Romania – facts and figures
Romania is one of the world’s largest wine producers and fifth largest among European wine-producing countries. In 2018 it produced around 5.2 million hectolitres of wine and has become very attractive to wine buyers, due to the affordable prices and improving quality. Romania has a wine making culture dating back thousands of years and would have been one of the first regions to adopt wine making as it spread from modern day Georgia, across the Black Sea. The climate and soils are perfect for viticulture and since medieval times, wine has been the most popular beverage in the country. Most farms would have grown vines and had some expertise in wine making using a wide range of local varieties as field blends. Phylloxera arrived in 1872 and destroyed many of these old varieties along with the industry which took most of the 20th century to recover due to poverty created by war and communism. Replanting of vineyards was done with international varieties such as Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, although there are still many of the old varieties still grown on grafted rootstock. Romania is at the same latitudes as France’s key wine regions. Northern Romania is at the 47°N, very similar to southern Alsace and northern Burgundy while southern Romania is between 43°S and 44° S, which lies due east of France’s Mediterranean coast around Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. Despite its location, Romania is largely a moderate continental climate without the cooling influences of the Atlantic or Mediterranean. The exception is the eastern coastal region along the Black Sea, which is somewhat cooler. Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and spent five years reviewing and organising its wine industry as part of the preparations for this. New wine laws covering production standards (vintage and variety quantities), and labelling have been in place for more than a decade now and continued to evolve. The three quality categories are Vin de Masa (Table Wine) Vin cu Indicatie Geografica (IGP) and Denumire de Origine Controlata (PDO). Romania remains quite poor and lacks resources to buy modern winemaking equipment, such as temperature-controlled tanks, to improve winemaking. There are, however, a handful of modern facilities that make excellent wines.