{"product_id":"edgar-brutler-sefu-red-syrah-pinot-noir-crișana-transylvania-ro-2023-1000ml","title":"Edgar Brutler - 'Şefu Red' - Syrah, Pinot Noir - Crișana, Transylvania, RO - 2023 - 1000ml","description":"\u003ch2\u003eNotes from the Winery\/Importer\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eComposition: Syrah and Cabernet Franc\nClimate: Continental (hot summers \u0026amp; cold winters)\nSoils: Clay, loam, sand\nMaceration \u0026amp; Aging: Direct pressed Cabernet Franc aged in a 3000L stainless steel tank. Syrah is kept on the skins with stems for 3 days, then matured in 4 x 500L oak barrels.\nAlcohol: 13%\nResidual Sugar: 0.33 g\/l\nAcidity 6.01 g\/l\nNotes \u0026amp; Pairings\nThis Sefu Red is a blend of Syrah and Cabernet Franc. The Cabernet Franc is direct pressed and fermented in one 3000L stainless steel tank and six 500L oak barrels. The Syrah is whole bunch pressed into open vats, macerated for three days, and right as fermentation starts to kick off, it’s pressed and fermented in four 500L oak barrels and three 225L oak barrels. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with the only addition being 15ppm of total SO2.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNotes on the Producer\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTransylvania has always been a bit of white whale for us. I don’t think you can get further away from what we think of as Europe while still being in Europe. This is where horse carts often outnumber cars, self sufficient agriculture is the norm, there are more fortified Churches than anywhere else in Europe, and where Vlad the Impaler once vertically impaled nearly 20,000 people on display near the city of Târgoviște to intimidate the Ottomans. Literally translating to \"beyond the forest,\" it also has an unbroken winegrowing tradition going back at least 2000+ years. It’s also believed that Dionysus\/Bacchus was born in Thrace in modern day Romania. It’s a surreal place where the language is Balkan Romance, the food is Hungarian with some key distinctions, and where the imprints of both the Middle Ages and Communism are frozen in time.\nSkipping over vast swaths of history and using gross oversimplification in order to get to the wines at hand, a condensed historical refresher is still helpful. From 1003-1526, the Kingdom of Hungary ruled. Under King Stephen I in the 10th Century, Queen Gisela brought in Germans (Swabians) from her native Bavaria. It’s then a long tug of war between the Ottomans and Hapsburgs starting in the early 1500s until the Hapsburgs finally pushed out the Ottomans in 1691 during the Great Turkish War.\nRomania’s official independence and its constitution didn't arrive until 1881. Through it all, Transylvania always fought to be a separate entity within the Hapsburg and Ottoman periods. WWI causes the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Romania adds Transylvania and a few other regions back inside its borders. Things get messy in between WWI and WWII. Romania starts supplying a lot of oil to Hitler in exchange for being left alone. This doesn’t last long and meanwhile Hungary takes back Transylvania by force. Romania ends up switching sides and fighting with the Red Army to defeat German and Hungarian forces. Romania gets Transylvania back again. This was then followed by Soviet occupation and eventually becoming a Communist state in 1947. Romania does not enter this arrangement quietly and experiences some of the fiercest extrajudicial killings and purges of any Bloc country. And I don’t think this gets the attention it deserves, but Romania’s final autocrat Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were captured after fleeing by helicopter and then killed by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989 following violent protests. This effectively ended the Communist era.\nDuring all of this, agriculture was at the heart of the Romanian character and economy. After WWI, it’s estimated that 90% of Romania’s agricultural land was owned in parcel’s no larger than 5 hectares – massive fragmentation. This was then collectivized by force during Communism. A lot of hybrids (Labrusca x Vinifera) were planted and the typical story of quantity over quality ensued. There were weird moments like PepsiCo importing Romanian wines in the 1970s under their Monsieur Henri Selection series (the wine was called Premiat) in exchange for cola concentrate. Suffice to say, this was not a good period. When Romania privatized land post Communism, it resulted in decades of legal battles, corruption, and confusion. This also led to little to no investment and for those willing to invest, often hundreds of land contracts were necessary to secure as little as 20 hectares. Today, the country is 5th under vine in Europe, but many estimate that the average vineyard holding is 0.2 hectares, and just over 30% of the country’s vineyards are farmed in 10 hectares or more. Romania is essentially a net importer.