Another winery grew out of the home winemaking cradle. Serghei Sari, who worked in a large winemaking company and was an amateur winemaker, decided to turn his passion into his business for his lifetime that his children will inherit. During the celebration of National Wine Day 2018, Serghei received the „Butoiul de Aur” prize (Golden Barrel) as an amateur winemaker for the best red homemade wine. This was his last award in this status (before it there were more), because on the next Wine Day he was already in the ranks of professional winemakers and introduced the first wines from his Winetage winery.
The winery name is formed from the merger of two words – wine and vintage (year of grape harvest). Two wines under the Oguz Terra brand were produced from the 2018 harvest. Admittedly, they are very unusual, even if they have an alcohol content higher than the accepted level. Both wines were roamed on cultured yeast, since wild yeast cannot work in high alcohol level conditions.
Oguz Terra Saperavi, 2018
Dry wine with an alcohol content of 16% is a rarity for Moldovan winemaking. Winemakers avoid it because of fears that the wine will be difficult to sell. But Serghei took a chance and has no complaints on the lack of demand. Oguz Terra Saperavi, 2018 was produced in a batch of about 800-900 bottles. Currently, there are only 300-400 left, despite the fact that the wines were ready for bottling by Wine Day 2019 and still have not appeared in shops.
Due to the good demand for wines, I didn’t include them into organized retail. I don’t even have even a year’s worth of wine from the 2018 harvest to sell directly for myself”, the winemaker notes.
Oguz Terra Saperavi, 2018 has a dark-garnet color, with garnet notes around the edges. On the walls of the glass, it leaves thick legs. The first nose is of overripe sweet berries.
This wine went through spontaneous malolactic fermentation. And it spent nine months aging in barriques, so I decided to pour it into the decanter. After 35 minutes, I poured a glass: the wine delights with the aromas of plum, blackthorn, pomegranate peels, pomegranate berries, cherry, tree bark, black pepper, black chokeberry, and there is a hint of dried herbs.
A silky texture, very mature tannins, the high alcohol does not stick out. The taste is dry, with light astringency. It contains cherry and black chokeberry, with an aftertaste of cocoa.
Oguz Terra Cabernet Sauvignon Late Harvest, 2018
It is even stronger than Saperavi, 2018, because it contains 17% alcohol. But, unlike the previous wine, it is not dry, containing 30 g/l of residual sugar.
The grapes were harvested in late October. In the fall of 2018, there was no rain, and the grapes withered on the bushes, says Serghei Sari. – The sugar content of Cabernet Sauvignon berries reached 340 g/l. For such a high rate, I had to use a special yeast race to maximize the fermentation of sugar. Fermentation lasted 21 days on the pulp, and for another 30-40 days there was a quiet fermentation in the cellar after removal from the pulp. When alcohol rose to 17%, fermentation had to be stopped. Therefore, the wine contains 30 g/l of residual sugar. It did not pass malolactic fermentation and aging in oak, because this was not necessary – it is already very soft. Sugar softens alcohol, but does not stick out due to the high acidity (8.5 g/l). The wine is very balanced. The aroma, taste and aftertaste are just endless.
In Italy they make a similar wine, Amarone, but the technology there is a little different: the collected grapes are dried, while our grapes were dried by withering on the stems. This affected the color – a bright pomegranate, with light purple hues, not bronze. It is radiant, attractive, reflects the specifics of our region, grapes being grown in the Comrat area. A total of 480 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon Late Harvest were produced. 60 are left – for the personal collection and for exhibitions. I’m unlikely to sell it yet. As soon as it appeared, importers from Sweden and China, as well as a Romanian entrepreneur, wanted to buy the entire volume for their friend’s restaurant in France. But we had to refuse, because we wanted to introduce consumers to our wine at exhibitions as much as possible. ”
The first nose is overripe black berries. After 20 minutes in the decanter we have the unravelling aroma of wine – stewed cherry in its own juice, cedar, black currant, black tea, sweetness of overripe berries, dried plum, cherry jam, and later – smokiness. The taste is lively, with light astringency, sweetness is in moderation, well balanced by acidity. Silky texture, the high alcohol content does not make itself noticed. Cherry, grape berry on the palate, raisins on the aftertaste. Powerful and unusual wine. This is what Serghei hears from many of those who tasted it.
