2024 Cramele Recas Solara Orange

In 1988, three families decided to invest in a winery in Romania. It started 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. Vineyards are a combination of old vines and more recent plantings, and the winery has seen significant investment in state of the art facilities. A mountainous terrain surrounds the vineyards and dominates the landscape. Grapes are 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.

Tasting note: Made from Riesling de Rhin 34%, Muscat Ottonel 27%, Chardonnay 18%. Dark straw in colour with orange hints, the nose is a delicate mélange of quince, pear and a hint of vanilla. A 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 match: Hard and semi hard cheese, turbot, tuna steak and chicken.