Romanian rosé wines achieved a record number of medals at Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
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In the last weekend of March took place in Constanta the first-ever Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rosé Wine Session in Romania.
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) was founded in 1994 in Brussels, Belgium, and after 20 editions it became a traveling competition, hosted by the most famous wine regions in the world. In 2020, CMB was divided into several sessions, one dedicated to white and red wines, one to rosé wines, one to sparkling wines, and one to sweet and fortified wines.
Rose Session, part of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, took place in Constanța from March 28 to 30, 2025 and for three days, almost 70 international tasters analyzed and blindly evaluated rosé wines from around the world, some of them from Romania.
This competition brought Romania 52 medals - an absolute record for Romanian participation in an international wine competition:
🏅 3 Great Gold Medals
🥇 20 Gold Medals
🥈 29 Silver Medals
Arida Cabernet Sauvignon Rose 2024, produced by Crama Liuta, Charme de la Mer Roze 2024 and Lacrima Lui Ovidiu 5 Roze (fortified wine) are the Romanian rosés that received the highest distinction, the Great Gold Medal.
The producers with the most awarded wines were Murfatlar Vinul (with two Great Gold Medals, one Gold and two Silver medals), Cramele Recaş and Domeniul Vlădoi (both with 3 Gold medals and one Silver medals) and Cramele Cotnari, with two Gold and two Silver medals.
Dobrogea was the region with the most awarded rosé wines - 3 Great Gold Medals, 10 Gold and 13 Silver, followed by Moldova, with 7 Gold and 4 Silver. Of the awarded Romanian wines, 45 were still wines, 6 sparkling wines and one fortified wine.
This result ranks Romania 4th in the world hierarchy of medal-winning countries, after France, Italy and Spain, confirming both the quality of local rosé wines and the potential of Dobrogea region, which hosted this year's edition.
It is a historic achievement for Romania, all the more important as our country hosted this top international competition for the first time.
The full list of medal-winning wines at Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rosé Session can be found here.
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) was founded in 1994 in Brussels, Belgium, and after 20 editions it became a traveling competition, hosted by the most famous wine regions in the world. In 2020, CMB was divided into several sessions, one dedicated to white and red wines, one to rosé wines, one to sparkling wines, and one to sweet and fortified wines.
Rose Session, part of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, took place in Constanța from March 28 to 30, 2025 and for three days, almost 70 international tasters analyzed and blindly evaluated rosé wines from around the world, some of them from Romania.
This competition brought Romania 52 medals - an absolute record for Romanian participation in an international wine competition:
🏅 3 Great Gold Medals
🥇 20 Gold Medals
🥈 29 Silver Medals
Arida Cabernet Sauvignon Rose 2024, produced by Crama Liuta, Charme de la Mer Roze 2024 and Lacrima Lui Ovidiu 5 Roze (fortified wine) are the Romanian rosés that received the highest distinction, the Great Gold Medal.
The producers with the most awarded wines were Murfatlar Vinul (with two Great Gold Medals, one Gold and two Silver medals), Cramele Recaş and Domeniul Vlădoi (both with 3 Gold medals and one Silver medals) and Cramele Cotnari, with two Gold and two Silver medals.
Dobrogea was the region with the most awarded rosé wines - 3 Great Gold Medals, 10 Gold and 13 Silver, followed by Moldova, with 7 Gold and 4 Silver. Of the awarded Romanian wines, 45 were still wines, 6 sparkling wines and one fortified wine.
This result ranks Romania 4th in the world hierarchy of medal-winning countries, after France, Italy and Spain, confirming both the quality of local rosé wines and the potential of Dobrogea region, which hosted this year's edition.
It is a historic achievement for Romania, all the more important as our country hosted this top international competition for the first time.
The full list of medal-winning wines at Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rosé Session can be found here.
We spoke with Valentin Ceafalau, Wine Communicator and Romanian organizer of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rose Session 2025 to find out some hot details, immediately after the competition ended.
We leave his answers below:
Carmina Nițescu: What it means for Romania organizing this Rose wine session from Concours Mondial de Bruxelles on its territory?
Valentin Ceafalau: I am convinced that, by organizing this competition in Constanta, for three days, Romania was on the big stage of the wine world! It may seem slightly pathetic (in the classic Romanian sense of the term), but that is exactly what it was!
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, beyond the fact that it is one of the most influential and rigorous wine competitions in the world, has a colossal capacity for international promotion, both due to its influence among consumers and specialists alike and due to the fact that the almost 70 invited jurors have become, in turn, through posts made on social networks, through published articles, “ambassadors” of Dobrogea and Romania. Certainly, the effects on the evolution of Romanian wine will not be felt in the short/medium term. However, it is very important that those who are in charge of the fate of Romanian wine understand that organizing this competition represented an important “step”, one of many others made, in building and generically promoting the Romania brand with the help of wine. Even more important is that this “step” be followed by others!
Carmina: How were the jurors welcomed in Constanţa at this year’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rose Session?