Big steps
In the year between two Wine Days the Sari family accomplished a lot. First of all, it provided its production facility with almost all the necessary modern equipment for the production of white, rosé and red wines. If the grape harvest of 2018 was processed at lower capacities, then the one of 2019 – was already produced by a full grown winery, which also included additional equipment.
The Moldova Competitiveness Project helped us grow a lot as a small enterprise, having given us the first grant for the purchase of equipment (two stainless steel fermenters with a capacity of 3 tons each with “shirts”; a refrigeration unit for the production of high-quality white and rosé wines; an Italian crusher with a pulp pump, a more powerful press, etc.) Serghei Sari says. – We are also very grateful for the help of a consultant. Constantin Caldare, who helped us bring the 2018 vintage wine up to the necessary standards before bottling, having processed them correctly in order to preserve the aroma and taste as much as possible. MCP also provided financial support for the registration of the Oguz Terra trademark. ”
In addition, Winetage LLC received assistance from the Gagauzia Entrepreneurship Support Fund. With these funds, five fermenters were purchased for white and rosé wines (1 ton each) and Moldovan oak barriques, in the roasting of which Serghei participated personally. Also, as part of the project to create the Regional Center for Business Information and Support for ATU Gagauzia, which is being implemented by the Executive Committee of Gagauzia with EC funding (Mayors for Economic Growth initiative – M4EG), this small enterprise was initially aided with bookkeeping, developing a brand and brand book and payment for the first edition labels. It should be noted that according to the European project M4EG, donors themselves choose who to work with, and they offered their help to this winery.
Yesterday’s amateur winemaker probably does not need more happiness than seeing his wine bottled with labels under his own Trade Mark (the “43 Oz” agency worked on the design).
Serghei and his wife Natalia intend to develop capacities to welcome tourists. It would seem that their winery is not yet known, but there is already interest in it from the guests, since the founders of the winery receive tourists (up to seven people) at home, which especially attracts foreigners.
Tourists came to us, including volunteers from France, making a film about Gagauz wine and life. And also a monk and writer of Greek origin from France, who will write a book about the Gagauz people. We met with him at the investment forum (held in November in Comrat), where I had presented a report on my startup – how can young people in our country do what they do, love their homeland and do their favorite thing – winemaking. The French monk, listening to my presentation, wanted to come to visit us, to taste the wines. He praised their quality. Also, our former compatriots who have long since lived in Latvia and Krasnodar have visited us. They suggested organizing the distribution of our wines in Krasnodar. In addition, at the Wine Day, our wines were tasted by tourists from Australia, the USA, Italy, France, Sweden, Belgium, Romania and local Moldovan connoisseurs, of course. They admired our wines” the winemaker proudly says.
Serghei plans to develop the enterprise, since already today there are real contacts with buyers from Sweden and China, but so far there are no volumes that they need even for start-up deliveries. In the 2019 season, 10 tons of grapes were processed at Winetage (equivalent to 8 thousand bottles of wine). The Saperavi is expected to be even better than the 2018 vintage, as the wine was more intense in color and aroma. Red wines will appear in the fall. Maybe Rkatsiteli will enter the market earlier (so far the only white variety wine).
In the next season, 15 tons of grapes may be processed here, i.e. it will be possible to reach the production level of 20 thousand bottles. And these folks will not stop there.
When at the Wine Day 2019 some of the visitors of the small producers stand saw the price tags for Oguz Terra wines (120 and 180 lei), they said these were expensive, however when they tasted, they added: “But they are worth the money.”
Apparently, the region where grapes are grown and the style do their job. We often hear that our wines are unlike any other wines in Moldova. And it pleases us, because we can offer what others cannot” said Serghei Sari.
