Creating Napa Valley in Macedonia

Creating Napa Valley in Macedonia - CNN CNN's Nic Robertson mets a Macedonian businessman who returns to wine making with a new idea. CNN's new series i-List takes you to a different country each month. In May, we visit Macedonia focusing on changes shaping the country's economy, culture and its social fabric. Demir Kapija, Macedonia -- Jordan Trajkov was a successful banker studying for an MBA when he visited Napa Valley in California. The visit inspired him to go back to his roots and start a winery in his native Macedonia. Trajkov's father had owned a vineyard, but when Macedonia was part of socialist Yugoslavia he was not allowed to produce his own wine. "There were just a few big wineries and my father had to sell his grapes to them." Trajkov told CNN. "But my grandfather had his own winery before socialism and that inspired me. "From an early age I had worked on my father's vineyard, but I had never had the opportunity to make my own wine." Trajkov, now 41, worked in banking for seven years in Macedonia, London and New York. He was studying for an MBA in Phoenix, Arizona, when he took the holiday in Napa Valley that was to change his career. Bringing together the concept of wine tourism with grape growing and wine making was fascinating for me Trajkov returned to Macedonia and in 2003 bought some land close to where he had grown up. He planted his first grapes in 2005 and began selling wine from his Popova Kula winery the following year. Popova Kula produces 23 ...