Fetească regală

Fetească regală is the most planted white grape in Romania, and unlike most of the country's classics it has a birth certificate. It appeared in Transylvania in the 1920s, at Daneș, as a natural crossing of Fetească albă and Grasă de Cotnari. The name means the royal maiden, which is a marketing flourish added to the older Fetească family name.

It kept the better half of each parent. From Fetească albă it takes a quiet floral perfume, and from Grasă it takes vigour and a reliable crop. What it adds on its own is acidity, which is the reason it spread so fast: it holds freshness in a hot Romanian summer where many local whites go flabby.

The wine is dry, medium bodied and restrained rather than aromatic, with green apple, white flowers and a faint herbal note. It is the everyday white of Romania in the way that Pinot grigio is the everyday white of northern Italy, and the comparison is fair on style as well as on role. The best examples come from Transylvania, where the altitude keeps the acid high.