Toasting the Revolution : Trade: California winemakers court Russian market in hopes of tapping into the emerging middle class.

Will Chardonnay replace vodka as Russia’s national drink?

Hardly. But a delegation of California winemakers that arrived in Moscow on Thursday hopes its handmade wines will find buyers among Russia’s emerging middle class.

Six small, family-owned wineries from the Napa and Sonoma valleys, including Pine Ridge, Laurel Glen and La Jota, will start peddling their wines in Moscow and St. Petersburg in mid-July. If sales to affluent Russians and foreigners are strong, other boutique California wineries are expected to follow suit.

“We think there’s a demand for California wines,” said Larry E. Smith, a member of the Family Winemakers of California delegation. “Our intention is to have a variety of Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons, Zinfandels and Merlots included in this offering.”

Wente Bros. already sells 300,000 bottles of its Livermore, Calif., wines in Russia each year. If economic growth continues, Russia’s 148 million citizens could have the disposable income to buy millions more bottles each year. California growers want a leg up on their French competitors.

“There are a lot of people interested in American wine here,” said Joel Peterson, president of Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma. “There’s tremendous possibilities.”

Wine history has come full circle: It was Russian immigrants to Northern California in the 1840s who planted the state’s first vineyards.

Some California and French wines are already available in Moscow’s foreign-run supermarkets, which cater to foreigners and rich Russians. Although some fine French wines are available, most of the California wines are relatively low-cost bottles from larger vineyards such as Wente.

John Schwartz, Wente vice president for international affairs, said in a telephone interview that he is delighted that other California wineries will be offering their products for sale in Russia.

“California needs to get together to promote our image worldwide,” he said. “We’re starting to do that, and it’s starting to pay off.”

The six small vineyards will ship several hundred cases of wine to Russia, where it will be sold in hotels, restaurants and select supermarkets. A Moscow-based office will take orders and arrange deliveries.

Although the wine to be hawked by the smaller vineyards retails for $6 to $60 a bottle in California, prices will be nearly twice as much in Russian shops. In addition to the cost of shipping, wine imported into Russia is currently subject to taxes totaling close to 100%, down from 187% earlier in the year, according to Schwartz.

“I can’t think of any other country where we pay 100% duties,” Schwartz said. “It’s obscene.”

All importers are subject to the same taxes, so the Californians’ French competitors are at an equal disadvantage.

“Obviously, we’d like the taxes lower, but those are the rules of the game,” Smith said, shrugging. The winemakers say they have been toughened for the Russian market by selling wine in the United States, where each state has its own complex set of regulations for the import of alcoholic beverages from other states.

“We’re not strangers when it comes to strangeness of laws,” said Peterson, whose family-run vineyards yield more than 700,000 bottles of wine a year. “At least in the United States, things don’t change too fast. That’s the part that gets a little more difficult in Russia.”