Category: Inside Romania

This fall, in Iași, the International Day of Nonviolence was marked, which was established by the United Nations in memory of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), one of the greatest peace activists in the world. Several facilitators of nonviolent communication programs offer free workshops for the young and the old on this occasion.

Lavinia Popescu, a nonviolent communication facilitator, one of the organizers of the event, said:

“Every year we celebrate the day of Mahatma Gandhi, the pioneer of peace in the world. And we mark this event by offering the public introductory workshops in nonviolent communication. These workshops are offered free of charge and we invite people to choose a theme that resonates with them. There are several facilitators who have joined forces to convey this message to as many people as possible, because the tools of nonviolent communication help improve relationships, and better relationships help to have a better quality of life.”

Lavinia Hriţcu personally experienced an improvement in her relationships with those around her once she learned the techniques of nonviolent communication. She was also a facilitator at the Nonviolent Communication Day organized in Iaşi, and she told us:

“There were workshops for both adults and children. The workshops for children were supported by two of our colleagues who have also worked in education for years and have experience. I think it is important that every person who comes into contact with what nonviolent communication means to be a little attentive to how their life changes, and how they notice a smaller or larger impact.”

Our interlocutor drew attention to the fact that very often we tend to impose our points of view, and through nonviolent communication we could learn that we often want the same thing as others, but we apply different strategies. Lavinia Popescu gave us details about that:

“For example, some titles of the workshops we had are: “Words that bring us closer”, a workshop for children. Children learn to identify their emotions and needs and use words that lead to a peaceful and productive dialogue. Another workshop was “The Power of No”, how to establish healthy boundaries and respect each other. Another workshop was titled “The Empathy of the Jackal”, the workshop that I presented. It is for those who are more advanced in the field of nonviolent communication, because they are already familiar with what a defensive or aggressive attitude means, and how to transform it into improving the dialogue and being authentic and bringing about a real connection. We often think that we are empathetic when we communicate with those around us, but in fact we are aggressive or defensive through the attitude we have. We can give advice, believing that we are helping the person we are talking to in real life, or we can steal attention by giving a personal example, believing that it is helping the other person.”

Lavinia Popescu referred to the workshop entitled “Jackal Empathy”, explaining that we work with two characters, the jackal and the giraffe, in which the giraffe is supposed to be the empathetic character, and the jackal, the character who always attacks. It seems that when we attack, it means that a need of ours is most often unfulfilled, and if we have an unproductive dialogue with a person who is attacking, we can give them empathy, try to understand what their need is behind the attitude they have, and if we come to support that “case” and they can turn into a giraffe, because they see themselves taken into account. “Jackal Empathy” involves seeing a little bit of what is behind that attitude, respecting your personal boundaries, of course.

From Petronela Radu, a nonviolent communication facilitator and trainer-mentor in a multinational organization, we learned what her role was in the workshops:

“The main step or the first step of violent communication would be to observe what my feelings are, what my thoughts are, what my needs are, and then to realize and understand what my need is and to make the request to the other person, taking into account both my feelings and the feelings of the other. As for how we take the other into account, it seems easy, like that, at first sight, but it takes practice. It takes attention. And, with practice, attention, and will, and intention, it is possible. It is an exercise that does not play the role of a panacea, or a pill, which we took once and it passed. It is a long-term exercise. It is basically an exercise with ourselves. And I think that one of the challenges of life is working with ourselves. And if that’s the case, then starting from the very message that Gandhi preaches, “be the change you want in the world”, it is understandable that change begins with us, nonviolent communication begins with us, harmony begins with us, with ourselves.”

For a life full of harmony, let’s try to be more attentive to the way we communicate!

In the 1990s, the Bauhaus school emerged in Germany, from the association of the German words bau – to build and Haus – house. Highly influential in 20th-century architecture, fine arts, sculpture, interior and industrial design, photography, typography, household objects, finery and ornamentation, furniture and interior decoration, this artistic school and movement created by the German architect and pedagogue Walter Gropius in the city of Weimar, operated at its peak, between 1919 and 1933, in three German cities: Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, becoming in time, despite being banned by the Nazis (in 1933), one of the most important and inspiring artistic trends of modern architecture. With the emigration of the founder of the Bauhaus artistic movement, Walter Gropius, to the United States of America, this artistic movement experienced a renaissance known generically as the “New Bauhaus”, or “New Bauhaus Style.”