\nEdgar’s family was a part of the aforementioned Swabian migration to Transylvania and arrived in the 1850s from Stuttgart. They were not surprisingly farmers and according to Edgar’s grandfather, “a family with two or three kids needs 1000 liters of wine per year.” In the early 1980s the family left Romania because they could easily secure a German passport. Romania was in ruins due to Nicolae Ceaușescu’s austerity measures among other atrocities. In 1997 Edgar’s parents decided to move back after some land was restituted after the 1990 revolution. This was the beginning of a winery project that eventually grew to 25 hectares and the Brutler family was a 50\/50 partner. Finally in 2008 the whole family moved back to Transylvania but decided to leave said project in 2018. There were zero regrets about their time as partners, but according to Edgar, “We were free then. Just a complete new start.” The shares from this sale are what have built the new winery although the vineyard land has always been with the family.\nEdgar originally started down a musical path with violin at 6 followed by guitar at 16. The 6 hours of practicing a day in order to make this career wasn’t in the cards, but music still plays a big part in his life and an image of sound board levels adorn the label of the Grünspitz. He then studied oenology at Geisenheim because of the Romanian family vineyard. As Edgar puts it, “I was born there, my family lived there, my family worked these vineyards and walked this roads and paths.” He founded Weingut Edgar Brutler in 2018 with a focus on organic farming, native grapes, old vine field blends, and making wines based on smelling, tasting, and feeling rather than numbers and analytics.\nThe village of Beltiug is in Satu Mare County in the Crișana region. This northwestern corner of Romania has a temperate continental climate, not as much Adriatic influences as Miniș in the south, but surprisingly warm for what we think of as Northern Romania. The soil is really thick loam (20-30 meters) and plantings date back as far as 1926 and as recent as last year. Edgar’s grandfather planted their original 4 hectares. The traditional grapes of the area are Fetească Regală\/Königliche Mädchentraube, Fetească Albă, Welschriesling, Mustoasa de Măderat, Furmint, Kékfrankos\/Blaufränkisch, and their signature grape of Grünspitz. He has new plantings of Baras and Juhfark in the works. There are a number of unidentifiable grapes in the older field blends as well. Farming is without herbicides, chemical-synthetic sprays and mineral fertilizers. Spacing is 1 meter so everything is labor intensive and must be done by hand.\nGiven his formal education at Geisenheim and working at larger more technical wineries, Edgar has a firm grasp of the science and the predetermined recipes needed for those kinds of wines. It’s also incredibly useful information when stripping everything away and has allowed him to open up his mind, take risks, and activate the same part of his brain that brings him joy from music. Except for his pét-nat where he measures density to ensure bottles aren’t exploding, he’s not picking, pressing or doing anything based on the numbers.\nAll wines are spontaneously fermented in a 200 year old cellar, unfiltered, and the only addition is SO2 (10-20ppm) at bottling and many are without any additions at all. He’s also adamant about the control and feedback from using a basket press. Especially for the Grünspitz where a long and high pressure pressing is essential in managing the tannins and extraction. There’s no cell phone reception or internet in the cellar. Deep and quiet.\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFounded: 2018\u003cbr\u003eWebsite: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brutler.com\"\u003ehttps:\/\/www.brutler.com\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRegion: Crișana, Transylvania\u003cbr\u003eClimate: Continental\u003cbr\u003eSoils: Clay, loam, sand\u003cbr\u003eAltitude: 125m\u003cbr\u003eTopography: Low hills\u003cbr\u003eFruits: Fetească Regală, Fetească Albă, Welschriesling, Mustoasa de Măderat, Furmint, Blaufränkisch, Grünspitz\u003cbr\u003eVineyard Size: 4 hectares\u003cbr\u003eViticulture: Organic\u003cbr\u003eFertilization: Natural\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Satellite SB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48863866650875,"sku":"00077418","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0403\/3655\/6193\/files\/08797150b17b2699ba28d637ab1b18b6.jpg?v=1778889370","url":"https:\/\/satellitesb.com\/products\/edgar-brutler-sefu-red-syrah-pinot-noir-cri%c8%99ana-transylvania-ro-2023-1000ml","provider":"Satellite SB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}