Dealu Mare means ‘the big hill’, and the name is exact. Between Ploiești and Buzău, north-east of Bucharest, the last ridges of the Carpathians fall away to the Wallachian plain in a band of south-facing slopes some 65 kilometres long and 3 to 12 wide, from about 130 metres at the edge of the plain to 550 metres below the forest. The 45th parallel runs through it, the latitude of Bordeaux. The climate is continental, hot summers and cold winters, but the hills behind shelter the vines from the north winds; the autumns are usually mild and dry. In the west, around Valea Călugărească, the soils are reddish-brown and rich in iron; in the east, around Pietroasa, limestone and sands take over. With about 15,000 hectares this is Romania’s red-wine country.
The black maiden
The native red is Fetească Neagră, the ‘black maiden’, an old variety of the country: deep ruby, blackcurrant and dried plum, 12 to 14 per cent alcohol, a spicy finish that softens with age. Beside it stand Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir; phylloxera was found at Chitorani, in the middle of this region, in 1884. The whites are Fetească Regală, a natural offspring of Fetească Albă found around 1920 in Transylvania, Fetească Albă itself and Tămâioasă Românească, the Romanian muscat, named after tămâie, incense. Its home is the eastern end of the strip at Pietroasa, where a research station dating from 1893 keeps the sweet, golden Tămâioasă alive and where a Gothic gold hoard came to light in 1837.
In the glass
The grapes the region is known for, by sweetness, acidity, tannin and body.
| Grape | Sweetness | Acidity | Tannin | Body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabernet Sauvignon | dry | medium to high | medium(+) to high | medium to full |
| Merlot | dry | medium(−) to medium | medium(−) to medium(+) | medium to full |
| Pinot Noir | dry | medium(+) to high | low to medium | light to medium |
| Muscat | dry to luscious | medium(−) to medium | white, no tannin | light to full |
Each grape’s typical range worldwide, not in this region alone, on the WSET tasting grid (Level 3, 2022): dry to luscious, low to high, light to full. The dot before each name shows the colour of a typical bottle.
Monks, comrades and a count
Wine has been made on these hills for centuries, and Valea Călugărească means ‘the monks’ valley’. Under communism the vineyards were collectivised and farmed for volume; after 1989 they went back, often in small plots, to their former owners and their heirs. The French count Guy Tyrel de Poix founded SERVE in Ceptura in 1994, one of the first private wineries of the new Romania; Davino and Budureasca are other private estates of the region, and in 2008 the Tuscan Antinori family founded Viile Metamorfosis at Vadu Săpat with partners. The national institute for viticulture works at Valea Călugărească. Romania as a whole has about 187,000 hectares of vines (OIV 2023), more than any EU country except Spain, France and Italy, and some thirteen times the vineyard of Switzerland. The law grades a DOC wine by the ripeness of its grapes: CMD for full ripeness, CT for a late harvest, CIB for grapes touched by noble rot; below the DOC stands the IG, the geographical indication.
Sense of scale
15,000 ha Dealu Mare has about 1.0× as many vines as all of Switzerland.
One square is all of Switzerland: about 14,350 hectares of vines.
With sarmale and the grill
In the glass Fetească Neagră is dark and generous without being heavy: serve it at 16 to 18 degrees with sarmale, the Romanian cabbage rolls, with grilled mici, lamb or a mature hard cheese; the Cabernet and Merlot blends of Ceptura and Tohani like an hour in the decanter. A sweet Tămâioasă from Pietroasa, at 8 to 10 degrees, goes with a slice of cozonac; a dry Fetească Regală, well chilled, with river fish.