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Kosovo winemakers no doubt are anxiously watching events in the north of the country today. NATO peacekeepers fired – reportedly rubber bullets – on Serb protesters after they were attacked pipe bombs at a border crossing. Several were injured.

Days like today are making life difficult for people like Miro Brkic. He’s a small wine producer who lives in a Velika Hoca, a Serbian enclave in Rahovec, Kosovo’s wine country. Brkic sells in Kosovo and Serbia, but lately it’s been very hard for him to smuggle his award-winning wines to customers in Belgrade in the wake of an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia that was supposed to help normalize trade relations.

Earlier this month, Serbs living in Kosovo’s north began blocking the roads at border crossings with Serbia to protest the presence of customs officials from Kosovo’s Albanian-dominated government. That was after Serbia agreed to allow Kosovo-stamped goods to be exported to and through it for the first time since 2008 – but Belgrade has been slow to uphold its end of the bargain.

Brkic didn’t have much to say about politics as an Albanian friend from Pristina and I sipped his very quaffable Riesling in what is basically a glorified backyard this past weekend. He just grumbled about the logistical problems posed by the ongoing tensions. The man just wants to sell his wine.

The same goes for producers like Stone Castle, Kosovo’s largest winemaker. Unlike Brkic, who’s been able to get his wine to Belgrade in the trunk of a car, Stone Castle hasn’t been able to sell to Serbia since 2008.

Belgrade’s economic retaliation for Kosovo’s independence – effectively blocking its goods – hit wine makers very hard. Stone Castle had been exporting 2 million liters per year to Serbia and saw transport costs increase by as much as 40 percent since its shipments to places like Croatia and Germany could no longer pass through Serbia.

Trucks carrying Kosovo goods are starting to trickle into Serbia but some have also been turned back. Shani Mullabazi, Stone Castle’s general manager, says the winery is ready and eager to re-enter the Serbian market. It’s just waiting for the all clear.