The 2013 Top Prize for special merits in winemaking and winegrowing was conferred to AMPELOS SRL from Stefan Voda for making wine of a high quality, propagating the excellent quality of the Moldovan wines and promoting Moldova’s image abroad, IPN reports.

Founded in 2002, AMPELOS SRL is a private company that is a member of the Association of Small Wine Producers. According to Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, the company achieved remarkable results and won numerous prizes at different international and national exhibitions and contests.

The company has over 51 hectares of vineyards and a modern wine factory. In 2012- 2013, it made investments of 11 million lei. Its net incomes last year totaled 5 million lei.

The Top Prize for special merits in winemaking and winegrowing represents a gold statue of a flying stork carrying a bunch of grapes. It will be handed over within the National Wine Day holiday that is held on October 5-6.

The Government also decided to allocate 250,000 lei from its reserve fund for organizing the National Wine Day. The celebrations were estimated to cost about 1.3 million lei.