{"id":61534,"date":"2025-05-04T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/?p=61534"},"modified":"2025-05-02T20:36:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T17:36:41","slug":"new-wine-brands-marcel-vulpoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/new-wine-brands-marcel-vulpoi\/","title":{"rendered":"With Marcel Vulpoi, about new brands, music and choices"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

We had almost convinced Marcel Vulpoi to write monthly for Wines of Romania, but when we reached a delicate subject, namely the profitability of wine companies… He started a paper that now exceeds 50 pages and we are still thinking about how to publish it. But, every cloud has a silver lining \u2013 we had a chat about the news from the winery, but also from Bucharest, about wines and labels, about young people and their access to things we considered normal 25 years ago. And, as usual, we have a quiver full of news! <\/span><\/p>

An interview by Radu Rizea<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Goodbye, Opus Fabula!<\/b><\/h1>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> Let\u2019s pop the bottle of sparkling wine with the fact that, for now, has the highest news value: Opus Fabula…<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> You mean the fact that it was Opus Fabula and it\u2019s no longer? That\u2019s right. Now it\u2019s Contra Fabula. <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> So the fox is in the tree with the cheese in its mouth and the crow comes and tricks it?<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> Yes, yes, something like that. Or, inspired by La Familia, I would say that we wanted to fight with wines, but they wanted to fight in lawyers. In other words, Opus Fabula is undergoing rebranding now, we will call it Contra Fabula, we had several options. Fabula still exists in Spain and, ironically!, also has a fox on the label. Antifabula sounds too much like Antifraud… So we stuck with Contra Fabula. <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> But what actually happened?<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> We had an opposition from a winery that has a wine with a similar name. They sent a notice, we won in the first instance, then they sent a letter to the winery, which our colleagues did not identify in time and we could no longer file a response. Basically, the name was left hanging. We decided to call it Contra Fabula and, in the end, what matters is what’s in the bottle, not what\u2019s written on it. Anyway, most customers came to the winery and said \u201cI want that wine with the fable\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

We make wines, not labels!<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> There are also bottles that sell only the brand, because what\u2019s inside the bottle… otherwise we wouldn’t have a counterfeit market for Chateau Margaux and the like.<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> Yes, because there are also many customers who buy labels. In fact, one of my favorite games is for 6\u20137 friends to gather for a blind tasting, the sommelier would just say whether it\u2019s a blend of 2 or 3 varieties, and we had to guess what exactly was in the glasses, Merlot, Feteasc\u0103 Neagr\u0103… Well, all equally tone-deaf like me, don\u2019t imagine anything else. If you guessed the variety you got 0.5 points, if you also guessed the winery, it was another point. And the bill was paid according to how well you guessed \u2013 last place pays the most, first place \u2013 the least. And so, many realized that, actually, they were drinking labels. I like to believe that we make wines, not labels. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Gramofon launches Ressonant & Gramofoniac<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> Since we\u2019re talking about wines and labels \u2013 it seems you’re preparing something new for 2025, right?<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> Well, if you started directly with Opus Fabula… We have breaking news, worthy of interrupting the broadcast and putting on the yellow ticker! I kept thinking whether to tell you or not, but I can’t help myself… We’re going to do a project that I love very much, with Gabi L\u0103cureanu, with L\u2019Artist, a wine created in partnership, in which L\u2019Artist comes into resonance with Gramofon, hence the name \u2013 Ressonant. <\/span><\/p>

