Cramele Recas invests £5m to boost capacity

Romanian producer Cramele Recas is investing £5 million to expand its winery after seeing sales grow 35% in the last year.

Vineyards in Cramele Recas

The growth comes on the back of increased demand for wines from Eastern European wines and greater distribution in the UK market, founder and director Philip Cox said, with particularly strong sales with Aldi UK of its Wolfhouse Pinot Noir and Nonius Shiraz.

The expansion will see the addition of new tanks and presses that will boost capacity by around 5.5 million L, as well as an upgrade to its cooling system, sampling and analysis systems.

The company has already doubled its capacity in the last two years to 20 million bottles a year, after adding a new bottling line in November 2015. It has also stepped up its area under vine with the purchase of 160 hectares close to the winery, with 50 hectares already planted, and the remaining 110 hectares expected to be planted by 2018.

Two winemakers from Australia will join the team to oversee production at the neighbouring facilities, it said.

A further €1 million is being invested to boost Cramele Recas’ crush capacity through new deals with existing partners in East Romania, Odobesti Vrancea, and the Black Sea Region, Viisoara Dobrogea.

Cox said the increase in demand for Romanian wine throughout the UK market had been “incredible” in the last few years and more customers were looking to explore new regions.

“The expansion will mean that we are able to meet the demand of our customers and continue to produce high quality Romanian wine for our markets,” he said.

The UK has been the fastest growing export market for Romania over the last five years, Cox told db in an interview last year, but there was also growth from the Netherlands and Germany, as well as the domestic market.

In November, International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) reported that Romanian wine production had increased by around 37% to 4.8m HL, but the growing maturity and changes in the industry following the disintegration of many of the old communist-era wineries had seen the number of registered wine companies fall.

The major wine-producing areas in Romania in 2015 were recorded as Vrancea, Buzau, Iasi, Vaslui, Constanta and Dolj.