Southeastern Europe
Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, The Balkans, Former Yugoslavia.. there are many ways that the region is known by. I have chosen Southeastern Europe as it feels the most accurate and encapsulating for this project. However, even Southeastern Europe feels generalized as Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldovan culture and history have their own distinctions and nuances. As it relates to this project, the threads that binds them together are their incredibles wines, the long tradition of wine making in the region, and the lack of recognition and knowledge outside of the region for both of these facts.
Similar to France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, each country has several wine making regions with unique terroir suitable for grape growing and grape varietals both native and non-native. I will go into more detail about these regions. But first, a little bit of history about winemaking in Southeastern Europe..
Wine making in Southeastern Europe dates to at least the 8th century BCE based on written text and archeological findings, though it is likely even earlier. The Ancient Thracian people that inhabited present day Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia (~1500 BCE- 45AD) had a long tradition of wine making that Greek poet Homer wrote about in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The two Thracian gods of wine, Zagreus and Zelanos, were the origins of the Greek cult of Dionysus.
When the Roman Empire arrived in Southeastern Europe in the 1st century AD, they laid the foundation of European winemaking culture that we inherit present day. The Romans were the first to classify grapes, record characteristics and grape observations, identify pests and diseases, and identify soil features. As the Romans were planting vineyards across the famous wine making regions of France, so they were planting across Southeastern Europe.
During the Middle Ages under the independent Orthodox Kingdoms in the region, orthodox monasteries were commonly the local producer of wines, for both religious and personal use. When the Ottoman Empire eventually arrived in the region in the 14th and 15th Centuries, conquering and occupying parts of Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, the Turks uprooted and destroyed many vineyards due to the restriction of alcohol consumption within Islam. Most of the regions not occupied by the Ottomans came under the rule of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. In contrast, wine production increased across these regions. The Serbian wine making region of Fruška Gora was a key supplier of wine to the monarchy of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
Under communist governments across the region, private vineyards were collectivized in the 1950s and wine-making was run by large government-owned enterprises with a focus on quantity over quality. Bulgaria and Romania were among the top 10 wine exporters in the world at the time.
With the dissolution of communism in the early 1990s, land was privatized and went through a long process of restitution to the original owners and their decedents. With this process came the revival of private family-owned vineyards across Southeastern Europe. Over the past 30 years, the region’s wine industry has been redeveloping, modernizing, and ever-increasing in quality. East West Wines is excited to represent vineyards from across this region and promote recognition of each region’s history and culture.