WELCOME TO CARASTELEC SPARKLING WINERY!
100% GOLD! 4 out of 4 gold medals at Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2024
We have some exciting news! Carassia won 4 out of 4 gold medals at the 2024 Champagne & Sparkling World Championships! This year marks another participation to CSWWC and it is the first time ever we bring home only gold medals. Winning gold medals every year is a spectacular achievement for us and...
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The winery
Carastelec Sparkling Winery is the first investment in Romania aimed at producing mostly sparkling and semi-sparkling wines. It is located in Crișana Region, which is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in Transylvania, close to Măgura Şimleului Mountain which is a crystalline island in North West Transylvania. CARASTELEC Village / northern Transylvania / Crisana wine region has all the primary conditions for producing an excellent sparkling wine: moderate continental climate and high diurnal range in the ripening period. The 22-hectare south-faced vineyard planted in 2011 sits on clay-rich soil and was built from the ground up for sparkling winemaking and it is managed from pruning to harvest according to it.
This “natural amphitheatre” near the village, on the top of a slope, is a real “treasure” hill with a specific microclimate chosen by Tibor Gál, one of Hungary’s leading oenologists, years ago. As with the selection of the site, all decisions have been and continue to be taken with the same thoroughness every day and always the aim of obtaining high-quality sparkling wines.
a clear direction and a real focus on world-class quality sparkling winemaking
The grape varieties have been chosen based on the terroir and the mission of the winery, that is, to produce high-quality sparkling wines with traditional methods. The pinot noir is the flagship variety (10 ha), the backbone of our sparkling wines. It adds depth, complexity and body to the sparkling wines in blends, fruitiness for rosé sparkling and it`s mirroring the terroir as petillant and still red wine as well. The indigenous feteasca regala (Royal Maiden) used for petillant wines and Rhein Riesling for crispy still wine are also part of our 22-hectare vineyard.
The winery building is in close proximity to the vineyard, and fully equipped for the entire wine-making process of the bottle-fermented sparkling wines. The building uses renewable - solar and geothermal -energy sources. Because we care. In 2013, the cellar was equipped with the technology for the whole process of making bottle-fermented sparkling wines.
HISTORY
Crișana (Hungarian: Körösvidék; German: Kreischgebiet), our wine-growing region lies between three rivers, Mureș, Someș and Tisa, and the heights of the Western Carpathians (Apuseni Mountains). Archaeological evidence was found of the Silvaniei wine region in the Roman military camp in Porolissum-Moigrad, as part of the Crișana wine region. The first comprehensive survey throughout the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy, Josephinische Landesaufnahme shows grapes to have been cultivated here, in Carastelec, as early as 1770.
Carastelec, a village first mentioned in 1241, is today part of Sălaj County. It was a parish in the Diocese of Oradea (Division of Şimleul Silvaniei). The first written reference to this church goes all the way back to the 17th Century when Princess Zsófia Báthori, wife of Prince György Rákóczi II, owned forests and vineyards near to those of the church. In 1650, Princess Zsófia Báthori rebuilt this church. In order to provide support for it, she donated some forests and vineyards, as well as her own castle to the vicar to accommodate his family. This was, therefore, the first document to prove the presence of vineyards here.
Terroir
Crișana Region, which is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in Transylvania, is close to Măgura Şimleului Mountain, a crystalline island in the North-West part of Transylvania. The region of Carastelec, marked by this Mountain, has a particular soil - clay and mica - from which grapes can extract minerals required to make elegant and sophisticated wines full of fineness, fresh and fruity, typical of the varieties cultivated here. This south-facing “natural amphitheatre” near the village, on the top of a slope, is a real “treasure” hill with a specific micro-climate.
As with the selection of the site, all decisions have been and continue to be taken with the same thoroughness every day and always the aim of obtaining high-quality products.
a sparkling wine vineyard built from the ground up
The region has a moderate continental climate with average rainfall. The total number of sunshine hours during the growing season is around 1200 to 1600; the annual precipitation is 626 mm, while the temperature in this region is somewhat lower. All these factors lead to a higher acidity of the wines and add to their complexity and personality. Furthermore, this area (47th parallel; altitude: 300 m) is suitable for producing excellent sparkling wines.
Noble vine varieties were planted on 22.4 hectares in 2011, at a distance of 2 m/0.8 m (6250/hectare); this density results in a concentrated high-quality production and leads to competition between the vines which will cause their roots to get to the harder mica schist much faster.
The compact location of the vines in the immediate neighbourhood of the cellar minimizes the transport of the grapes, thus avoiding their deterioration.
These grape varieties have been chosen based on the terroir and the mission of the Winery, that is, to produce high-quality sparkling wines. Therefore, we have planted the traditional grape varieties used for sparkling wine in the Champagne region, Feteasca Regală of the local varieties for semi-sparkling petillant wines and Rhein Riesling for still wine.
Almost half of our slopes are covered with Pinot Noir used both for sparkling wines and semi-sparkling wines and for still red wine maturated in oak barrels.
GALLERY
Winery visits
Winery visits should be booked 7-15 days in advance. The winery tour and tasting take approximately 2 hours.
Monday-Friday: 10.00 - 16.30
Saturday-Sunday: for groups of min. 10 pers.
The prices include wine tasting, finger food, a guided winery tour and a walk in the vineyard on request if the weather is good.
(Please ask for availability and prices via e-mail at info@carastelecwinery.com or by phone at +40 772 130 157
Contact
Address
Carastelec, No. 604, Sălaj County, Romania
