Alcohol From A Country That Doesn't Exist, Part II: Eureka!

A little over a month ago I wrote about my 1.5 year search for KVINT, the main export of the breakaway territory of Transnistria.  My search had seen many dead ends, including their east coast distributor in the US.  And now I sit here drinking it.  I FINALLY FOUND IT!

Shortly after that article, as one last ditch effort, I emailed their importer in Seattle, WA.  I had emailed them before, and even called a few times only to get no answer or call-back.  This time?  I got a reply!  They gave me the phone number of their distributor in Denver.  DENVER.  My city!  I called the guy, and he told me that Stockade Wines & Liquors at Parker & Yale had several types of KVINT, in addition to a lot of other hard-to-find-in-the-US Moldovan spirits. 

I was leery at first.  I had once driven a total of 3 hours (round trip) to a liquor store that told me they carried KVINT, only to find some non-KVINT on their shelves.  But when I arrived, I found this:

Stockade Wines & Liquors, I love you.

Holy awesome, Batman!  Three types of KVINT!  Which do I buy?!  I went with SURPRISE XO, as it is one of their fancier products.  Might as well go for the best*, right? 

I'm not a brandy/cognac connoisseur, and any review I give is coming from a scotch/whiskey perspective, but here goes.  It's good!  Much sweeter than whiskey, but still quite strong.  It has a nice flavor.  I'm pleasantly surprised, and VERY excited to be drinking something that was made in Transnistria - a country that doesn't really exist! 

Photo time!

It comes in a fancy cardboard box.

Surprise indeed!

This is the bottle inside.

Moldovan Cognac, Imported

That's right.  It's made in Transnistria, and Moldova gets all the credit.  I guess that's the deal when your country isn't globally recognized.

So there you have it.  My quest has come to a successful end! :)


*No, oldest + most expensive doesn't always mean the best.  But... it's a starting place.

Alcohol From A Country That Doesn't Exist

Transnistria!
Since first hearing about Transnistria a few years ago, I have been fascinated by it.  It's a breakaway territory in Moldova, along part of the border with Ukraine.  To over simplify it, in the early '90s Transnistria decided it was no longer part of Moldova, and Moldova disagreed.  (Transnistria had previously claimed to be part of the USSR, but then the USSR fell and Transnistria was stuck with Moldova.) The cease-fire in 1992 seems to pretty much let Transnistria think of itself as independent while not actually being such.  According to wikipedia, "It is organized as a presidential republic, with its own government, parliament, military, police, postal system, and currency. Its authorities have adopted a constitution, flag, national anthem, and a coat of arms."  Locally the country is called Приднестровская Молдавская Республика (Pridnestróvskaia Moldávskaia Respública aka PMR).

Transnistria!

Desolation Travel, easily one of my favorite blogs, has two articles on Transnistria.  They also have a far better look at the country, its history, its current state, etc.  Check them out here and here.

KVINT
Since the place is a bit of an abnormality, I decided that I need to try its most famous export: KVINT.  (A noble sentiment for sure.) KVINT is a wine and brandy distillery in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.  According to their website their name is an abbreviation of "Коньяки, вина и напитки Тирасполя", the Russian phrase for "Brandies, Wines and Beverages of Tiraspol".  You can tour the factory in Tiraspol... but I'm in the United States with no current plans to travel to Transnistria.  So begins my quest for KVINT!

Where exactly does one find brandy from Transnistria in the US?  There are two phone numbers of US distributors on their website, but no one seems to answer them... ever.  I sent an email to the one on the east coast, which happened to be about an hour from my house at the time, and a few days later they did get back to me asking what I'm looking for and in what quantities.  But just prior to receiving that email, I found information on a wine store in New Jersey that listed KVINT on its website... Sounds promising!

I called the store to verify that they did indeed have a KVINT product in stock, they said yes, I hopped in my car, drove an hour-ish to the store, asked the store employee where I could find KVINT (since he previously told me they had it), and we were off to the Cognac aisle!  Mr. Liquor-Store-Employee pulled a dusty bottle from the back of the bottom shelf and handed it to me.  KVINT?  No.  No?  No.  It didn't have the name KVINT, the company logo, or any other related information on the bottle.  Failure.  I left thoroughly disappointed.

Still Searching...
So now I'm back to emailing the two contacts listed on the website, hoping for a reply.  And if that doesn't work, there are some shady websites claiming to have it available!

Anyone have any other ideas?  Or perhaps know of a place I can buy this brand?

If nothing else, the lack of organization and ease of doing business with this company is giving me a lesson in Eastern European patience.  If it's this hard to track down Transnistria's main export, I imagine other common scenarios are equally difficult to accomplish there!