Monthly Archives: October 2017

The Republic of Moldova is the least visited country in Europe as well as the poorest country in Europe. However, Moldova has been producing wine for about 5,000 years and currently exports about 67 million bottles annually. I recently wrote an article encouraging people to be wine activists, to buy and drink wines from certain countries, to help their economies thrive. “Financial support of a country’s wines contributes to the well-being of regions, countries, and producers.” Considering Moldova’s economic situation, then supporting their wine industry is more than warranted, especially considering they are producing some delicious and interesting wines.

Recently, I was contacted by Andrei Birsan, the owner of Vins Distributors, a wholesaler of Moldovan wines, and invited as a media guest to taste some of his portfolio, as well as to experience Moldovan cuisine at the Moldova Restaurant in Newton. I’ve previously tasted only a handful of Moldovan wines but my experience had been very positive. And I’d never previously enjoyed Moldovan cuisine so I was eager for this meeting…

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You already know that Russia hacked our election. What you might not have heard is how Russia has also inadvertently hacked our American wine market. And the two main culprits currently under investigation are from Agawam, the husband and wife team of Andrei Birsan and Daria Ratnikova from VinDistributors.

Daria is originally from Moscow and Andrei is from Moldova. Moldova? Is that another country made-up by our Russian-compromised commander-in-chief? Turns out, no. Moldova is a former Soviet republic nestled between the Ukraine and Romania. By some estimations, it’s the poorest country in Europe. It also turns out that Moldova is one of the top 20 wine producing countries in the world. (At least it was in 2014, according to the Food & Agriculture Association.)

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