WINE-COUNTRIES ROMANIA

1 - Cotnari
2 - Murfatlar
3 - Tirnave
4 - Focsani
5 - Dragasani
6 - Minis - Arad
7 - Recas - Tirol Wineries

Vineyard area: 252 thousand hectares

Total production: 7.5 million hectolitres

Annual consumption
total: 4.6 million hectolitres
per capita: 21.3 litres

Exports: 161 thousand hectolitres

Imports: 225 thousand hectolitres

Principal grape varieties: burgund mare, feteasca neagra, feteasca regala, temiioasa, grasa, chardonnay, gewürztraminer, muscat ottonel, pinot noir, riesling italico, sauvignon blanc, sylvaner, traminer, merlot, cabernet sauvignon.

Two words sum up the problems of this most gifted but most wayward of winelands, politics and psychology. The elements are all in place for an oenology of exceptional, world-beating diversity and quality: ideal geographical and geological conditions, a long tradition stretching back over millennia (no less than six, they claim) and a range of authochtonous and imported but long-established grape-varieties of great distinction. Wine-farming happens all over the country in conditions as near to ideal as you could hope for in this imperfect world, with an average production of some 6 million hectolitres per annum, ranking Rumania among the top ten in the world.

This is the land capable of taking on Château Yquem, and they turn out Spanish Sauternes. This country could rival the first growths with a Rothschild or two to underwrite investments and throw a bit of weight behind the marketing; they give you Côtes de Blaye in an off-year.

If this assessment of the oenological situation in Rumania today is a bit harsh, it is motivated by frustration rather than disgust. Here, one feels, it is not a question of sending in a few foreign winemakers to solve the problems, it is one of changing heads. There is enough intrinsic quality in certain wines of the native Feteasca Neagra, Burgund Mare, Feteasca Regala, Tamaioasa and Grassa varieties to open up a new world, not to mention the more standard Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer and Muscat Ottonel.

In 1990 a company called Vinexport Trading Co. was set up, linking Bucharest with a variety of exclusive trading partners in Germany, Holland, Denmark and the United Kingdom Perhaps this was the correct first step in the process towards the de-regulation of the wine industry which Rumania seems to need, bringing investment, know-how and marketing skills totally lacking in the pre-existing situation.

Yet somehow one senses, lurking somewhere out there in the future, a France or an Italy of individual grower-winemakers, striving for the ultimate heights of vinous expression. It will take a lot of vision and a lot of support, politically, psychologically and financially, to realise it. It's probably just a dream, but ...