WHAT HAPPENED SO FAR WITH THE WINE
An interesting evolution since we started and how we have evolved
( 2019-2017 )
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Where else did Costica go in 2019 ...
By the sea ...
Costica is not absent from any team building I go to, so this year I walked him up at sea ... it's such a pleasant feeling when a team of corporate people enjoy the beach with stories and a glass of wine pleasant to the taste and with their own story ...
The most memorable team building was the first one I brought in, after I had nodded to my colleagues about the story, the trial and the food ...
We were in the Delta, gathered at a table, after we had all tasted a few glasses ... I have a little more courage ... And the time comes when to present the wine and ask the opinion of colleagues, to know if it makes sense to continue or not ... Colleagues, very nice :), they had talked before criticizing me ... and they started. I will never forget how the negative impressions flowed from each ... Cica my daughter was dripping listening to me ... that's how the journey began: "hmmmm, it's an interesting wine, but you should keep it for your family" :) :)
At the first tasting in the good world ...
I kept avoiding bringing Costica to a tasting with knowledgeable and demanding people for wines. It's not such a fine wine, it's just homemade, and I felt like every time someone tasted it, that they receive encouragement more for the story.
And here he is calling me a friend who deals with such events, as if he has an audience interested in Costica a different kind of wine with an interesting story ...
I invited myself as a speaker and the challenge began.
A very interesting experience, with nice people, with emotions in my house, with increased attention to detail, with very nice feedback both about the label and about the wine and with a summary of the whole concept: -CRAFT WINE- , come handcrafted in Romanian :). That's right, and I said I'd promote it that way, with more confidence. Well, it's still the trend now with craft beer, when a lot of people produces its own beer at home. Why not promote Romanian wine in the same way, which is mostly artisanal?
The experience was a very pleasant one, with a fan who reminded him of a favorite wine, Saperavi, with whom he really resembles, with a fan who was attracted by the story, and with the rest who did not dislike Costica the Wise 2016 ... in 2018 we still have to improve ... Let him come out of the maturity this year to see what taste and flavors he has;)
At Thea's party ...
This year, I opened the first 5 bottles of Thea Wine, on the day he was born, when I cut the word by an anise ... a very emotional moment.
The wine created a sensation, because as time goes on it gets better and better, and especially since 2018 was a very good year, having where to make Thea her wine. Nothing is about to happen in life ...
There are 95 bottles left, to reach us another 19 years from now if we keep it in this rhythm ... :) and on this occasion we also see how beautiful it ages.
At his brother's bachelor party ...
I don't know how you can imagine the bachelor party with a handful of gangsters in an apartment on Magheru, as the starting stage in the journey that awaits us through the Old Center, but here's what the meal with "fine drinks" looks like :). I used the wine as a pretext not to mix the drinks and not to go into a marathon of shots with the boys because the next day I had to go to the office :)
It turned out very well, as I never had fun with my brother ... a moment that will stay there well imprinted and that reminded me how nice my brother is and how much I care for him;)
At his wedding Brother - the groom's clothing and the bride ...
Well, Costica could not miss such an event. Shouldn't he be next to the olive nephew when he enters the world ?! :)
He was part of the gang of boys who preceded him and sang to the groom;)
A beautiful event, with lots of fun and joy. If I knew in advance that he was getting married, I would put 100 bottles aside for him to be on the wedding table :))
But the baptism is coming soon :)
Where when:
Mamaia / April 2019
Bucharest / June July 2019
Thea wine is ready for the big day, June 8 ...
After long evenings in which I drew sketches with the label for Thea's wine, I finally managed to get to the bottle that I imagined since she was born ... In fact, this bottle represents the unicorn on the pajamas in who was dressed when I first saw her ... and every year I set out to keep this memory alive.
100 bottles, for many anniversaries, will be enjoyed only on that special day to remember that year going back in time every time ...
They come from Theea, 2018, dearly harvested by three generations (parents, grandparents and great-grandparents' generation) to be aged and enjoyed every year for her birthday.
Kept for 6 months in a new Romanian oak barrel, walked 150 km to be bottled dear grandfather Nicu in the cool evening, and Daddy stuffed it and put it in the cellar to age ...
The first will be opened this year, with nations and relatives ...
Where when:
Bucharest / 13-14 Apr 2019
Costica cel Bland 2018 has arrived home ...
The only white wine made by Fam Magargiu is from the vault of the house, harvested when ripe, so that it has the perfect flavor ... This year was not a very good production of Tata Vacii (the popular name of the grape from which the wine is made) and for to make a good enough wine, my father and Mamaia Vica decided that it is better to add red table grapes from the vault of the house ...
So, this year the white wine is actually a straw yellow to pink, with a good taste and soft bouquet, as I always imagined Costica cel Bland ...
