Mehedinţi

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• In the Severin winegrowing district, the lithology is represented by a complex of Pliocene lacustrine marls, clays, and sands, over which a succession of Upper Pleistocene gravels, sands, and loess-like deposits is superimposed toward the Danube.
• In the Plaiurile Drâncei winegrowing district, the lithology belongs entirely to the Quaternary; in the higher, piedmont zone it consists of Lower Pleistocene fluvio-deltaic deposits of gravels and sands, followed toward the surface by Middle and Upper Pleistocene gravels, sands, loams, and loess-like deposits.
• The dominant soil types in the Plaiurile Drâncei winegrowing district are reddish-brown soils and leached chernozems, both benefiting from a medium texture, locally coarse or clay-loam in character.
• In the central area of the Dealul Viilor hill within the Severin Depression, the background soils are reddish-brown, normal or slightly to moderately eroded on slopes, followed by brown soils or weakly podzolised soils, moderately to strongly eroded on steeper gradients, and alluvial soils on the floodplain terraces of the Topolnița.
• The climate of the Plaiurile Drâncei winegrowing district is moderately temperate continental with a Mediterranean nuance, resulting from the frequency of westerly and south-westerly air masses, without excluding the influence of southern tropical and eastern European air masses.
• The climate of the Severin winegrowing district is moderately temperate continental, with western Atlantic and south-western Adriatic-Mediterranean influences.

• A document dated 8 January 1407 records Mircea cel Bătrân granting and confirming to Cozia Monastery an annual allowance of wheat and wine, attesting to the long-standing tradition of viticulture in the area.
• In the mid-nineteenth century, Orevița and Golul Drâncei were the largest winegrowing districts in Mehedinți county, according to the records of St. C. Teodorescu and M. Gheorghiță from 1970.
• A work published in 1900 by C.V. Munteanu and C. Roman demonstrated, through analytical data, that the red wines of Mehedinți were high in alcohol, rich in extract, and with an elevated mineral content.
• The land redistribution of August 1864 stimulated the expansion of vine plantings, so that wine came to rank third among exports in Mehedinți county, after wheat and maize.

• The red wines produced display a bright ruby colour and are very refined, with a distinctive personality, making them well suited to ageing.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Romania

Sources

• National product specification (PDF) — onvpv
• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-RO-A1072
• Official trade body site — Oficiul Național al Viei și Produselor Vitivinicole (ONVPV) — DOC Mehedinţi