Region 08
Nisipurile și alte terenuri favorabile din sudul țării
The Southern Sands · Romania's southernmost wine country
The dunes of Dolj, Olt and Mehedinți — Romania's hottest wine country, where the soil turns to sand and a handful of growers still farm vines on their own roots.
The land
About the region
Romania's eighth and southernmost wine region, where the great plain meets the Danube and the soil turns to sand. The dunes of Dăbuleni — sometimes called the Sahara of Oltenia — stretch across parts of Dolj, Olt and Mehedinți counties, at an average altitude of just 66 metres.
The sands are an oddity of European viticulture: they are phylloxera-resistant. The aphid that destroyed almost every pre-1880s vineyard on the continent could not move through the loose, granular soil — so a small number of growers here still farm vines on their own roots, ungrafted, the way Europe used to. This is one of the very few places on earth where that is still true.
The climate is continental with a slight Mediterranean lean — dry from July through September, modest rainfall in late spring, around 548 mm a year and an average annual temperature of 11.1°C. The wines lean to the sun: reds run warm and supple — Băbească Neagră, Roșioară, Cabernet Sauvignon — and whites lean ripe and forward — Crâmpoșie Selecționată, Fetească Regală, Tămâioasă Românească, Riesling Italian. Don't expect austerity. Expect generosity, salt at the edge, and bottles that drink themselves on a hot evening.
From the cellar
Wines from Nisipurile și alte terenuri favorabile din sudul țării
No wines listed for this region yet.