IMW webinar series: Quality and native grapes of Romania – How can an unknown country build a global wine reputation?

Description

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You can watch recordings of the IMW Webinar Seres here.

Romania produces more wine than New Zealand, yet it is little known beyond its borders for anything more than price-fighting Pinot in all shades. It has so much more to offer in terms of variety and quality, so this webinar will take a look at what producers can do and whether native grapes play a role in their story.

Panel:
Philip Cox – Cramele Recas
Oliver Bauer – Crama Bauer and Prince Stirbey
Dan Balaban – Davino
Cristiana Stoica – Avincis winery

The event will be moderated by Caroline Gilby MW and there will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

About the panellists:
Philip Cox is co-owner of Cramele Recas, Romania’s most successful wine exporter and one of the country’s biggest producers. The winery owns more than 1100 hectares in the west of the country close to Timisoara but also sources from across the country. He is originally from Bristol, arriving in Romania in 1991 and selling Heineken as his first job. He started to export wine for something to do with all the Romanian currency. He, his wife Elvira and two Romanian partners bought the Recas winery in 1999 when it came up for privatisation.

Dan Balaban is owner of Davino, Romania’s third private winery of the new era, founded in 1997.  Dan was a wine distributor who spotted an opportunity for higher quality wines and was one of the first producers to focus on premium quality. Davino is widely regarded as one of Romania’s best producers. The winery has 70 hectares of its own in one of Romania’s best wine regions – Dealu Mare.

Oliver Bauer is from Baden Wurttemberg and originally arrived in Romania for a couple of months to train the local team at Prince Stirbey. The chance to help rebuild such a historic winery from scratch  wasn’t to be missed so he quit his job and moved to Romania in 2004. He continues to make wine at Prince Stirbey where local grapes from estate vineyards have been the focus from the start. Since 2010 he has also run his own winery Crama Bauer with his wife Raluca, focussing on individual parcels of old vines.

Cristiana and Valeriu Stoica are the owners of the dramatically beautiful Avincis winery.  The Vila Dobrusa mansion surrounded by vines is the old family home of Cristiana which had been confiscated and pretty much destroyed by the state. They managed to get the family property returned in 2007 and produced their first vintage in 2011. Both are international lawyers and Valeriu is a former Minister of Justice, who played a significant role in the land restitution process.

About the IMW webinar series:
Webinars are open to anyone who wishes to attend. Registrations are capped and will close when fully booked. All guests are welcome to submit questions in advance or during the webinar. The IMW uses the Zoom webinar platform, instructions on how to join will be emailed to you. Please check your junk or spam folder if you do not receive an email confirmation when registering. Unless specified otherwise, webinars are recorded and will be made available online here a few days after the event.

If you have any questions, please contact Belinda Eaton at beaton@mastersofwine.org.