International wine exhibition “Wine Days 2022” in Vilnius. Photo of Judita Grigelytė (VŽ).
May 10 and 11 In Vilnius, at the “Litexpo” exhibition and conference center, the beverage exhibition “Vyno dienos” is being held. Drinks will be presented by producers and distributors in its common space, and over 30 tastings, presentations, and awards are scheduled in the educational part.
Vilnius, May 9 (BNS). On Thursday, the Seimas adopted amendments to the Law on Alcohol Control, which liberalized alcohol trade and advertising.
59 members of the Seimas voted for the changes presented by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, 25 were against, and 11 abstained.
According to liberal Andrias Bagdon, many good results can be achieved with smaller bans.
“Laisvietis” Vytautas Mitalas emphasized that the layoffs are small, allowing equal competition.
“Products of natural fermentation up to 15 degrees will be available for sale at fairs, not just chemically colored cider,” said V. Mitala.
“Valstietis” Aurelijs Veryga criticized that the changes contradict the goals set by the state regarding the reduction of alcohol consumption.
Social democrat Algirdas Sys was indignant that the amendments aim to create better business conditions for young families: “They will destroy other young families.”
The Seimas allowed the sale of alcohol with a strength of up to 15 degrees at fairs, exhibitions and mass events, instead of only beer and cider with a strength of up to 7.5 degrees, as has been the case so far. As a result, the sale of weak alcoholic cocktails, wine, sparkling wine, liqueurs, and mead is currently not allowed at such events.
The amendments also eased the conditions for licenses to sell alcohol – they will not be issued as long as there is an unexpired criminal record. Until now, convicted persons could not receive them at all.
The Seimas also canceled part of the types of one-time licenses for alcohol production, instead of nine, three types were introduced – according to the strength of the drinks. Now the five licenses are one-time, issued for trade at various events and fairs.
The Parliament also legalized the donation of alcohol to the representation, created more favorable competitive conditions for merchants selling different drinks at events.
Alcohol advertising will not be considered on Internet platforms, for example, “Bolt Food” or “Wolt” publishes alcohol-related information and information about food and alcoholic beverage combination sets, awards received by companies, beverage production technologies, traditions.
Currently, there is an absolute ban on alcohol advertising, so only information about labeling, country of origin or producer can be published. This information is published only on the official websites of manufacturers and dealers.
The Seimas also allowed the organization of tastings in alcohol production facilities. Tastings are currently only allowed at fairs and exhibitions.
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Since 2005 The ongoing “Wine Days” eventually evolved into the largest beverage exhibition in the Baltic States, where alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and gourmet products are presented by distributors and manufacturers from Italy, France, Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, and other countries.
According to wine expert Arūnas Starkaus, the founder of “Vyno klubas”, which organizes the exhibition, Lithuanian wine distributors “Bottlery”, “Vynoteka”, “Vyno klubas”, “Prike”, IKI, “Tridens”, “Aibė” are participating in it this year. There are also specialized local sellers of national wine: “Gadara”, which transports Armenian wine to Lithuania, “Qvevri Wine” from Sakartvelo, “Wine and Wood” from Moldova.
Traditionally, representatives of wineries and other beverage producers will work at distributors’ stands. According to the organizers, a group of participants from the most important wine-producing countries are coming to the exhibition, so it is worth visiting the national stands of Winetrade Austria, the Bulgarian Wine Export Association, etc. Lithuanian beverage producers will present themselves at the National Stand.
Education comes first
Drinks will be tasted in 4 separate halls, where thematic seminars and tastings will be conducted by experts. Scheduled lectures include “Natural Wines: Classic or Punk Rock?”, “Old and New Beer Styles,” “1855 Bordeaux Grands Cru Classés“, “Tasting with the best sommelier of Sarkartvel”, “Champagne tasting from Grand Cru and Premier Cru villages” etc.
18 years ago, “Wine Days” was conceived as an educational event and has not lost its idea until now – the exhibition operates according to the rules recommended by the “Wine in Moderation” association and encourages experts working at stands to help visitors expand their knowledge. It is no coincidence that first-time participants are invited to start the exhibition with the “Introductory Tasting” lectures of the Lithuanian Sommelier School.
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The first “Wine Days”, named the wine festival, took place in May 2005 at the Contemporary Art Center. Then Rasa Starkus, the director of the “Wine Club”, said when introducing the event: “The wine festival is not organized to make the masses drunk with wine, but to give people the opportunity to taste it, get to know them, and learn about them.”
Now R. Starkus reminds that drinks are not sold at the exhibition, and visitors under the age of 20 will not be admitted to Litexpo.
The best from Lithuania
In the last few years, the ranks of Lithuanian winemakers have been growing quite rapidly, as evidenced by one of the most important highlights of “Wine Days” – the Lithuanian Wine and Mead Championship awards organized by the Lithuanian Sommelier Association (LSA).
According to Armins Darasevičius, the president of LSA, this year half a dozen professional winemakers and amateurs submitted over 160 Lithuanian wines, ciders and meads to the championship. Almost half of them were worthy of gold, silver, bronze medals.
“The Lithuanian wine industry is evolving rapidly. The quality of grape wine is improving every year, and the variety of grape varieties that are capable of ripening berries in Lithuania is growing,” says A. Darasevičius.
Ramūnas Pilvelis, president of the Lithuanian Grape Growers Association and owner of the Vitis company, estimates that over 100 ha of wine grape varieties have been planted in Lithuania over the past year. The largest vineyards cover an area of 2.5-4 hectares and are already starting to yield.
Local winemakers will present their products at the stand of Lithuanian winemakers. Ernesta Palubinskienė, the manager of the exhibition, mentions that their list will be supplemented this year by “Geri mati”, “Ilzenberg dvaras”, “Vyno kai”, “Šušvės midus”, “Saulės midus” and other producers.
Vote not only for wine
VŽ wrote that this year the exhibition was widely heard in social networks and the media due to the ambitious slogan “Vote for wine”, which the organizers chose due to the coincidence of the date of the exhibition with the presidential elections. Not only the president’s, the referendum on dual citizenship and Eurovision will be held next weekend in May.
However, the outdoor advertising company rejected the layout with such a slogan, although, according to the organizers, it “encourages not consumption, but freedom of choice, the courage to look at wine as a cultural, economic, agricultural, gastronomic phenomenon.”
Since the slogan of the exhibition calls for voting, there will also be a real vote: visitors will be invited to choose when the National Wine Day can be celebrated in Lithuania.
According to A. Starkaus, “the world has an international wine day, wine-producing countries also celebrate their national wine day. Lithuania is already a wine-producing country, so it’s time for us to include in the calendar the people working in this sphere and the date that reminds us of their work”.
The creators of the idea offer to choose from three days: October 24, the first small winemaker’s license was issued in Lithuania on that day; December 7, when Lithuania was recognized by the European Union as a viticulture country; November 12th is the birthday of Lithuanian grape variety breeder Antanas Gailiūnas.
Exhibition opening on Friday, May 10. 12 o’clock Litexpo Exhibition and Convention Center, program here.
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