Wine is a part of culture and history in Romania which has been on the European Union map since 2007 and has leapfrogged to the current status with the uniqueness of its wines using several indigenous grapes. In fact, the participating winery from Moldavian Hills, Cotnari is a winery that uses only such grapes and yet is one of the 3 biggest wine producers in Romania, making traditional sweet wines along with modern wines of varying sweetness.

It was ostensibly the first time that the Romanian wines took part in any Show in India and so they shipped 18 of the 78 labels they produce in Magnums to Minis. They have been making white wines since commencement of the operations of the winery; Apparently they are popular enough to grab 75% of the wine space! And adding other styles gradually; the sparkling being their latest effort about a couple of years ago.

Victor Deleanu CEO of the company, had come with his team of George Malutan, the Winemaker and Mihai Necula, the Export Manager to explore the Indian market. Without the firsthand knowledge of the market, they had made a judicial selection of wines. Indian Wine Academy which had been designated to conduct the Masterclass by its President Subhash Arora, had recommended a Masterclass each day with slightly different target audience each day.

Since it was a first Masterclass on Romanian wines ever, we emphasized the showcasing of Romania as  a winemaking country because of its history, topography, different wine regions and indigenous grapes and get a feedback from various wine consuming groups like restaurateurs, sommeliers, journalists and wine connoisseurs.

In conjunction with Victor Deleanu and his team, we selected 6 diverse wines, all from the local grapes of course:

1.       ZAZ Francusa, white Dry sparkling wine

2.       ZAZ Tamaioasa white Extra Dry sparkling wine

3.       Euforia Tamaioasa white, Semi Dry

4.       Euforia Busuioaca Rose, Semi Dry

5.       Euforia Feteascã Neagra red, Semi Dry

6.       Cotnari Grasă white Semi Dry

Thus, the 6 wines showcased 5 grape varieties, generally in the Moldova mountain region only. The sparkling wines are produced using Charmat Method-like Prosecco. ZAZ, Euforia and Cotnari are labels owned by Cotnari Company which had sponsored the wines and the 3 gents from the winery. Euforia is a rather contemporary label with chic design that will be appreciated by the consumer in the Indian market. The Rose was my absolute favourite while there were a few takers of the red Euforia. This was a light bodied red wine that needed to be cooled to about 12-14 deg C and would be an excellent choice for vegetarians and even with chicken or mutton snacks and light foods. The wine would also have a soothing effect because of its texture.

The names might sound complex and hard to digest at the moment but wines were certainly of international quality and charm and would have many takers if the importer and distributor are persistent in their efforts. Biggest hurdle would be to taste wines for the customer and thus showcasing in wine festivals and similar events.

The Masterclasses on both days were attended by full houses with the participants generally impressed. They found the wines slightly sweeter on the palate. Victor appreciated the feedback and was sure the matter could be sorted out without any problem since they were not aware of the Indian taste before their arrival. Most of them agreed this was the most visible and an impressive segment of the INRO Summit 2025.

The Masterclass was also graced by the Ambassador of Romania, H.E. Ms. Sena Latif who is a connoisseur of Romanian wines and spoke lucidly and well about them and felt Indian dining tables deserved wines from her country too. She had earlier come to launch the Summit a day earlier but returned the next day to spend time with the producers and attend the Conference and interact with the producers and the audience. She was confident that wines from her country would become the darlings of Indian drinkers.

Subhash Arora who presented the Conference, lauded the efforts of the organisers UBCCR and its President Ms Shiva Munjal for including wine in the portfolio of the first INRO Summit. In her address she said she was planning to bring in more producers to tickle the palates of Indian consumers in the future editions. He also exhorted the Association to get more Romanian producers to educate Indian palates to appreciate their country’s wines.

Subhash Arora