Herodotus and Strabo both wrote about wine among the Geto-Dacian tribes of what is now Romania, and the Moldavian region of Cotnari was pouring sweet wine for European royal courts by the Middle Ages.

Communist-era collectivization pushed vineyards toward bulk export, but since Romania’s 2007 EU accession, producers in Cotnari and Dealu Mare have been replanting native varieties with real ambition.

Wine Today

Romania is by far the largest wine producer covered on this site — roughly 180,000 hectares, placing it among Europe’s top six. Winemaking traditions stretch back to the Bronze Age, were shaped by the Romans and by centuries of monastic viticulture, then reoriented toward French varieties after phylloxera; EU accession in 2007 has driven the most recent wave of investment and modernization.

The distinctive pattern here is a strong 20th-century breeding program running alongside genuinely ancient varieties, so “native” covers both the millennia-old Fetească family and mid-century crosses like Negru de Drăgășani, bred from Georgian Saperavi.

Native grapes

Red

• Fetească Neagră [A] — “Black maiden,” and unambiguously the flagship. An indigenous variety grown for centuries on substantial plantings in southern Moldova and eastern Muntenia, now cultivated in most Romanian regions and beyond the borders; synonyms include Poamă Fetei Neagră, Păsărească Neagră and Coada Rândunicii. Deep and dark with a spicy character — cherry, blackberry, plum, anise, liquorice — and soft, velvety tannins, with vibrant acidity and a need for some oak to show fully. It can reach 200–240 g/l of sugar, or 270 when late-harvested, with acidity above 7 g/l tartaric at yields of 7–8 t/ha; the best examples come from oak maturation followed by bottle age. Comparisons are made to Blaufränkisch. Widely exported.
• Băbească Neagră [B] (also Sparkling) — “Grandmother’s grape,” centred on Nicorești in the Galați area. Ancient, with more than 80 recorded names worldwide. Pale to medium colour, high acidity, light tannin, sour cherry and raspberry — closer to a Balkan Gamay than to anything heavier. Occasionally sparkling. Underrated.
• Negru de Drăgășani [B] — A recent variety created by crossing the near-forgotten Negru Vârtos with the Georgian Saperavi, planted in a limited area at Drăgășani in southern Romania. It gives fresh, fruity dry wines that gain complexity from oak, with good body and aromas of black cherry, sour cherry, blackberry and spice. A 20th-century creation, but from Romanian material.
• Novac [B] (also Sparkling) — The other modern Drăgășani red, from the same breeding lineage. Medium-bodied, peppery and fresh. Prince Ştirbey, with winemaker Oliver Bauer, makes a sparkling rosé from it. Small but genuine production.
• Negru Vârtos [C–D] — The historic parent variety behind Negru de Drăgășani, now nearly gone in its own right. Ampelographic interest primarily.
• Cadarcă [C] — Kadarka, in the Minis and Banat areas of western Romania. Light and spicy; historically important, now marginal.
• Codană, Bătută Neagră, Sfântul Gheorghe [D] — Old regional reds in collection and trial plantings.

