Domestic wine industry players are increasingly resorting to foreign winemakers even though their salaries are several thousand euros bigger than those of a Romanian winemaker.
European market competition or the decision to change something in the portfolio structure are pushing wine producers to take out several thousand euros from their pockets every month in order to secure a winemaker who was had training abroad. "At first, foreign investors operating on the domestic market decided to bring foreign specialists, but there's a rising number of domestic producers bringing foreign winemakers. This is a natural development. I believe, though, that soon we will also bring Romanian winemakers who went abroad and managed to make a name for themselves on the markets of the New World," considers Catalin Paduraru, a shareholder of Vinexpert, the biggest wine retailer on the domestic market.
A winemaker from Australia or New Zeeland that comes to stay in Romania for two months gets around 5,000 euros per month beside accommodation, according to industry officials. The monthly salary of a winemaker who signed a longer-term contract is lower, though. On the other hand, an experienced Romanian oenologist working in a big wine cellar does not earn more than 1,500 euros per month, according to the same sources. Foreign winemakers who left their mark on domestic wines include Jurgen Hofmann, a winemaker with Carl Reh Winery, Fiorenzo Rista from Vinarte, or Australian-born Stephen Bennet, a former winemaker with Murfatlar, currently part of the team of experts of Cramele Halewood. Some of them have ended their terms on the domestic market, while others have only changed producers, like Stephen Bennet did. Producers such as Halewood, Cramele Recas or Carl Reh Winery, all with foreign shareholders, usually bring winemakers from abroad to handle their vineyards.
Catalin Paduraru considers a foreign expert imposes certain solutions without technicians making a lot of comments about them. "There's also a bet on their conveying of a new identity to our wines. Moreover, a foreign winemaker is also a marketing 'tool' because products are viewed differently when there are signed by a foreigner and this is the more important when selling on Western markets," adds Paduraru.
He also says the know-how import is also important because foreign winemakers set up teams of Romanian young people who can subsequently specialise in vinification.
EU integration and customs duties elimination make domestic producers seriously consider the issue of European competition.
"Like everywhere else in the world, for wine production, specialists watched the way things were done by the French of the Italians, adopted their technologies, used experts from there. Foreign specialists bring along the expertise they accumulated in developed countries," considers Alfred Binder, an oenologist part of Cramele Halewood team.
Foreign winemakers
Can assess the full potential of vineyards
Have the experience of mature markets
Can convey a new identity to domestic wines
Are also a marketing instrument, with products being viewed differently when signed by a foreigner
Help set up teams of young Romanians who can later on specialise in vinification
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