In a way, everything Oltenia possesses is related to faith, to Orthodoxy, to divinity. For centuries on end, churches and monasteries occupied community’s highest (geographical) point in order to emphasize concretely the place spiritual practices have always occupied. Hadn’t the Oltenians kept burning the flame of faith, they couldn’t have stood the adverse times. In our days, their garments and crossroad crucifixes do convey an atmosphere of piety, yet it’s not that of the vanquished, but of the man whose soul and future have been committed to God. In Inmost Oltenia, the smell of oil burnt in votive holders, of incense and of old church walls is still floating.


SMERENIE is the first wine in Romania able to “roam” a reverse way: from the name-and-idea to the liquor enclosed into the bottle. The intention was to pay a tribute to the immortal soul and resolute faith, to the nun praying in her cell for each of the men she has ever seen or heard of. Liviu Grigorică’s alchemy and the purity of Veronica Gheorghiu’s varieties were highly exploited in view to get a wine able to “enclose” this atmosphere. Monk’s worn-out coarse habits are to be encountered in the silky and fairly astringent tannins. Cell’s nice and cool “mood” can be discovered in the almost imperceptible peppermint and eucalyptus flavours. The daily life may be found in the perfume emanated by quinces left on the window sill and by overripe cherries. The true faith is revealed in wine’s great capacity of maturation.