My memory of Romanian wine were a few decent Pinot Noir’s from the Dealu Mare region tasted back in the 1990’s when wines from central Europe had more distribution in Ireland. Romanian wine then fell off the radar, rendered invisible by the rise and rise of wines from the new world especially during the 1990’s and into the noughties. That said a recent visit to Romania has re-acquainted me with a European wine country that has enormous potential and a story to tell.
2014 Paparauda Riesling €9.99
Stockists: Wines On line; Chill In, Ongar, D15; Gibneys Malahide; Ardkeen, Waterford; Listons, Camden Street; Leopardstown Inn Off Licence;
We flew to TimiÈ™oara one of Romania’s largest cities in TimiÈ™ one of the largest counties in western Romania situated close to the Hungarian and Serbian border. Our first stop was a visit with Englishman Philip Cox at his Cramele Recas winery. Philip, originally from Bristol started working for Kenderman, a German wine company back in the early 1990’s.
By 1996 Philip saw the potential for Romanian wine and decided to set up his own business, he rented the winery at Recas with a view to producing varietal wines for the UK market. The structure of the Romanian wine industry at that time was pretty haphazard. After the 1989 revolution no one really knew who owned the land. A programme was initiated to return the land to its original owners from the pre-communist days. It was an uncertain time, because of the land owning issues no one really invested in or planted new grapes. So from 1985 to 2005 no new vines were planted in Romania and wine was made from international varietals which had been there for some time.
Philip, together with his Romania wife Elvira started their business by acquiring a lease to buy option on 100 ha granted over a 5 year period. With money from a group of investors they dug up vineyards, replanted and upgraded the winery. In order to keep the cash flow moving they had to sell a hell of a lot of wine, which Philip, with his energy and inherent sales ability was able to achieve.
Today the company had sales of 10 million bottles annually with 4.8 million of those heading for the export market.
This is one of Philip’s wines, the wine maker Hartley Smithers is from Australia and also makes Yellow Tail. The Paparauda Riesling has lots of juicy fruit with all the lovely acidity from the grape showing through. Honey/Lemon flavours and citrus fruit, lots of citrus fruit!
2014 Frunza Pinot Noir €9.99
Stockists: Independents nationwide including The Vintry; Gibneys; Fresh; Higgins; Brady’s Shankill; O’Donovan’s; Next Door.
This is another wine produced by Cramel Recas in Romania. It shows the potential for Pinot Noir from Romania. This is entry level and is made by and Australian so it is quite fruit forward with lots of cherry fruit, very soft tannin. It is a really easy drinking style of almost “new world” Pinot Noir just perfect to serve with white meat (including turkey).
This would also be a great party wine it’s very easy to drink and the ABV is only 12%. So you have low tannin and low alcohol. It will go well with lots of different food styles ,everything from pasta to pizza.
A great example of modern new world style wine making from Romania. Well made, very drinkable and at a very competitive price point. Pinot Noir is a difficult grape but the Aussie/English/Romanian team at Cramele Recas seem to have mastered it.
Gift Ideas:
Some stocking filler/present ideas for the wine lover in your life more info about all of these on www.jeansmullen.com
Wine Events:
Want to learn more about wine? sign up for the Wine Appreciation Course at Mitchell & Sons Spring Wine Appreciation Course starting on February 1st.
Come and join the great New Zealand Wine Tiki Tour, January 21st, 2016 Hilton (Dublin) Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2. 6.30-8.30 p.m. Tickets now on sale.
