A Journey Through Dealu Mare DOC
I’ve mentioned my friend S. a few times here and there in my blog. A teacher here in Istanbul, she drives home to Austria every summer and returns with a car full of goodies. Tis not a short drive from Istanbul to Austria, nor do we share a border. As such, her trips take her through a number of other countries and she usually stops for a few days here and there (especially to sleep!) along the way.
Last year, her winding journey took her through the southern part of Romania where she stopped at several wineries. And because she is awesome, bought wine for me at all of them!
Dealu Mare DOC
The most concentrated winery area of Romania with eight DOCs, the Dealu Mare sits in the southern part of the country in Prahova and Buzău counties. Dealu Mare means “big hill”, an appropriate name for a region that runs along the southern Carpathian Hills! The region stretches for 65 kilometers but is narrow at just three to 12 kilometers.
The vineyards here lie between 130 and 550 meters and receive protection from harsh winter winds by the hills and forests higher in the Carpathians. Reddish brown soils rich in iron and with chalky deposits, plentiful rainfall, and hot summers with mild, dry autumns all contribute towards making vine growing here so successful.
Successful and long-storied. While the first written records available date from “only” the 14th and 15th centuries, archeological finds date the presence of the vines here to ancient times. 
White wines made here tend to have high levels of extract with excellent structure and medium acidity. While aromatic varieties Tămâioasă Românească and Muscat Ottonel have found particular favor in this region, they’re far from the only white grapes. Busuioaca de Bohotin, Fetească Albă, Fetească Regală, Riesling Italico, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay abound.
On the other end of the spectrum, red wines offer a smooth structure, full body, and often see oak ageing. Among the red grape varieties grown in Dealu Mare are: Burgund Mare, Fetească Neagră, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Zweigelt.
Dagon Estate Cleştar, 2020
Dagon Estate is a small production winery with a goal to nurture nature and celebrate Romanian wine history while remaining open to experimentation in the winery. It likes to say that “We let the wine do the talking, opening minds with every bottle opened”.
The Dagon Estate Cleştar is one of those experimentations. Deviating from its usual 100% Fetească Albă path, the winery added 20% old vine Tămâioasă Românească to create a new blend. Aged partially in stainless steel and partially in old Burgundian oak, the wine then remained on its less for three months before bottling.
The medium hay-colored wine gave big personality in the nose! So much citrus, yellow fruit, and florals leaning towards tropical blooms. I wondered initially if they’d used Sauvignon Blanc yeasts for this, but apparently Dagon Estate is all about native yeasts. The palate offered a different profile with less citrus and more tree fruit. Golden Delicious apples and Asian pear flavors mingled with musky florals.
Silky with medium acidity and moderate (12.9%) alcohol, this was a very pleasant blend. It actually did quite well some spicy food I’d made, making me wonder if there weren’t a hint of residual sugar here as well.
Dagon Estate Clearstone Fetească Albă Reserve, 2019
Another Fetească Albă from Dagon Estate, this time a 100% varietal, the Clearstone Fetească Albă Reserve uses grapes from 40-year old vines. They press the grapes with an old school basket press, ferment with wild yeasts in a combination of new Romanian and second use Burgundian barrels, then rest it in stainless steel.
Yes. If S heads back through Romania this summer, I’ll be asking for another bottle of this! Possibly because the nose reminded me a great deal of my childhood with aromas of late summer dried wild flowers and grass, chamomile, and golden apple. The palate shifted everything to more autumnal notes with the apple becoming something akin to a caramelized apple with notes of hay and dried flowers, all tied together with a ribbon of salinity.
Medium-bodied, textured, with medium acidity and 13.5% abv. Overall, very nice.
Gramofon Wine Fetească Regalo, 2020
Gramofon Wine was founded by former musician Marcel Pascu. The winery produces a range of white, rosé, and red wines with a mix of international and native grapes such as Fetească Neagră and Fetească Regalo. While I’d heard of the other two Fetească grapes, Fetească Regalo was new to me. 
Per Wikipedia, the grape resulted from a natural crossing of Grasă and Fetească Albă. However, Wine-Searcher suggests that its origins are less clear with possible parents also being Francusa and Leanyka. Whatever its parentage, it grows widely in Romania, especially in Dealu Mare and Transylvania. While the grape can withstand extreme heat and cold, it needs plentiful amounts of water and is susceptible to botrytis bunch rot.
The wine poured a cool lemon-lime and shone brilliantly in the glass. Delicate florals danced playfully with citrusy notes of yuzu and fragrant bergamot and Asian pear. Apparently, Fetească Regalo has more tannic structure than its probably parent Fetească Albă which would explain the nice texture the wine had. Good acidity, decently long finish, surprisingly high-ish alcohol at 13.9%.
For my first Fetească Regalo experience, I think this was quite a success.
Viile Metamorfosis Negru de Drăgășani, 2020
This last wine did not come from S but another friend. I was helping her study for her WSET I and she brought this over for us to drink together. Viile Metamorfosis has quite an interesting history. Founded in 1949, it operated under Soviet management for some time (and we all know what kind of wine they were making). In 1998 after privatization, British company Halewood took over the winery with Fiorenzo Rista. In 2009 the famous Marchese Antinori acquired the majority stake in the winery, Halewood dropped out of the owners consortium in 2013, leaving Viile Metamorfosis to Antinori and Rista. Fiorenzo Rista remains the winery’s head and winemaker today and helped the winery move into organic farming. It received its certification in 2013.
The Negru de Drăgășani grapes for this wine came from Viile Metamorfosis’s Via Marchizului vineyards. Sitting at 261-273 meters, vines grow in marl, clay, and loamy soils with a SE and SW orientation. Definitely a new to me grape, Negru de Drăgășani is a cross of Saperavi and Negru Vârtos. The grape has a high amount of anthocyanins, making its deep, dense, purple ruby no surprise.
I somehow completely neglected to take a picture of this wine on it’s own! But you can see the bottle hiding second from the left here.
An aromatic wine bursting with aromas of plum, blackberry, black cherry, and tomato with notes of coffee, vanilla, sweet spices, and just a touch of dried mint. The scent alone was mouthwatering. It fell down a little on the palate. Bold and fruity with decently integrated tannins and acidity, with a whopping 16% abv! The alcohol threw it off balance and gave it an unpleasant hotness.
Thanks to S, I still have a few bottles of Dealu Mare wines in the wine room and I can’t wait to see what those are like!