Rosé wine is becoming increasingly popular especially during the summer season and rightly so. It’s light, it’s crisp, it goes well with seafood and also with grilled meats, you can enjoy it accompanied by a cigar etcetera. Well, at least some of it.
In my opinion, the pale pink liquid is the perfect all-purpose drink for summer, whether you’re at the beach getting tanned, at a garden party hosted by a magazine, or simply enjoying a nice meal with the family on the weekend.
And while there are plenty of rosé wines to be presented and recommended from all around the world (and I know you’d be thinking Provence in particular), I would like to talk about a few Romanian wines that I’ve tasted this last couple of months and that I think you should try too.
Because I have no proper training in wines (I am just passionate about it, I have visited a few wine fairs and have read on the subject) I won’t make an actual top – but I will try to filter out the information the best I can.
Note: Before starting out, I must say this will be a somehow biased list, since I only picked the rosés that resemble the Southern France wines’ in color. I don’t like the look of intense pink ones – even though I know the color doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad.
So… let’s start out our adventure:
The most affordable (but very good nonetheless) Romanian rosé
It’s called Domnul de rouă from the Avincis winery and it’s a blend made of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Merlot. Priced at ~20 LEI (less than $5!!!) this is ideal if you’re throwing a barbeque party with a large group of friends and you don’t want to overspend.
The easy-to-drink Romanian rosé
Galicea Mare Rosé from Mosia Galicea Mare, made out of the local grape variety Fetească neagră (a + for that). I remember when I first tasted this, it struck me as a great, drinkable wine. The residual sugar is close to the upper limit (of 4.0 grams/liter, making it almost semi-dry) so I think that’s what makes it easier to drink. Which also means ladies would love it too. Price range: 45-50 LEI.
The ‘provençal’ Romanian rosé
Soare Roze from Rasova Winery – Maybe because the winery is situated close to The Black Sea, it’s the wine that to me, it resembled the Provençe wines the best. On a first tasting, this one was my favorite. ~40 lei (a little under $10, it’s great value for the money).
The local wine with foreign name
Crama Bauer Rose – Oliver Bauer is from Germany but has moved to Romania in 2004, as a wine-maker for Crama Stirbey. In the meantime he has opened his eponymous winery and launched some bad-ass wines under his name. This rosé is one of them. Made from Negru de Drăgășani (a + of course), Oliver emphasizes the importance of promoting local grape varieties. ~50 lei ($12) it’s probably the most ‘expensive’ wine in the list, but the production is small, the demand is high so it makes sense.
The Outlier
The 5th wine is the Pinot Noir Rose from Jelna Winery. The first time I have tried this wine straight out of the fridge (recommended serving temperature is 4-6˚C) and I loved it! The second time I still liked it but thought it had high acidity (a tidbit too much for my taste) but I’ve included in my list because I think the winery has plenty of potential. 43 LEI ~ $10.
Special mention: A rosé from Moldova
Surori is a wine made by Gitana Winery in Moldova, so no exactly Romanian ‘terroir’ but the wine it’s worth a special mention, at least as an ice-breaker to get to know their wines better. They make two spectacular Reds (Saperavi and Lupi).
Of course this is not a comprehensive list and it’s based on wines that I’ve tasted and that I’ve enjoyed drinking. If you have other suggestions, please leave a comment, and I will try to taste it if I haven’t already and if I like it, I might put it in here. Cheers!
Until then, if you have a few more minutes, check out his post that I’ve wrote titled Cocktails every man should be ready to prepare…at any time.
