TOHANI Estate – Royalty and prestige

January 2021... cold, icy start to the year, temperatures just below 0 degrees Celsius. The rain, but without dampening our desire to travel

We had the certainty of a reservation at a winery steeped in history in Podgoria Dealul Mare - Domeniile Tohani. And off we went...The A3 highway was clear and clean, and after a coffee and a croissant served on the way, we entered the gates of the TOHANI winery at 11 am.

We were expected. Mrs. (Ms.) Oana announced that there would be a wine tasting just for the two of us. That is, my wife and I were going to spend almost 2 hours in a mansion, in a royal winery where wines have been made since 1773.

That's lucky, we said to ourselves, everything just for us!... and we happily set off with Mrs. Oana, who had begun to introduce us to the history of the TOHANI Domain.

The complex consisting of the mansion, the wine cellar and the old cellar once constituted a royal property, which belonged to Prince Nicolae of Romania and his wife, Ioana Doletti Dumitrescu. Prince Nicolae, the fourth child of King Ferdinand and Queen Maria, lived a beautiful love story with Ioana Dumitrescu Doletti, the daughter of Iorgu Dumitrescu of Tohani. The two were married on October 28, 1931, violating the Statute of the Royal House, and the ceremony took place in Tohani.

The Tohani Manor was the place where Prince Nicolae and Ioana Doletti lived the happiest period of their lives. Since then, all those who have chosen to stop at Tohani – for a while or for life – have known and felt the passion that this place inspires in people. The original page from the civil status register, where the signatures of the newlyweds appear, is preserved in the Apogeum Winery.

In 1948, the Tohani Domains became state property and in the following years, through an association with specialists from the Bordeaux area, France, the winery was built, preserved to this day as a place to visit and a museum.

In the 2000s, the company was privatized and underwent an extensive modernization process. The new investor, Virgil MÂNDRU, invested 3 million euros in the TOHANI vineyard and another 3 million euros in the production and promotion of Feteasca Neagră wines.

A new factory with cutting-edge technology was built, and a significant area of ​​vines was replanted. This was the beginning of the modern period, when the South African oenologist, Albertus Van Der Merwe, joined the Tohani team, bringing a new world air to Tohani, which perfectly complemented the tradition and skill of Romanian oenologists.

In 2012, Tohani Romania became a supplier to the Royal House of Romania, a recognition of the quality and values ​​that were the basis of the company's evolution towards the status of a wine creator.

Fascinated by the rich history of the Tohani Estate, we visited the mansion and the old cellar with the 25 steps that take you into the bowels of the earth. Here is preserved the only wine cellar in the area, which houses over 100,000 bottles of collector's wines.

The modern winery benefits from a substantial investment and has a unique technology. Red grapes, mainly the Fetească Neagră variety, ferment in giant amphorae. The wine rests in these ceramic amphorae and goes through an elaborate and long-lasting process. After two years of maturation in French barrels, Fetească Neagră APOGEUM – the standard bearer of TOHANI wines reaches the market in limited editions of up to 10,000 bottles.

After this fascinating journey, we arrived at the tasting room… everything was ready, the wine was chilled, and the intimate atmosphere created the perfect setting for a truly refined wine tasting experience.

In addition to the small snack platters, the wines tasted were: Principele RADU – Chardonnay, Summer Wine Alb, Summer Wine Rose, and at the end of the tasting, as a surprise, we had the pleasure of enjoying, after a preliminary decanting and aeration, Fetească Neagră APOGEUM 2019, which has won numerous awards at international competitions, as a recognition of the value of the wines created at Domeniile TOHANI.

I can also tell you that in 2011 the first gold medal was obtained, at an international level, for Fetească Neagră produced at Tohani. It was the year of the launch of an already emblematic wine - Apogeum Fetească Neagră. Mr. Virgil Mândru's professed mission was and is to make Fetească Neagră de Tohani a reference variety for Romania internationally.

In 2020, the producer TOHANI reached the milestone of 1 million bottles of Fetească Neagră, representing 75% of the total red wine sold by Tohani.

In 2018, VALAHORUM - Essence de Roumanie was launched. A project dedicated to the excellence of Romanian wine. VALAHORUM is a unique project in Romania, which brings together three wineries, three personalities, three unmistakable winemaking styles. Virgil Mândru, Răzvan Macici and Paolo Mennini who bring together two blessed terroirs, Dealu Mare and Drăgășani, where three jewel-like wineries are located: Apogeum, Crama Drăgășani and Mierla Albă. From here, I set out towards the public connoisseur of Romania's landmark wines.

Saturday, January 30, 2021 remains a landmark date in the calendar of my winemaking trips to wineries in Romania.

Here at TOHANI Domains, the history of these lands has been best combined with the passion and desire of the wine creators to show the whole world that Romania exists on the world wine map, and Feteasca Neagră, created here, can always stand next to the great red wines from Italy, France or anywhere else.

I end my editorial here with a quote from Alexander the Great: "When you sip the wine from the cups, remember that you drink from the blood of the vine, the power of the earth, and the eternity of the sun."