Last month, I had the pleasure heading off to Timisoara, Romania’s joint second largest city to explore their extensive range of relatively unknown wines. Often referred to as little Vienna, it had beautiful, cobbled streets and magnificent squares, lined with cafés and restaurants, echoing the Austrian culture of old. Before my visit, I had only come across one Romanian wine and to be honest its wasn’t worth writing about. However, after exploring the region and tasting some of the best wines it has to offer, I couldn’t resist sharing my recommendations with you.
Romania and Wines
Romania has only recently re-appeared on the world wine stage despite having a long history of winemaking dating back to the Roman Empire. The country has a diverse range of grape varieties, many of which are indigenous to Romania. The Transylvania/Banat region is no exception. The region boasts generous sunshine, hardworking, skilled people, and exceptionally rich land. The partnership of Romanians and the Schwaben people completed the foundations for a wine legend.
Cramele Recas
Cramele Recas is a premium wine estate located on the far western fringes of the Romanian region of Transylvania/Banat – near Romania’s third largest city, Timisoara. The vineyards, said to be some of the oldest in the world, were first planted in the area by the Romans with documents dating back to 1447 on the Recas vineyard land. Founded in 1998, Cramele Recas has become a private Romanian/British company owned by a winemaking team made up of three families, including husband-and-wife teams Philip and Elvira Cox and Hartley Smithers and Nora Iriate.
Cramele Recas, Romania’s 3rd largest winery, had its fortunes revived 20 years ago by Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira. Today it produces 68 different wines under 252 different labels and has helped raise the profile of Romanian wine all over the world. The team has consistently led the way, anticipating trends in winemaking – their reds, for example, have been vegan-friendly since 2008 (the rosés and whites swiftly followed).
Philip Cox
Bristol born Philip Cox, began his career in the drinks industry in the early 90s when he founded a company importing Heineken beer together with some Romanian friends, which was a runaway success. However, due to currency restrictions and hyperinflation, they couldn’t change the Romanian money they were earning selling beer into hard currency at the bank. So, Philip came up with the idea of starting to export wine, and the rest is history.
Recas are now recognised globally for their impressive scale and breadth of fascinating wines, including natural and orange wine from organic grapes. Despite the scale the Philip’s emphasis is on making good wines that over-deliver, and as a result he’s struck on a magic formula that has seen sales and demand boom. Vineyards are a combination of evolved plantings from 1447 and more recent planting, whilst the winery has seen significant investment and boasts state of the art facilities where innovation thrives.
The philosophy here is simple- to apply the absolute best production methods to every single wine, to enhance and preserve the natural quality of the grapes and provide a consistently high-quality product every year for every level of wine made.
My Top 5 Romanian wines available in the UK
Orange Wine (£11 OCADO and £10.99 Adnams)
This is a crisp white wine with the complexity of a red wine. It’s rich and full of dried-fruit character, apricots, and orange zest. The aroma is a delicate blend of Williams pear and a hint of vanilla. It’s a complex and structured wine, with elegant but discreet fruit flavours of stone fruits, backed up with a powerful tannin structure and long finish.
Sorcova Pinot Noir (£8.49, now on offer £7.49 Waitrose Cellars )
This light-bodied Romanian Pinot Noir has notes of spiced cherries and red plums. The Pinot Noir variety is known for its difficulty, but it’s tamed at Recaş Wine Cellars where local climatic conditions encourage the development and depth of flavour. The use of oak wood is balanced with the intensity of aroma, and the wine bottled early to preserve its freshness.
Păsări (£9.30 Corney and Barrow)
This Păsări is a blend of the perfumed, silky Festeacsa Regala – Romania’s flagship white grape, with the rich stone fruit of chardonnay. Păsări honours one of Romania’s great cultural traditions where Romanians celebrate the arrival of Spring when birds build their nests, and people gather for festivities dedicated to love and nature.
Solomonar Cuvee Rouge (£8.99 Majestic Wines)
This red is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and the indigenous Feteasca Neagra grape. It’s full-bodied and rich with notes of blackcurrant, plum, blueberry and vanilla. In 2022, this wine won an IWC award for the 2020 vintage.
Expressions Feteasca (£7.00 M&S)
This wine is made purely from the local grape Fetească Regală, which means ‘Royal Maiden’ due to the grape’s delicacy and elegance. It’s intensely scented with rose petals, honeysuckle, and white peach, making it a perfect choice for those who enjoy floral and fruity notes in their wine.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my top 5 Romanian wines. I have a few more recommendations up my sleeve, but I’ll leave those for another article. Before I sign off, I’d like to give one final special shoutout to Cramele Recas. They are a modern, dynamic winery whose open-minded approach and quality sets them apart. They are a winery you really can’t ignore. Cheers to good wine and happy drinking!