Like art, music and literature, -wine appreciation is a subject of aesthetics. What is your poison? ~ fruity, heady, perfumed, flowery or a woody bouquet ? Are you a red, white or Rose drinker? Do you partake in dry, sweet or semi sweet? Does your allegiance lie with a Pinotage, Muscat or Reisling. Or do you only quaff 'a glasson a special occasion?

The making of wine can be traced back along parts of the Silk Road, though it is uncertain as to whether vines originated in the East or the West. Long before the abbey monk Dom Perignon created champagne, grapes were used to adorn bodies ready for burial. In later years, large cylindrical storage tanks housed prized wine, which was sealed with a layer of olive oil, preventing air from coming into contact with the wine.

In 1915 a French winemaker came to Uzbekistan, and on tasting the quality of the grapes, remarked how closely they resembled the grapes from Champagne, hence the name Shampan in Parkent.
Today trellised vineyards produce row after row of succulent grapes, nestled by the Tien Shan mountain range. Pruning which is completed in winter governs the size of the vine and number of bunches. Good wine depends on the quality of the crop, which is affected by weather conditions. Late spring frosts can damage early growth on the vine, too cold a temperature at the flowering stage can prevent full pollination and humidity may bring disease. Colder climates produce a harvest with a lower sugar, but a higher fruit acid content, which results in best wines.

From time of planting it takes 4-years for a new vineyard to bear fruit. Farmers are solely reliant on rain for irrigation and as nature differs from year to year, so wine follows suit. The vineyards in Zarkent were planted 30 years ago. Each Isq. km of vineyard, yielding 100-180 tons of grapes.

In the cool hours of the early morning, between September and October, specially coated lined trucks arrive from the vineyards, carrying between 2-4 tons of hand picked grapes. Its here that winemakcr Mr. Abidov Abdurakhman heads up the fermentaion plant. The cool air helps retain the freshness and fruitiness of the grapes, whilst they are transported to the weighing stations. Once weighed, the grapes are rolled directly into the receiving bin. Here they are conveyed by a worm or screw mechanism into the crusher. The days when men trod the grape skins barefoot, enabling the grape skins to be crushed without crushing the pips, have ceased to exist here.

Today the grapes are crushed in an egrapoir in which the berries are separated from the stalks by spirally arranged metal spokes on a spinning axis. They then are crushed between 2 inert rubber rollers. In red wine making the stalks are automatically expelled at the far end of the crusher while in white wine the stems remain to facilitate drainage. At this stage the crushed grape, or must, is naturally saturated with air. Sulphureous anhydride and bentonite solutions are introduced to help control destructive oxidation, wild yeast's and bacteria which could spoil the wine. Once the must leaves the crushers, red and white grapes receive different treatment. Contact with the skins is kept to a minimum, allowing for correct colour and minimum acidity. The pulp is then pumped to closed fermentation tanks for 2-3 months where the miracle of fermentation takes place, converting the grape sugar into.

Alcohol and carbon dioxide, resulting in the creation called wine.
Fermentation takes between 14-21 days depending on the vintage. Vinification and the style of the winemaker will determine the final wine, which could be sparkling, sweet, dry, red, white, rose or fortified. Just as an artist skillfully blends and mixes colours on a palette, so the wine makers' blend varying types of grapes from both Tashkent and Samarkand. Blending in no way denotes inferior quality, rather to the contrary, successes like Champagne and Bordeaux are a result of such blended grapes.

On completion of fermentation the wine is taken to the town of Krasnogorsk in the Angren region. Here the blending and bottling plant Sun Wine, completes the automated process.

Bottles, sourced in Kazakhstan make their way down the automated plant, where they are initially sterilized. 40 bottles move to the filler, and filled in such a way that as the wine level rises, the air is driven out. Hence the name "vacuity" for the space between the wine level and the lowest point that will be reached by cap or cork. During corking a vacuum creates a suction force actually helping to pull the cork into the bottle. The compressed cork is inserted with the assistance of a plunger, which strikes the top of the cork, at a speed that the cork cannot expand until it is in its proper position in the bottleneck. Cork is used for wine manufacture, and plastic stoppers are used for sparkling wine. The lead or plastic cover known as the capsule and labeling conclude the automation procedure. White grapes: Rekacitely, Bayan-shirey and Kuldjinsky and red grapes, Tayfy, are used for the making of Caberae, Sapiravy and Pino wines. SunWine produce both wine and sparkling wine drinks. Shirak a newly blended dry red wine made its debut in October this year. A wine of masterfully blended grapes has produced a subtle combination of colour, bouquet and flavour. Their red and white sparkling wine is soon to be exported to New York. Wine should be stored in dark cool premises - temperature +120C, +160C. Red wine should be served at the temperature at which it is stored in the cellar, approximately 160C. White wine should be chilled at +100C. So whether you raise your glass and toast by saying, "A votre Sante", "Lechaim", "Skol", Gesundheit", or "To your health", enjoy.