State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin became a co-owner of the winery

The family of the State Duma deputy, the founder of the Rota Group of Companies, Dmitry Sablin, has a project in winemaking. He became a co-owner of Arpachina Wines in the Don Valley, which produces premium wines from autochthonous grape varieties. Experts expect prices for such wines to rise, but note the current difficulties with sales due to the huge stock.

State Duma deputy, founder of the Rota Group of Companies, Dmitry Sablin, and his wife and head of the board of directors of the group, Alla Nalcha, became co-owners of the Wine Arpachina winery, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. They jointly received 20% in the wine producer ZeNa LLC and Training Center LLC, which operates the winery’s shop. The share of Mr. Sablin is in trust management of Rota-Development LLC, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Vina Arpachin has about 30 hectares of fruit-bearing vineyards on the left bank of the Don, mainly with autochthonous grape varieties. The winery was built in 2018, designed for 120 thousand bottles per year. On the WineStyle online showcase, “Arpachin Wines” cost in the range from 1.3 to 5.4 thousand rubles. for a bottle. The main owner of the winery is a businessman from Rostov-on-Don, Yuri Malik.

“Rota” is engaged in agriculture, property management, hotel business. At the end of 2022, the group structure became network co-owner premium-class gastronomes “Globus Gourmet”, where its partner is the holding company “Sindika” of Senator Arsen Kanokov.

Yuri Malik confirmed to Kommersant the fact of the deal, noting that he had known Dmitry Sablin’s family for a long time, and Arpachin’s Wines were delivered to Rota’s restaurants and hotels. He declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal. Rota did not provide a comment.

Alexander Stavtsev, head of the WineRetail information center, calls Arpachin Wines one of the best premium wineries in the Don Valley. According to him, the farm produces quite expensive wine, which is in good demand, and a large tourist complex is developing on the territory. This project may need the participation of a new investor, the expert adds. Director of the World Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) for Russia Leonid Popovich notes that now the tourist part is the main focus for the winery’s investments.

Winemaking remains an attractive business for well-known investors. In February 2023, the wife of the co-owner of the Okeanrybflot fishing holding and Senator Valery Ponomarev, Ekaterina Ponomarev, became a co-founder of a farm with more than 170 hectares of land in the Krymsky district of the Krasnodar Territory. And in the fall of 2022, it became known about the wine-making project of the structure of the co-owner of the Delo Group of Companies, Sergei Shishkarev, on 45 hectares in the area of ​​​​the village of Raevskaya between Novorossiysk and Anapa.

According to Rosalkogolregulirovanie, in January-May 2023, the production of still wines in Russia decreased by 0.7%, to 11.36 million deciliters year-on-year. As Leonid Popovich notes, a huge stock is pressing on the market, which is why chains are cautious about new orders, and some winemakers have difficulties with marketing and emptying containers that need to be loaded with new crop grapes. WineRetail estimates the volume of stock at 16 million decalitres, which is double the level of last year. According to Kommersant’s data from market participants, in January-April of this year, imports of still wines to Russia increased by 39%, to 9.78 million deciliters year on year.

According to Mr. Popovich, the fact that the Rota Group of Companies has a stake in Globus Gourmet can provide Vinam Arpachin with a good sales channel corresponding to the level of wines of the economy. Ladoga considers 1.3–2.3 thousand rubles as an acceptable price range for wines from the Don Valley. per bottle, noting the high proportion of manual labor. Further, the cost is influenced by the brand, demand, status and capacity of the economy, they say. According to Alexander Stavtsev, the price ceiling for wines made from indigenous grape varieties has not yet been reached, and the quality of such wines continues to progress.

Anatoly Kostyrev