Today we went downstairs and exchanged money and bought some baked goods for breakfast at the bakery around the corner beside the metro station.
Then at 9:00 we met Andre, Aileen, and Marius, who drove us 300 km. to the Danube Delta where the Niculitel vineyard is located near Tulcea.
We arrived at noon and started touring the vineyard. Wine has been grown in this area since Greek times. The winery is huge. It was a communist era collective with thousands of acres in production and 2500 employees. Since Marius and Andres’ father bought the winery out of bankruptcy three years ago, its production has been increased to 800 hectares (about 1800 acres) and staffed by approximately 70 persons but plans are in motion to increase planted areas and production capacity. Given the size of the buildings and aging area, there is huge capability to increase production. The wine also is good it is winning lots of awards and the wine making process is state of the art with zero exposure of grape juice to oxygen from the crush through fermentation to the finished bottle. The current fermentation capacity is 800,000 liters with plans to grow it. Already a huge operation.
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After appetizers we were served chicken borscht with a farm yard chicken. Borscht as I understand my Romanian friends’ description is a sour soup made with a base of fermented wheat bran. That rudimentary understanding is a far as I have gotten, except to say that it seems often to be flavored ith chopped lovage and parsley. The soup today also contained wheat noodle strips, potatoes, and
carrots.
The two meals we have had in Romania have been served family style. After the soup plates were cleared we were brought plates of polenta, which seems to be the starch of choice and a large bowl of grilled lamb was passed around.
Finally, beignets were served for dessert. After lunch we drove to another vineyard property. The pick has just begun. Today they were processing White Feteasca grapes. Rose and then red grapes will follow. Marius impressed me as knowing a lot about both growing and producing “new world” wine.
Aileen is our wine maker and we were impressed with his skill in conceiving and blending our four wines. My favorite is the white Fume Blanc, which is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Feteasca Regala (a white Romanian grape variety).
After lunch we drove to another planted area and then an archeological site where a paleo Christian Church was located dating from the 4th Century in which there was a crypt in which was found the bones of four martyrs. We toured the church and every one except me went into the crypt, which has been reconstructed.
We then drove to the Cocos Monastery and visited the basilica where the bones of the four martyrs are enshrined. Sort of a super reliquary inside a large Eastern Orthodox Church.
After that we drove to Tulcea, a small town located on one of the three large arms of the Danube where it reaches the Delta.
We were provided rooms at the Hotel Delta, which is a very lovely 4 star hotel.
Andre and Aileen were joined by their friend Florin and we drank the two white wines we ordered, the Fume Blanc and a chardonnay.
The Chardonnay was aged only three months in American oak so it had a lovely light oakiness. I discovered something today; as the Chardonnay warmed a bit to above 12 C., the bitter finish went away and became sweet. Aileen confirmed this. Voila. Maybe I will yet become a Chardonnay drinker.
After we drank the Le Dans and Nori Whites we agreed to walk along the curved promenade about
500 meters to a famous fish restaurant named Ivan Fisherman, after the owner, who was one of Romania’s famous Olympic canoeists.
One of the problems I am having with portion control with these meals so far in Romania, and it is a
wonderful problem, is we do not understand the menu and we are relying on our Romanian friends to order for us. This results in waves of food arriving. I am finally figuring out that there is at
minimum, an appetizer course, an entrée course, and a dessert course.
Our fish snack turned into a fishy feast. The first appetizer course included platters filled with ramekins of wonderful pike egg caviar, an interesting taramasalata like creamed pike egg spread,
pickled sardines, smoked fish belly, mixed vegetables of bell peppers, and smoked mackerel served with toast and butter. We drank a bottle of Niculetel prize winning Aligote.
Then the entrees came. Three portions each of carp in brine and grilled fresh sturgeon. We loved both dishes. The sturgeon steak was super thick and served with a white creamed garlic sauce. There are six species of sturgeon living in the Danube, of which the Beluga is the largest and the largest fish in the world the largest Beluga ever caught was over 3000 lb. and over 20 feet long. They used to travel up river into Austria, but their habitat has been limited by the Iron Gates dams at the eastern border of Romania. The Iron Gates are a narrow gorge through which the Danube flows that forms a part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania.
The carp in brine was even more interesting. A carp that was boiled in a brine and served in a ceramic dish with polenta.
We drank Aileen’s newest creation with dinner, a blend of Fetneasca neagra, fetneasca regala, and white fetneasca.
Although over stuffed at this point, our hosts announced that we had a surprise dessert, which turned out to be a rectangular piece of cheese pie, a mixture of cheese, a little sugar, milk, raisins, and flour baked into a very moist fluffy cake and dusted with powdered sugar.
The Americans ate only a few bites of cake and we had the rest boxed for breakfast because we had once again exceeded our food capacity for the second time in one day.
We walked back to the hotel and went to sleep in the luxurious bed after taking a hot shower.
Bon Appetit
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