The wine industry is pretty well regulated in the EU. In my country wine was generally a hit and miss before we got into the EU. Now, almost everything bottled

The wine industry is pretty well regulated in the EU. In my country wine was generally a hit and miss before we got into the EU. Now, almost everything bottled over 5€ is okay and also cheaper wine sold in bulk. This year we've bought some excellent white wine by the bulk directly from the producer and it was cheaper than gasoline. I mostly buy local bottled wine rather than imported table wine sold as premium. Why? Because I know most of the big producers and also some of the smaller ones. If we go to another country with good wines, we ask the waiter and it works out better than looking at the wine menu and making assumptions. One waiter in Sicily even suggested that he chose the wine for us and we were very satisfied with his choice after we also tried to get the same wine ourselves and ordered something different. Also, Moldova used to export crappy sweet wine before their agricultural products were banned in Russia. Now it exports mainly into the EU and they have some good quality wines if you skip the ones made from hybrid grape varieties, which I wonder why I've even found on the EU market. Must be the new 2021 regulation allowing hybrid varieties in wines with protected denominations of origin. Apart from the usual varieties, they also produce wines with a Georgian variety called Saperavi, which I like quite a lot and also a local older variety called Rara Neagra which is popular but I don't like because it's acidic, however it can be sucessfully used in blends where one needs more acidity.