Q What do “Dream Bird” and “Royal Maiden” have in common?
A They are both Romanian white wines.

We met at Barbara and Ken’s house. The topic was wines from eastern Europe. There was some difficulty finding wines from the usual sources. Our geographical knowledge was tested as wines from Ro mania, Hungary, Armenia, Macedonia and Moldova plus a Maltese white were provided. We were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wines found, particularly the whites and they were good value.

Unusual grapes included Fetasca Regala, or Royal Maiden, from Romania, Tokaji Fermont from Hungary which was not the same as Tokay the well known rich, sweet wine. There was a Kogun and Viognier blend from Armenia, and a Macedonian pinot noir. A merlot cabernet sauvignon blend from Chateau Vartely, was reported to be one of the five top wines of Moldova. It was another successful, well attended, very sociable meeting which also managed to increase our knowledge of lesser-known wines.