Icewine Tales» Abkhazia

The Soul of a Land

Phil Cheevers — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:14:42 +0000

Icewine Guy Meets Svetlanas and The Soul of Abkhazia I marvel that in the former Soviet Union there are a very large number of babies born named Svetlana. It seems that half of the folks I met in or from the former Soviet Union countries are... Read more

Icewine Guy in Sukhumi

Phil Cheevers — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:49:33 +0000

Icewine Guy in Abkhazia I wasn’t there to take in war stories. The 16 year old bullet holes in the apartment buildings were grotesque to me, but people lived in them, and children grew up under the pocked walls that remind everyone that 16... Read more

Icewine’s Butterfly Effect

Phil Cheevers — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:15:16 +0000

I met Fred Weir at the Canadian Embassy Icewine tasting in Moscow in June. Fred is a fellow Canadian who writes about Russia for Indian, Chinese, British and American newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor. We had just enough time... Read more

Icewine Tasting at the United Nations Part 2

Phil Cheevers — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:51:27 +0000

Part 1 left off with Max, Teddy, the Macedonian and I having dinner in a seaside cafe in Sukhumi. During the dinner, Teddy invited me to visit the UNOMIG compound. I grew up as an army brat and lived on army bases all my life but I knew... Read more

Icewine Tasting at the United Nations Part 1

Phil Cheevers — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:31:21 +0000

Max is taking me for a tour of the main Sukhumi waterfront. For me this means a stroll along a closed road with a tropical park on the one side and a curious collection of buildings on the other. The buildings go from the fresh and shiny... Read more

Sleepless in Sukhumi

Phil Cheevers — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:17:49 +0000

"The morning shadows are long and the waterfront park is slowly filling with locals, chatting over Turkish coffee and beginning their day with the casual, comfortable chatter in a style that only years of hunching over a chessboard or backgammon... Read more

Russian Borders, Edita, and Lessons from India

Phil Cheevers — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:10:55 +0000

The flight to Sochi was uneventful, other than I could speak English with nobody. The regional airline, S7 gave a clean flight, on time, and pleasantly. The big difference to me was in the airline food. Airline food is airline food everywhere. ... Read more

Meeting Anna

Phil Cheevers — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:45:50 +0000

I am not here to sell Icewine. I am here to drink in this place called Abkhazia. It is my second day in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. There is no shiny tourist area. There are few tourists in Sukhumi, unlike the northern towns of Pitsunda... Read more

Off the Russian Icewine Trail: Abkhazia

Phil Cheevers — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:35:19 +0000

Abkhazia is a difficult place to write about, but I have to describe Abkhazia before I can write about some of the adventures and people I met down there and how it connects to Icewine. Context is so much more important. Abkhazia is a land... Read more