The Monastery Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

The Monastery is an irresistible, ripe claret style red from the unspoilt vineyards of Romania. This Eastern European country provides excellent quality and value for money, but has largely been forgotten in the scramble for New World wines. The cellar and its vineyards lie between the Teleajan and Buzau Valleys in Vanju Mare, and share the same latitude as both Bordeaux and Tuscany. The vines lie on the Carpathian foothills, which provide excellent conditions for viticulture southeast facing for optimum exposure to the sun, sloping hillsides to keep the vines well drained and at high altitude so that nights are cool, thereby drawing out the ripening process and producing more concentration of flavour in the grapes. In fact yields from these slopes are kept down to 35 40 hectolitres per hectare lower than many Grand Cru Classe Bordeaux which also dramatically increases the flavour intensity of this luscious red. Man in charge at the cellar is Dan Muntean who can boast his own spooky castle as home, in this land known for its legendary vampires. Like a claret from the Entre Deux Mers, this red comprises largely Merlot, complemented by a portion of Cabernet Sauvignon and gently aged in new Romanian oak barrels ... just enough to let the exuberant fruit of the wine shine through, lifted by a hint of oak.