The Fetească Regală Grape

(Synonyms: Dănasană, Danesana, Dunesdörfer Konigast, Galbenă de Ardeal, Königliche Mädchentraube, Pesceká Leánka.)

Background

Fetească Regală is a white-wine grape originating in Romania in the 1920s. It was long thought to be a natural cross of the native varieties Grasă de Cotnari and Fetească Albă, but modern DNA analysis suggests that that is not quite so, though it is indeed closely related to Fetească Albă, another popular Romanian white-wine grape. Fetească Regală is today mainly grown in Romania, with some also found in Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and a few other eastern-Europe nations.

Fetească Regală wines range from simple but refreshing and pleasant on through more complex renditions, some oaked. They tend to be rather aromatic, with exotic-fruit aromas (pineapple is sometimes mentioned) that carry on into the palate, occasionally with floral overtones. They have a bit more of tannins than is usual for a white wine, and so can benefit from some oaking.

Factoid: Fetească Regală translates as “royal young girl” (or simply “princess”), a name first applied in 1928.

Some Descriptions of Fetească Regală Wines

Wikipedia
“The quality of wines ranges between table wine and high-quality ones. The wines are dry and fresh and have acidity and specific flavour.”
Wine Searcher
“Feteasca Regala tends to be richer in flavor than its alba counterpart, as tannins in the grapes’ skins provide some complexity to the wines. Generally speaking, these are aromatic with green apple and tropical fruit characters, and can be vinified in an off-dry style as well. Feteasca Regala responds well to oak aging, which can add complexity to the wines.”
Jancis Robinson
“It produces dry, fresh, aromatic wines.”
World’s Best Wines
“This grape variety produces the wines that range between table wine and high-quality wines in terms of their quality. These wines are mostly fresh and dry and entertain a good level of acidity as well as a specific flavour…The wines produced out of this grape variety are full bodied in nature along with intense flavours as well as great ageing potential. If the vines of this grape are vinified carefully, the wines produced out of this grape variety preserve the elegance of the wild flowers, rose flowers as well as almonds and dried apricots. The aromas of these wines are spicy, fruity and flowery and there are recognizable flavours similar to that of acacia, wild flowers as well as honey. The taste of the wines produced out of this grape variety is fresh and lively with a pleasant acidity. These wines are noble and harmonious with several notes of mineral touches and exotic fruity flavours. Their taste is also very much similar to caramel.”
Taste Atlas
“The best expressions of dry Regală are fresh and aromatic with typical aromas of white fruit, roses, and white flowers. Young varieties are usually light-bodied, but the grape has excellent aging potential, and when aged in oak, the wines tend to be full-bodied and more intense, sometimes with almond notes.”

Some Fetească Regalăs to Try

It’s not as if Fetească Regală is unfindable in the U.S. market: there are over a half-dozen bottlings showing in the wine search engines. The problem with that, however, is that available quality is not high, and none seem to be carried by more than, at most, two or three shops.

The one exception is a wine carried (so far as we can see) only by the Total Wine chain, and so not on any search engines (but it is on CellarTracker): see the “listing” below. (Note thast while it is labelled “Demi-Sec”, we find it sufficiently dry for table-wine use, and rather enjoyable in a modest way.)

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This page was last modified on Saturday, 30 October 2021, at 11:26 pm Pacific Time.

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