I posted this on the WS Forum, but thought I'd share it here as well...

I’m not sure what thread this belongs under – it’s not exactly tasting notes nor does it quite fit under dining & cooking – it’s more like ‘Wine & Food Experiences’.

For the last couple of days, I have been in Suceava, which is situated in the Bucovina region of northern Romania. Most people in this region are poor as churchmice, but I have found them to be very hospitable and warm. (My luxury hotel cost just 33 Euros per night.)

I was taken to dinner at the second-best restaurant in the city - for anybody who really cares, the restaurant is called Chagall. I didn’t choose the best restaurant (Latina) because it serves Italian food, and I wanted a more local dining experience.

At Chagall, I asked for a traditional Romanian meal. The first course was a soup referred to as “Ciorba”, although I believe this is a general term for ‘country soup’ made from beans and various greens and it may or may not have meat in it. The second course was a beef and vegetable stew, and for the life of me, I can’t remember what they called it.

You don’t get imported wines in most Romanian restaurants so we asked the restaurant to suggest a dry red wine. The recommended wine was Domeniile Tohani 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, from the region of Vrancia. The restaurant’s professed wine expert assured us this was one of the very best dry reds produced in Romania.

The wine had a deep burgundy colour right to the rim. The nose offered a lovely currant and plum aroma with a hint of cassis. It had a good amount of glycerin to give it a plush texture, but the flavour was quite subdued and short. As a result the tannin and oak were quite noticeable. I would have rated it an 88 on aroma, but only 82 on flavour.

After dinner, we took the unfinished bottle back to the hotel and the flavours started to come out more after an hour or two. Clearly it should have been decanted, but I rather doubt that this is something that a restaurant would ever do. So I might say that the flavour probably deserved a rating of 86-87 eventually.

The cost of the wine was 250,000 lei (~ $8 US). Pretty good QPR.

Next stop on our culinary tour of Romania was dinner at Capsa on Calea Victoriei in downtown Bucharest. I've eaten at Capsa on several previous vivits to Bucharest, and it is a classy traditional restaurant serving Romanian-style food. The waiters still wear tuxedos and treat you as though you are an honoured guest in their establishment.

For dinner, I had Ciorba again followed by venison for the main course. Venison seems to be a rather popular dish that I've seen a many restaurants in Romania and Bulgaria. (But they call it "deer", not venison)

I deferred to the restaurant on the choice of wine, saying only that I wanted a dry red that would complement the "deer". The recommended wine was Cricova Acorex 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from Moldova. I found the wine quite ripe with cherry and plum flavours mostly. But it had a slightly cloying sweetness which I really didn't like. My rating would be ~80 to 82 points. The price on the menu was 400,000 lei (~ $13.50 US) Not nearly as good a value as the Domeniile Tohani Cab I had a couple of nights ago.

I have had wine made from the Mavrud grape with venison in Sofia, and I found it a much better pairing.

Rather interestingly, I discovered the next day that the Acorex 2003 Terra Verde Cabernet Sauvignon was in the October 1 Vintages release at the LCBO, and that one of the local reviewers had given it a score of 85. (Hard to figure that rating)

Just curious, what brings you to Suceava? Thanks for the post, pretty cool.

A very interesting post. Not that I expect to be Romania anytime soon, but still interesting reading.