Cramele Recaş throws another spanner in the works - 2019 natural wines

Simon tastes the latest vintage of Cramele Recas's natural wines, and finds that they throw up a whole host of interesting issues to do with labelling, sulphite levels and the definition of natural wine in general.

It's becoming an annual ritual. At some point early in the year, I either make a rude comment or otherwise draw attention to the series of "natural wines" made by Roumanian winemaking giant Cramele Recaş. Inevitably, Cramele's vocal but eminently level-headed supremo Philip Cox leaps into the fray to defend his winery and its wines. We discourse, agree or agree to differ, and then he sends me the latest vintages of said wines to try.

This has been going on for three years now, ever since I wrote about Cox's orange wine becoming the first ever such bottling to appear on the shelves of a mainstream UK supermarket. I keep promising to visit the winery, although this year a planned trip was rained off due to Covid-19. Philip is nothing if not sporting.

Despite not always enjoying the wines, I have nothing against major wineries per se. What Cox and Cramele are doing is genuinely interesting from an industry standpoint. They're slowly but surely carving out a niche as the only industrial-sca…