At the end of January he arrived in Bucharest with a special order, and at the beginning of February I shot him in bottles and stored him in the cellar ....
The cellar is now ready for the next round of Costica the Wise, who has already begun to catch wisdom in the Romanian oak barrel bought last year for my father ....
So, I started the 2018 wine production and the 2019 wine work, where my father, my mother and grandmother Vica have already started plowing and preparing the vineyard ...
Where when:
Bucharest / 09-10 February 2019
And I tasted it production 2018
As every year, the wine is tasted in two special places, of a special spiritual significance: The first glass of wine tasted in the cellar, immediately after boiling and gaining color (in early December) and at the pig alms, where together with a pleasant company we season the tasty pork alms with a young wine, just good to enhance the taste ...
From the cellar there is no lack of pickup music in the background, to make the moment an unforgettable one and some snacks to taste the fresh wine brought by my father.
This year the wine is much fuller than last year and darker in color ... it was not very hot when I harvested and could stay longer on the bush, catching enough tannin ... but not as much as I want I ... but let's see how it evolves with age and then conclude if it should left or not on the boasca.
I also bottled on Costica cel Tanar and we are going to make the labels for him, because we haven't had time until now and we are starting to test our friends with this year's production , who I hope will be at least as excited as I am ...
The pig's alms were delicious, especially due to the company and the memories he had since his father Costica lived, he was the one who made two pigs before Christmas ... But also grandfather Nicu and grandmother Mariana (now that they have a granddaughter, that's how she brags) together with her grandmother Vica do a very good job, taking the tradition further, together with the helpers swarming next to him .... it was a bit cold and a wind blew all day , and the children froze a bit, but the heat from the stove and the good wine made us forget about the cold ... His cousin Manu I forgot to tell him, but next year we won't miss him ...
Where when:
Istlaz / 15-16 December 2018
Harvesting 2018
In Islaz the vineyards are harvested in line with the world, that is, when someone starts to harvest the whole village is mobilized and in a weekend everything is harvested. He's a real ant. Lots of cars, carts, more and more people, gather to collect the fruits of a year's work.
This year was a record production for almost everyone, even if some lives were burned by the sun. My father used to say that I had never had such a good production since the revolution, and my mother Vica he said I've never had two gutters full of eyes since Tataie Costica built it.
When we returned home, we met with our noses on the street: "Finule, we will empty the compote jars again to store the wine" :)
But the joy of production involves work, not only at harvest, where you keep looking at the end of the vineyard and it never ends, but also at the carat, squeezed and pulled in barrels, when, as you let your strength but you can not stop until you're done. A neighbor told us how her parents encouraged her picking it up: "Dad, your eyes are confused , hands help you ".
At harvest, you go early in the morning, immediately after drinking your coffee or brandy from the first hour :), to harvest in the cool. The snack basket is thoroughly prepared for a lunch feast, in the shade of the trees. It is the most beautiful lunch you can have in nature. Lying on the blanket in the shade. You come in the morning with a rush to say that in two hours you finish, and after dinner, you feel like taking a nap, not to start working again.
This year, besides the complete band (My father, mother, grandmother and I) we had a reliable help, the neighbor Marinel, who helped us in the whole process. Without him, we wouldn't be done in a weekend. And finally, cousin Aniela and Mirel, from whom I learned a new liqueur recipe :), grapes.
At harvest, jokes, stories are told and you learn a lot about how the vine was harvested in the past, how to put grapes of various kinds to ensure production or to have various grapes for the table. . Or how some people went to pick plums early in the morning with their grandparents, the chicks being and freezing their hands while they were picking ... Or how they were picking the fallen grapes on the ground:) ... I also learned the recipe for grape magic. made by great-grandmother Ioana or about Mos Magargiu (great-great-grandfather) who had many vineyards and produced "export" vines, meaning they were sold outside the village at Izbiceni, which means that he had good wine :). I also met the neighbor who was guarding the vineyard and who had a real horn :)
In a word, a bridge between several generations that must remain forever standing :)
The grapes are put in bags and then carried home, crushed and then the must is left for a day to catch the tannin and drain the grapes.
Everything lasted 5 days, of which two to pick and pull the must from which Costica will be made, only from Othello, and the rest of the days to complete what is left.
On Saturday night, my father and I, who told us about his youth when he was a trainee teacher, talked to us. And I drank a beer "of carts" as he calls it, Ciucas:))) ... Beautiful times and beautiful people, full of humanity :) .
Besides stories and people, I also have a moment that I fully enjoy on such occasions - in the evening, when we open Costica the Wise, we make a sheep pastrami and eat it with lust with must or wine. And then, in the silence outside, I admire the sky which is full of stars as you don't see much elsewhere and I sink a little into my thoughts ... It is one of the 3 moments in which I fully enjoy life in the country, a country worth visiting and an atmosphere worth maintaining so as not to lose such moments and memories ....
