 Welcome back to Exotic Wine Trowel. I am your host Matthew Horky. We are going to be tasting some Romanian wines here today. Now before we get started I have to apologize for the lighting, the setting of our place. Shireen and I have been on the road non-stop for the last two weeks, actually almost three weeks now. We went through crazy trips in Sardinia, Slovakia, Hungary and now we're in Romania for a little while to see some old friends, taste some new wines and get some work done. So it was really cool. After about 10 days of going through Slovakia, revisiting the wine regions, we came here to Oradea Romania to see a friend, a fellow hashtag wine lover on Facebook. And he set us up with some wonderful tasting. When we got here actually the first evening, we did a big tasting with his group called Melissa May and we blind tasted a bunch of wines, Romanian wines, international wines. Actually it was great because that night we had a 2008 Montrose and a 2003 Quintarali Amarone which was well hidden and they showed really really well made Shireen really happy woman. So they made me a happy man. But we also tasted some Romanian wines and we're gonna be tasting some new stuff here today from a few producers that have joint ventures with foreign companies. Now in Romania, actually Romania is the sixth largest wine producing country in Europe. If you think about that's crazy. Lots of foreign investment happening and we're gonna taste some of those wines today. Let's get into it without further ado. Here's a producer that we actually have tasted before. It's called Vitis Metamorphosis. And why is this interesting? Because this is actually the Romanian joint partnership with the Antinori family of Tuscany. So let's get started. They have, you know, we tasted the Melissa May group when we first came into Romania. One of the sales managers for Vitis Metamorphosis was tasting with us. Nice guy. He actually helped us get samples of these wines when we came to Romania a few months ago and he's passed us a few more today. So let's get started. We're tasting the 2017 Muscat Antenel. Let me see if I'm pronouncing this right. Tamioca Ramanesca, which I think is just actually Muscat Blanc. So let's get into this. This is from their entry level wine. I think I have tasted this before. So we've got two different Muscats. Muscat Antenel, Muscat Petit Blanc au Gérans, Muscat Blanc Petit au Gérans. Very, very floral, crisp white wine. Thinking about yellow flowers, white flowers, citrus, white pear, all that kind of stuff. Quite simple nose. Let's give this a go. Decent crisp Muscat type of summer wine. These grapes are grown in the Delumar region, which is in South Romania. A lot of heat there. Actually, eight months out of the year is classified as Mediterranean climate. Very hot. The grapes get really ripe. Not so big a huge fan of the whites down there, but I have to say for this, this is pretty darn decent. I've liked some of Vitis Metamorphosis wines in the past. Some I have not liked. I'm really a big fan of the Negru Dragoshani and their Cantus Primus Fitesca Negru. Decent little effort. I'm gonna say 3.6. I think it's a nice crisp summer white wine. Let's move on, shall we? Next, we have a producer that I actually am very impressed with. It's a joint partnership with a French company called Corkova. During the Melissa Met dinner, one of their reserve red wines was thrown in there, and I was really impressed. On top of that, we finished with their dessert wine, which had botrytis in it. We're actually wrote in as drunk by Exotic Wine Travel article about. You have to check for that, because I thought the producer was very good. About 300,000 bottles a year in southwest Hungary. This, sorry about that. This is the Pinot Noir reserve from 2013. I think I'm gonna have to give this a little bit of a rinse because of the muscat before. I'm a little bit scared of tasting this. Corkova, I've tasted, like I said, their Kuvee Bohem, which I, Kevin Aymar Glowblend, beautiful wine, the dessert wine, fantastic wine, the Sera was okay. The sales manager was also there at the Melissa Met tasting. He passed me the bottle. This is a reserve wine. I am a little bit scared because the Pinot Noirs we've had in Romania are quite extracted, ripe, and not so good. So let's give this a go. First of all, I'd like to see that this is true Pinot Noir color. Some of the Pinot Noirs here, we were wondering if they were actually Pinot Noirs. Decent nose, it is definitely ripe for Pinot Noir. Kind of muted, get a little red fruit, little raspberry, cranberry action, strawberry, but kind of like stewed strawberries. I'm not getting a lot of earth notes that you like, that I like with the complex Pinot Noirs. Let's give this a go. Hold on a second, think about this for a second. You do get the silky, you know, mouthfeel that you want from a Pinot Noir. A little amount of tannins. The fruit is a little bit stewed for a Pinot Noir. It's not so delicate. You don't have layers of complex flavors, but I have to say this is pretty pretty darn decent. A lot better than some of the other Pinot Noirs that we've had in Romania. I'm going to say about 3.7 out of 5 on the Vino. It's not my favorite wine of theirs. Like I said, their dessert wine is fantastic. The Coupe Bologna is incredible. So let's move on, shall we? Decent effort, not nothing blowing me away. Next word coming up is the Vitis Metamorphosis Cabernet Sauvignon from 2015 from Delumade. Now, the sales manager Adrian actually helped me get a sample and even though this is a mid-tier wine, he said this is the favorite, his favorite wine that they make. So we got a lot to live up to. Let's take a look at this here. I don't know how long this is in oak. Let me see if it says something on the back here. 18 months in oak. Let's give it a go. Cabernet Sauvignon does do well in Delumade. That is the premier wine region for big reds in Romania. A little bit fruity. Kind of got some cherry. A little bit of waxiness. Wow, he gave me this blind. I don't know if I would think this is cabernet. It actually maybe smells like a Mediterranean cab, but it doesn't have the Capsicum notes. Some of those second tier level of flavors I'm looking for in cab. On the front palate, it's quite simple. On the finish, you get a little bit of complexity. Obviously not the most complex Cabernet that they make, but I say it's pretty decent. 3.8 out of 5 on Vavino. Again, not my favorite from Vitis Metamorphosis. My favorite from them probably is their Nicar de Dragoshani, which is a unique red grape here in Romania, and also their Fotesca Nicar Cantus Primus, that is their top tier wine. Other than that, I want to thank Bogdan from Corcova and Adrian from Vitis Metamorphosis for passing me some of these wines. Interesting stuff. I have to say, the first time we came to Romania a few months ago, I wasn't so excited about tasting the wines, but you know what? We've tasted some beautiful wines coming out of this country. Coming here really opened my eyes to a lot of things, and yeah, I think you should check them out. The Vitis Metamorphosis has the Antinori family behind it. They will continue to get better. Corcova already producing some beautiful stuff, also as a French partnership. They're also exporting to France, and I think they have some of their wines at the Les Sitt du Vin in Bordeaux. So they're worth checking out, especially if you're here in Romania. The red that I like from Omcubi Mahome, I think it's like 12-year-old fantastic value for money. So I think that's about it. Check these wines out if you're in Romania in the area. 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