Crama Delta Dunarii 'La Sapata' Aligoté 2024

Rarely seen outside of Burgundy, let alone France, it was a shock to see an Aligoté from Romania. An even bigger shock is how delicious this wine is. Quite Burgundian in style, this wine is fresh, soft, and round, with fleshy peach and lemony citrus flavours. Like good burgundy, this is a great match with fish and white meat dishes.

Crama Delta Dunarii is a joint venture between Roberto di Filippo and his team from Umbria in Italy and Roberto Pieroni who lives for many years in Romania. Together they have planted 20 ha pristinely looked after vineyards near the town of Tulcea in Dobrogea region that are organically certified nowadays, and have focused on traditional artisanal vineyard keeping and winemaking methods to achieve the best results in their wines.

Nature in the Danube delta has a magical quality of its own. It is a region where the bond between people, vineyards and countryside has led to a symbiose which is unique in the world. Their business is the fruit of a project which reflects the criteria of ethical investment as along with the splendid geographical location and the potential of the land they have also felt that this investment could lead to great social changes in this rural region. The population here has experienced moments of great difficulty, and even now, through necessity, many have to rely on their own resources to get by. As a result of this difficulty, many Romanians have had to immigrate to the cities and abandon the country and the vineyards. By helping prevent this exodus and by managing to ensure work for the local population the important tradition of vineyard keeping and wine production in the region will not be lost.