The St. Petersburg-based sparkling wines holding, which is one of the largest producers of the eponymous products, has stopped producing this type of alcohol.

The media reported, citing the head of the company Yury Dudko, that in fact the production was closed back in late June, but only now all the capacities have stopped working.

The company will not make sparkling wines anymore, but the production of still wine, which occupies 15-20% of production, will be continued.

Now this type of spirits is made of domestic berries from past harvests. It is noted that there should be enough stocks till the new year.

According to Vadim Drobiz, the Head of the Federal and Regional Alcohol Market Research Center, the production of sparkling wine should start again in 2021.

He explained that in January the technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union on safety of alcoholic beverages will come into force in Russia. This document does not require banning the use of imported raw materials. In case this law is not amended, all domestic enterprises will be able to continue their activities with foreign wine materials, the expert added.

It is worth mentioning that St. Petersburg company was not the only one to change its strategy. Thus, the largest Russian company in the manufacture of sparkling wine "Abrau-Durso" also partially uses foreign raw materials in the production of such wines. Now the company has an agreement to buy 300 thousand decalitres of wine materials from Derbent winemaking company.

According to the Federal and Regional Alcohol Market Research Center, the Sparkling Wines group of companies is currently the largest importer of raw materials for wine. For example, in 2018 alone, the company imported almost 3 ml decalitres.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova