A Romanian Wine Festival

Focsani is a little town 200 km away from Bucharest. Nice, peaceful, clean enough, but has not very spectacular old architecture landmarks, as do  other bigger or smaller cities in Romania. During Ceausescu's forced industrialization policy, all Downtown has been destroyed, and instead have been build so many identical blocks of flats. Maybe it is easier to live in these match boxes, but the city itself acts grey and is not able to differentiate comparing to other sad grey towns countrywide.

In the very peaceful like Focsani, the Wine Festival is a necesary celebration, which everyone waits  in the Autumn

Nevertheless, there are also some things making Focsani special. First of all, in the Vrancea mountains, not far from Focsani (80 km) have the origin and epicenter all the major earthquakes who scares all the Romanians every 50 years. Amazingly, these earthquake don't do much harm in Focsani, but can cause large scale destructions in Bucharest and other towns lieing 200 km away or more! One might say, the people of Focsani are the most feared Romaniawide!

At the presentation stand of vineyard Rovinex I managed to taste an excellent Feteasca Neagra from 2006

Second, Focsani is a local center of the biggest vineyards in all Romania. Consequently, it is normal to organize here an yearly Wine Festival, and this edition from 2012 has a huge budget, which is not so normal in a poor country like Romania. But the people live their lives and take profit from this huge festival with consistent budget. Most important than everything else, the wine is being honored as it deserves, and many exquisite wine tastings ruled by leading someliers took place between 19th-21st of October 2012.

The Romanian "mici" or "mititei" are one of the stars of the Wine Festival. They enjoy a good tradition and reputation, and are easy to pair practically with any wine.

My personal favorite was a fabulous Feteasca Neagra 2006 from Rovinex, which has such a strong bouquet.  Legends say, that you can get drunk with Feteasca Neagra even without drinking a single drop! That impossible to describe bouquet is all the secret! Further, when you have this wine in your mouth you'll notice! Tastes like dried wood fruits, and it is not wise to hold it in the mouth longer than 60 seconds, or you can get drunk again only through tongue absorbtion. Last, you must spit this excellent dangerous wine, no matter how sorry you might be. Pair this wine with a roasted meat or chicken, may be even with mititei, the local star of the Festival and uncrowned King.

Imagine how difficult is for the poor locals to drink the contents of so many barels, paired with mici or  meat.

May be next year you will have the time to see Festival alive, if you will go healthy and wealthy through the End of The World. You need only some time and a small budget, as I have as always some unbeatable propositions, need only to mail at dorugiu@gmx.net or to call at 0726268717