The Silk Road to Samarkand & Uzbek Wine | S9E4

Glass in Session® Winecast

A wine podcast inspired by Barbarian Empires of the Steppes and the Silk Road? We got that! This episode on the wine history of Uzbekistan was inspired by Mongols, Mughals, and explorers: Genghis/Ginngis Kahn, Tamerlane/Timur, Babur, and Marco Polo all passed through, conquered, loved, loved to conquer - or were kicked out of - Samarkand, the crossroads of civilization. Who brought the grapes, and who started the wine industry? What happened under soviet rule? Who tried to tear it down? What’s being done to move the historic wine culture forward?

Let’s explore this and other curious nuggets of stuff you never thought you wanted to know about wine, but are delighted to learn!

Resources from this episode:

Books:

The Oxford Companion to Wine [Kindle Edition], Robinson, J. & Harding J. (2015)

Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours [Kindle Edition], Robinson, J., Harding, J., Vouillamoz, J. (2013)

Websites:

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook: Uzbekistan (last updated 16 February 2022) https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/uzbekistan/

ENews Channel Africa: Uzbekistan pulls out the stops for fine winemaking, (9 December 2018) https://www.enca.com/life/uzbekistan-pulls-out-stops-fine-winemaking

Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Culitvated Plants: Vitis International Variety Catalog (VIVC), Bayan Shirei the https://www.vivc.de/?r=passport%2Fview&id=1049

Let’s Go Uzbekistan: History of the development of viticulture and winemaking in Uzbekistan (2018) https://www.letsgouzbekistan.com/en/blog/history_of_wine_making_in_uzbekistan

OIV: Uzbekistan becomes the 47th Member State of the OIV (6 November 2018) https://www.oiv.int/en/oiv-life/uzbekistan-becomes-the-47th-member-state-of-the-oiv

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty: Uncorking Uzbekistan’s Wine Business, Bowdle, N. (12 December 2018) https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbekistan-wine-business/29652570.html

Silk Road Research: Samarkind, Eminer, M. https://silkroadresearch.blog/uzbekistan/samarkind/

Sommeliers International: Where the wine route crosses the silk road (June 2015) https://www.sommeliers-international.com/en/World/uzbekistan_-where-the-wine-route-crosses-the-silk-road.aspx

Travel Tomorrow: Samarkand’s Khorovenko Winery, Embassy of Uzbekistan to the Benelux and Missions to the EU and NATO (17 November 2021) https://traveltomorrow.com/samarkands-khovorenko-winery/

Uzbekistan Research Online: Aspects of Tourism Development in Uzbekistan - Wine Tourism, Inoyatova, S.I. (2019) https://uzjournals.edu.uz/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1206&context=iqtisodiyot

Wein Plus: Bayanshira (23 June 2021) https://glossary.wein.plus/bayanshira

World Atlas: Uzbekistan https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/uzbekistan

World History: Genghis Khan, Cartwright, M. (16 September 2019) https://www.worldhistory.org/Genghis_Khan/

Related Podcasts from Glass in Session®:

S8E3: Once Upon a Wine Grape in Afghanistan - https://glassinsession.libsyn.com/s8e3-once-upon-a-wine-grape-in-afghanistan

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