La Sapata
Sarica Niculițel, Dobrogea, Romania
La Sapata are making some of the most exciting natural wine coming out of Romania right now, which still catches loads of people off guard because Romanian wine somehow remains massively underrated despite having thousands of years of winemaking history behind it.
The winery sits out near the Danube Delta in the Sarica Niculițel region, where warm sunshine, cooling breezes and poor sandy soils create wines with loads of freshness and energy underneath all the fruit. Everything is farmed organically with a proper low-intervention approach in the cellar too. Native yeasts, minimal sulphur and wines that feel alive without turning into total farmhouse chaos.
The local grape varieties are really where things get interesting. Băbească Neagră especially shines here, bringing bright red fruit, spice and this lovely crunchy freshness that makes the wines ridiculously drinkable. Fetească Regală and Aligoté also show up regularly, usually with citrus, herbs and salty mineral edges running through them.
There’s a nice balance between rusticity and precision too. The wines feel natural and expressive without becoming aggressively funky or impossible to pair with food. Very much bottles for long dinners, grilled vegetables, fish and people who enjoy discovering regions before everybody else starts talking about them constantly.
Romania in general feels like one of Europe’s most exciting under-the-radar wine countries at the moment, and La Sapata are a very good example of why.
