Cramele Recaș invests €11 million to reach €100m turnover  

Romanian wine producer Cramele Recaș is investing more than €11 million to expand its production capacity, including the addition of sparkling wines, which it says will boost sales to 50 million bottles per year.

Philip Cox, Cramele Recaș’s commercial director and co-owner, said sparkling wine provided a major growth opportunity that would help the business reach turnover of €100 million in the next three to five years.

The investment will be shared among three key projects, including a new winery at Tenuta Odobești Winery, in Vrancea, which currently produces more than 7 million litres per year. Sited in the largest vineyard region in Romania, the Tenuta winery was established more than 20 years ago by Italian investor Fabrizio Mosconi, who will take the role of managing director. Under the new arrangement, production will be increased to around 12 million litres, with a focus on sparkling wine category, as well as the production of bulk wine and juice.

Bottling

The company is also investing in a new, state-of-the-art bottling facility, and new warehousing, which is set to open in August.

The new bottling facility will have the capacity to fill more than 13,000 bottles per hour, and 50 million bottles per year – making it the largest bottling line in Eastern Europe, the company says. The facility will include AI integration to manage quality and efficiency through automated production equipment, and is expected to be operational in 2025.

Bristolian

Cox, who is originally from Bristol, founded the company in Western Romania’s Timiș County in 1992 having previously worked for German wine producer Reh Kendermann and it has undergone considerable expansion in recent years. In 2015 the business sold 11 million bottles and had €28m turnover, however by 2023 this number had almost tripled to 32 million and €72m turnover, . Demonstrating the founder Philip Cox’s commitment to celebrating Romanian wine on a global stage. It became the largest winery in Romania by both volume and turnover in 2020, responsible for over half of all exports of Romanian wine. At the time, it had 1,250 hectares under vines and three wineries.

In March, Cox slammed the UK government’s controversial changes to the alcohol duty system under Rishi Sunak, noting that it had responded by bringing down the ABV on some of its wines for the UK market because of the tax situation.

In 2022 Romania exported about US$35.2 million (about €32.5m) worth of wine, making it the 34th largest wine exporter in the world. The most valuable market was the Netherlands (US$10.2m/€9.4m), with the UK in third position (US$3.8m/€3.5m).

Masters

The news comes as Cramele Recaş were praised by judges and Patrick Schmitt MW at this year’s Global Pinot Noir Masters competition.

Schmitt said: “If you want to drink good Pinot on a budget, seek out Cramele Recas. A star performer in 2024 [the producer] picked up three Gold medals, all for Pinots priced sub-£10, and each one from a different panel of exacting judges.

“If you thought that it wasn’t possible to make fruity-fresh Pinot for the price of cheap Garnacha, you’d be wrong: this Romanian operator has managed it.”

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