Valentin: We tried, together with our colleagues from the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles team, to organize this session dedicated to rosé wines respecting the highest standards imposed by an event of such magnitude. Including in terms of hospitality, we tried to offer our guests the best possible conditions, so as not to be inferior compared to previous editions organized in Val D’Aosta (Italy), Valladolid (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) or Split (Croatia).
Carmina: In addition to the judging sessions, the foreign jurors also got to know the wineries and hospitality of Dobrogea, with winery excursions and dinners dedicated to local specialties taking place every day. Please tell us more about that.
Valentin: “Diversity” is the word that best describes Dobrogea! So we designed the entire program of visits and meals in a way that reflects this diversity. In addition to visits to wineries - from the smallest, family businesses, some with a bio-organic profile, to the million-liter winemaking giants - we programmed the meals together with our partners so that each one represented a Dobrogean ethnicity or social group. Thus, our guests were able to come into contact with Tatar, Turkish, Armenian, traditional Romanian, Dobrogean fishing or Romanian fusion cuisine.
Carmina: I understand that among the jurors there were quite a few buyers from different countries, which for the wineries in Romania is a big plus, these buyers having direct contact both with the rosé wines in the competition, and especially with the wineries they visited during the days spent in Dobrogea. Can you give me some information about the feedback you received from them? How did they like the Romanian wines and wineries?
Valentin: Yes, it was a premiere for this competition too! For this edition, the CMB representatives invited a significantly larger number of buyers from large retail chains or wine shop networks from abroad. The jury also included winemakers, wine merchants, communicators, journalists, educators and sommeliers. Beyond the kindness dictated by the status of guests, I honestly felt that all the guests appreciated the hospitality, the wines and the Romanian gastronomy. I can't say with certainty that they liked it more than anywhere else or that they included Romania in a top of personal preferences, but they were delighted by the diversity offered by local gastronomy and wines and appreciated the sincerity, involvement and efforts of Romanian producers to evolve.
Carmina Nițescu
Winesday.ro & Winesday App
We leave his answers below:
Carmina Nițescu: What it means for Romania organizing this Rose wine session from Concours Mondial de Bruxelles on its territory?
Valentin Ceafalau: I am convinced that, by organizing this competition in Constanta, for three days, Romania was on the big stage of the wine world! It may seem slightly pathetic (in the classic Romanian sense of the term), but that is exactly what it was!
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, beyond the fact that it is one of the most influential and rigorous wine competitions in the world, has a colossal capacity for international promotion, both due to its influence among consumers and specialists alike and due to the fact that the almost 70 invited jurors have become, in turn, through posts made on social networks, through published articles, “ambassadors” of Dobrogea and Romania. Certainly, the effects on the evolution of Romanian wine will not be felt in the short/medium term. However, it is very important that those who are in charge of the fate of Romanian wine understand that organizing this competition represented an important “step”, one of many others made, in building and generically promoting the Romania brand with the help of wine. Even more important is that this “step” be followed by others!
Carmina: How were the jurors welcomed in Constanţa at this year’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Rose Session?
Valentin: We tried, together with our colleagues from the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles team, to organize this session dedicated to rosé wines respecting the highest standards imposed by an event of such magnitude. Including in terms of hospitality, we tried to offer our guests the best possible conditions, so as not to be inferior compared to previous editions organized in Val D’Aosta (Italy), Valladolid (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) or Split (Croatia).
Carmina: In addition to the judging sessions, the foreign jurors also got to know the wineries and hospitality of Dobrogea, with winery excursions and dinners dedicated to local specialties taking place every day. Please tell us more about that.
Valentin: “Diversity” is the word that best describes Dobrogea! So we designed the entire program of visits and meals in a way that reflects this diversity. In addition to visits to wineries - from the smallest, family businesses, some with a bio-organic profile, to the million-liter winemaking giants - we programmed the meals together with our partners so that each one represented a Dobrogean ethnicity or social group. Thus, our guests were able to come into contact with Tatar, Turkish, Armenian, traditional Romanian, Dobrogean fishing or Romanian fusion cuisine.
Carmina: I understand that among the jurors there were quite a few buyers from different countries, which for the wineries in Romania is a big plus, these buyers having direct contact both with the rosé wines in the competition, and especially with the wineries they visited during the days spent in Dobrogea. Can you give me some information about the feedback you received from them? How did they like the Romanian wines and wineries?
Valentin: Yes, it was a premiere for this competition too! For this edition, the CMB representatives invited a significantly larger number of buyers from large retail chains or wine shop networks from abroad. The jury also included winemakers, wine merchants, communicators, journalists, educators and sommeliers. Beyond the kindness dictated by the status of guests, I honestly felt that all the guests appreciated the hospitality, the wines and the Romanian gastronomy. I can't say with certainty that they liked it more than anywhere else or that they included Romania in a top of personal preferences, but they were delighted by the diversity offered by local gastronomy and wines and appreciated the sincerity, involvement and efforts of Romanian producers to evolve.
Carmina Nițescu
Winesday.ro & Winesday App