This California wine lover came to the right place!
I just came from a wine festival in the city center that reminds me a lot of our county fairs. There was dancing, national costumes, singing and music, handicraft displays of needlepoint, weaving, and woodcarving. And lots of people.
There was the food. Every conceivable national dish was homebaked and set out to be tasted and tried: stuffed roasted peppers, placinte (fried bread with herbs and cheese inside), pickles, fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh pressed cheese, roasted eggplant salad, and more.
There is a special affinity here for baking beautiful bread. Not just mouth wateringly delicious bread, but braided and adorned and shaped and molded to within an inch of its shortlived life! Shortlived because it IS so tasty! Shortlived also because it is next to sacriledge to put bread in a plastic sack. I'm not sure how the logic goes, but supposedly to keep bread fresh, you wrap it in cloth which keeps in the moisture without making the crust go soft. Not sure how this keeps the mold out...
And then there was the wine. Not only are the fall vegetables being harvested now, but also the grapes. This is the season of new wine, when last year's grapes have fermented to the point where they are truly wine, and this year's grapes are picked and crushed and started into the process of becoming wine themselves.
Every village has its own winery or wine factory. At the wine festival today, each village set up a booth out of the back of a truck or a van to show off the handicrafts, food, bread, and wine from that village. Beautiful wooden casks with half crushed grapes inside showed the process how people make their own homemade wine. Other specialty casks are ornately carved with 2-3 spigots on them which will pour out different kinds of wine.
The wine is free and many varieties are very good. The food is handed out along with your filled glass. You may taste the wine with a savory treat of your choice. Or you may taste the fresh grapes that the wine was made from. For example I came home with a bunch of ripe cabernet grapes, some sauvignon, and some moldova grapes.
Yes, someone named a variety of grapes after the country! They are similar to the concord, but with a more complex flavor. Call me crazy, but I taste apple, pear, and pineapple when I eat them. Very good!
So if the wine and food was free, and there was no entrance fee, how was the crowd, you ask? After sampling many wines, most were only slightly inebriated, if at all. The alcohol tolerance is really quite amazing. Everyone had been dancing and eating as well. I didn't see any brawls, and I only had to fend off one gentleman who was overly zealous that I stay and listen to him expound about something to me. On the whole it was a lovely day.
It's really a shame that most of the wineries are only operating at a fraction of their capacity, if at all. Russia continues its ban on Moldovan wines which has caused thousands of people to be put out of work. Some say it's because of political disaggreements over Moldova's pro-western moves, its crackdown on the porous border with the breakaway, pro-Russian Transnistrian region, or Moldova's hesitation to admit Russian to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Whatever the reason, Moldovans are losing a lot of money, and the excellant wine industry here is also suffering. If you happen to see wine from Moldova, you should definitely buy a bottle and try it!
There was the food. Every conceivable national dish was homebaked and set out to be tasted and tried: stuffed roasted peppers, placinte (fried bread with herbs and cheese inside), pickles, fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh pressed cheese, roasted eggplant salad, and more. 
There is a special affinity here for baking beautiful bread. Not just mouth wateringly delicious bread, but braided and adorned and shaped and molded to within an inch of its shortlived life! Shortlived because it IS so tasty! Shortlived also because it is next to sacriledge to put bread in a plastic sack. I'm not sure how the logic goes, but supposedly to keep bread fresh, you wrap it in cloth which keeps in the moisture without making the crust go soft. Not sure how this keeps the mold out...
And then there was the wine. Not only are the fall vegetables being harvested now, but also the grapes. This is the season of new wine, when last year's grapes have fermented to the point where they are truly wine, and this year's grapes are picked and crushed and started into the process of becoming wine themselves. 
Every village has its own winery or wine factory. At the wine festival today, each village set up a booth out of the back of a truck or a van to show off the handicrafts, food, bread, and wine from that village. Beautiful wooden casks with half crushed grapes inside showed the process how people make their own homemade wine. Other specialty casks are ornately carved with 2-3 spigots on them which will pour out different kinds of wine. The wine is free and many varieties are very good. The food is handed out along with your filled glass. You may taste the wine with a savory treat of your choice. Or you may taste the fresh grapes that the wine was made from. For example I came home with a bunch of ripe cabernet grapes, some sauvignon, and some moldova grapes.
Yes, someone named a variety of grapes after the country! They are similar to the concord, but with a more complex flavor. Call me crazy, but I taste apple, pear, and pineapple when I eat them. Very good!
So if the wine and food was free, and there was no entrance fee, how was the crowd, you ask? After sampling many wines, most were only slightly inebriated, if at all. The alcohol tolerance is really quite amazing. Everyone had been dancing and eating as well. I didn't see any brawls, and I only had to fend off one gentleman who was overly zealous that I stay and listen to him expound about something to me. On the whole it was a lovely day.
It's really a shame that most of the wineries are only operating at a fraction of their capacity, if at all. Russia continues its ban on Moldovan wines which has caused thousands of people to be put out of work. Some say it's because of political disaggreements over Moldova's pro-western moves, its crackdown on the porous border with the breakaway, pro-Russian Transnistrian region, or Moldova's hesitation to admit Russian to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Whatever the reason, Moldovans are losing a lot of money, and the excellant wine industry here is also suffering. If you happen to see wine from Moldova, you should definitely buy a bottle and try it!
posted by Emily at 6:59 AM
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