The Guardian: Albanian Summer Renaissance

The only place in the world where you can drink a cold glass “Cruja” is at Uka Farm, a biodynamic vinedresser and restaurant near Tirana airport. Near the Lake of Ulusa, in northern Albania, unusual grape vineyards climb berries and gather only once in a few years.

Albania may not be known for the summer, but this is slowly changing, as wine producers such as Flori Uka, who has bought the entire amount of grapes”Ceruja”, began making a name in the industry.

The site, positioned near the Adriatic Sea, was almost entirely unattainable for foreigners until 1991, and imposed state co-operatives (as of 1950) produced only two types of wine, red and white. Nowadays, the country is seeing the rebirth of numerous vineyards in 30 wine factories.

In the shadow of Berat's castle, similar to Disney's and protected by U NESTO, Muharrem Cobo, since 1994, has been growing rare Albanian grapes. Cobo's ancestors, despite being old wine producers, had been forbidden to produce wine during the period of communism. He's taking up lost time experimenting with some “micro-ferminme” of 100 bottles annually.

From one vineyard, Chobo has reborn another type of vines called the White Puls. It has a strong taste of crayons and the aroma of fire combined with the olives of Berat, which it serves during the summer debuts in the cellar. After taking the sample of his 12-day gaze, we open a bottle of” Shendever”, with an explosive taste fermented like champagne, which is better than anything I've tried.

However, there is still a brand issue here.

When I introduced Uka's summer farm to local restaurants, it's Albanian production, we'll pay only 2 euros per bottle. Each year Albania produces only one million bottles of wine in a country of three million people, while importing 50m euros in Italian wine.”, Flori Uka says.

But with this new generation of wine producers, this situation will not continue during”, the” The Guardian” concludes.