More than a century on, Bauhaus becomes an educational factor, stimulating young people from Bucharest to discover new means of expression. “Bauhaus 2024” is the exhibition hosted these days by the National Museum of Romanian Literature, in the capital, an exhibition that brings together works by children from several high schools.

Visual artist Nicolae Stoian is the one who recommended the exhibition:

“An extraordinary exhibition that brings to mind the Bauhaus concepts, this interwar school, which still impresses us today with the principles it promoted, related to art, design , of modern concept, ideas that are also embraced by young people, we focus on young people from high schools.”

Alexandru Cristian Ghezea from the Ion N. Socolescu Technical College of Public Works and Architecture in Bucharest, who has two works in this exhibition, told us: Track 2: “This is a special day at the Museum of Romanian Literature, with a lavish Bauhaus opening, honoring this very important German school founded in 1919. Here we have a lot of works on display, from small to large, authored by students from the ninth grade to the 12th, from different high schools, high schools of architecture, or mathematics and informatics, or natural sciences. Lots of variety!”

Alexandru Cristian Ghezea titled his works “Bauhaus composition in the vision of a Romanian” and explained why:

“I was in Germany, visiting Berlin. Bauhaus started in a city in the west of Germany, not exactly in Berlin, but for example in Berlin I found in many confectioneries or cafes that Bauhaus teapot, which was, I think, designed by Marcel Breuer. Marcel Breuer is the one who designed the chair I drew, which I also found very often in different establishments in Berlin and it was very beautiful.”

In fact, it was theGerman artist Marianne Brandt who designed the Bauhaus teapot, taking the design of a conventional teapot, stripping it of all ornament to create her own geometric tea infuser and strainer in 1924.

But the creations of our younger interlocutor really deserve attention! As well as those of Francesca Vlădaraş, a student at the Ion Creangă National College, who spoke to us about her work in the exhibition and how much she was impressed by the presence of the works of so many talented children:

“I’m here with a representative Bauhaus style chair, made last year, along with another board that has other Bauhaus style compositions, such as the cup that the colleague talked about earlier and two representative lamps. I really like all the works, especially since they are very diverse, from many places and made by students from different grades, from 9th to 12th. It seems to me that they are very talented children! And I really wish I had attended the Socolescu high school, it’s a very nice high school, and I would have liked to spend more time drawing, like my colleague does.”

Teacher and visual artist Grațiela Stoian is the one who encourages the students of the Tudor Vianu National College of Informatics to discover their artistic side:

“I have the pleasure of selecting from among the students who in turn have this desire to develop through art. And they can’t believe it, because they say: “I’m not talented!” and I explain to them that they don’t have to have talent, but ideas-concepts, to be able to document themselves in the first place. And the art is amazing. It connects everything, not only sculpture, painting, graphics, etc. but it also creates links with physics, and with mathematics, biology. And I keep explaining to them that even if we look into a microscope we see some miracles there, not to mention Fibonacci, in mathematics, or in physics the spectrum of light and the rainbow, etc. And when we tell stories about such things, even children who are not studying arts manage to do some extraordinarily beautiful things.”

Red, blue and yellow, circles, squares and triangles, abstract and concrete, beautifully combined, the works of the Bauhaus 2024 exhibition express youth in action! (MI)

Today we are discussing a movie. And we chose this theme, because “The New Year That Never Came”, the first feature film of the director and screenwriter Bogdan Mureşanu, registered some remarkable successes in a short time after its release. Thus, in the first weekend after its release, the film occupied the first place at the box office. In the first month after its release in cinemas in Romania, the film already registered 70,000 viewers. Not to mention international and national awards! Or better said, we leave the topic to the specialized RRI columns!

