Cramele Recas, Solara Orange

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 divide the production and commercial management between them and together 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

A mountainous terrain surrounds the vineyards and dominates the landscape.

WINEMAKING

Handpicked grown grapes were destemmed , lightly crushed then macerated with full skin contact for 3.5 weeks at low temperatures, until fully dry and completed 100% malolactic fermentation. 20% of the maceration was in clay amphorae and 80% stainless steel. Then all wines were blended and lightly oak aged for 2 months in 1 year old French barriques, before a natural cold stabilization, and bottling with no further SO2 addition or filtration.

TASTING NOTE

Dark straw in colour with orange hints, the nose is a delicate mélange of quince, poire william and a hint of vanilla. A complex and structured wine, with elegant but discreet fruit flavours of stone fruits, backed up with a powerful tannin structure and long finish. A natural minimal intervention wine which is well balanced and structured yet pure and incredibly fresh.

FOOD MATCHING

Hard and semi hard cheese, turbot, tuna steak and chicken.