The Romanian Wine story starts 6,000 years ago. To this day, Romanian winemakers have been perfecting crafts and varieties into amazing wines that walk you through time.
Open The Romanian Wine Program together with its ambassador, Marinela Ardelean, international wine critic, author of five books about Romanian wines, are hosting New York’s first exploration of exclusive award-winning Romanian wines produced by top wineries and taste of some of the most unique wines and grape varieties in the world.
You are invited to discover the best new wines that Europe has to offer on November 30th, 2021 at AVRA Madison Estiatorio restaurant starting 12 p.m. with an open tasting of wines followed immediately by a luncheon.
Starting Time
Wine Tasting
Luncheon
Ending Time
14 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022
Romania has a winemaking tradition dating back 6000 years. The Romanian soil nurtures rare grape varieties and today is home to hundreds of vineyards and wineries, spread across 7 wine regions. Each wine region has its own particular traditions and unique flavors.
Romania is the 6th wine producer in Europe and the 12th worldwide, yet little known to wine lovers across the world. Open The Romanian Wine is a long term national program with the mission to support the Romanian wine industry and put Romanian wine on the world wine map.
The program’s wine experts travel the country and visit wineries, from the largest well known brands to small family businesses, in search of new wines to promote nationally. They taste and select the wines, then the program’s consultants support winemakers with branding, promotion and distribution efforts to successfully reach modern retail.
Since its beginning in 2019, over 200 labels joined the program, some new to retail, some sold exclusively in Carrefour nationwide and some award winning in international wine contests like International Wine Contest Bucharest, Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, International Wine Challenge or Decanter World Wine Awards.
In 2021 Open The Romanian Wine brings Romanian wines to the American public. The first step in an ambitious plan to promote the unique wines and grape varieties of Romanian wine.
Marinela Ardelean is a wine critic, author, consultant and juror in international wine competitions such as Mundus Vini. She is known for organizing RO-Wine |The Wine Festival of Romania, as well as public speaker in wine-related events. As author, Marinela debuted in 2014 with an out-of-the-box bilingual edition of „50 Romanian Wines Meet 50 Italian Dishes”, ranking second best wine book of the year by the Gourmet Drinks Awards. The next year, the first edition of The Wine Book of Romania reached the shelves, becoming the first comprehensive guide to the top Romanian and Moldovan wines. Her articles were published by prestigious magazines as Dilema, National Geographic, BBC Good Food etc. The following years, two more volumes were released, including new wineries and updated selections, following the harvests’ quality.
With more than a decade of experience in the drinks business, Marinela Ardelean is a graduate of both Economics and Law courses, knowledge later joint in an Executive MBA in Wine Industry, and a PhD in Marketing.
As a professor, Marinela Ardelean trains students at the Italian Chef Academy in Champagne culture, but she also hosts private courses, seminars and masterclasses, mostly about sparkling wines and about local grapes from Italy and Romania.
A fervent promoter of the Romanian wines both locally and beyond borders, Marinela is also the consultant and ambassador of Open The Romanian Wine Program - a long-awaited project designed to promote Romanian wines and Romania’s image as a wine-producing country.