The Princely family Stirbey, of Wallachian origin, was first documented in the 15th century and has witnessed the political and economical development of the country, through many generations.
REBIRTH OF A TRADITIONFor over 300 years the wines of Prince Stirbey family have been grown according to an ethos of well-developed principles, preserved and maintained by each generation. Their wish is to respect them and pass them to the future generations.
Baroness Ileana Kripp, granddaughter of Princess Maria Stirbey, devoted her efforts to the rebirth of the family tradition, and together with her husband, she renovated the winery and equipped the cellar with modern technology, in order to provide the customers with high quality wines from the Stirbey wine estate in Dragasani. Today the Prince Stirbey tradition continues to be maintained by Baroness Ileana-Kripp-Costinescu and her husband Jakob Kripp.
Discovery
of traditional grape varieties
The estate specialises in mostly indigenous and traditional grape varieties,
evolved over the centuries and adapted to the micro-climatic conditions of a
wine region. Only there they can fully develop their personality. Vinifying
them separately, we are only producing single varietal wines, in order to
reveal the individual character of each variety.
The wine cellar on the Stirbey Estate (see above), in Dragasani was originally designed by Prince Barbu Alexandru Stirbey at the beginning of the 20th century for processing the grapes harvested from a 20 hectares area and processing the equivalent of approximately 70.000-80.000 liters of wine per year.
Today, the annual wine production at the Stirbey winery is about the same. However, the facility has now been updated to emulate modern standards of winemaking. Stainless steel tanks are used in the initial stages of winemaking, fermentation and clarification. Oak barrels of different capacities for the maturation process of the red wines; a pneumatic wine press, which due to its reduced pressure prevents the damage to aroma cells in grapes, and a modern bottling line, which assures bottling in the most sterile conditions.
Besides the technical assets, maintaining a hygenic area averts any damage to the wine over this sensitive stage of vinification. Thus, we are able to avoid technical interventions for correcting wine defects thus facilitating the creation of natural and healthy wines of consistent quality.