Romania Flashcards
Romania- Trade
Under communism 3 types of wine producers developed. Government owned research establishments, nationalised wine estates and co-operative vineyards linked to the wine estates.
Research facilities still exist today, with their own vineyards intended for large-scale research.
Co-operatives have been privatised. Co-op workers have been each given an equal sized plot of land. Results not successful. Vineyards have been grubbed up for other crops, or vineyard quality has dropped due to lack of expertise or finance. Wine buyers buy more from research establishments and large wine estates as quality is higher than from the individual producers.
Still overcoming problems since the fall of communism, Romania has huge quality potential but a lack of finance to show it. Desperate need for more investment.
Largely local consumption of production, with only 15% production for export. Industry engaged in a program of capital investment with significant rise in sales in the UK.
Climate- Romania
Climate divided by the Carpathian mountain range. North and west is continental with cold, short winters and warm summers with long autumns. To the east, the Black Sea has a maritime effect. Winters are mild and summers are hot.
Soil- Romania
Great variety of soils, generally stony and free draining near Carpathians, alluvial and sand nearer the coast.
Vinification- Romania
Good hygiene standards. Recent purchasing of better equipment, including bottling lines and temperature- controlled tanks has seen improvements in quality. More wineries make use of consultant winemakers and young Romanian winemakers are working vintage in the New World and brining back ideas.
Regions- Romania
Fifth largest producer in Europe with 250,000 hectares. Eight regions.
Dealu Mare- Romania
South facing slopes of the Carpathian foothills, north of Bucharest. Range of red wines produced from Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and local varieties, fruity with soft tannins.
Murfatlar- Romania
Coastal region with limestone soils. Whites including Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, soft reds from Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Moldova- Romania
North east of the country. Known for production of Contra. Sweet wine made from botrytised grapes.
Tarnave- Romania
Oldest wine region in Romania and coolest with highest altitudes, vines planted on steep slopes. Traditional varieties dominate, such as Feteasca. Wines produced have a similar elegance and acidity to Mosel Rieslings.
Neuburger
Sometimes distinguished white grape variety grown almost exclusively on almost 600 ha in austria. dna profiling in Austria showed it is a cross, possibly accidental, of roter veltliner × sylvaner, which makes nutty wine that tastes like an even fuller-bodied Weissburgunder. It is also encountered in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Transylvania in romania.
Kekfrankos
Hungarian name for the increasingly fashionable red grape variety known in Austria as blaufränkisch (of which it is a direct translation) and grown on 8,000 ha/20,000 acres of Hungary, mainly on the Great Plain, in Eger, and, most successfully, in Sopron near the Austrian border where it is responsible for some of Hungary’s finest reds.
Rkatsiteli
Ancient, cold-hardy Georgian white grape variety which was so widely planted in what was the Soviet Union that in 1990 it was estimated to be the world’s third most planted overall. Thanks to President gorbachev’s vine pull scheme, by 2000 it had fallen to fourteenth place. It is still widely planted in the former Soviet republics, however, being grown in all of its wine-producing independent republics with the exception of turkmenistan. It is, understandably, most important in georgia, particularly in Kakheti. It is also the most planted variety in ukraine, second only to Muscat Ottonel in bulgaria, is widely planted in moldova, and is commonplace in russia and armenia. As Baiyu it reached China and has adapted well to the inland wine regions there with their cold winters. It was presumably its cold resistance that inspired Finger Lakes grower Konstantin Frank to plant it in New York state and it is now planted in Virginia and several other American states.
Much is demanded of this productive variety and it achieves much, providing a base for a wide range of wine styles, including fortified wines and brandy. The wine is distinguished by a keen level of acidity, easily 9 g/l even when picked as late as October, and by good sugar levels too.
Moldova
One of Europe’s poorest countries, may have been one of the geographically smallest states of the former Soviet Union but it had more vineyard than any other apart from ukraine and the table grape producer uzbekistan. According to industry reports, there were still 142,000 ha/350,090 acres of vineyard in 2011, including 112,000 ha planted with vinifera wine grapes. It has real potential for wine quality and range, thanks to its extensive vineyards, temperate continental climate, and gently undulating landscape sandwiched between eastern romania and ukraine. It declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 as the Republic of Moldova with the same boundaries as the previous Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The eastern part of the country is the breakaway zone of Transnistria (not currently recognized by any UN member state), described by the Republic of Moldova as the ‘Transnistria autonomous territorial unit with special legal status’. Moldavian is the main official language, which is very similar to Romanian and spoken by around two-thirds of the population.