White

• Fetească Albă [A] — “White maiden.” Cultivated before phylloxera reached the country, described in Romanian ampelography as a white clonal variation of Fetească Neagră originating in the Moldova region, and today grown across most of Romania as well as in the Republic of Moldova and Hungary; synonyms include Leánka, Poama Fetei and Weisse Mädchentraube. Early-ripening. Delicate and floral — white flowers, green apple, a touch of peach — with moderate acidity. Made dry through to sweet.
• Fetească Regală [A] (also Sparkling) — “Royal maiden,” and a genuine 20th-century discovery. Found near Sighișoara in Transylvania in 1920. Romanian ampelography gives its parents as Fetească Albă and Grasă de Cotnari, while molecular analysis reported by VIVC gives Fetească Albă and Frâncușă — synonyms include Dănășană, Galbenă de Ardeal and Királyleányka. Higher in acidity and more structured than Fetească Albă, with rose petal and jasmine aromatics, sometimes almond over dried apricot, and enough grip to make good medium-bodied whites and excellent sparkling wine. Also grown in Austria, Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary.
• Tămâioasă Românească [A] — The “frankincense grape,” and the Romanian expression of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains. Probably Greek in ultimate origin, it has been cultivated in Romania for at least two millennia; synonyms include Muscat Frontignan, Busuioacă de Moldova and Tămâioasă Albă de Drăgășani. Grown at Cotnari, Dealu Mare and Drăgășani. Made dry, off-dry and — most successfully — as a late-harvest sweet wine, where it gives orange blossom, honey and dried apricot.
• Grasă de Cotnari [B] — The great sweet-wine grape, confined to the Cotnari vineyard in Moldova. The traditional account has Stephen the Great of Moldavia receiving vine material as a gift from Matthias Corvinus of Hungary — supposedly Furmint, in fact a low-fertility variety — and planting it on the sunny hills of Cotnari, where it thrived. The main styles are sweet and off-dry, made by late harvesting and deliberate botrytis, producing lower-alcohol wines of exceptional body, flavour and acidity, showing raisin, honey and apricot with bottle age. Dry versions exist but are not the point.
• Busuioacă de Bohotin [B] — Pink-skinned and aromatic, from Bohotin near Huși in Moldova. Made as a rosé with rose petal, basil, honey and strawberry, usually off-dry or semi-sweet. Aromatically related to the Tămâioasă family but distinct. One of Romania’s most individual wines and increasingly exported.
• Crâmpoșie Selecționată [B] (also Sparkling) — Drăgășani. A selected, improved version of the old Crâmpoșie. High acidity, light body, green apple and citrus, sometimes with a saline finish; also used for sparkling. Regularly poured alongside the Feteascăs and Tămâioasă at Romanian tastings.
• Frâncușă [B–C] — An ancient cultivar grown at Cotnari for centuries — elegant and soft with fresh acidity and a slightly grassy note, yellow in colour and fruity with green apple and peach, but always dry. Historically the dry counterweight to Grasă in the Cotnari blend.
• Zghihară de Huși [C] — Huși, in eastern Moldova. Extremely high acidity — bracing to the point of austerity — with green apple and lemon. Presented by Romania as one of its distinctive specialist varieties. Very little leaves the country.
• Galbenă de Odobești [C] — Vrancea, Romania’s largest-volume region. “Yellow of Odobești.” High-yielding, moderately acidic, neutral to lightly floral. Bulk and blending.
• Băbească Gri [C] — A grey-skinned mutation of Băbească Neagră. Small plantings; occasional varietal bottlings with a faintly copper tint.
• Plăvaie, Iordană, Mustoasă de Măderat, Majarcă Albă, Steinschiller [C] — Regional whites of Moldova, Transylvania and the western counties. Generally high-yielding and neutral, used for volume, distillation or blending.
• Șarba, Raluca, Selena, Donaris, Aromat de Iași, Alb Românesc [C–D] — Products of the Romanian breeding institutes at Blaj, Iași, Odobești and Drăgășani through the second half of the 20th century. Some appear on domestic shelves; almost none abroad.

Sparkling

• Băbească Neagră [B] — “Grandmother’s grape,” centred on Nicorești in the Galați area. Ancient, with more than 80 recorded names worldwide. Pale to medium colour, high acidity, light tannin, sour cherry and raspberry — closer to a Balkan Gamay than to anything heavier. Occasionally sparkling. Underrated.
• Novac [B] — The other modern Drăgășani red, from the same breeding lineage. Medium-bodied, peppery and fresh. Prince Ştirbey, with winemaker Oliver Bauer, makes a sparkling rosé from it. Small but genuine production.
• Fetească Regală [A] — “Royal maiden,” and a genuine 20th-century discovery. Found near Sighișoara in Transylvania in 1920. Romanian ampelography gives its parents as Fetească Albă and Grasă de Cotnari, while molecular analysis reported by VIVC gives Fetească Albă and Frâncușă — synonyms include Dănășană, Galbenă de Ardeal and Királyleányka. Higher in acidity and more structured than Fetească Albă, with rose petal and jasmine aromatics, sometimes almond over dried apricot, and enough grip to make good medium-bodied whites and excellent sparkling wine. Also grown in Austria, Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary.
• Crâmpoșie Selecționată [B] — Drăgășani. A selected, improved version of the old Crâmpoșie. High acidity, light body, green apple and citrus, sometimes with a saline finish; also used for sparkling. Regularly poured alongside the Feteascăs and Tămâioasă at Romanian tastings.

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