We asked Bogdan Muresanu if he expected the film to be so successful:

“No, nobody can do anything to have success. I mean, I didn’t even ask myself the question of success. I thought that even if I got to do it the way I wanted, and that seemed like a great success, and to have only screened it in front of some friends, it would have been a victory for me, because when I wrote it, it seemed impossible to make. In fact, I spent about six months thinking about whether I can do it and whether it makes sense. I also wrote a “safer” version, as they say, something easier to do, but in the end I decided to choose the hard way! And now I’m glad I did!”

Adrian Cioroianu, professor of history at Bucharest University, told us how he saw the film at one of the Bucharest premieres:

“I have to admit that I found it surprising, as someone who has seen, I think, all, or most movies about the Romanian Revolution! And I didn’t go with high expectations, even though they said it was good! I wasn’t going in with high expectations, but I found it surprising, primarily because of the script and the acting of the actors. The actors, mostly well-known, but whom you would not have expected to see in such a dark comedy. I don’t even know how to say this; although it apparently ends with a happy ending, we know that after the end of the film, there are 1000 wounded and dead. But all in all, I think a new generation was still needed to relate to the event, and I think the defining element of the film is this shift in perspective. We’ve had comedies before, we’ve had heavy films about the December Revolution, but this sequence of destinies and their chaining together I think brought us closer to real life, even if, obviously, the film treats history with the freedom of the artist. There are certain things, unfortunately, that are more pleasant in the film than in reality, or some small mismatches in the setting, but all in all, I think that the freshness of the treatment is what delighted everyone who saw it.”

Bogdan Muresanu told us what the biggest challenges in making the film were: “Because the film takes place in one day and one morning, there were problems with the weather, with the archives, because it wouldn’t snow . On the other hand, we were also dependent on the weather, we couldn’t film at any time. The trees had to have a certain foliage, neither very green nor full of snow, as I said, because that was not the case on the 20th of December. This created a lot of problems for me. Then the reconstitution of spaces that no longer exist, and I’m not talking about apartments here, because that can still be done, but in a working television studio from the 80s, that was an absolutely gigantic challenge for us! Because I said it has to be functional: it had to work, those panels and all that stuff had to work, because we didn’t have the money to shoot separately.”

Those who did not catch those times and whose parents did not share them enough learn from the film how it was, how a tape recorder worked, a television with lamps and cathode ray tubes, but also why you would have run away from that place, risking everything . Information with which the world seems to resonate more and more both nationally and internationally. How is this explained? Here is Bogdan Muresanu:

“It has an international success as great as the national one. Its festival circuit has just started and I think it will keep going like this for 2 years! Tour the world! And where I was, the theaters were always full. It is true that there were also many from the Romanian diaspora there! But otherwise, how do I explain it? I think it’s a bright movie. Every day I receive dozens of messages from viewers and I answer them, or try to answer them, myself and my team. I really enjoy it! This word, therapeutic, and bright, always comes up, which is probably surprising for such a difficult time, which was dark. And I was surprised by this word, bright. Although that ending of the film is liberating, and I remember that the whole of Romania felt that way, and it probably encapsulates, in the narrative of this film, that feeling of liberation that we all experienced that day.”

Professor Adrian Cioroianu explained:

“In the film we see things characteristic of those times, and in a way we all find ourselves. Because inevitably, if you were a student, I’m not talking about actors anymore, but even in school, we recited poems about the [Communist] Party, sometimes about the general secretary, or those who made up the army, swore with their hand on the tricolor to defend the homeland under the orders of the supreme commander, etc. So there is this category of audience that can be found in the film, but surprisingly they are young people, who were not born then, and I find that gratifying, young people who now still get an image of what life might have looked like in 89, which it is very good. Foreigners, too, I think, are impressed by the destinies as such, that is, of normal people, showing a country, however civilized in our modesty. We were a country where people were trying to live normally in an abnormal system, and I think the foreign cinephile immediately realizes this. Plus, I repeat, it is this chaining and intersecting of destinies, the way in which people who know each other, or don’t know each other, become participants in the same historical event.”

