 at 9:23 am ,Chris wrote:
I was classmates with an exchange student from Moldova in high school. During college, I took a brief trip to Moldova to visit my friend while touring throughout Europe. In my opinion, definitely an untapped market that produces some quality wines. I also believe they have either the largest wine collection or largest wine cellar in the world, not sure which though.
I hope their wines can catch on in the U.S. I enjoyed them while visiting.