Category: Wine
Italy Wine Expert Rates Romanian Wine
Posted Thursday, June 04, 2009 by John D Paul
An Italian sommelier, trained and certified in the study of wines, got his first taste of Romanian wine Thursday, thanks to our group. PierAlberto Merli runs Gustolab in Rome and the Leonardo di Vinci school. Both units study and teach about the culture surrounding food and drink. Merli rated the Romanian Merlot he tasted as “good” but lacking the power of an Italian wine. Merli is shown in the photo above with Journalism Professor Nancy Benson.
Merli travels to the US frequently to speak about food and wines and how they affect culture. He’s due to be in Champaign-Urbana in July.
Romanian Wine to Improve Image This Year
Posted Sunday, May 24, 2009 by John D Paul
The head of a Romanian wine industry trade group says he expects his group will start a “Buy Romanian Wine” campaign later this year. Ioan Stefan said the Wine Exporters and Producers Association is drafting a new marketing plan to increase exports to Europe and the U.S. Meantime, one of Romania’s leading wine critics says Romanian wines have great potential in the U.S, if the nation loses its image as the home of Dracula. Radu Rizea is senior editor at vinul.ro, a wine website and magazine known for critiquing Romanian wines.
Rizea has sampled wines from around the world. He thinks Romanian wines will get better and challenge some of the best wines by 2015. He believes it will take that long for the relatively young grape vines around Romania to mature to produce rich, complex wines. Rizea spoke with me this week at Bucharest’s only wine bar, a small place in the oldest part of the city. He said Romania’s image is still not good in the United States where he believe the Eastern European nation is better known for Dracula, communist leader Nicolae Ceaucescu and former Olympian Nadia Comaneci, who won gold medals in 1976. “It’s hard to compete in a large country like America without being a major supplier,” said Rizea.
Radu Rizea speaks about improving Romania's wine image in the U.S.:
Radu Rizea speaks about improving Romania's wine image in the U.S.
Touring and Tasting Romanian Wines near Ploesti
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 by John D Paul
On Friday, two of us toured the Halewood vineyards and estate in the Delau Mare region of Romania, north of Bucharest. Halewood is a British owned wine company which produces several wines, including Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, sparkling rose, Merlot and a wine native to Romania called Feteascu Negra. Halewood is considered one of the “new” wineries in Romania, which began to grow in the late 1990s when privatization of the wine industry began in earnest.
The Delau Mare is considered Romania’s best region for red wines. Halewood wine executives Mihai Chitic and Valentin Resteman led the vineyard tour. We saw nearly 150 hectares of planted vineyard where the grapes are still very tiny, less than the size of a peppercorn, caper or BB. Chitic told me he believes there is great potential to increase the sale of Romanian wines, especially to the US, if the wine owners did a better job marketing their products overseas. The Halewood executives say the company currently exports about 62% of its wines.
No Romanian wines in UI wine class
Posted Tuesday, May 12, 2009 by John D Paul
A wine appreciation class at the University of Illinois does not sample wines from Romania. The Food Science and Human Nutrition class is one of the most popular on the Urbana campus. It teaches students, who must be 21 years of age, to appreciate wines from around the world.
The class, FSHN 304, is titled Introduction to Wine Science. The class, often called “wine appreciation,” is taught by enology specialist Bradley Beam, who has a background in horticulture and grape growing and wine production. The students meet each week at Bevier Hall on the University of Illinois campus to sample a variety of wines. They must first take notes on the sensory characteristics of the wine including the “nose” or aromas they detect in the wines including odors from oak, vanilla, rubber, fruits, grasses, berries and even leather. They examine the color or clarity of the wines and then sample a small taste of the wine. The students also learn about the value and importance of wine production in the US. Beam says he has used many wines from Europe, Australia and South America in the class, but not wines from Romania, which are considered unknown by many American consumers.
UI Enology specialist Bradley Beam teaches wine class:
UI Enology specialist Bradley Beam teaches wine class
Bringing Romania Wines to US
Posted Wednesday, May 06, 2009 by John D Paul
Romanian wine makers are eager to export more of their products to wine consumers in the United States but they realize they face an image problem. Romanian wine does not get the notoriety or publicity that other European wines enjoy. Romanian Importer Cristian Soare of Terra Firma in St. Charles, Missouri is confident a change in image would cause more Americans to consider Romania’s wines.
Cristian Soare of Terra Firma Wines speaks about Romanian wines:
Cristian Soare of Terra Firma Wines speaks about Romanian wines
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