Adrian Cioroianu added:

“Indeed, I would extend an invitation to all those who have not seen it, because it will be their turn to be as amazed, as I was, amazed in an absolutely positive sense. It’s a kind of remembering of the end of the communist regime, and it’s welcome!”

Romanian viewers can watch the film in over 80 cinemas in 42 cities.

In 2008, the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list was officially created, in accordance with the provisions of the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage”, adopted in Paris in 2003. From then until now, nine Romanian customs have been registered in this list. On the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Romania appears with: the Caluș Ritual(since 2008), the Doina (2009), the Horezu Ceramic Artisan Crafts (2012), the Male Choir Carol (2013), multinational registration with the Republic of Moldova, The Lads’ Dance (2015), Traditional wall covering making techniques (2016), multinational registration with the Republic of Moldova, cultural practices associated with the 1st of March (2017) – Marțișorul, multinational registration with the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the art of the traditional embroidered shirt (2022), multinational registration with the Republic of Moldova, as well as the breeding traditions of Lipizaner horses (2022), multinational registration with Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. Although it seems that our country would do well to preserve the elements of countryside tradition, those who actually manage to pass on the traditional crafts are few in number.

At the “Constantin Brâncusi” Traditional Arts School in Târgu Jiu, two craftsmen have specialized classes in woodworking and pottery, and they told us about their experience. Marin Daniel Preduț, instructor of the Traditional Arts School, specialized in Wood Working Art, shared with us:

“This passion came to me some time ago, about 3 years ago. I was abroad for 8 years and, when I returned to the country due to the pandemic, I opened a small carpentry workshop. I said I’d try a little business during the crisis. So far I’m satisfied with how far I’ve developed: apart from the wood-carved icons and the platters, or bottoms, as I call them, I also build cabins, gazebos, swings. They are mostly bought by people who truly love wood.”

Our interlocutor told us that carving an icon takes from 20 minutes to an hour, but then it is painted, which takes much longer, applying a traditional, “secret” bath, after which they are varnished. As for the wooden cabins, I found out that a simple house, without a top floor, can be executed in a maximum of 7 working days. Perhaps you are wondering what was the most complex work executed so far? Here is Marin Daniel Preduț:

“We had a park with European funds, at a boarding house, a large complex of about five cabins, a large gazebo, oven, sauna, the work of around half a year.”

Marian Măgureanu, teacher at the “Constantin Brâncuşi” Traditional Arts School, initiated the pottery circle at the Tudor Vladimirescu High School, and told us his story:

“I started with pottery, a Neolithic technique, shaping by hand. I am trying to say something about the way their grandparents, great-grandparents lived, they are very young, many of them have not even seen a salt shaker or a jug, I presented them to them, and they looked. Very rarely, one who has spent a little time in the countryside knows something. When they come back within a year, it means they liked it, they felt good, they come to relax, to go home happy. As I tell them, they should to do their homework with more energy, with more pleasure. Sometimes they produced various exclamations when, for example, I showed them the pitcher with a handle, it was something special! It seemed like a great, great innovation!”

Marian Măgureanu went into more detail, saying where he procures the clay:

“Traditionally, people dug for it in various places they knew, kept the secret of that place, and processed it several times over the course of a year. It had to stay outside to freeze under a roof, they took it into their house, cut it with a knife, several times, kneaded it by stepping on it, added water. At the end they made some cakes that they kept wrapped in something so they wouldn’t dehydrate. Now we get it either from various refractories factories, there are several sellers, we try to find the best source. After modeling, it rests to dry for a period of time in a space not exposed to the sun, it must dry slowly, otherwise it suddenly dehydrates and cracks. But we still don’t have an oven, now we can no longer burn in the traditional kiln that the potters had, we would have no place to build it and no way to use it. An electric oven that the larger workshops have would be useful, but we don’t have it yet. Through our colleagues we try to find someone who either has an electric oven or a craftsman in a nearby area who uses a kiln, and we burn the items now and then.”

