Transylvania

With around 180,000 hectares of vines Romania is Europe's sixth-largest wine producer and one of the continent's oldest wine countries: viticulture is documented here for more than 6,000 years, and Herodotus wrote about the wine trade on the Black Sea coast. The country lies on the latitude of France; the Carpathians divide it into three climate zones – Atlantic-influenced Transylvania, continental Moldavia, and Mediterranean-tinged Wallachia and Dobrogea. After phylloxera (from 1872) the vineyards were replanted with French varieties, but the native grapes survived: Fetească Albă, Fetească Regală and Fetească Neagră, Grasă and Frâncușă in Cotnari, Tămâioasă Românească, Băbească Neagră, Crâmpoșie and Negru de Drăgășani. Origins follow Order 225/2006: eight wine regions, 37 podgorii (wine districts) and more than 150 wine centres; protected origins carry the DOC label (Denumire de Origine Controlată).

Transylvania is the country's white-wine heartland. At 300–550 metres, sheltered by the Carpathian arc, the grapes ripen slowly; the wines are fresh, aromatic and moderate in alcohol. Five podgorii make up the region: Târnave along the two Târnava rivers with the giant Jidvei estate (Europe's largest contiguous vineyard), Alba around Alba Iulia and Ighiu, Sebeș-Apold, Aiud with Turda, and Lechința in the north-east around Bistrița. Transylvanian Saxons shaped viticulture from the 12th century – place names such as Mediasch, Seiden (Jidvei) and Lechnitz recall them. Lead varieties are Fetească Regală (the crossing discovered at Daneș in 1930), Fetească Albă, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling Italico, Muscat Ottonel and Traminer; Pinot Noir succeeds on warm sites. Traditional-method sparkling wine from Jidvei and Alba Iulia is another tradition.