Romania

The sources read give a documented history for one historic vineyard rather than for the whole country. The Cotnari technical file says vine growing there predates the Geto-Dacian period and that the first written document mentioning the vineyards of Hârlău was issued by Prince Petru Mușat in 1384. The name of Cotnari is linked to Stephen the Great, who kept a residence there with deep cellars; place names such as Dealu lui Vodă and Via Domnească recall him. Under Despot Vodă (1561–1563) a "Schola latina" was founded at Cotnari. Dimitrie Cantemir, in Descriptio Moldaviae, called Cotnari wine the best in Moldavia and perhaps better than Tokay. Cotnari wines won medals at Vienna (1873), Budapest (1884) and Paris (1889). After phylloxera arrived in 1884, the vineyard was replanted mainly with its old local varieties. Romanian PDOs and PGIs have been protected in the EU since 2007.

ONVPV publishes official maps of the DOC and IG areas, which are the legal reference for their boundaries. The PGI names point to hill and terrace country: the Hills of Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia, Transylvania, Crișana, Sătmar, Zarand and Vrancea, the Dobrogea hills, the Danube terraces and the vineyards of Timiș and Caraș. Cotnari, at 47°21' N, 26°25' E, lies where the Suceava Plateau meets the Moldavian Plain. Most vines grow on the eastern slope of Dealul Mare–Hârlău, the "Coasta Cotnarilor", rising from about 100–200 m to about 400 m with an average gradient of 7°; side valleys form sheltered basins. The rocks are Sarmatian marls, sands, clays and thin sandstones, with leached chernozem on the high plateaus. The climate averages 9 °C and 474.6 mm a year, with winds from the north-west, south-east and south.

The Cotnari technical file says its wines differ by variety and by plai (vineyard site), and are usually full-bodied, often with residual sugar. In long, dry autumns, noble rot gives the great sweet wines on which the vineyard's fame rests; the file calls them suited to ageing, often above 12% alcohol and with residual sugar. It ties their quality to four varieties present long before phylloxera: Grasă de Cotnari, Fetească Albă, Tămâioasă Românească and Frâncușă. It describes Fetească Neagră as ruby when young, turning brick-red with age, with aromas of dried red fruit, especially plums and black cherries.

The EU register lists 41 Romanian wine PDOs (denumiri de origine controlată, DOC) and 13 PGIs (indicații geografice, IG), among them Dealurile Moldovei, Dealurile Munteniei, Dealurile Olteniei, Dealurile Transilvaniei, Dealurile Crișanei, Dealurile Sătmarului, Dealurile Zarandului, Dealurile Vrancei, Colinele Dobrogei, Terasele Dunării, Viile Timișului and Viile Carașului. At Cotnari the DOC may be followed by DOC-CMD, DOC-CT or DOC-CIB, with falling yield limits (for Grasă de Cotnari, for example, 10,000, 9,000 and 8,000 kg/ha), and by the terms vin tânăr, vin de vinotecă and rezervă. The name may be completed with one of 24 plai names, such as Dealul Castel or Dealul lui Vodă, and the sugar level must be stated (sec, demisec, demidulce, dulce). Cotnari's varieties are Grasă de Cotnari, Fetească Albă, Tămâioasă Românească, Frâncușă, Busuioacă de Bohotin, Fetească Neagră, Muscat Ottonel, Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Traminer Roz.