Page 68 - Issues131-133

Bottles from romania

Due to David Smith’s call and my desire to show you ten mini bottles from Romania, which I hope
are new for you, I have decided to submit my first small contribution to the issue 132 of miNiZ
Newsletter.

I am a retired engineer and I live in Lasi, the capital of the Moldova region, Romania (not to be
confused with the Republic of Moldova next door!). Two years ago I started collecting miniatures,
but only of whisky/whiskey. My collection is modest so far, with only about one hundred mini bottles.
Because Romania became a whisky producer only recently, my collection includes only miniatures
from Europe, the United States and Japan. However, I hope that I will soon have some miniatures
from Romania as well, because in 2017 the first batch of Romanian whisky was distilled, which, for
the time being, is in the process of maturing.

Today I want to present you
some of the Romanian spirit
miniatures of the Alexandrion
Distillery. Alexandrion Group is
the largest producer and
distributor of spirits and wines in
Romania.

First, four miniatures of
Brancoveanu vinars (1-4). The
“Vinars” is equivalent to Cognac
(for the French) or Brandy (for
the English), but due to the law of
controlled designations of origin,
these names cannot be used in
Romania. The aging of the wine
distillate is done in Romanian oak
barrels from the Carpathian
Mountains.

Vinarsul Brâncoveanu was created in honour of the 25 years of peace in
Wallachia during the reign of voivode Constantin Brâncoveanu
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Brancoveanu) (1688 - 1714), a
reign in which the country experienced a long period of cultural
flourishing and development of spiritual life. All three miniatures are
50ml, with 40% alcohol content. The first bottle has the notation VS, the
second VSOP, and the third and fourth XO. For those who don't know:
the letter V (Very) indicates the distillate has been aged for at least 1
year; the letters VS (Very Special) mean the distillate has been aged for

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