A wine for Napoleon Bonaparte
The vines of this famous Romanian brand are placed on the same latitude as those from the French Sauternes and Hungarian Tokaj regions. The craftsmen that used to size the barrels were the ones to set the name of the village: Cotnari. Mentioned as a vineyard in 1250, before the foundation of Moldavia, the Cotnari wine has a much older history, starting from the reign of Burebista, as evidenced by archaeological findings from the city of Cătălina. „The holy vineyards“ of the place are also mentioned by Dimitrie Cantemir in his Descriptio Moldaviae. Thanks to several Moldavian boyars who met in Poland in 1812, Emperor Napoleon himself drank and appreciated the Cotnari wine. In 1830, the town’s vines with 3.500 households stretched on 720 acres (about 460 hectares), while in 1990, they filled 2.000 hectares already. Today, Cotnari SA owns around 1.400 hectares of vineyards, a modern winemaking facility, and a cellar containing a million bottles, the oldest dating back to 1956. The company’s investment from recent years exceeds 20 million euros.
Cotnari is the only vineyard in which local varieties were exclusively kept after the invasion of Phylloxera. We can find here local vines Grasă de Cotnari and Frâncuşă, as well as Busuioacă de Bohotin, Fetească Albă, Tămâioasă Românească. Cotnari wine obtained in 2016 a record number of 77 medals at international competitions, making it a true Romanian ambassador around the world.
• Contact person: Remus Deleanu
• Telephone: +40744392476
• E-mail: remus.deleanu@cotnari.ro
• Opening hours: 07.00–15.30
• Name of the company: SC Cotnari SA
• Established in 1991
• Owners: Deleanu Constantin, Matei Ioan, Carja Neculai
• Oenologist: Viorel Andronic
• Annual production: 10.000.000 litres
• Annual production capacity: 13.000.000 bottles
• Surface: 1.400 hectares
• Direct sales: YES
• Winery address: Castel, Cotnari, jud. Iaşi, 707120
• Headquarters address: Str. Principală nr. 1, Cotnari, jud. Iaşi, 707120
• Website: www.cotnari.ro
• Last update: September 2020
