© Jidvei

Romania's wine tradition stretches back thousands of years.

It's taken a generation to get over Communism, but a new wave of producers is creating a buzz.

So what is the big deal about Romania?

It's one of the oldest – and youngest – winemaking countries in the world, with a history that goes back 4000 years, but with a 40-year hiatus during the Communist era. For all functional purposes, the oldest wineries in Romania today date from the mid-1990s, but they are rapidly gaining a reputation for excellent wines, especially their aromatic and elegant whites.

So Romania is the cradle of winemaking?

Nearly. Armenia, where winemaking equipment dating back to 4000BC has been found, is reckoned to be the cradle, alongside Georgia, where 8000-year-old jars containing wine residue have been unearthed. It's thought that the Ancient Greeks, in the 7th Century BC, were making wine on Romania's Black Sea coast, in the region known today as Dobrogea.

What exactly did the communists do to wreck all that history?

During the communist years, between the end of World War II and the death of the hated dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1989, vineyards were taken under state control and collectivized, with the emphasis on quantity rather than quality. Under communism there were 740,000 acres (300,000 hectares) of vineyards churning out bulk wines for export to Russia and the rest of Europe – the UK was the grateful recipient of millions of bottles of cheap Pinot Noir. The vast majority of the wine, fortified to 18 percent, was sold to Russia and the Soviet states.

What happened at the fall of Communism?

In the early 1990s the tortuous process of returning land to its previous owners got under way, complicated by the fact that the government had no proper land registry. Lawyers Valeriu and Cristina Stoica, proprietors of Avincis in Drăgăşani province, finally managed to regain ownership of Cristina's ancestral lands in 1998, after seven years of legal wrangling. Her family had lost their house and vineyards in 1950; when they visited the estate, they found it in disarray – the vineyards were neglected, the house derelict. Stoica remarks that 25 years after the revolution, the effects of communism are still felt. "It destroyed all notion of ownership, and of entrepreneurialism. After the two world wars the country was back on its feet within 10 years. Communism did more damage than war."

What does the wine landscape look like now?

Romania is the 12th-biggest wine producer in the world, and the seventh biggest in Europe. Planting (and re-planting) carries on apace: 75,000 acres (30,000ha) of vineyard were put in the ground in the last seven years. There are some very fine terroirs, from Mediterranean on the Black Sea coast to continental inland. Stoica considers his appellation, Drăgăşani in the south, to be "the center of the wine world", its clay and limestone slopes cooled by Romania's biggest river, the Olt, a tributary of the Danube. Recaş in the west, towards the Hungarian border, is continental, its rolling hills offering multiple orientations, well-drained soils varying from chalk and limestone to rich iron oxide. Wine is made in every province from the Moldovan Hills and the Black Sea in the east to the Hungarian border in the west, down south on the Danube and in the central province of Transylvania.

© Bran Castle/Agropost

Transylvania is home to both Dracula and a bewildering array of native grape varieties.

Transylvania – the homeland of Count Dracula himself?

As well as the predictably lurid, Dracula-themed labels (yes, there's a wine called Bat's Blood), the remote, magical, mountainous province of Transylvania produces some very good wines. Transylvania means "the land beyond the forest", and one can easily imagine strange goings-on in the vertiginous turrets of tree-ringed castles, fear stalking the cobbled streets of the towns below. But this is excellent wine country. Transylvania is on the 47th parallel, the same as Galicia; it is landlocked, but protected from extremes of temperature by the great Carpathian mountain range, its vineyards at elevations of up to 1000 feet (300m). As well as the indigenous Fetească Regală, Sauvignon Blanc is particularly successful. Liliac winery (symbol: a bat) considers its Sauvignon – intense, mineral and elegant, with zesty cut-pear flavors – a "signature" for the winery.

Ah, Fetească Regală – just one of Romania's unpronounceable grape varieties…

Romanians are proud of their many native grapes, their fresh and perfumed Feteascăs, the bracing Crămpoşie Selecţionată and Tămâioasă Românească (a blend of which is reckoned to have made the Drăgăşani region famous), the aromatic black grapes Fetească Neagră and Negru Drăgăşani. Avincis winemaker Ghislain Moritz says they will only plant native grapes in future.

Does Romania have a signature grape?

Oddbins head buyer Ana Sapungiu (who is from Bucharest) is putting her money on Fetească Regală. "It makes wines that suit today's tastes: characterful, scented, quince, grapefruit, peaches, a touch of spice but balanced by refreshing acidity." She's not so sold on the reds. "Fetească Neagră is harder to get right, quite tough on its own and I am yet to find the ideal blending partner at a sensible price." Another Romania observer, Julia Harding MW, namechecks Crămpoşie Selecţionată's "potential for a refined, elegant white with good acidity", and says "the lighter Negru Drăgăşani fits well into the current trend for lighter and more refreshing reds".

