"Vodka Politics" is a very good read - basically makes a strong argument for autocracy and vodka being deeply linked. Mediaeval Russians didn't drink vodka - they drank mead and kvas, and the wealthier ones drank wine. But the early tsars brought in vodka as a state monopoly that ended up being responsible for a) a centuries-long public health disaster and b) about a third of total government income.
I just don't drink clear liquor very often.
I don't think I've ever seen a Moldavian wine in the store and at one time I drank a lot of middle quality red wine.
Anyway, the number of wealthy people with terminal butthurt over the poor getting any help is one of the things that bothers me most about our new fascist overlords if you can leave aside the fascism.
I don't think I've ever seen a Moldavian wine in the store and at one time I drank a lot of middle quality red wine.
From the linked post:
[I]t went from exporting around 80% of its wine to Russia, to around 15%. Most Moldovan wine (around 60%) now goes to the EU, with an increasing share going to Turkey and the Middle East.
That doesn't sound like much is going to the US.
Yeah. But we get lots of wine from ridiculous places like New York state and Oregon, so I figured I might see it once or twice.
The ex-Soviet liquor I'd like to try is Armenian "cognac."
6: If you try one I'd be curious to know how they are: https://wineofmoldovausa.com/
It comes from the "cognac" region of Armenia.
This review of a Moldovan brandy is amusing: https://www.reddit.com/r/Brandy/comments/a2v0u7/review_divin_kvint_doina_9yearold/?rdt=52786
USAID hearing thread happening now https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3lizdmgtk7c2i
This is just flat out evil https://bsky.app/profile/brandonwolf.bsky.social/post/3lizceodhdk22
They've agreed to stop calling it Cognac, but for a long time the story was that they'd won the right to call it Cognac fair and square by winning some French brandy competition way back when.
My experience of Georgian wine wasn't very good but maybe I was drinking the wrong ones.
My cousin married into an Armenian wine family but their vineyard is in Oregon, not Armenia.
Yeah, 6 was a joke. Lots of very good Oregon wines now. Usually white wine though. Or that's what I see.
My parents were USAID contractors, on and off, for about a decade, and my dad was a direct hire for a year or so. They have a number of interesting takes about the organization, and its quirks, that are overall positive.
Oregon was once a whites-only state after all.
All the Armenian wine I had in Armenia was terrible but I didn't have very much. Because it was terrible.
12: I only hope that their manually checking boxes means that they can be personally prosecuted. "It's only money" isn't a good defense when you've been forewarned of the consequences to blocking the transfer.
10: My better half went to Kvint with a person who was then a Moscow-based correspondent for the FAZ. They got to see the whole place, including the many miles of storage tunnels, and were plied with plenty of cognac by the director. She brought back a bunch of cognac too, including one that I think was called Victory. It was aged either 25 or 40 years (I forget) and those were not wasted years.
I'm sure I've had Ararat cognac, but none of it stands out in memory.
14: When did you try Georgian wine? It's gotten a lot more varied and better in the last 15 years or so. When we lived there, we were sometimes obliged to drink someone's homemade wine, and some of that was impressively awful.
My dad and uncle made wine. It was really bad.
My ex- Aunt worked for US Aid as an agronomist. My cousins got to live in Malawi and Indonesia. One went to boarding school for a while until she could get a placement in a country with a high school.
I believe that she and my uncle got their start with Catholic charities.
Plenty of good Georgian wine around! In fact, this month my monthly wine club from the fancy wine-and-fresh pasta shop down the street was entirely focused on Georgia, so I have four bottles right now.
There's a Georgian restaurant here that's allowed to import wine (and chacha) from their own vineyard back in Georgia, it's excellent.
*unusual because it's not part of a hotel like all the other licensed establishments.
There is a place here that sells New Hampshire wine and the reviews have not been good.
Georgian orange wine is weird and fun. I've seen more standard stuff popping up at wine shops but I don't think we've tried it. Would be fun to have a party with gozinaki and put on Legend of Suram Fortress.
My sister was working on a USAID project writing grant proposals for a farming coop in Honduras, and she just recently went down there and spent some time meeting with people figure out their needs and building trust and representing that she could help them bring resources into their community.
But now the rug has been pulled. There will be no grants, the Honduran coop has had their time wasted, and my sister is looking for work.
Is she interested in upholstering the luxury accommodation portions of the coming dystopia?
I'm interested in anything that keeps her from moving to New Hampshire.
27 I finally caught that at a Parajanov retro last summer
22: Oh yeah, total turnaround in quality and production since then. Georgian production was a lot like Moldovan production as other-Doug describes it pre-assistance. Same thing with Russia inventing spurious reasons to choke off trade. Now I'd imagine the lion's share of exports goes to EU countries.
27: Agreed on weird and fun! I have to go to the Georgian specialist to get any, but I like it.
Every now and then I wonder what happened to "sueandnotu"[?]*, who commented here almost 20 years ago and had a beautifully-written blog with lots of posts about Georgia for a while.
*I don't remember the exact username spelling.
Susan was too good for this place. Looks like she's doing renewable energy work overseas.
I keep trying to elevate this place.