Romanian wines seem at last – after almost 30 years - to be
coming in from the cold. No fewer than three significant “events” occurred in
this domain in the past few months. First the publication in the summer of a
substantial book The
Wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova; by Caroline Gilby (2018) who has apparently
been a wine
connoisseuse for the past decade and is the first English-speaking
specialist to produce a book about the local wines. (An expensive coffee-table The Wine Book of Romania was produced a couple of years ago by a Romanian)
Gilby's book came to my attention because of the wine blog of Mike
Vesseth - who made his
first visit to Romania this autumn; took part on some wine
tasting at Iasi and posted about these experiences this month.
I had no sooner asked to see a copy of the Gilby book (50
euros!) than, a few days later, I alighted on a copy of the first ever Gault
Millau Guide to Romanian Wines 2019 – which describes (all too briefly) 63
wineries and 152 wines. There’s a good summary of the Romanian wine varieties
here
At the same time, the various Crama (bulk wine cellars) which
are such a pleasant feature of life here have been giving us access to the dry
white wines of Averesti (Iasi), Macin (Dobrogea), Jidvei (Alba Iulia), and
Vissoara (Constanta) – for 2 euros a litre! The famous Obor market not far from
us has the last two including a new grape for me, the Sarba,
available from Girboiu - one
of the many new vineyards which have developed in the country in the past
decade or so
There’s a
nice review
of some Romanian wines here
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