Solevari Reserve, Syrah, DOC, Viile Timisului, Romania, 2020

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

Produced from grapes which are parrt of the yield control strategy adopted in the vineyard. Syrah vines have a tendancy to overcrop which can lead to thin wines if not controlled. To manage this, they remove a proportion of the grapes soon after flowering, before the vine has started to swell them into grapes. The emphasis then goes into fully ripening the remaining grapes to ensure a generous flavour and a deep colour.

Winemaking

A simple stainless steel fermentation to preserve the flavour and keep the wine open and fresh.

Tasting Note

Purple red with violet reflections. Intense aromas of sour cherries, blueberries, black currants as well as floral aromas (violets). High in acidity, medium in body, the young and ripened tannins create a velvety wine with integrated alcohol and an intense ending.

Food Matching

This is a big bold wine, suited to a T bone steak, veal carpaccio and red tuna.