This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Ukrainian winemakers remain defiant amid Russian invasion
“If our army needs help from us, I will help. I don’t know what I can do more.”
These are the words of Eugene Shneyderis, owner of the Beykush Winery, on the Black Sea’s Beykushka Gulf. Though its location in the wetlands of Southern Ukraine, just a two hour drive from the major southern city of Odesa, possesses a striking natural beauty, it is now at the frontline of Russia’s naval assault on the Ukrainian coast. With the nearby city of Kherson now under Russian control, the war is rumbling ever closer.
Last Friday, the official Beykush Winery Facebook page posted the meme below. The caption, written in Ukrainian, reads as the now infamous declaration of the Snake Island soldiers: “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”
Wine has been a point of contention throughout this conflict, with the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea depriving Ukraine of “more than half of its winemaking industry”, as Shneyderis puts it. Indeed, 61,780 acres of vineyard were seized under Putin’s orders. The prized Massandra winery, with its historic cellars, was also placed under Russian control, with former winery head Nikolay Boyko sacked for his opposition to annexation. He would move north to practice viticulture in mainland Ukraine.
However, in spite of the loss of such a significant region, Ukrainian winemaking became increasingly prominent on international tasting tables in recent years. Shifting away from the Soviet model of mass production of sweet wines towards smaller scale wineries creating dryer wines, often based on French and Italian grape varieties, there was cause for optimism as both the quality of the wine increased, and wineries, including Beykush, turned to wine tourism as another avenue for income.
In the face of such a vast humanitarian crisis, it is difficult to make an accurate assessment on the future of the industry. Victoria Agromakova, CEO of Wine&Spirits Ukraine, simply declared: “nothing and noone will stop the development of winemaking in Ukraine.”
Winemaking is part of Ukrainian culture, and has been for thousands of years, and Shneyderis has no intention of abandoning his vines: “we will continue our work.”