Like a short story, a sip of wine has a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning is looking and smelling. The middle is from the time you put the wine in your mouth until you swallow.
The end is all the tastes and sensations that happen after you swallow.
As a wine country, Macedonia has a rich wine history – very old and very young at the same time. While traveling through Macedonia you will meet many people who work their profession with love and dedication.
As a small and modest country, Macedonia offers huge opportunities for people who love the viticulture and the wine production.
Many may already know Sasko Atanasov, the man who dedicated his life to viticulture and the promotion of good and quality Macedonian wine.
Sasko is known for his work in the winery “Chateau Sopot”, but for many of us the fact that he actually grew up in the village of Vatasha, Kavadarci region it is unknown.
He says that in this village in the Tikvesh region everyone is engaged in viticulture, which is one of the main sources of income for existence.
Like all the other families, Sashko’s family was engaged in this culture that encourages him to appreciate and love the viticulture and the wine production.
As the time passes by, he gets the idea to get engaged with tourism and hospitality and on that way to promote Macedonia on the world wine map.
With constant training and further education he manages to reach the third level of the WSET program on which he is currently focused.
Sashko says that Macedonia has always been a country that produces quality wine. The most important thing is to understand that the wine culture is not a ‘lesson’ we learn once in a lifetime but it is a way of life.
He is happy that in the last decade the quality of the Macedonian wine is getting better and also for the fact that the number of new family wineries in the country is constantly growing.
On one hand, it is a stimulus for the economy, and on the other hand, the Macedonian consumer is educated about the quality of the wine.
As one of the more experienced, Sashko says that foreign tourists are interested for the Macedonian wine and some of them are already familiar with the fact that we have quality wine, and those who are not after arriving in the country are very impressed.
“A huge number of wineries and restaurants that offer wine tasting speak about the interest for the Macedonian wines. Macedonia can offer different concepts of wineries from huge wineries and small boutique wineries, super modern wineries and small family wineries, which together make a great wine mosaic that satisfies everyone’s taste” said Sasko.
The biggest promoters of our country are the Macedonian wine and the Macedonian specialties. According to Sasko, Macedonian winemakers will focus on a greater care for the primary production, so that each oenologist will start preparing his wine on the plantations.
Only good grapes can produce good wine.
According to him, the future is in the small boutique wineries.
He is very happy that many young people in Macedonia have started making wine and he is sure that they will be successful.
The wine needs a lot of attention throughout the whole process, from the production itself, the storage to its serving.
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