On December 18, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Vitebsk winemakers have mastered the production of fruit wine of the poiré type, Svetlana Mukhina, Deputy General Director of the Vitebsk Regional Food Industry Enterprises Production Association "Vitebskпищепром", told a BELTA correspondent. Wine production is carried out by two enterprises within the association: Polotsk Winery and its branch Podsvil Winery. Both of these wineries phased out the production of ordinary fruit wines back in 2010 and now produce only improved quality and special technology fruit wines, as well as natural fruit and berry wines, which differ from ordinary ones by the natural fermentation of the fruit and berry raw materials themselves. During production, neither flavourings nor colourings are used to impart taste or aroma to the beverages; all ingredients are natural, grown in natural conditions. The technology of fruit and berry winemaking has much in common with the technology of grape wines, as they are based on common principles of technological operations. The difference lies in the chemical composition and technological properties of the raw materials used for preparing fruit and berry wines and grape wines, explained Svetlana Mukhina. Continuing their work on creating new compositions, winemakers have developed and mastered the production of a new line of semi-sweet, semi-dry, and dry natural fruit and berry wines under the Marshan trademark, made from cherries, pears, black and red currants, gooseberries, chokeberries, plums, and apples. Podsvil Winery has become the only enterprise in Belarus that produces pear wine. In France, such wines are called poiré. It is worth noting that at the XVI Moscow International Professional Competition of Wines and Spirits, which recently concluded, the natural semi-sweet fruit and berry table wine under the Marshan trademark "Pear with Honey" was awarded a gold medal. As Svetlana Mukhina noted, the association's wineries develop over a dozen new types of improved quality and special technology wines annually. In 2013, it is planned to expand the range of dry, semi-dry, and semi-sweet fruit and berry wines made from local raw materials with the addition of honey.