It's been quite a while since I last wrote about Gramma wines. The last time I did was in 2011, the year they were brought out onto the market. While the harvests of 2011 and 2012 - two years with really high temperatures - have not reached the balance of the wines from 2010, 2013 appears to be a better year. I was very curious to taste the new harvest, as premium wines have new labels.

Horaţiu Mălăele's designs on the new Gramma labels sparked some debates on the market, as was expected. As far as I am concerned, although I believe that too frequent changes in appearance are not good for brand awareness, I liked the drawings. Especially the one on Aligoté 2013, a portrait of the master Mălăele. I can't say if this drawing was wisely placed on a bottle of wine, especially since it can easily catch your attention with the mix between transparency and opacity, which is, in my oppinion, one of the attributes of artwork.

The range of wines from the 2013 harvest have kept the old recipe: two wines from a single variety - Fetească regală and aligoté and an assemblage Cuvée Vişan (fetească albă, fetească regală and aligoté). I liked Aligoté the most, a wine with a good balance, both aromatic and gustative. On the level of expressiveness it lies at the middle, between the too aromatic Cuvée Vişan - notes abundant in tropical fruit - and the well known Fetească Regala.

What I noticed watching the labels, and after tasting each wine, is that they suggest quite well the characteristics of bottled wine: Fetească Regala-slender, languorous, and haughty; Cuvée Visan - expansive, colourful, outgoing and expressive; Aligoté-juicy, harmonious, playful. A choice that I hope will be validated by continuity.