🏷️ Ordinary wine

Ordinary wine is a Ukrainian and Moldovan category of simple wine without ageing. It is sold in the year of the harvest, usually a few months after fermentation. It does not need long maturing, so such wine is inexpensive.

In this system wine is divided by level. Ordinary wine stands at the bottom: it is simple, fresh and meant for the everyday table. Above it come vintage-labelled (marochne) wines, which are aged longer and made from selected grapes. Close in meaning is table wine, also simple and cheap.

The category came from the Soviet classification system and is still found in countries of the former Union. A similar simple wine exists in Georgia too. Ordinary wine is part of the general wine classifications. The name does not mean poor quality: it is simply wine for ordinary drinking, not for ageing or collecting. Read the label, which gives the term and type.

Ukraine's new law on grapes, wine and viticulture products took effect on 1 January 2026 and rewrites wine classification to match EU rules, with a two-year transition for wineries. Moldova's base wine law, Law No. 57-XVI of 10 March 2006, was the first to split wines into ordinary and quality groups. After later amendments its classes follow EU terms: PDO, PGI and wine without designation.