Its mid-October morning. The first autumn frosts fell on the Budjak steppe. On the outskirts of Comrat, in a large fruit drying shop, several people have gathered. They are focused on their work. They remove grape from special fruit dryers where they put it neatly, bunch to the bunch, three weeks earlier. The air is scented with the lush and beautiful flavour of grapes. This fragrance mesmerizes. All these grapes need to be transported to another part of the city, to a processing shop. All this activity is managed by Sergey Sary, a young Gagauz winemaker. He carefully examines every bunch, checks the quality of each of them, before they are loaded into a truck.
Sergey Sary is the founder of Winetage Winery in Comrat. He was born and grew up in Comrat. He is 32 years old now. He has graduated from the Faculty of Economics with a degree in Banking and Finance at the Chisinau Academy of Economic Studies, and immediately after graduation he went to work in “Tomai” winery as the Head of Marketing Department. In 2013, he was one of 9 people who traveled to the United States for the Wine Experience Ship Program. It was a three-week intensive masterclass in California, where about 85% of American wines are produced. This trip has deepened his knowledge of winemaking, and right after his return he purchased personal equipment to process grapes.
A couple of years ago, Serghey decided to leave comfortable office in the company and stroke out on his own. Success was immediate — he received the title of the best Gagauz home-made winemaker, and then the best Moldovan home-made winemaker. The first harvest – the harvest of 2018, was sold out to just in a matter of days. Since then, he has been making every effort to develop his winery.
“Wine is a traditional product primarily for this region. Our ancestors have been making wine from generation to generation. It’s part of our culture. Wine contains microelements — it was one of those products that people consumed as a medicine to support their health”.
I believe that we live in the same country, I do not differentiate between Moldovan and Gagauz. Regional – yes, it is Gagauz. But there are Moldovan villages next to Gagauz ones. It is difficult to say that this is Moldovan, and this is Gagauz when there is one field, and the territorial border is only conventional.
“I perceive winemaking not just as a business — it was also my task, to consider winemaking as part of our culture and tradition, to convey to the rest of the world that we exist and that we have one of the most favorable climatic conditions for the growth and production of wine”.
“By the age of 30, you’re already an established, mature person, you had to make decisions at work constantly, so it was not scary [to leave]. The other issue is that if you’re not satisfied with the life you’re living and you want to change something — you just change it. You do what you want. I think it’s important for any person. Not to tolerate, not to try to endure, not to delude yourself. If you don’t like something, then you need to bring some changes into your life”.
“How is this wine different from the one sold in mass-markets? My wine is appreciated not only by specialists but also by ordinary people. Even if you’re not a connoisseur, you’ll drink it and will really enjoy it. A group of friends from Chisinau came to me recently and tasted the wine: “I love wine that gives shivers. And your wine makes the hair stand. I am not a connoisseur, but I enjoy it immensely. Probably not that it’s different. It’s just perceptible. Both for a specialist and a common person”.
“One can call it lifework. It’s a great love for what you do. Nothing would have worked without it. And only those who have been through it all know how difficult it is. It is hard work not just to make wine, but to make it in such a way that people would talk about it, admire it, and take joy in it. To make the wine that opens hearts. It requires tremendous work. If you flake on something, it will inevitably affect the wine. But sole desire is not sufficient — knowledge, love, and great hard work are also needed. Only all of them together can bring some result”.
“What do I feel when people open a bottle of my wine and enjoy it? It’s an emotional upsurge. You realize that your efforts are not in vain and your work makes sense. Maybe I have made somebody’s day better and, perhaps only for a short period of time, but this is already an accomplishment”.
“Gagauz people have such a feature — I know many guys who drive a tractor in the morning, and ride “Land Cruiser” in the evening. They toil from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. They work and they consider it their way of life and it’s great. It inspires respect — it’s one of the features of my people that I’m proud of. What does it mean to be Gagauz? It’s a complicated question. Of course, it’s more difficult for us to answer this. One should ask those who are older — they have grown up in different times and they remember the stories of their parents on how they used to live. I remember my grandmother’s stories of how they had to work hard to survive. What they had to go through to remain alive. We should think about this sometimes what a piece of bread and peace we enjoy are worth of”.
“I have left the office, stable life to change something. If you do something, you need to do it well, to be the best. If do nothing new, you’re following the way of others. When you do something new, you have a chance to create something real, and only by creating one can achieve something. I am definitely happy with my choice, though not everything goes the way I had it in my dreams. But everything is going its course”.
“What am I dreaming of?… It’s hard to say. In the past I dreamed about setting my own company, opening a winery. Now gradually I have achieved all that, but not exactly the way I planned so far. This year, my son was born. One of my dreams is to pass the winery to my child, with all its vineyards, equipment, so that he can just work in his company without having to initiate anything from the scratch. Of course, I understand that we should progress — there is a lot that will need to be told, to share the experience”.
“In my old age, things will be the same as they are now. I’ll be quietly making 10-20 thousand bottles of wine and enjoy life. Nothing will change”.
