Wines of Romania — The Discovery Nobody Else Is Making

Description

The Dis&Dis Romanian Wine Collection

Romania is the fifth-largest wine-producing country in Europe. Most people in Western Europe have never tasted a single bottle.

That is the discovery.

The Carpathian foothills. The Black Sea coast. Ancient limestone soils that have been growing wine grapes since the Romans arrived and recorded their astonishment at what they found. A generation of modern winemakers who trained in Bordeaux and Burgundy and came home to apply serious craft to varieties that appear in no standard wine guide. International gold medals that nobody in London, Paris, or Amsterdam is talking about yet.

The grapes are the story. Tămâioasă Românească — the frankincense grape, named for the sacred fragrance it releases as the clusters ripen — is one of the most distinctive white varieties in Europe. Floral, aromatic, layered. Grown in Romania since ancient times, cultivated almost nowhere else. Fetească Neagră — the black maiden — produces red wines of real depth and dark-fruited complexity that have quietly impressed every critic who has paid attention. Fetească Albă — the white maiden — offers a fresh, mineral-driven style of white wine that belongs in any serious collection of European originals.

These are not curiosity bottles. They are excellent wines that happen to come from a country the market has not yet caught up with.

That gap will close. The prices will follow.

Until then, the discovery is yours.