Lots of sun in cold wine

Over 10 thousand cars pass customs control every day on the Russian-Abkhazian border. In August, the Adler border customs’ multilateral automobile checkpoint checked seven times more cars. On weekends, the load on the automobile checkpoint increased. More than 11 thousand vehicles and approximately 70 thousand people crossed the border in both directions, which speaks for itself. The Russians like to visit Abkhazia, and there is a good reason for that. Abkhazia has 220 sunny days a year, and 365 days a year are ‘environmentally friendly’, which is not surprising because more than a hundred endemic species grow there. The total area of the country is 8.6 thousand square kilometers where less than 300 thousand people of over 30 different nationalities live. Abkhazia can boast of the sea and mountains, rivers and caves, as well as over 500 villages, four urban-type settlements and eight towns. All this attracts tourists. At the height of summer tourism season, the EcoTourism Expert correspondent went to Gagra, the town located closest to the Russian border, and found out how hot the tourism season was, what attracts travelers most and how much “being in swimsuits and swimming trunks only” in hotels and restaurants costs.

A slightly weaker tourist flow

The customs office of the Krasnodar Territory reported that since May 2023, about five million people and more than 800 thousand vehicles, including 30 thousand excursion buses, had crossed the Russian-Abkhazian border. At the same time, a decline in tourist flow was seen in Gagra. Since the beginning of the year, 104 thousand tourists visited the town compared to 124 thousand ones for the same period last year. Akhra Bganba, Chief of the Resort Tourism Department of the Gagra town administration, spoke about this.

“The decrease in tourist flow is due to the interest of tourists in other towns of Abkhazia,” he said. “Gagra has 20 thousand hotel rooms, and the occupancy of organized accommodation facilities is approximately 80 percent.”

As Astamur Bartsits, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Abkhazia, reported, the tourist flow decreased by 20 percent in 2023 compared to last year. In August, the hotels in Abkhazia were not fully booked compared to August last year. However, at popular hotels and resorts, occupancy reached its peak long ago, but some hotels and resorts still had vacant rooms. As of August 1, an average of 85-90 percent of the hospital rooms were booked.

“Every year, our tourism resort sector takes small but confident steps towards developing and improving the service quality,” said the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic. “One of the attempts is the opening of a spa hotel in the town of Ochamchira. Construction work is also being carried out in Sukhum, Gagra and Gudauta, but the facilities have not yet been commissioned. There is a panoramic wheel in Pitsunda now, and the Grand Tower in New Athos, as well as a zipline on the road to Lake Ritsa, and an eco-tourism center in the area of ​​the glass bridge over the Bzyb River. New small hotels have been opened in many places, which increased the number of better-quality hotel rooms in the country.

In vino veritas

Wine tourism is most in demand among the tourists visiting the Republic of Abkhazia. There is a good reason that Abkhazia is affectionately called ‘Apsny’, which means the ‘Land of the Soul’, where all parties are held in a very friendly way and in a special warm atmosphere. Here, even casual gatherings turn into lush feasts - with toasts to everybody’s health and dancing.

“We see a winemaking boom in our country now as many people build small wineries,” noted Bagrat Avidzba, Chairman of the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Abkhazia. “First of all, this is explained by the rapidly developing tourism. About two million tourists visit Abkhazia every year. We say, “A couple of vines are already drivers of tourism.” The number of home wineries is difficult to count, but there are two large wineries producing approximately 30 million bottles of wine per year. Moreover, they work with both imported and local raw materials. According to statistics, 3.8 thousand hectares are occupied by vineyards.

Do you know who created the Anakopia, Dioscuria, Radeda, Chegem, Esher, Amra and sparkling Achandara wines? Valery Avidzba, a winemaker, breeder, co-founder of the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Abkhazia, created all these delicious wines!

“I personally offered a glass of wine to Yegor Ligachyov who was the initiator of the anti-alcohol campaign in the Soviet Union,” he said. “It happened here nearby, in a cave. And he liked the wine that was similar to Lykhny so much that he said, “Such types of wine should be produced.” So, we were allowed to produce our Abkhazian wines. Later on, many wineries in the Soviet Union went bankrupt, but we survived.

In Abkhazia, there is the only winery of organic wine using grapes grown in the foothills of the country, on the banks of the Bzyb River, the grapes grow on sandy-loam soils treated with organic fertilizers only. In the vineyards, only manual labor is used and maximum attention is focused on the vines and grapes. Their signature wine is from the indigenous Amlakhu variety, which no one else has.

