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29. 09. 09. - 13:00

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29. 09. 09. - 13:00

Lepers produce a full-bodied red wine

Wine buffs are to get a chance to taste one on Europe's most exclusive vintages this month - a secret wine produced entirely by residents of the continent's last leper colony.

Hidden for years from the public eye by Romania's former communist regime, the lepers of Tichilesti on the Danube Delta have continued an ancient tradition of wine-making stretching back to the Middle Ages.

Now the St Lazarus Leper Wine - named after the patron saint of sufferers of the disease - is to be sold world-wide to raise funds for the community and its 200 residents.

The wine was inspired by the late mayor of the colony Cristache Tatulea, who inspired the villagers to become more self sufficient and reach out to the world.

"When I arrived there were hundreds of lepers here and it was a desolate place. There were ramshackle wooden huts with mud floors and nothing in the way of any amenities.

"Together we built proper houses, raised crops to earn extra money for luxuries and restoring the vineyards were a personal project of mine," he explained in his last interview before his death.

Cristache often spent days in the field protecting the vines from birds before leading the harvest of the sweet, red grapes that go to make up the full-bodied wine.

Now the wine he produced is available on www.leperwine.com after his friend David Rogers arranged for it to be sold through shippers in Austria.

"We had often spoken jokingly about selling his wine around the world - it was so good considering the little he had to work with," explained David.

"I went to see him this summer and it was only then I found out that he had died after falling and breaking his hip. Even though he was no longer properly able to move I understand he still continued to try to scare the birds through his bedroom window, so his last thoughts were for the vines.

"I want this to be a tribute to his name and to show his family and the remaining lepers how much of an inspiration he was to everyone that met him," he added.

Although leprosy sufferers are now no longer forced to live in the colony, most have been cut off from their old lives for decades.

Their property was seized under the Communist regime and lepers were even forbidden to use money in case coins and notes they handled spread the disease.

Their old homes were sealed off, possessions burnt, and families and friends told to forget them forever.

Even today there are no street signs leading to the community.

It's not on any maps and most people who live more than a few miles away still won't be able to tell people how to find it because for decades Communist officials denied its very existence, claiming leprosy was a capitalist condition.

Whenever anyone was discovered suffering from leprosy they were seized by the Securitatea - the feared secret police - and stripped of their property and their rights.

Many were held in isolation wards where they were subjected to laboratory tests like human guinea pigs.

Some had pieces of flesh cut away while others were injected with experimental treatments under the pretence of treatment.

Eventually they all ended up at Tichilesti - originally a charitable community founded in 1928 - where conditions were sub human for the exiles cut off from all contact with family or friends.

"Many of the resdients are now very old and the sale of Leper Wine will help support their community and lifestyle and ensure that the tradition of caring for each other continues at Tichilesti," said David.

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