There are not too many countries in the world which would have special soil qualities and climatic conditions to cultivate an industrial vine, and later use it for wine production. In 2004 the International committee of wine-makers includes Kazakhstan to the list of countries with dynamically developing and perspective branch – viticulture and wine-making. The republic has occupied the 7th place among countries of post soviet space, which have proper vineyards and wine-making industry. This fact places Kazakhstan in the equal conditions with the countries, which have a developed infrastructure of wine-making, satiating proper markets and directed to export..
First information about vine culture in Kazakhstan (in the high-water bed of the rivers Chu and Talas) is corresponded to VII and VIII centuries. The vine was brought to Kazakhstan from the adjacent regions of middle Asia. On the territory of ancient Kulan (Lugovaya station) archaeologists found a wine-making workshop. Pressing platform, tuns, wine-cellar with capacity 4000 l. were preserved there. This testifies that the wine was produced not only for domestic consumption, but also for selling.
Modern history of wine-making began in the 1930s years in the wine-making collective farms and state farms of Almaty, Chimkent and Dzhambul. It developed successfully enough and had quite good prospects. The experience of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine were widely used for the branch formation. All achievements of a famous institute of viticulture and wine-making “Magarach” in Yalta were at the Kazakhstan wine-makers service. And, of course, favorable climatic conditions for the vine cultivation both in the South, and in the submountain zone of Zailiskiy Alatau.
In 1976 the territory of 22 311 hectares in Kazakhstan was occupied by vineyards, and wine was produced in 26 special economies. The best regions for the production of high-quality sparkling and table wines are the Tien Shan spurs in the Dzhambul, Almaty and Chimkent regions, where the main part of vineyards is concentrated.
Vineyards, lying in the valleys, specialize in the production of sweet wine.
By the year 1985 from each hectare of wine-grower the harvest consists of 200-250 tons was received, consequently the level of the famous Californian economy was achieved. And wine industry produced a diversity of ordinary and vintage wines of high-quality, which were delivered for export. A destructive state antialcoholic campaign of 1985-1990 years did harm seriously to the branch. The vineyards were not cut down, but wine-making enterprise had to be reshaped, reconstructed to the production of juices. That was hard enough to it because the production of juices differs greatly from the wine production.
The vine unimportance during these years damaged the source of raw materials.
The final blow was delivered by the program of privatization, conducted in the 90s., when the vineyards were parted into allotments and fell into nonexperts hands, who were buying up not production but lands.
In 1990s on the 17 000 hectares 270 000 hectoliters of wine were produced. Today the total area of vineyards in Kazakhstan composes approximately 15 000 hectares.
Undoubted advantage of the vineyards is that practically all of them are own-rooted. In Kazakhstan the following technical kinds of vine are cultivated: Kuldzhinskiy, Riesling, Pino black, Saperavi, Aligote, Bayan Shyrei, Muscat pink, Muscat purple, Maiskiy chernyi, Aleatiko, Matrasa.
In the 2001 the program of reconstruction and development of viticulture and wine-making was approved by the government of Kazakhstan on the period till 2010
But in two years already it became clear, that the program couldn’t be realized, as it had no strong material and technical basis. This year a new program was prepared by the Kazakhstan union of wine-makers and directed for consideration to the government. This program foresees the development of industrial viticulture and its approaching to the level of 1985 according to the indices of croppage.
