Romania

Native Romanian grape variety, Feteasca Alba

Surprisingly to us, Romania is actually the fifth largest producer of wine in Europe?! But, the wine is hardly exported due to most of the wine being consumed by themselves!

Huge amounts of vineyards were planted in the latter half of the Twentieth Century, reaping their rewards from the 1990′s onwards.

Warm summers and autumns give a long ripening period for the grapes, thus producing some superb fruit-packed wines alongside the once infamous sweet wine, Cotnari.

Cotnari is a sweet dessert wine, once as famous as Hungarian Tokaji, but was lost in the political cloud. Now reborn, it is a must to buy if you can get hold of it- aromatic essence of frankincense, delicate, pale and sweet.

Wine Regions:

The three main regions to look for in Romania are:

• Northern Moldova (whites and sweet wines)
• Dealul Mare (reds)
• Murfatlar (reds and whites)

With some more investment, continuing with their progression to produce more dry wines (a lot of Romania’s red wines were once slightly sweet than they are now as they catered for the Soviet market), and a few more years development, and we could be seeing a lot of Romanian wines on our shelves!

Classic Styles:

• Very fruity, soft reds
• Nutty and fresh whites
• High quality, aromatic, sweet dessert wine

Grape Varieties:

• Fetească Albă
• Fetească Regala
• Welsch Riesling
• Chardonnay
• Pinot Grigio (Whites)
• Pinot Noir
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Merlot

Must Tastes:

• Cotnari (sweet dessert wine)
• Bordeaux blends (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) from Dealul Mare