Solara Orange wine 2024

Get to know: Solara Orange wine 

A popular and easy-drinking Romanian orange wine from Viile Timisului.

Tasting Note

Crafted with care at the modern and dynamic Cramele Recas Estate. This 2024 release showcases full skin-contact maceration, elegant stone fruit character, and a refreshing, structured profile. The nose has delicate aromas of quince, poire william, and a hint of vanilla. On the palate, the wine is fresh and structured, with fruit flavours of ripe stone fruits, balanced by a gentle tannins, finishing clean. An easy-going, minimal-intervention wine. Perfect for adventurous wine lovers and modern food pairings.

Top food pairings:

• Manchego or a mature Cheddar
• roasted squash, lentils, or a Moroccan-style tagine.
• Roast or grilled chicken

In the press

"Orange wine’s tannins can shock the unprepared: “What’s this red-wine-like texture doing in a wine that looks like an old white?” This well made, well priced example has a little of that but not too much grip and it’s combined with creamy apricot and subtle bitterness. A great starter example for the style."

David Williams - The Guardian, March 2024

Kate Says

"Solara orange wine is by far our most popular and most accessible orange wine and has helped introduced the style to so many people. It is less tannic than some other skin-contact whites, which allows the fruit to shine."

Producer Info

Cramele Recas Estate has grown into Romania’s most successful winery, blending innovation with respect for the land. Founded in 1988 and now led by Philip and Elvira Cox, the estate combines centuries-old vineyard plots with modern, state-of-the-art facilities. Their open-minded approach embraces organic viticulture, natural wines, and minimal intervention, ensuring each bottle reflects the purity and vibrancy of the Romanian terroir.

How it’s made:

• Varieties: 34% Riesling de Rhin, 27% Muscat Ottonel, 39% other indigenous varieties
• Hand-harvested grapes, destemmed and lightly crushed
• 3.5 weeks maceration with full skin contact at low temperatures
• 20% fermented in clay amphorae, 80% in stainless steel tanks
• 100% malolactic fermentation
• Blended and lightly aged for 2 months in 1-year-old French barriques
• Natural cold stabilization and bottling with no filtration or added SO₂

Good to know:

• Region: Viile Timisului, Romania
• Style: Orange, still, medium-bodied white wine
• Closure: Screw cap
• Vegan: Yes
• ABV: 11.5%
• Vintage: 2024

Why we love it:

It's a proper skin-contact wine — quince, apricot, subtle bitterness, the textural pull of three and a half weeks on skins — but the tannins are dialled in, and the fruit is allowed to do the talking. Recommended in *The Guardian* by David Williams as a starter example of the style; recommended in Reserve Wines, daily, by us.