Umbrele, Sauvignon Blanc, Vilie Timisului, Romania, 2024

Producer Profile

Back in 1988, three families decided to invest in a winery in Romania, starting with 650ha of slightly unloved vineyards and a rusty, formerly state-owned winery. Today, Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira have turned the Cramele Recas Estate into the most successful winery in Romania.

Recas are now recognized globally for their impressive scale and breadth of fascinating wines, including natural and orange wines made from organic grapes. Despite the increase in scale, the emphasis remains on making quality wines that over-deliver – a magic formula that has recently seen sales boom. The vineyards are a combination of old vines and more recent plantings, and the winery has seen significant investment in state of the art facilities. Recas are in every way a modern, dynamic winery whose open-minded approach and quality sets them apart… a winery you 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.