Moldova- History
Archaeological evidence—of leaves of Vitis teutonica—confirms that the vine was widely grown in this area, Bessarabia, millions of years ago. Grape seeds dating back to 2800 bc have been found, as well as amphorae, and the well-documented voyages to this region by the Greeks and then Romans can only have encouraged this particular branch of agriculture. herodotus visited the colonies of Ancient greece at the mouth of the rivers Dnepr and Dnestr in the middle of the 5th century bc and reported that wine drinking was already common there.
After the feudal state of Moldova was formed in the second half of the 14th century ad, trade was established with russia, ukraine, and Poland, and Moldovan viticulture developed rapidly, reaching a high point in the 15th century during the era of Stephan the Great.
The Turkish occupation of Bessarabia (or Bogdan as it was known in the Ottoman empire) was a severe blow to Moldovan wine production (see islam), and it was only after the country was annexed to Russia in 1812 that the industry was revived. By 1837, vineyards totalled 14,500 ha/35,750 acres and total wine production was more than 100,000 hl/2.6 million gal. Moldova, with neighbouring Wallachia, formed the basis for independent Romania in the middle of the 19th century. In 1891, Moldova’s vineyard totalled 107,000 ha, much of it planted with vine varieties imported from France, but was severely ravaged by phylloxera and powdery mildew until grafting was adopted in 1906. The tsars provided incentives to grow European vine varieties, which still predominate. By 1914, the province of Bessarabia (the part of Moldova between the rivers Prut and Dnestr) was Russia’s most important source of wine. In 1940, the country was annexed by Russia and the vineyards were once again devastated, by the effects of the Second World War. The post-war period revival period saw energetic reconstruction and the spread of international varieties so that by 1984 Moldova’s vineyard area reached a peak of 258,000 ha/637,530 acres.
Since then, gorbachev’s anti-alcoholism campaign, followed by the economically devastating effect of the Russian bans on imported Moldovan wine in 2006 and 2009, shrank the vineyard area to its current total, although a 2013 industry analysis suggested that only around 60,000 ha/148,263 acres have commercial production potential because of the advanced vine age and poor quality of many vines. As yet no official vineyard register is in place.
Moldova- Climate and Geography
Much of Moldova is low and hilly, rarely rising above 350 m/1,150 ft above sea level and with a gradual descent towards the Black Sea in the south. The climate is ideal for viticulture, with average summer temperatures of around 20 °C/68 °F. Spring (and occasionally winter) frost can be a problem but the active temperature summation is between 2,700 °C in the north and 3,400 °C in the south. (see climate classification). The main rivers are the Dniester and the Prut. The country’s four historical wine production zones are: Bălți (most northerly), Codru (central), Ștefan Vodă (south east), and Valul lui Trajan (south west). The last three of these have been established as pgis while the remaining region of Bălți grows only 3% of the country’s vines, mainly for distillation.
Codru in the centre of Moldova has a continental climate with mild winters thanks to the protective, forested hills to the north. Annual rainfall is 550 mm to 680 mm (22–27 in) and 2,135 sunshine hours. It is noted for fresh, floral whites and structured, cool-climate reds that can age well. Valul lui Trajan is the most important region for Vitis vinifera and it has a more mediterranean climate with low annual rainfall (350 mm to 500 mm) and an elevation of 280 to 300 m, while average annual sunshine is approximately 2,500 hours. Warm, dry summers, mild winters, and well-drained soils make this region best regarded for its rich reds. Ștefan Vodă in the south east has a temperate continental climate, with influence from the Black Sea. Rainfall is 450 mm to 550 mm a year but elevations are very low at just 60 to 70 m while annual sunshine hours are 2,200. Its most famous district is Purcari (and the renovated historic winery of the same name), noted for long-lived reds, especially Negru de Purcari. This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Saperavi, and Rara Neagră was famously the only wine exported from Moldova in Soviet times.
Although at the end of the 20th century much of the vineyard was controlled by state farms, by the second decade of this century around 75% of vines were in private ownership with the remainder owned by wineries. Wineries are all fully privatized with the exception of state-owned enterprises Cricova and Mileştii Mici (famous for the largest collection of bottled wine in the world and for the largest network, 200 km, of underground cellars).
