Albanian wine

Albanian wine varieties in Albania

The wine of Albania is characterized by its unique sweetness and indigenous varieties. Albania produced an estimated 17,500 tonnes of wine in 2009. During communism, the production area expanded to some 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres).

History

Mosaic in the baptistery of Butrint (6th century)

Albania has one of Europe's longest histories of viticulture. The today's Albania region was one of the few places where vine was naturally grown during the ice age. The oldest found seeds in the region are 4,000 to 6,000 years old. Ancient Roman writer Pliny describes Illyrian wine as "very sweet or luscious" and refers to it as "[taking] the third rank among all the wines". Albanian families are traditionally known to grow grapes in their gardens for producing wine and Rakia.

During the Ottoman occupation the vineyard experienced a decline and were mostly found in Christian-majority regions.

Communism up to present

After the independence, viticulture soon gained wide spread, but was almost destroyed in 1933 by the phylloxera. A significant upturn began only after the Second World War One, at the end of which wine was still cultivated on only 2737 hectares. The most important producing region was Durrës area where grape was grown on communist state enterprises. In that time the nationwide acreage corresponded approximately to that of tobacco, but was significantly lower than that of olive and fruit trees. The exported wine was consumed primarily in Germany. The export decreased continuously from 61,000 hectoliters in 1971 to 22,000 hectoliters in 1985. The reasons are to be found mainly in outdated production conditions and insufficient technical material that made it difficult to transport and lowered the quality. On the other hand, the export of easily transportable graisins was continuously in increase (up to 3500 tons per year), while the export of fresh grapes was marginal. The most common varieties were Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Riesling.

Young Vineyard in Përmet, southern Albania

These acreage survived the transition to a market economy in good condition. Vineyards and wine production is increasing in the current situation of trade economy.

Production

Production figures

	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2007	2009	2014
Vineyard area (ha)	2430	8545	11020	16719	17621	9103	9806
Production (tonnes)	21.400	22.300	64.500	66.200	91.000	146.500	162.800	203.700

Wine regions

Vineyards in Southern Albania

Albania is divided into four wine producing regions:

• Western lowland,
• Central hilly region
• Eastern sub mountainous region
• Highlands

Wineries

Some of the most important wineries (Albanian: kantina) in Albania include Rilindja, Skenderbeu, Çobo, Luani, Bardha, Arberi, Sara, Vintage, Kardinal, and Kokomani.

Preferences

According to Nasse and Zigori (1968) the best native Albanian wine varieties are Debine (noir and blanche), Kallmet, Mereshnik, Mjaltez, Serine (rouge and blanche), Shesh i Bardhe, and Vlosh. The best wine producing areas are around Berat, Korca, Tirana, Durrës and between Lezha and Shkodra.

See also

• Rakia
• Cuisine of Albania
• Old World wine
• Andrea Shundi

External links

• KVVVSH - Consortium of Wine Growers and Wine Makers of Northern Albania Official Site
• Albanian Wines Portal
• Albanian Association of Sommeliers
• Some Brands of Albanian Wine