Tradition that goes back 3,000 years but is only just reaching Merseyside

It's not the first country you'd think of when you're browsing the shelves

When you think of wine-producing countries, the first places which probably come into your head are nations such as France, Spain, Italy or, looking further afield, Chile and Australia. You almost certainly won't think of the currently war-torn country of Ukraine, where women tending the vineyards near the front line with Russia are having to contend with bombs dropping near them on a daily basis.

In order an attempt to highlight Ukrainian wine, which is little-known outside of Eastern Europe, Chris Dace, owner of Dace Tearoom on College Road, Crosby, is hosting a Ukrainian wine tasting this Friday, March 21. He says that some of the stories he's heard from Ukrainian wineries are 'absolutely devastating'.

Speaking to the ECHO, Chris said: "I’ve been doing wine tastings for over 10 years in the shop - we’ve been open for 11 years. It’s always good to start doing different things, and explore strange and unusual sorts of tastings.

"Ukrainian wine making goes back over 3000 years. It’s nothing very new but the unique situation in Ukraine is that it was part of the Soviet Union until relatively recently and, therefore, the wines never left the country.

"Even after the USSR, when Ukraine became its own country, its biggest market was Russia and its domestic market. What’s happened in the last couple of years, with the war, is that that market just isn’t there for them anymore.

"They’ve all had to find new markets so that means places such as the UK, USA and countries like that. We’re just starting to see more Ukrainian wine in the UK but it’s obviously a tough gig for them because they’re competing against so many other wine-producing countries that everyone recognises."

He continued: "I started looking into the wines and some of the stories are absolutely devastating. Many wineries have literally been bombed and no longer exist. Most of them are family vineyards so the men of fighting age have gone off to fight, so the situation is really difficult.

"Right at the start of the war, the country’s only glass-producing plant got bombed and the country then hasn’t been able to produce their own bottles. Bottles are having to be imported from Poland and that brings a greater expense.

"Some of the vineyards are very near to the front line, so you’ve got all these women now who are working in the vineyards, tending the vines on a daily basis, and they’ve got bombs going off near to them. Some of them are away from the front line and, thankfully, don’t have that issue to worry about.

"The more you read into it, the more you learn about how many Ukrainian businesses, for obvious reasons, have gone under. They’re being taxed crazy amounts because the country needs to feed the war effort. So basically all of their profits are going to fighting the Russians.

"So this event is about giving them some support and encouraging them to produce and carry on as normally as they can. There’s obviously many ways you can support Ukraine, but this feels like a more direct way of supporting the actual country.

"I’m working with the Ukrainian Wine Company, which was set up in the UK around 18 months ago. It’s run by a couple of Ukrainian guys in London and they’re now supplying lots of places, providing an outlet for Ukrainian wines in the UK."

Chris went into detail about what differentiates Ukrainian wine from other wines around the globe. He said: "From a wine point of view, some of the wines are made with indigenous grape varieties which I’d never heard of before, and it’s really interesting wine tasting.

"It’s something a bit different. There are some wines which are a little bit more unusual; we’ve got a sweet red wine to taste on Friday and, like I say, they have some indigenous grape varieties, which only come from Ukraine.

"They obviously also use grape varieties which are internationally known too, so it’s really a mix of everything. There’s some wines which they mix with fruit juice and all that sort of stuff, but we’re not into that - we’re just into the wine."

To find out more about Dace Tearoom, visit their Facebook here. They can be found at 134 College Rd, Crosby L23 3DP.