Back in 1988, three families decided to invest in a winery in Romania, starting with 650 hectares of slightly unloved vineyards and a rusty, once state-owned winery.

Yet Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira, have turned the Cramele Recas Estate into the most successful winery in Romania. Recas are now recognised globally for their impressive scale and breadth of fascinating wines, including natural and orange wine from organic grapes. Despite the scale the emphasis is on making good wines that over-deliver, and as a result they’ve struck on a magic formula that has seen sales and demand boom. Vineyards are a combination of evolved plantings from 1447 and more recent planting, whilst the winery has seen significant investment and boasts state of the art facilities where innovation thrives. Recas are in every way a modern, dynamic winery, whose open-minded approach and quality sets them apart … a winery you really can’t ignore.

Harvesting time of the Pinot Noir grapes is determined through monitoring the ripeness of the grapes. The estate grown grapes were harvested early in the morning, where cooler temperatures help to preserve the pure fruit flavour and acidity and to give a beautiful bright pink hue to this wine.  After selection, the grapes are destalked, crushed, and the must including skins, is cooled. After maceration the crushed grape mass is softly pressed. One hundred percent Pinot Noir grapes are pressed with just the right amount of contact with their skins to give it its delightful colour and character. The grapes are then processed in the tried-and-true ways of the best white wines in controlled temperatures.