Where when:
Istlaz / 15-16 September 2018
Preparations for harvest begin
Autumn has came and the beginning of September is an important one for the vineyard. If July and August were the dangerous months because of the heat, September is the month of harvest and must be prepared as such.
July was a rainy month, so the grapes will be big, but not so sweet and sugary. But it was still hot and in order not to burn them, one of the methods is to leave the vine untied in certain places so that the sun cannot reach the grapes, or you can leave the grass a little bigger.
In August, my father let the grass grow because it was a warm month and he risked the grapes burning. In one of the vineyards he cut it, where the grandmother kept her dead to cut it because people laugh at you if you have grass in the vineyard :) :) and you will see the difference. We see it harvesting anyway, in line with the world.
The grapes already have a very beautiful color and are starting to concentrate their sugar. It is already rumored in the village that in two, maximum three the vineyards will be harvested in a few weeks, so the preparations begin: the barrels are cleaned, left to dry and we make the threshing plan for harvesting. I have already taken my leave and I am slowly starting to give the rope to the country who wants to come and help me.
Where when:
Istlaz / 27-31 August 2018
"Pitrocitul vinului" in July
The month of July, besides the field work, where it is plowed, sprinkled and watched over the vineyard to see how it copes with the heat, is also the moment of the 3rd pitroc.
As I told you at the beginning, Costica the Wise is the result of a traditional aging process, which involves 5 pitroceli: December in the year in which it is produced, March, July, October and then December, when it is drawn in bottles and tasted at the pig's alms together with the young one.
The pitrocite of wine, or as it is said in other areas, the ravage of wine, is the moment you pull the wine from one barrel to another, process that clears the wine ... I don't filter it. Right now, it's a ritual through which you taste it to see if its evolution is good. Due to this process, the wine is preserved over the years and captures the third characteristic, the taste of oak, prunes or berries ...
Yes, bulshit ... that's what I said when I read in books of this characteristic (in some wines even raw meat or exotic fruits) but it really happened with my wine, from directly producing beef, in the second year of aging;).
Not missing from the wine pitrocru, my father-in-law always helps me ... and we tasted together, we gave our opinion and it seems that this year Costica Cel Intelept it will be special.
at the same time, he goes to the vineyard, where my father with the horse of some neighbors takes turns through the vineyard ... look what a beautiful picture .... this until he orders this year on his chainsaw to do his job motorized .
Where when:
Bucharest + Islaz / 14-15 July 2018
Thea wine ...
June 8, 2018 is a special day, the day Thea, our goddess was born :) from the Greek translation :). And like any goddess, she will have her own wine. Thus, part of the 2018 production will have a special brand, a special label, which will mark the year in which Thea was born.
The label is still in the creative shop, but it will definitely have a unicorn on it, like that as I saw her for the first time at the maternity hospital :)
So we welcome Thea and we will enjoy her and she with us ... and together with Thea Wine;)
Where when:
Bucharest / June 8 2018
And now you can see the grapes ...
and other seasonal fruits
May is one of the most beautiful months for both vineyards and fruit lovers. The first bunches begin to appear and you can realize how productive the vine will be. Right now, everything is leafy, but the heat is coming and it must be sprayed and watched carefully. It is a period in which work and attention intensify ... Costica's vineyard is worked by dads, quality control is provided by mama Vica and the number one supporter at the crime scene is mommy ... I am a remote supporter and I regularly receive In addition to how the works are evolving ...
It looks like this year will be a good production. The 20 Black Bean stalks planted in the spring were also caught and we will see the first grapes for those planted last year.
As I told you, from May begins the paradise of fruit lovers and we can enjoy strawberries, cherries, raspberries, green corcoduses, and from June start apricots, peaches, cherries and blueberries. If you don't have it in the yard, I kindly invite you to the market in the field to see what enchantment (I also put a picture for you, maybe I'll make you want it). And if it's still fruit, it's time for liqueurs and brandies:) ... you can shoot with the eye in the section " What are we proud of "to see what alcohol we have prepared before.
From May also start the vegetables and greens that give a special taste to food: tomatoes, cucumbers, new onions, new potatoes, zucchini, beets, new carrots and other roots, larch, thyme, basil. You feel like cooking only when you see them fresh and fragrant.
It was raining in my mouth after I wrote here, and tomorrow I will go to the market again;) ... great appetite and increase in work for the 2018 production
Where when:
Islaz + Bucharest / May June 2018
Start of the 2018 works season
I was telling you that I'm in charge of the wine process, more precisely from harvesting before and marketing ... what to do, I'm good at that too :) Until then, it's a true deployment of forces managed by my father and the "helpers" he has at hand, hard to manage ... It all starts in early spring, with the digging of the grass, where the pear is the number one enemy ... then follows the pruning of the vine, one of the most important processes ... as you cut the vine, so is its fruit ...
