Wine As Weapon
You rarely see wine used as a blunt instrument. The stuff is just too satisfying to relegate to the status of expendable weapon.
Yet, this is what is apparently happening in Russia where that country is using wine as a weapon in a political disagreement with the former Soviet States of Moldavia and Georgia.
Beginning on May 1, Russia will ban importation of all Moldavian and Georgian wine. These two country each send over 80% of their wine production to Russia. The reason: Russian health officials found high levels of pesticides and metals in the wine. This, of course, is wrong and is merely the "official" reason given for an act meant to punish two states that have recently begun acting on their own far more often and audaciously than their large neighbor and former "owner" would like.
The ban, if kept in place, will devastate these two countries’ wine industries, both of which are old, well established and just now beginning to see some recognition in the West.
It’s these kind of stories that remind me that it’s good to be an American. n
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