Kazakh wine iswine made inKazakhstan. The roots of the Kazakh wine industry can be traced to the 7th century AD whengrapevines were brought to the region from neighboringUzbekistan andChina. While only around 4% of the land in Kazakhstan is ideally situated forviticulture, the country does manage to produce over 6.2 milliongallons (236,000hl) of wine annually from 32,120 acres (13,000 ha).[1] Buoyed by its mineral wealth, the country is an enthusiastic consumer of wine but must import 80% of the 30 m bottles it drinks.[2]
The earliest evidence of viticulture in Kazakhstan appear during the 7th century AD aroundShymkent and in the foothills ofTian Shan inAlmaty Province near the Kazakh-Kyrgyzstan border. Vines were believed to have been introduced to the area by traders from theXinjiang province of China and theFergana andSamarqand regions of Uzbekistan. Throughout most of Kazakhstan's history, commercialwinemaking was conducted on a small scale. In the early 20th century,state-run vineyards inAlmaty, Shymkent andTaraz were the largest producers. Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union, there has been renewed interest in the Kazakhstan wine industry withRussia becoming a leading trading partner in Kazakh wine.[1]
In general the emphasis will be on inexpensive table wine, although the UN thinks that thecontinental climate may allow the production of high-valueice wine.[3]
As an inland country, Kazakhstan has a very typicalcontinental climate. Most of the region's vineyards are located in the southern half of the country near the borders of China, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan with a few smaller regions along theCaspian Sea in the west. Average annual rainfall varies throughout the country ranging from 4-6 inches (100–150 mm) in the wine regions aroundAtyrau andAktobe to 27-39 inches (700–1000 mm) in the regions around theTalas River.[1]
Currently the Kazakhstan winemaking has largely focused ondessert wine production. More than 40grape varieties are grown in the country though more than half are currently used fortable grape production rather than winemaking. Popular wine grape varieties includeAligote,Aleatico,Cabernet Franc,Cabernet Sauvignon,Pinot noir,Riesling,Rkatsiteli,Saperavi,Muscat Ottonel,Bayan Shirey,Kuljinski,Maiski Cherny andRubinovy Magaracha.[1] In general the grapes are theGeorgian ones, such as Rkatsiteli and Saperavi, found in other parts of the former Soviet Union. More recently there has been interest in planting international varieties such asSauvignon blanc. However local tastes would appear to prefer the traditional sweet red wines.[2]
At present there is noappellation system in Kazakhstan.
About 80% of the country's wines are produced at theIssyk WineryArchived 2019-12-25 at theWayback Machine inIssyk, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) east ofAlmaty. Bought by the Swiss-based Consulting Group in 1996 and recently sold back to local company Dostar, it has gone under considerable changes with the help of Italian-based winery Marcato Vini and an Australian consultant. Major reconstruction has been undertaken, with the importation of "New World" technologies including sweeping arm fermenters, air bag presses, cross flow filtration and nitrogen production. It benefits from being 850 m up in theTian Shan mountains of the southeast of the country.[2] Other wineries include Bakhus and the Turgen Winery. There are 210 hectares of vineyards in the Zailiyskiy region of the Almaty Oblast. In Soviet times there were vineyards and wineries in the Sarkand and Alakol regions of Dzhungar Alatau, in the Almaty Oblast, but these were hit hard by the breakup of the Soviet Union.[3]
In the movieBorat,Sacha Baron Cohen plays a fictional Kazakh journalist who travels through theUnited States, and jokingly says that Kazakh wine is made from fermented horse urine.[4]
Wines andwinemaking | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