The middle of April was about that, and the vineyard looks very good ... thanks to the work done by my father and coordinated by my grandmother (also called the general) and my mother: P
Last year I planted Babeasca Neagra, the noble vine for "Costica cel Nobil" and here came the first fruit :)) I hope to make the grapes I dream of let's see if the dream comes true ... hold our fists ...
Besides the pleasure of seeing the field, it is a real pleasure to be in the country and to enjoy the flowers, vegetation, birds and chicks from my grandmother's yard that just came out :) green or soup with fresh larch picked from the yard ......
I give you smiles, flowers, good cheer and the smell of tears in my soul ... because it is abundant in the country ... and I recommend you to return to your origins from time to time
Where when:
wilderness / April 21 2018
The second production pitroc 2018
in March it's time to draw the wine, to aerate it, to check it and to serve it to my friends to give their opinion ... With my father-in-law I gave my opinion on wine ... that's very good: )
This year the color is less intense than last year, but more aromatic and with a strong bouquet ... It is a ruby wine that brings a lot of grapes from which it is made ...
it's still a young wine, but I already feel its aging power ... good luck!
Where when:
Bucharest / March 2018
The first production 2018
After the wine has been tasted and the verdict has been positive, it is brought to his cellar ... in demijohns driven by car from Islaz to Bucharest ...
Then they pull in new Romanian oak barrels ... to receive the tannin needed for aging, for a year ...
Where when:
Islaz + Bucharest / December 2017
Production tasting 2017
The first wine tasting produced in 2017 was at the traditional pork alms. As every year, we keep the tradition and taste Costica and at the same time continuing the cutting of the pig as he did when he lived. The wine came out a light ruby red, with an intense bouquet of Othello, and my father's production an intense red to remove the stain only with scissors.
The official tasting took place at Christmas, with people, traditional dishes and stories.
Where when:
Islaz + Bucharest / December 2017
The first Costica the Loving and Costica the Gentle One 2017
As every year, in October we squeeze the grapes left for raisins for Costica the Lover. This year, I invited more nations, as now I have extended the gashca. And we came as boys to squeezed wine ( Father-in-law, Nasu, Brother-in-law of the nose) and I also picked the "Tata Vacii" variety vault as I called it when I was a child White Horn).
We "canonized" as a friend of my father's said with sheep pastrami and we also fished that we still have microbes in our blood.
Costica the Bland came out excellent, the Lover, still needs to be worked on.
Where when:
wilderness / October 2017
Harvesting 2017
Already a tradition, September is the month in which the fruits of my father's work are harvested, which he dug, cut, tied, sprinkled and so on. It's not easy and you can't just do it on weekends, it's hard work but it's worth it. The taste of the wine is given by the whole year that is part of its story, which only dads can tell in detail, I am with the marketing, the fruits and the process :).
The vine is harvested "in line with the world" not when you want it. It's nice to see the whole village picking and especially when they help each other.
Where when:
wilderness / September 2017
The first barrel and the first bottles
Pictures of the first barrel filled with wine and the first bottles I don't have, an activity that happened in December 2016. Every year, December is the month in which the wine is brought in the cellar from Islaz where it boiled, called Priroc Pitroc.
The wine is tasted, the alcohol is measured and each Costica is stored in its place: the Young One in the bottles, the Wise One in the oak barrels.
The Wise One is still going through October / November (About 3 times: March, July, October / November) when he will be bottled in style for storage.
I have but pictures of the first barrel brought to the cellar in Feb 2016 :): disassembled by my father and mounted together directly in the cellar because it did not take place on the door.
Where when:
Islaz + Bucharest / December 2016
The first Othello raisins
Stored in crates for a month and a half, Othello withers and the must becomes sweeter. As a result, the wine will come out stronger and a little sweeter.
When squeezing, we use the tools made especially by Tata Socru, who has a very well established role in this whole process :) and who will come to develop them every year;).
Where when:
Islaz / October 2016
The first harvest
I haven't been to the vineyard since I was little. It's something very beautiful, always with memories from when he went to harvest with all the nations. It has become a tradition, a connection between generations, a transmission of tradition in the family.
Where when:
Islaz / September 2016
The first Costica
10L of wine from the 2015 production, the last one that Father Costica got in his life, left in the oak barrel and then kept in a place of honor in bottles.
Every year on December 1, when Costica was born, a bottle will be opened.
This is what the first version of the label looks like.
Where when:
Bucharest / August 2016