Chateau Vartely General Director Valeriu Mihălută confirmed that many wineries have given up producing Pastoral because even the domestic market does not consume it in the same quantities and competition is very high. The decline in its popularity was due to unscrupulous businessmen who in the 1990s and early 2000s falsified Pastoral for profit. It was made not from Cabernet-Sauvignon, as it was customary in our republic, but from “Moldova” grapes and fortified with grain alcohol. The quality of “Cahor” was badly spoiled, so many consumers lost interest in it.
“However, we believe that Pastoral is too early to write off,” says Mihălutse. – On the contrary, we note an increase in demand because the product has been appreciated in Africa. In particular, it sells well in Nigeria, which has become its main export market. We also supply it to Cote d’Ivoire and Japan. We produce Pastoral only from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, according to the classic technology, using long aging on the must (up to one and a half months). We add grape alcohol to the pulp (not to the must) for greater extraction. The wine is very rich, like an essence. This technology is more expensive, because it involves more alcohol consumption, because part of it remains in the grape pomace after pressing. But the quality of the wine is much better compared to other methods. You get a product with a high content of resveratrol and other useful polyphenols. It’s not only a great dessert or digestif, but it’s also healthy in moderation.”
Chateau Vartely produces Pastoral from each harvest, about 150,000 bottles. Up to 15% of them are sold in Moldova. And not only for Easter, but all year round, because there are consumers who know, remember and appreciate the real “Cagor”/ Pastoral. This year the company has increased the selling price of this product because of the expensive energy carriers. According to Mr. Mihălutse, almost every year they do not have enough volume of this wine. In the new season they plan to produce more, so that next year they can increase the Pastoral bottling up to 200 thousand bottles.
Pastoral from Chateau Vartely costs about 130 lei in stores. However, before Easter, for example, in supermarkets “Nr1”, it was sold for 59 lei on promotion. Similar attractions of unprecedented generosity could be observed in many stores. The prices were even lower than 50 lei. Let us remind you that Pastoral can be called a wine with 16% strength and 160 g/cu.dm sugar content.
In some wineries, shortly before Easter, first “Cahor” and then Pastoral were consecrated at a special church service. At the Cricova winery this tradition has been preserved. According to the general director Sorin Maslo, the Pastoral consecration ceremony for the company is held not for marketing purposes, but as a tribute to tradition. The service is attended by the employees. The wines that have been bottled and those that are still in containers, i.e. all batches, are consecrated. Therefore, when the counter-label says that the wine is blessed, it is indeed so.
Cricova continues to produce four types of Pastoral. The best-selling of them is Pastoral Vintage. It costs 105 lei in the company’s stores and 80 lei on the occasion of the holiday.
“In the last season we produced all types of Pastoral about 20% less compared to the previous harvest,” says Sorin Maslo. – This is due to the fact that we harvested 40% less grapes. When it was allocated to the segments, Pastoral was allocated a little bit more, not in proportion to the reduced harvest. We tried to support this product. Since the 2024 production was slightly cheaper than in 2023, we tried not to raise prices, and in some cases we gave certain discounts to our partners during the Easter holidays.”
Approximately 70% of all Pastoral wines from Cricova are sold in Moldova, with the rest exported to Romania, the US and Canada. For the past few years, the total sales volume has been maintained. The company has drawn up a production plan for the 2025 processing season, in which they have determined the amount of grapes for Pastoral at the level of 2023 (i.e. more than in 2024).
In 2023, Pastoral from Apriori Wine entered the market. And this year, the wine’s name changed to Vin Liturgic dulce. Founder Adrian Pascaru said that two years ago, in collaboration with Imperial Vin Group, they produced only one batch of aged Pastoral for Easter and sold it. Since then, the price of energy, the share of which in the production cost of classic Pastoral is high, has risen significantly. It was difficult for the company to offer a competitive price for this wine if the technology was respected. Moldovan consumers are not ready to pay for expensive Pastoral. For them this wine is a part of Easter tradition, that is why there is almost no category of “liqueur wines” in Moldova, which would be drunk all the year round. But in other countries there is one.
“That’s why we made another product from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes – not a liqueur wine, but a sweet wine. Its conditioning is different from Pastoral. The new wine contains 13.5% alcohol and 80 g/l sugar, which allows it to be sold at an affordable price. The consumer accepted both the product itself and its price (60-70 lei)”.
AlcoMarket, the largest chain of specialized stores in RM (88 stores, 65 of which are in Chisinau) sells Pastoral from six producers all year round in all stores of the chain. According to the head of the marketing department Alina Fortunatova, despite the fact that about 80% of sales of this wine fall on Easter holidays, it is not removed from the shelves, because there are fans who buy Pastoral all year round. Prices for these wines range from 70 to 385 lei for a collection wine from the 2001 vintage (Chateau Cojușna).
