Frunza Pinot Noir 2016

A Pinot Noir, at this price? From Romania? That's got to be rubbish, hasn't it? Or it's got to come with a catch. We have to admit, that's what we thought when we first got this little number in. So we cracked open a bottle straight away to prove ourselves right.

And thank Bacchus we did: far from being rubbish, it was indeed a total bargain, and there was no catch - this is budget wine that's not just good for the money, it's just plain good. Full, rich and juicy. Down with prejudice! Up with Romanian Pinot Noir!

The first vineyards were planted in Recas in 1457 by German settlers. In 1999 Cramele Recas purchased the vineyards and winery and embarked on an intensive program of investment. This has resulted in one of the most modern vineyard/winery investments in central Europe, with 800 hectares of newly planted, high quality vineyards. Cramele Recas’s objective is to produce value for money, clean, crisp and modern wines that retain the character of their specific vineyard plots.

Winemaker Hartley Smithers is a graduate of Roseworthy College Australia, and is a native of Sydney. He has worked for over 25 years in this role in Chile, Spain, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia, where he is currently the senior winemaker at Casellas during the European winter. He has worked for Recas for six months a year for the past six years. Vertical shoot positioning in the vineyard is used to ensure healthy and flavoursome grapes.

Grapes were manually picked, 80% of them were destemmed and gently crushed before being put into stainless steel automated maceration/fermentation tanks and inoculated with yeast. There they fermented for 14 days before being pressed and continuing their alcoholic, and then malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. 20% of the grapes were placed directly in 500kg plastic enclosed bins and put through a carbonic maceration, before pressing and completion of their fermentation and malolactic in stainless steel. The wines were then blended and lightly oaked with Transylvanian oak staves before being prepared for bottling with an egg white fining.

This Pinot Noir has gorgeous flavours and is almost syrupy in its concentration. Dark, rich and potent, with layers of complex black cherry, raspberry and cinnamon and a lingering aftertaste.