A great enthusiasm keeps these craftsmen connected to their activity of transmitting the techniques acquired from the elders to the younger generations, and we hope for a more effective conservation of these crafts.

Alina Gavrilă started making clothes when she was just a teenager. The passion developed over time, and today the fashion designer aims to support Romanian designers in the making, through what she created: “the floor of Romanian designers”, an actual floor, at an address in Bucharest, as well as online.

Alina Gavrilă, the founder of the Romanian Designer Floor concept told us:

“It wasn’t necessarily a need, but a passion, my passion from adolescence, for clothing creation. I started designing clothes when I was 14-15 years old. Basically, I followed my passion, my hobby from adolescence. The idea came to fruition at the beginning of the 90s, when I established a small clothing creation and production workshop. Then I made my own creations and sold them in partner stores. Unfortunately, my dream didn’t necessarily materialize for a very long time. After three years, I had to close that business for financial reasons, but because my entrepreneurial spirit and my passion for fashion remained alive, after many years I returned to the business world and opened a store, which brings many creations from several Romanian designers, that is, I preferred to promote, to support Romanian fashion creators.”

What the Romanian Designer Floor actually is we learned from Alina Gavrilă, the founder of the concept:

“The Romanian Designer Floor is an oasis of beauty, style, elegance, it is the place where women find not only suitable outfits for occasions, for events, but also advice if they want a change of clothes, or don’t know what suits them in certain situations, or at certain events. It is more than a store, it is a place where you charge yourself with positive energy, and leave not only with a dress or an outfit, but also with a feeling of well-being, with confidence, with a positive attitude.”

Beyond the rich offer of shops and malls, The Romanian Designer Floor aims to offer experiences, says Alina Gavrilă:

“I have a physical store, which is located in Bucharest, near the roundabout in Piaţa Romană, the exact address is Dacia 39, first floor. We also have an online store, it’s also called etajuldesignilorromani.com and, in general, people who want to visit us, call us, write us a message, because the meetings are made by appointment.”

Coats, dresses, shirts, as well as shoes and other accessories can be found on the website and even ordered, with delivery taking 5-15 days. However, we found the most challenging thing to be able to call a stylist to change your clothing style. We asked our interlocutor how a style change can be made:

“The style change session takes place in the store, and then the customers receive all the necessary information. Depending on the body shape, style preferences, they receive all the necessary information to have a perfect outfit to best suit their style and body type.”

Alina Gavrilă chose not to make a list of the designers exhibiting their creations on the Romanian Designer Floor, for fear of forgetting someone, but she assured us: “They are very talented designers, many of them are perhaps just starting out, or trying to make a name for themselves on the market, they are not necessarily very, very well-known designers, because those don’t need promotion. Every month we organize meetings, we call them Rendez-vous for Coquettish Women, precisely to support women in choosing a suitable style. We give advice on how to match the outfit with the shoes, with the accessories, what colors to choose. These meetings are monthly or bi-monthly, and can be seen on our Facebook page, where these events are created. Within these events, ladies can visit us and meet other women, they can socialize, they can feel good, may have a pleasant afternoon in our company.”

“Shop with clothing creations, shoes, bags and jewelry from talented Romanian designers!” is the promotion on the Facebook page for Romanian Designer Floor, a page where we also find stories of miraculous encounters between clients and clothing creations. We know that there were ladies who sometimes fall in love with a dress at first sight, let’s say. Another asset we noticed in the way the clothes are presented is the fact that they are aimed at everyone, not just the female runway model as a structure, which is very important!

Every moment in life brings with it something new. Sometimes, the everyday rush makes us move away from who we are, preventing us from becoming instruments of our own creation: the person at work, the role we have at home, and many more functions in which we risk getting lost.

