Romanian wine
is one of the world's largest wine producers and sixth-largest among European wine-producing countries, after Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Portugal. It produced more wine than New Zealand and Austria but is lesser-known on the world wine stage. In 2021 it produced around 4.5 million hectolitres of wine. In recent years, Romania has attracted many European business people and wine buyers, due to the affordable prices of both vineyards and wines compared to other wine-producing nations such as France, Germany, and Italy.
Romania's most cultivated grape varieties are for white wines Fetească Albă, Fetească Regală, Riesling, Aligoté, Sauvignon, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Tămâioasă Românească, Grasă de Cotnari, Galbenă de Odobești. Also, the main grape varieties for red wines are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Băbească Neagră, Fetească Neagră, Pinot Noir.
History
Romania has one of the oldest wine-making traditions in the world and its viticulture dates back more than 6,000 years. Due to suitable climate, relief and soils, viticulture became a current activity of the local inhabitants mainly in the hilly areas. Numerous local wine grape varieties have been obtained during medieval time by empirical selection, becoming representatives for Romanian wine regions. Up to the phylloxera crisis, each Romanian wine region had its own wine grape assortment, that generated specific local wines. Since the medieval period, wine has been the traditional alcoholic beverage of the Romanians.In the 1880s phylloxera was introduced accidentally also in Romania, and over a period of several years destroyed the local viticulture. Restoration of the Romanian viticulture lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, and was done mainly by planting French wine grape varieties such as Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon etc. Besides these, phylloxera-resistant grape hybrids were also planted. Several traditional Romanian wine grapes did survive the phylloxera crisis, and are still cultivated in Romania in the 21st Century.
Romania has about 187,000 hectares of vine plantations; that ranks it on sixth place between the European wine-producing countries. With a wine production of about 4.5 million hl/year, Romania is the thirteenth largest wine-producing country in the world.
Wine-producing regions
Main wine regions of Romania are:The Transylvanian Plateau region
- Târnave
- Alba
- Aiud
- Sebeș-Apold
- Lechința
- Cotnari
- Iași
- Huși
- Zeletin
- Colinele Tutovei
- Dealul Bujorului
- Iveşti
- Nicoreşti
- Covurlui
- Panciu
- Odobești
- Cotești
- Dealurile Buzăului
- Dealu Mare
- Ștefănești
- Sâmburești
- Drăgășani
- Dealurile Craiovei
- Podgoria Severinului
- Plaiurile Drâncei
- Moldova Nouă
- Recaș
- Silagiu
- Teremia
- Tirol
- Miniș-Măderat
- Diosig
- Șimleu Silvaniei
- Valea lui Mihai
- Sarica-Niculițel
- Istria-Babadag
- Murfatlar
- Greaca
- Ostrov
- Sadova-Corabia
- Calafat
- Podgoria Dacilor
Wines
Each wine-growing region additionally cultivates international wine grape varieties, mainly: Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling italico, Pinot gris and Traminer for white wines; and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot noir for red wines. All these local and international varieties form the basis of many wines, presented mainly under the name of the wine grape variety and less commonly under the name of producer or under a marketing name.