Hero Selection wins through

The Hero Selection of Romanian wines unveiled at this years’ London Wine Fair received high levels of interest among the trade.

Paul Evans, director of Rumpus Communications, the group behind the project told the drinks business “the reaction had been bigger than expected.”

He confirmed that buyers from three of the major supermarkets had been to taste the wines on offer and two have asked for further samples of five of the wines. Evans believes they may aim to offer them as part of their online wine service in the future.

Independent retailers have also been showing a keen interest in the wines and asking where they can be found.

Frustratingly, many of the Romanian Winegrowers group, aside from Halewood Romania and Cramele Recas, are awaiting representation on the UK market.

Wine writer and broadcaster Oz Clarke also stopped by and was full of praise for the Hero Selection, both for the idea and wines on display.

He told db that it was about time something like this was done to raise awareness of Romania and what it had to offer. “It’s exactly the sort of thing Romania needs to present itself to the trade,” he said.

All of the producers in the Romanian Winegrowers are eager to return next year with another, possibly larger array of wines and two other producers are now interested in joining the group as so much attention has fallen on their selection.

Evans said: “The producers want to do it again maybe with a bigger table and make a central focus of the Hero Selection.”

Rounding off a fruitful trip, many of the members including; Halewood Romania, Domeniile Sahateni, Stirbey, Recas, Serve and Domeniul Coroanei have won medals in several awards including the IWSC.

Philip Cox, owner of Cramele Recas which won five IWSC medals, said: “On the whole it was better than last year.”

Rupert Millar, 28.05.2010