Claudia Maria Udrescu, the creator of the ‘imperfect autobiographical writing course’, as she calls it, comes with an idea in this context, at this time for those born in ’74. Stories from ’74 is her latest project. Where did the idea come from? Here is Claudia Maria Udrescu:

“The idea came because for about three years I have been doing autobiographical writing, which means that, for example, you can write about yourself when you need to introduce yourself for a blog, for a website, for a project, or when you are faced with a change, a transition, either professional or personal. And the idea with the stories from ’74 comes from the fact that it is somehow my generation, and I know that, at least for me and certainly for others, these 50 years that we celebrate this year are somehow a gateway. There comes a moment when we ask ourselves ‘who am I, what else do I want to do, what do I no longer want to do’. It is a gate through which we enter and we are different from who we were before, that it is more than the middle of life, as an average, it is more than the midlife crisis. I saw a lot of questions now: What is my role, what is my purpose?”

Claudia Maria Udrescu also spoke to us about the healing role of autobiographical writing:

“It helped me a lot in a moment of transition, which is where the autobiographical writing project came from, after which I saw that at the moment in which people get down to writing, maybe someone wants to write a book, maybe you need to write about yourself for the website you put up, because you want to communicate your experience to others. The problem is that, at that moment, the impostor syndrome intervenes, which says, ‘Who are you to write and who are you, since so much has been written. Shakespeare, or anyone else who wrote. And that’s exactly when we need to write, because each of us has an invisible story, that becomes visible the moment we put it on paper. We see it first, and that’s why I highly recommend handwriting, we clarify it. Writing for me is autobiographical writing, it’s about clarity and a lot of creativity, because we reconnect to ourselves. I really like what an Italian philosopher, Ducio Demetrio, who has written many books related to this process of autobiographical writing, says. He says that each of us has ‘lo tessitore’ inside us, ‘the self that weaves stories’, which weaves our story that is somehow between past, present, and future. For me, this is primarily what autobiographical writing is about, and it primarily helps us to clear our path from now on as well. Or if we need to see where to head out from now on. And it also helps us to have a calm mind. It helps a lot for peace of mind.”

We asked Claudia Maria Udrescu if writing is better than a discussion, perhaps, with a friend.

“I always recommend handwriting, and writing is recognized as therapeutic. I think it’s good as it suits each person. Unfortunately, a lot of people come and say ‘I don’t write anymore, I wrote a diary in high school, I wrote in college, someone told me at some point that I don’t write well, so I don’t write anymore.’ And it’s a shame. But it’s a wonderful time when someone starts writing again. I think that writing, and especially handwriting, is better because you stay with yourself. It’s a moment of reflection, of peace with yourself, and that helps a lot. When you talk you can be distracted, it’s different. But that moment when you sit with yourself is somehow sacred: you sit down and write.”

Claudia Maria Udrescu made a statement of intent:

“I want us to write our stories, to find people who are open to writing the story of who they are. People like me, like you, because we are in a world already dominated by AI, and the fact that Chat GPT can write anything, but as we know we connect through stories and we connect through my story or yours, which resonates with her or his story. Maybe we can make a platform through which we can pass on our stories.”

Claudia Maria Udrescu also told us about the stage in which the Stories from ’74 project is now.

“I thought about the structure part, and now I’m looking for people. I found a few, but I’m looking for people who are willing to write first, and then pass on the stories. Or just write them, let’s create this gate, let’s pass through this gate together.”

You can find Claudia Maria Udrescu at her ‘imperfect autobiographical writing’ course, where, regardless of your age, you can join and discover new valences of your own personality, as it is revealed in writing. If you were also born in ’74, let’s complete this story of the core of life, a story with an unexpected ending!

Every important moment in our lives is celebrated by raising a glass of sparkling wine. The famous bubbles are originally from France, in 1531, when an ‘ancestral’ method was obtained by Blanquette de Limoux, which also becomes the oldest documented method of obtaining sparkling wines in the world.

 

 

 

Sparkling wine, as the specialists have pointed out, is the only wine we perceive with all five basic senses: the tactile sense, sight, smell, taste, and hearing. So it is no wonder it is associated with moments of joy.

