Mild winter causes early maturation of vine

Mild winter causes early maturation of vine, the www.vin-moldova.md website announces. Given that meteorologists do not forecast serious frosts in the current winter, in many raions plantation pruning works have begun. Traditionally, vine pruning starts in late February or early March, when frost hazard is unlikely. According to specialists, vine buds do not resist temperatures below -17 C°. Frosts down to -30 C° have been registered in the last year, affecting to a certain extent Moldova’s vineyards. This is why the grapes crop constituted only 250,000 tonnes. This year though, if no similar frosts occur, specialists forecast a yield of at least 560,000 tones of grapes. At present, vineyards occupy about 146,000 ha, 40,000 of which are part of the population’s individual farms and the rest are industrial plantations. The annual output of industrial wines constitutes about 20 to 25 mln dekalitres (1 dekalitre is equal to 10 litres). Moldova is the only country in the world which exports up to 95% of its total production of industrial wine, because the majority of the population has the possibility to produce and consume home-made wine. 2006 hasn’t been a very fruitful year, because of frost in the last winter. However, on the other hand, thanks to the exceptionally sunny summer, the quality of wines has been an exceptional one over the last 10 or 20 years.