The famous dessert wine comes from the municipality of the same name (dt. Kottnersberg) in north-eastern Romania in the Moldova region, close to the borders with Moldova and Ukraine. Wine growing was practised here at least 2,000 years ago. The area experienced a heyday under the rule of the Moldovan voivode Prince Stephen the Great (1435-1504), who became famous with his victory against the Turks, Hungarians and Poles in 1474. Cotnari wine was first mentioned in a document as early as 1448. From the 17th century onwards, the wine was known at the princely courts of all Europe, competing with Tokaj and being offered in top restaurants as "Perle de la Moldavie". When the Reblaus im Jahre 1891 auch nach Rumänien kam, wurden nahezu alle Weinberge vernichtet.
Der Cotnari-Wein wird aus spät gelesenen, teilweise phylloxera also came to Romania in 1891, almost all the vineyards were destroyed.
Cotnari wine is made from late harvested, partly raisins und im Idealfall and ideally botrytis Trauben gewonnen. Die wichtigste Sorte ist grapes. The most important variety is Grasă de Cotnari , from which the best and sweetest "royal" version is obtained. This golden-yellow wine with a taste of walnuts and beeswax matures in barrels for a maximum of one year, but unlike Tokaj, it matures under complete exclusion from the air. The yield is limited to a maximum of 6,000 kilograms of grapes per hectare. This wine has at least 12% alcohol by volumeand reaches at least 60 to 80 g/l residual sugar .Other versions are made from Fetească Albă(sweet), Frâncușă(dry) and Tămâioasă Românească (sweet). Some of the varieties are also blended.
Bottle: By Ulrich prokop - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Grasă de Cotnari: Ursula Brühl, Doris Schneider, Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI)