What about the international grapes – surely they've got a few acres of Cabernet?

While the white grapes Fetească Regală and Fetească Alba are by far the most popular, with more than 61,000 acres are planted, Merlot covers 28,500 acres. There are also extensive plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc and some 10,000 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Some producers are wary of single-variety labels with local grapes, working on the very reasonable assumption that Romanian grapes are so little known that the best chance of foreign sales is to blend them with international varietals. Avincis makes a particularly fine Fetească Regală-Pinot Gris blend.

© Eco-Romania

The next challenge is to attract more Romanians to winemaking, rather than grapegrowing.

Is there a lot of foreign investment?

The Romanian wine scene is full of foreigners. "We'd like a Romanian winemaker, but at the moment it's difficult," says Philip Cox of Cramele Recaş (whose winemakers are Australian and Spanish). Wherever you look you find outside ownership and expertise. Cox himself is from Bristol; Guy de Poix, who owns Comte Peraldi in Corsica, started the SERVE winery in Dealu Mare in 1994; the French consultant Marc Dworkin set up Bessa Valley Winery in Bulgaria with Stephan von Neipperg of Saint-Émilion's Château Canon La Gaffelière and now makes wine at Romania's Alira in Oltina on the Black Sea coast; Moritz of Avincis is from Alsace and trained in Burgundy; Prince Ştirbey is owned by a Romanian aristocrat and her German husband, the wines looked after by German winemaker Oliver Bauer; Corcova is part-owned by a Frenchman.

Are there any homegrown winemakers?

Hardly any. There are enology courses at universities such as Bucharest and Craiova, but they are all highly theoretical. As Bauer says: "You can get a diploma in enology without working a single day in a winery. They are a couple of decades behind the rest of the world in that respect."

What of the future?

"Wine culture is an element of our identity," Valeriu Stoic says. "There is a new wave starting here." Exports are still small but they are growing – in the UK Waitrose, Oddbins, Berry Bros and others list Romanian wines – and with profitability comes more and bigger investment. Producers have a serious interest in championing native varieties, and in this they are very much in tune with the zeitgeist. In the words of Daniel Ilsley of London merchant Theatre of Wine: "Romania is a country that is re-emerging with something interesting to say."

Romania for rookies – 10 great wines to try:

Prince Ştirbey Extra Brut: Traditional method, made with 100-percent Crămpoşie Selecţionată, this has a bright, bold nose and a bone-dry palate with attractive yeasty notes and strawberry fruit, and a nice persistent length.

2014 Prince Ştirbey Rosé: Negru Drăgăşani, Novac and Merlot. Powerful and dry, with strawberry nose and sweet red fruit on the palate. Delicate length, ultra-soft tannins releasing juice at end.

2015 Cramele Recaş Solo Quinta: A blend of Muscat, Fetească Regală, Sauvignon Blanc and a blanc de noirs of Negru Drăgăşani. Herbaceous nose, fine opulent mouthfeel with white flowers developing to tropical fruit, enlivened by brisk minerality.

2013 Davino Monogram Fetească Alba: Grassy Sauvignon-like nose with lovely, dry, mineral palate, high tropical notes, zesty acidity.

2013 Davino Fetească Neagra: Sweet, lifted black-cherry nose, juicy mid-palate reminiscent of Grenache, lip-smacking acidity in good length.

2014 Liliac Chardonnay, Podgoria Lechinţa, Transylvania: Nose with sweet, unctuous fruit, some grassy notes, melon and apple and dry, chalky acidity. Elegant.

2011 SERVE Cuvée Charlotte, Dealu Mare: Cabernet Sauvignon, Fetească Neagra, Merlot. Creamy nose, very dry and grippy tannins, dark plummy and slightly raisined fruit, bright acidity, full of life.

2012 SERVE Cuvée Guy de Poix, Dealu Mare: Fetească Neagra. Ripe black fruit on the nose, then a mineral palate, precise, some florality, really characterful structured with great balance despite a hefty 15 percent alcohol.

2014 Terase Danubiene Sauvignon Blanc:

Honey on nose and a very delicate palate with fresh apple and pear and citrus notes. Persistent spicy acidity, cool and elegant

2011 Avincis Negru de Drăgăşani, Drăgăşani:

From vineyards just three years old, this has fine clove spice on the nose and rich dark black fruit and more spice on the palate. Warm, juicy tannins in mid-palate, good acidity. When the vines mature this wine will be excellent