The Best Romanian Wines for the year 2019

Gault&Millau launched the first edition of their guide dedicated to Romanian wine, thus bringing to Romania the company’s international expertise in the field.

The 2019 Gault&Millau Guide to Romanian Wines includes 152 wines from 63 wineries.

The highest score of a Romanian wine in the Gault&Millau ranking is 94 points of 100, for Smerenie 2016 from Oprișor winery, which also received the prize for the Best Red Wine.

22 Romanian wines have obtained +90 points, among them red, white, rosé and sweet, made from international, but also native varieties. This achievement demonstrates the diversity and complexity of the market, the quality of local wine and its competitiveness.

“Romanian wine has a potential in which we believe and it is the reason for which we launched the local Gault&Millau Wine Guide. Our principles are transparent and clear, developed during the over 30 years of experience of the Gault&Millau network in this segment: independent expertise, impartiality towards market commercial interests, a constructive approach, giving a chance to all producers, irrespective of their size, in the evaluation process. The next step after the launch will be to promote the Romanian wines selected in the guide, as well as their producers, both in Romania and internationally”, declared Raluca Hrițcu and Ștefan Mortici, co-CEOs Gault&Millau Romania.

The wines from the 2019 Gault&Millau guide were evaluated by a team of 3 international experts holding the highest level of certifications available in the field of wine: Ana Săpungiu (Master of Wine), Caroline Gilby (Master of Wine) and Isa Bal (Master Sommelier). The three evaluators contributed with complementary perspectives, resulting from their respected professional tracks in the industry, but also a deep knowledge of the local market, which allowed them to position the local wines in the international context.

The most important conclusion of this first edition of the guide is that local varieties represent Romania’s chance of having an important place on the global wine scene, whether they are Fetească Neagră, Fetească Albă, Negru de Drăgășani, or lesser known ones such as Zghihara de Huși.

In the next period, the Gault&Millau Guide to Romanian Wines 2019 will be launched in Paris on 8 December and presented in Bordeaux in February 2019 at “La Cité du Vin”, one of the most important wine fairs in the world, both projects being part of the France-Romania Cultural Season. The guide will be promoted in the entire Gault&Millau network, through events, articles about the selected wines and interviews with the Romanian producers.

By launching the Gault&Millau Guide to Romanian Wines, Romania is joining an impressive tradition, be it France (1984 – the first Gault&Millau wine guide, 2013 – the first Gault&Millau Champagne Guide), Germany (where, in 2018, we celebrated 25 annual editions of the Gault&Millau wine guide) or Austria. In 2019, Gault&Millau will launch the wine guide in two of the most dynamic countries on the global wine market: Australia and Georgia.

The 2019 Gault&Millau Guide to Romanian Wines will be available in the classic press distribution and bookstores network with the price of 49 Lei.

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We would like to thank all the participants at our event on November 27, when we officially launched our 2019 Gault&Millau Guide to Romanian Wines. We would like to thank all those who contributed to making that evening a special, elegant and memorable one - guests, main sponsors: DLA Piper , Groupama Asigurari, Hochland - Bucuria gustului, Le Manoir & Nespresso and to the wineries that partnered with us for the event: Clos des Colombes, Corcova Roy & Damboviceanu Winery, Dagon Clan Wines, Jidvei, Liliac, Purcari Wines, SERVE Clubul Cavalerilor, Thesaurus Wines, Tohani România, Trantu, Viile Metamorfosis, Villa Vinea, Vinarte Romania.