The era of Soviet rule was difficult for vineyards across Eastern Europe. Hundreds of family vineyards were appropriated by the state and either merged into large factories or simply left to deteriorate. With winemaking largely centralised to Georgia and Ukraine at this time, Romania was among the worst affected by the regime. The majority of its vineyards were abandoned without any record of previous ownership when the Iron Curtain came to fall.
Their recovery has been slow, but boosted massively by their incorporation into the EU in 2007, Romania are ready to make a lot of noise in the wine world.
As Chris Losh of Imbibe put it;
“Will the world be beating a path to Romania’s door over the next few years? Almost certainly yes. The 2017 vintage has left the big producing countries of Europe so bereft of crop that supermarkets in particular are having to look elsewhere to fill their shelves.”
Losh reports that Romanian wines made from their own indigenous grapes are selling better in supermarkets across Germany than their international offerings. Many Romanian winemakers attribute this to grapes such as Fetească Regală and Fetească Neagră, proliferating Romanian soil for 3000 years. When a grape is so perfectly adapted to its natural climate, why use anything else?
Our good friend and partner Aurelia Visinescu of Domenil Sahateni is no different. A female scholar of the science of viticulture with a passion for new world innovation, using classically Romanian Fetească grapes. Her selection of delicate fruity reds are a real treat at a very charming price.