Umbrele, Sauvignon Blanc, Vilie Timisului, Romania, 2024

Producer Profile

Back in 1988, three families decided to invest in a winery in Romania, starting with 650 hectares of slightly unloved vineyards and a rusty, once state-owned winery.

Yet Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira, have turned the Cramele Recas Estate into the most successful winery in Romania. 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 emphasis is on making good wines that over-deliver, and as a result they’ve 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. Recas are in every way a modern, dynamic winery, whose open-minded approach and quality sets them apart … a winery you really can’t ignore.

Viticulture

Densely planted on hilly sites surrounding the winery at an altitude of 100m, the vines average 10 years old. Trained using the Guyot method. Drip irrigation is used if absolutely necessary though is by no means used every year.

Winemaking

Grapes are night harvested to arrive cool at the winery. Gently destemmed and crushed. Cooled immediately to 8°C, the grapes were then pressed in a vacuum press under nitrogen to prevent oxidation, before being transferred to decantation tanks for 24 hours until completely clarified. Inoculated with selected yeast, the wine was fermented in stainless steel at very low temperatures between 8 and 10°C for 25 days, before clarification and bottling young.

Tasting Note

Racy passion fruit, tangerine and gooseberry flavours are graceful and elegant, with a lovely, alive mouth feel and a medium body. A zingy acidity adds to the elegance, and the flavours echo on the finish.

Food Matching

The perfect accompaniment to fish, chicken, pasta and summer salads.