As you walk through the rolling vineyards of the 700 hectare Cramele Recas estate, two things are inescapable. The first is the scale of the transformation that Englishman and Bristolian Philip Cox and his wife Elvira have managed to achieve, replanting 700 hectares of decrepit vineyards and replacing them with immaculately tended sites the equal of anywhere else in the world. The second is that if you didn’t know where you were, you’d be convinced you were in Tuscany or any other ‘Classic’ wine producing region - and, to a certain extent you are, Romania has a history of winemaking stretching back millenia and it was this potential that has driven this dynamic duo to dedicate their lives to driving forward Romanian winemaking to it’s current state of rude health. A 20 million euro investment in the vineyards and brand new winery, as well as recruiting seasoned new world winemakers, has enabled them to produce top quality reds and whites from a broad range of varietals at very competitive prices.
