Decanter World Wine AwardsWine will curb alcoholism, says Russian president
- Tuesday 30 August 2011
‘Winemaking is one of the sectors that should be developed and contribute to the eradication of alcoholism,’ he said at a meeting with the governor of Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory - a region with a burgeoning local wine industry.
‘Countries where this sector is strong have no problems with alcohol abuse: problems with alcohol abuse stem from ‘other drinks,’ Medvedev said.
Dmitri Kovalev of Moscow wine merchant Simple Wines told Decanter.com that ‘Government action against alcoholism has not differentiated among alcoholic beverages’.
But he pointed out the legal difficulties in obtaining wine import licences have contributed to less wine on shelves, adding that wines from Georgia – once, along with Moldovan wines, the most-consumed in Russia – remained banned.
Furthermore import duties bring the cost of any imported wine to at least RUB200 (€5), a price that is too high for many Russians, he said.
‘Vodka is still available for only RUB100, to say nothing about fake alcohol, so I don’t know how our government is going to promote wines with such tax policy.’
The Russian Health Ministry estimates per capita consumption of pure alcohol at 15 litres per person.
Recent figures indicate that every fifth death in Russia is alcohol-related: official statistics show that each year alcohol abuse kills 500,000 Russians.
Have your say!
Gregory Kanevsky
September 01 20:51
Though this may turn out as a right thing there are way too many problems with what Medvedev just said. Firstly, Medvedev declared that he is not going for 2d term by promoting wine over vodka. Secondly, promoting wine in Russia is associated with variety of problems. I tried to sum them up in my blog: http://winerank.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-luck-president-medvedev.html
Dmitry Kovalev
August 31 17:40
There are good news indeed, though since 2008 we have the same regulation for the milk. It was to make difference between the real milk and "milk beverages" based on the powdered milk. http://www.rg.ru/2008/06/20/reglament-dok.html But till now most of "milk beverages" on our shelves are still labeled as milk... It simply doesn't work.
That is what we call in Russia "the telephone law" when everything depends on the phone order from above. So, if Mr. President would like to promote wine in Russia, it will go on.
We should also keep in mind that everything said by Medvedev or Putin is related to the presidential elections-2012. What a pity Panos didn't add my comments about the most popular vodka in Russia called "Putinka".
LJ West
August 31 11:08
Medvedev argues that 'Countries where [wine production] is strong have no problems with alcohol abuse: problems with alcohol abuse stem from ‘other drinks,’. Where have we heard this argument before? Doesn't the American National Rifle Association in America argues that 'Guns don't kill people, people do'?
Eleonora Scholes
August 31 09:55
While Medvedev’s statement may or may not have implications for future policies, it is surprising that Decanter failed to report a more important development in Russia.
A new regulation for production and distribution of alcoholic beverages is in force since mid-July. There is good news for wine. It is finally defined according to the common international understanding of wine as an alcoholic drink made from fermented grape juice. It used to be “an alcoholic beverage from wine “raw materials”” which gave plenty of opportunities to sell artificial drinks with mixed grape concentrate, water, spirit, sugar and flavourings as wine. Now these must be labelled as “wine beverages”.
A night ban to sell alcoholic beverages over 15% abv (wine wasn’t entirely immune from it) was introduced in Moscow about a year ago. The new law prohibits sales of spirits and wine throughout Russia between 23:00-8:00, beer is exempt. The clause is only for retail sales. On-trade sales are not affected.
Official estimates of pure alcohol consumption are higher than they should be. Real figure is around 12,5 l per person, including consumption of illegal alcoholic drinks.
Finally, Moldovan ban has long been lifted. Moldovan wines are available in Russia. Last week Russian and Georgian officials started negotiations to resume imports of Georgian wines and mineral water to Russia.