54
Beverage Media
October 2012
BRAND
FOCUS
H
ow do you get Americans
interested in Romanian
wines? That’s the challenge
confronting Select Wines of
Romania, five major wineries that have
joined forces to open up the American
market with their broad selection of
wines produced in one of the world’s
oldest winemaking regions.
The wineries that make up the
group—Cramele Recas, Senator, Dome-
niul Coroanei Segarcea, Murfatlar and
Carl Reh – Crama Oprisor—together
have almost 15,000 acres under vine,
in a broad array of both indigenous and
international varieties. Some of the
wines have won fans among sommeliers
and competition judges for their unique
and fresh qualities. But even though the
Romania’s wine history dates back more
than 4,000 years, wines from this former
communist country mostly remain a
blank slate in the U.S.
Representatives are confident that
once retailers and consumers get a
chance to sample the wines, they will
find lots to like. But first, they are aiming
at supply lines. “Most Romanian wines
that are currently available here are sold
to the ‘ethnic markets,’” says Jordan
Robinson Agnor, account supervisor at
Development Counsellors International
(
DCI), U.S. representative for Select
Wines of Romania. “We are trying to
move beyond this niche market to find
greater distribution” via new partners, at
both the import and wholesale levels.
Even locating the country for Amer-
icans, notoriously poor in geography, is
an issue. Or is that an advantage? “We
have to create a linkage between the
buyer’s decision making and the wine
region, and it does help that Romania
shares the same latitude as Bordeaux, Pi-
emonte and Burgundy,” says Jon Stamell
of DCI. “It helps to place it as a country
where it makes sense that they would
have good wine.”
Native Advantage
Members of Select Wines of Romania
produce many international varietals,
but promoting the indigenous varieties is
the plan, with Feteasca Neagra being the
flagship grape. Other grapes (Babeasca
Neagra, Feteasca Alba, Feteasca Regala,
and Tamaioasa Romaneasca are the other
leading grapes) can produce wines some-
times compared to those from nearby
Austria. Senator produces, among others,
“
Monser” Feteasca Neagra 2009 Dobro-
gea, one of the two wines given a strong
recommendation at the recent Ultimate
Wine Challenge. Whites routinely offer
good acidity and freshness, while the ar-
ray of red varietals can range from light
and crisp to deep and dense.
There have been vast improvements
in the quality of wines from members
of the group since privatization, and
modernizing winemaking techniques
has been spurred by lots of foreign
investment; Carl Reh – Crama Oprisor
is backed by the German company that
produces Black Tower, for instance. At
the same time, a willingness to develop
new markets has led to such recent
advances as a successful Cramele Recas
“
UnWineD” Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir
wine promotion at the Fresh & Easy
supermarkets in California and Nevada.
As Stamell points out, the new
American wine consumer is more open
than previous generations to sampling
outside their comfort zone: “The fact
that wines from Romania are new does
help—as consumers get more educated
and adventurous, and wine drinking
tastes move east, Romania could be the
next area that people get excited about.”
Stamell notes that the Fresh & Easy
promotion is a good example of how
Select Wines members can respond to
opportunity. “People want good quality
wines at good prices and Romanians can
do that. Plus, if wine is a way to travel
around the world, here’s another stop.”
There’s also a long Romanian tradi-
tion of producing sweet and semi-sweet
wines, so it seems Select Wines produc-
ers are well positioned to tap into that
niche as well, if importers show inter-
est. Senator and other wineries are also
developing a wider organic position as
well. Dry, sweet, red, white, youthful,
age-worthy, casual, serious, value, qual-
ity, organic—it seems there are few as-
pects of wine production Select Wines’
members aren’t tackling.
■
Fresh from Romania
Group of Five ‘Select’ Wineries Aims for a U.S. Foothold
BY JACK ROBERTIELLO
Domenuil
Coroanei Segarcea
“
Blue Train”
Feteasca Neagra
Carl Reh –
Crama Oprisor
“
Caloian”
Merlot
Senator
“
Monser”
Feteasca Neagra
Cramele Recas
“
UnWineD”
Pinot Grigio
Murfatlar
“
Trei Hectare”
Feteasca Neagra
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