 

 

 

Liviu Gheorghe, a member of the Wine Lover Association, took us through the history of over a century and a half of Romanian sparkling wine:

 

“The maker of the first sparkling wine in Romania was Professor Ion Ionescu de la Brad, who, after a period of study in France, when returning to the country in 1841, obtained a sparkling wine for the ruler of Moldavia, Mihail Sturdza, from his vineyards. In this way, Romania became the fourth country in the world with domestic sparkling wine production by natural fermentation in glass bottles. In Transylvania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the production of sparkling wine was recorded in Satu Mare. Following that were Timişoara, Cluj, Azuga, and Brăila. In 1892, in Azuga, they inaugurated on a plot of land from King Carol’s estate the Rhein cellars, investment of the Rhein brothers, whose family had lived for hundreds of years in Brasov. The cellars were built above ground, with 1.2 meters thick walls, and are still functional today.

 

A German man, from a family of winemakers, came to work in Romania around the year 1900, and twelve years later he opened a establishment. Liviu Gheorghe, a member of the Wine Lover Association, continues his story :

 

“In 1912, Wilhelm Mott a set up a small sparkling wine factory in Bucharest. In a few years Mott develops its production capacity and begins to export the sparkling wines. During the interwar period the press was full of advertisements for Mott champagne, which became a European brand, and currently collectors pay sometimes exorbitant amounts for the antiquities carrying this beverage logo. In 1934, with the lifting of the prohibition system in the United States, Mott opens his own branch in New York. During the same period, Mott becomes the supplier for the passenger ships of the Romanian Naval Society, and was also present on the menus of the transatlantic ships. In 1948, Mott’s production facilities were nationalized, along with those of the sparkling wine makers Doctor Basilescu and Rhein, acquiring the name Zarea. In 1969, the famous oenologist Dr. Ioan Puşcă created in Vrancea the famous classic Panciu sparkling wine, and in 1974 he launched in Transylvania the Jidvei sparkly range.

 

 

 

Analyzing the methods and varieties of grapes used in the production of Romanian sparkling wine, Liviu Gheorghe said:

 

“We have wine regions that are very similar to the French or Italian, so the sparkling offer is a very good one. Sparkling wines are made according to the traditional method, but also by the conventional method, the Peter Charmat method, which involves two rounds of fermentation under pressure, and is a more accessible and rapid variant of obtaining sparkling wine, including the ASTI (n.r. with a single fermentation in a pressure tank of the must from aromatic grapes). They use international grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Pinot Meunier, as well as native varieties such as Crâmpoşie, Feteasca Regala, White Feteasca, Mustoasa, or Black Feteasca. Important investments in vines and technology allow us to produce all manners of sparkling styles, in terms of price and quality. We have white and pink sparkling, with residual sugar from Brut, to native, to sweet, we have blanc de blanc, we have blanc de noir, we have pearly wines, we also have petillant wines (lightly pearled). Among the sparkling wines made here, which resemble the quality of the ones from Champagne very closely, are those obtained exactly according to the same procedures, as well as the original Champagnia, using both international, popular varieties for sparkling wine, and as native varieties, which represent the territory from which they come. These wines rest for a period of autolysis that reaches 48 months, imprinting on the wine fine notes of dough, fresh bread, or muffin. The wines are noted for intense acidity, fine and persistent pearl, balance, complexity, structure and elegance. Many of them have a remarkable aging potential.

 

 

 

Liviu Gheorghe said that the Romanian sparkling wines are also known internationally:

 

“For several years, Romanian sparkling wines have been competing in international competitions, the World Champagne Championship, sparkling wine competitions, such as the International Bucharest Wine Contest. Sparkling wines are considered among the most versatile wines, from the point of view of culinary associations, and can be served both with appetizers, main dishes, but also desserts, or only for socialization. A white sparkling wine, with residual sugar in the Brut area, is ideally associated with dishes such as eggs, shellfish, seafood, fish, fine creamy cheeses, or chicken preparations. A pink sparkling wine from the same area of residual sugar can be associated with salmon preparations, smoked fish, duck, or goose liver, poultry, or beef, and even Thai cuisine. Ideally, sweet sparkling wines would be served with whipped cream desserts, fruit cakes, chocolate cake, and even ice cream.