The wineries affiliated with the Food Industry Association have started to receive this year’s vintage. The trucks loaded with bunches of selected, ripe ‘sunny berries’ are coming to the receiving points throughout the country. Despite the difficult weather conditions this year Turkmen wine growers – workers of the farmers associations, tenant farmers and water industry workers managed to receive a rich harvest of the basic varieties of grape for Turkmenistan’s wine industry – white Terbach and red Gara-uzum.

8 wineries are planning to produce 4 million deciliters of wine products this year. The wine grapes with the sugar content of not less than 17 percent are used for producing wines. Before processing the berries are tested for the sugar content. The wine grapes with the sugar content of not less than 26 percent are used for producing elite Turkmen wines such as Yasman-salyk. To accumulate enough sugar bunches of grape should be generously warmed by the Turkmen sun and harvested only in a month.

The traditional wine-making technologies and natural, ecologically pure raw materials have gained the Turkmen wines the fame worldwide. They are the winners of the prestigious international contests and trade fairs. Last month the amber-coloured wine Kopetdag won the title the Best Wine of 2008 at the IX International Contest Yalta. Golden Gryphon. The high-quality wine products manufactured in Turkmenistan gain the popularity among foreign customers.

Nowadays, Turkmenistan’s wine industry has been offered a powerful incentive to develop. It should be noted that the share of strong ordinary wines is decreased and the share of vintage table and desert wines is increased in the total output of the ‘sunny drink’ produced in the country. Such varieties as Saperavi, Matrasa, Cabernet, Tavkveri, White Muscat, Bayan-shirei are used to produce vintage wines. New equipment was procured to expand the production of red table wines that gain more popularity nowadays.