The land inspires us, passion unites us. For us, this isn't just a label motto, but an honest summary of how we spend our days between vineyard and winery, on the hills of Horia, with the Danube nearby and the Dobrogea wind always in motion.
Crama Darie
The land inspires us, passion unites us. For us, this isn't just a label motto, but an honest summary of how we spend our days between vineyard and winery, on the hills of Horia, with the Danube nearby and the Dobrogea wind always in motion.
Our vineyard sits on a quiet slope, not far from the national road and the Capidava fortress, with the Danube making a wide bend a few kilometers downstream. It's an area with plenty of sunlight, little rain, calcareous and poor soils – exactly the kind of place where the vine must work for every grape.
Here we don't talk about "perfection," but about balance: warm days, cool nights, wind that quickly dries the leaves after rain, and that sense of open space you feel when looking toward the Danube and seeing only sky, water, and vines.
The Crama Darie story officially began in 2006, with a family business and a seemingly simple decision: to plant vines again in a place that already knew what wine grapes meant.
We learned later, from villagers' stories, that these lands once held vineyards destined for "Central" wines – meaning for export or official tables. We smiled when we first heard it, but then we checked the 1967 topographic maps and agricultural records from that time: it was true. The place had been chosen for quality long ago, not by chance.
This confirmed our intuition: if a piece of land was good for grapes then, the foundation is solid. The rest is up to us.
In 2009 we began planting: 22 hectares of noble vines on our own land, on the hills near Horia. It was more work than romance: a bet on a place, investments made step by step, years in which the vines grew and we learned alongside them. A few years later we added another 7 hectares, reaching the 29-hectare plantation we work today as a family.
In the vineyard, things are simple and clear: whether it's Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Fetească Regală, Tămâioasă Românească, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah or Fetească Neagră, each plot has its role. Some give freshness and tension, others bring roundness and structure.
We don't have dozens of exotic labels, nor do we aim to change style every year. We prefer to work a few varieties but know them well: how they react to drought, how aromas change when we harvest earlier or later, what happens when we leave the grapes a bit longer on the vine.
Making good wine starts with steps through the vineyard, boots on feet, and small decisions made in time, not with stories told afterward.
Our winery is not a cathedral of wine, but a functional, compact place where we know exactly where each lot is. We invested in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and a clean workflow that gives us the freedom to experiment, not to put out fires.
We like to say we use technology so as not to spoil what the vineyard has already done: gentle pressing, controlled fermentations, sufficient time on fine lees, minimal filtration. We use barrels where it truly makes sense – in the Cuvée range – not to follow a trend, but to add depth to wines that already have structure.
Crama Darie is, quite literally, the Darie family's business. We don't have a board of directors at a distance. We are the family that physically works here – planting, tying, harvesting, lot tastings, and labeling.
This means decisions are made quickly, but we also feel them in our gut: every hectare planted, every barrel bought, every medal or technical failure happens "at home."
In viticulture you work with someone who doesn't negotiate: nature decides when it rains, when the wind blows, when hail comes. You only choose how you react. A good year can become mediocre in one July afternoon; you might discover that the plot you expected least from gives you the best lot. We don't control the weather or soil, we only control how quickly we see what's happening and react.
Străbun, Capidava, Cuvée, Ice Chardonnay and Crama Darie Bag-in-Box wines are not "marketing ranges," but different ways of telling the same story.
Străbun brings together the dry wines that speak directly about Dobrogea's terroir – wines with backbone, designed for the table and for time. Capidava is the friendly zone, semi-dry, for long evenings with friends and family, without ceremony.
Cuvée means the selection of the most successful lots, matured in barrel, for moments when you have patience to talk with the wine. Ice Chardonnay is our bet with winter – grapes left to raisin on the vine, for a sweet wine, concentrated but clean and precise.
Today, Crama Darie remains a 29-hectare vineyard, worked by a family that chose to tie its destiny to a place between the Danube and the hills. We don't want to be "the biggest," we don't promise miracles in a glass. We simply want to make wines that feel right, honest, and memorable in the way they connect to the table, the moment, and the people.
We don't seek the perfect wine, but the wine that tells the truth about where it comes from.