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Do you think alcohol can help a person? I don’t know about you, but once wine helped me get a hotel room.
Many people remember the time when alcohol was the people’s “currency” in the Soviet Union. Vodka could be exchanged for goods, and for a drink and a simple snack, a plumber could easily fix a leak in the bathroom or change the sink.
This is a story from a subscriber Sergey from distant sunny Turkmenistan.
How two bottles of Turkmen wine opened the hotel doors for me
It was in the distant eighties. I had to go on a business trip to one of the Russian cities for the first time, and my friends advised me to take two bottles of Turkmen wine with me. The wines of Turkmenistan were then famous throughout the Soviet Union and were in short supply outside the republic.
I arrived late in the evening, it was raining, the weather was bad. After a long flight, I was damn tired, I wanted to rest. We had to get to the hotel urgently.
But, unfortunately, there are no available rooms in the hotel. No matter how I tried to persuade the administrator, even offered money, nothing helped. It was almost midnight, I was sitting alone in the lobby, and the administrator asked me:
— Are you from Turkmenistan, right?
Yes, I answered.
— You have good wines there.
And then it dawned on me, I have two bottles of Chemen wine in my suitcase.
“Yes,” I said, “we have excellent wines, and I just have a present for you.”
Having said this, I took out the wine from the suitcase and put it on the table. He began to refuse, but I insisted, and finally, the administrator took my “present”.
And then, as if by magic, there was a free room, and clean linen, and everything else in addition. This is how two bottles of Turkmen wine prevented the author of these lines from staying on the street in an unfamiliar city in the rain.
The most famous Turkmen wines from the times of the USSR
The most popular were: white port wine “Chemen” and Madeira “Sahra”, with a volume of 0,7 liters, popularly called “bomb”. They were inexpensive (the state price of a 0,7 liter bottle of Chemen was only 2 rubles 10 kopecks, and Sakhra cost 2 rubles 90 kopecks), and they could often be found on festive and wedding tables.
At that time there was even such a saying: “Whoever does not drink Chemen is not a gentleman!” Currently, such wines are no longer produced.
Of particular note is Madeira Kopetdag (a bottle cost 5 rubles), a glass of which was once offered to passengers of Turkmen Airlines during long-haul flights. The author of these lines in 1998, when traveling to Moscow, was lucky to taste this wine on board.
Now a 0,7 liter bottle of Kopetdag vintage wine costs 24 manats, which, in terms of dollars at the state rate, will be 6 dollars 80 cents.
In Soviet times, the State Agrarian Industry of the Turkmen SSR produced more than 20 types of wine, the famous Turkmen cognac and balsam. Many of them could be found on store shelves, but there were also those that were considered a scarce commodity.
Turkmen cognac is the pride of the winemakers of Turkmenistan
The famous “label” of winemakers was Turkmen cognac, which was highly valued in the Soviet Union.
I do not want to be biased, but at one time I tried many strong drinks produced in the republics of the USSR: Armenian, Azerbaijani, Moldovan and Uzbek cognacs and I can say that the cognac produced in Turkmenistan surpassed them all. Although it is, of course, to my taste.
On the brandy label there was an image of a Turkmen girl in national dress with baskets of grapes. Therefore, the people called him “Bibidzhan” (Bibidzhan is a Turkmen female name).
It rarely appeared on sale and immediately sold out, although it was expensive (13 rubles 80 kopecks). Now it can be bought in Turkmenistan for 35 manats ($10 according to the state rate) in any supermarket.
I have a separate story connected with Turkmen cognac. In the late 80s, my classmate got married and invited everyone to a wedding in the city of Termez.
Someone went by train, someone traveled by bus, but my friend Shakir and I decided to fly by plane. He assured me that he could get tickets for a surcharge for a certain amount through a friend at the air ticket office in Tashkent airport.
On the morning of departure, we arrived at the airport, and Shakir went to fuss about a ticket. He was gone for a long time, but soon he came and said that he still had to “pay extra” for the tickets.
I was carrying several bottles of Turkmen cognac with me as a wedding gift, and I had to “donate” one of them to get the coveted tickets. Of course, it was a pity to lose cognac, but we were able to fly away. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it to the wedding.
An even rarer guest in stores and on festive tables was Turkmen balsam with a strength of 45 degrees. Infused with medicinal herbs of the Karakum and the foothills of the Kopetdag, the viscous, fragrant and strong drink could be added to coffee or tea. The bottle cost 10 rubles. 80 kop.
How Turkmen winemakers survived dry law in the 80s and entered the international level
Gorbachev’s Decree on Combating Alcoholism was a big blow for Turkmen winemakers.
Dozens of hectares of vineyard then went under the knife of bulldozers. But, despite this, people were able to save the most valuable local grape varieties and revive the Turkmen vine.
Glory to the Almighty, these years are behind us, and our wine industry is now flourishing day by day. To date, several dozen varieties of solar berries are grown, and the wines of Turkmenistan take prizes at international winemaking competitions.
Not so long ago at the international competition “Yalta. Golden Griffon 2016, President cognac and Yasman-Salyk white wine were awarded the Grand Prix, and Kopetdag, Gara Uzum and Shanly Diyar wines received gold medals.
The generous sun of Turkmenistan, under the rays of which the grapes ripen and saturate, as well as the fertile soil, which gives life-giving moisture to the vine, are integral components of local wines and cognacs. It is they who give an amazing, rich taste and rich, refined aroma.
The last time I was on a business trip to Russia was in 2010. There were five of us, and each of us took several bottles of Turkmen wine and cognac as a gift.
But not in order to get a hotel room, but for colleagues to appreciate the taste of our sunny berry. We gave them not just alcohol, but a piece of our region, tightly sealed in Turkmen wines.
Did you even know about the existence of Turkmen winemaking? Have you tried authentic alcohol?