“We grow rare Abkhaz grape varieties, reviving the authentic culture of winemaking and promoting pure, natural wines, without any additives, and we also use very gentle vinification methods,” explained John Arlava, a winemaker from the village of Caldahuara. “Our wines do not go through the stages of fining, filtration and clarification, which allows us to preserve the natural taste of the wine as much as possible. Nature creates this wine under our attentive supervision and care.

According to Anna Kalyagina, President of the Non-Profit Partnership Abkhaz Union of Tourism, event tourism programs always attract a large number of travelers, especially our gastronomic events.

“Manual labor, which is also called ‘warm labor’, is interesting to everyone,” she said. “As for winemaking, we develop it. Moreover, local winemakers develop the wine production at a professional level. We are proud to offer such wines and everyone will definitely like them. Abkhazian wines are of high and reliable quality, and they are competitive.

It should be mentioned that not all home wineries are registered, so it is difficult to tell their real number, there are approximately about 30 of them - individual enterprises and firms.

“Of course, we would like to put everything in order,” the expert continued. “First of all, it can help us improve the wine quality control. This is the work to be done in the future because if you want to bring the winemakers out of the ‘shadow’, you need to offer them anything interesting, if subsidies and financial assistance for business development cannot be provided, then a tax deferment should, at least, be provided for two years, for example. Our simplified taxation system is still not well developed. Previously, a so-called ‘special tax’ was introduced, the very concept of which has long been outdated.

Everyone is welcome to the beach!

Last summer, renting a sun lounger for the whole day on the Gagra’s municipal beach cost 150 rubles, and 200 rubles with an umbrella. There are only a few people who wanted to use them, so they were available and vacationers could have rest in comfort. A 10-minute ride on a jet ski for up to three persons cost two thousand, on a hydrofoil (rocket) - 700 rubles for 20 minutes, and on a fun tubing - a thousand rubles for 10 minutes. The catamaran cost a thousand per hour. Paragliding flight cost 8.5 thousand rubles. The price for beer, lemonade and kvass (drink made from fermented rye bread, yeast or berries) was 150 rubles each. Boiled corn, a glass of watermelon and a lollipop were offered for 150 rubles. Fish, shrimp and mussels were also offered at a reasonable price.

In the summer season, darkly tanned food and drink sellers usually go back and forth on the municipal beaches. The competition between them is not in assortment, but in their enthusiasm. “Corn. Sweet, hot and stolen,” an older man shouts frequently with enviable enthusiasm.

Goods and services are usually offered not only on the beach, but directly from the sea. Every now and then, yachts approach the beach, offering to organize a nice party ‘for girls only’, a ‘pirate’ party, a disco party or a real picnic.

“You can even have a picnic on the upper deck of our ship,” a man addressed the sunbathing vacationers on the beach, inviting them to come on board a ship. “We can take the marinated meat, leave it on the top deck - and in about 15 minutes the juicy, tempting kebab is ready. This is the Apsny motor ship, please enjoy your meal. We offer traveling through evening Gagra. The ‘tasty’ excursion will begin very soon.”

On August 1, 2023, a law came into force in Abkhazia that increased the fine by 20 times for being in swimsuits and swimming trunks - as well as without a shirt - outside the beach. Instead of 300 rubles, the fine soared to six thousand. Officials explained this strict rule by the local mentality and believed that it would discipline the visitors. The weather and nature in Abkhazia in summer make people relax and enjoy the mild sun, gentle sea and majestic green mountains, the tops of which are in thick fog. Having enjoyed all his from early morning, tourists slowly return from the beach in the afternoon.

“I arrived on vacation yesterday, this is my first time in Abkhazia, I like it to be here, I haven’t heard about the fines, but I completely agree with the rule and I always get dressed when leaving the beach,” said Elena Boger from Murmansk.

But the elderly couple, fit and tanned, were in no hurry to put on their outerwear after the beach.

“We will know now. Thank you for warning me,” a woman in her 60s who came to Gagra on vacation from the Lipetsk Region thanked in response when was asked to wear some dress.

Hotels have their own rules. By the way, the hotel was fully booked in the summer. It was not surprising because advanced bookings began at the end of last year.

“We have a closed area, so we don’t allow people in swimsuits and swimming trunks only in the café, but outside the café, they can walk in these clothes,” noted hotelier Bagrat Avidzba. “Our hotel was opened in 2019, it has always been like this in our hotel, and our guests are accustomed to this rule, there are no people who disagree with it.”

The vacationers are warned about the rule when they are checking-in at the hotels and the rule is regularly explained to the vacationers on the beaches. There were no boards with relevant information and no patrol officers.

I would like to mention that previously, fines were introduced in the administrative regions of the Republic of Abkhazia, and now, this rule has been approved by law by the parliament of the republic for the whole country. During this summer season, law enforcement officers did not impose a fine and just advised people to observe the rules.