You know that we have wines made with sommeliers \u2013 with Sergiu Nedelea, Julia Scavo and Virgil M\u0103nescu, and I told Gabi, even back then, when we launched Sonorum, that there also needs to be a wine signed by him. And we agreed he would let us know when the time came, because it obviously has to be a wine at a certain standard, in a certain quantity… In the end, he\u2019s attaching his brand to it, L\u2019Artist, a brand he worked on, he built… And recently, while we were going to the winery, he showed me a few barrels with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Feteasc\u0103 Neagr\u0103, he chose some of the 40 wine barrels we have, and made a blend in 1,200\u20131,500 bottles from the 2022 harvest, which we bottled and will leave in the bottle for at least a year, so it will be launched in autumn. And I guarantee it will have a launch like you\u2019ve never seen. It\u2019s going to be very fun \u2013 you know my opinion about wine, I\u2019m the perfect tone-deaf guy, I say that when it comes to wine, people should have fun. Just imagine, you pay to come to the launch and you might leave in debt, hehe! <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> It\u2019s a moment of maturity both for your collaboration and for the vineyard, Gabi L\u0103cureanu already knows your plots well now, the potential, the rhythms… The whole vineyard has reached maturity, including the replantings, right? <\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> Well, it was planted in 2009, we harvested fruit in 2015 so, yes, we have ten years of harvests. And also in the autumn or, I hope, earlier, we will launch Gramofoniac. <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> Gramo…<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> …foniac. Meaning a “cognac” from Gramofon, we\u2019ve had for three years at Zetea, aging, a Chardonnay distillate, now we chose the bottle, labels are being worked on intensely, and it will be a vinars \/ brandy called Gramofoniac. Here I hope I won\u2019t have other copyright issues, how could we?! My idea was that you have to give people something to drink from the beginning to the end of the meal. That\u2019s where the prosecco idea came from, and also the distillate, because an honest meal ends with a digestif. The problem was finding the wine, when I asked Gabi, he laughed and told me \u201cwhat, you have wine worth burning?\u201d And I looked into it, and it seems true that people used to send bad wine that didn\u2019t sell, for distillation. Gabi looked into it, did his research, talked and met with many people who make distillates and, in the end, he made a Chardonnay under special conditions \u2013 don\u2019t ask me, I don\u2019t know, I understood that it needs to have certain characteristics, to be sent with the lees… We distilled it and I can say it\u2019s very good.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Great Hill Music Club, designed for a young audience<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> And we arrived at your passion project, I know you had it in mind for at least two years… or even from the beginning, because at Great Hill Cotroceni there wasn\u2019t much room for music…<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> At Cotroceni the most we had was a cimbalom, a violin, and a guitar, that\u2019s it. Then, at Bragadiru Palace, it’s a different kind of event. And I was thinking about our niche, \u201cwine, art, food, music \u2013 the guilty pleasures in life\u201d is a slogan I try to apply ad litteram… Coming back, I noticed that young people feel kind of out of place at the Palace, because those are events of a certain standard, a certain level and, let\u2019s be honest, at a certain cost. And there was a need for a place where people feel better, more comfortable, to improvise, to be more for young people, ultimately for those between 20 and 35 years old. <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> But it\u2019s said that young people aren\u2019t interested in wine…<\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> That\u2019s what I thought too, initially, at the Great Hill Wine Bar in Cotroceni I expected people aged 50\u201360 to come. Surprise! I was wrong! From 30 up to almost 40, if we\u2019re generous, but if you want to see people under 30… Go to Nuba, Loft, and other similar places. And I said, let\u2019s try this too, so we ended up opening The Great Hill Music Pub, where the target is to have a different kind of event every evening. So Tuesday \u2013 classical music, Wednesday \u2013 jazz, Thursday is jam session… Moreover, a location was needed that wouldn\u2019t overwhelm you \u2013 you\u2019ve seen how you feel at Bragadiru Palace, if you\u2019re more sensitive… And we moved everything toward the youth zone, including the paintings, you\u2019ll see it\u2019s modern art, very different from the ones at Great Hill. Downstairs are two rooms, for smaller groups, if you want something more private, upstairs in the attic there’s room for 120 people, with furniture designed to let you sit relaxed, not with your back straight… And the wines are also in a fair price range, we\u2019re not going with the super premium lines, but with more accessible things, same for the food. We\u2019ve already had 7\u20138 events and they\u2019ve been very well received.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

At the Music Club you understand how important it is to have access to an alternative<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> Honestly, it\u2019s a surprise that you have young clients looking for wine, but also to come to a place with jazz and classical music? Isn\u2019t that too much? <\/span><\/p>

Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> The wine bar is right across from the Conservatory. And I\u2019m seriously thinking about having a day for students, a \u201cstudent night,\u201d with wine at a very cut-down price. Think about it \u2013 back in our days, we had Club A, Fire, Backstage, we had plenty of places where we could go. They don\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>

Wines of Romania:<\/strong> There\u2019s another problem with those clubs \u2013 we used to talk, we had conversations. Now, in the TikTok era, conversations are shorter, with fewer words, half in English, but at least they exist. In a club, you can\u2019t talk, you\u2019re deprived of personal interaction, you don\u2019t enrich yourself socially, spiritually, in any way. <\/span><\/p>

So 40% would listen to something else, it’s just that no one gave them an alternative. Same thing when my students heard I went to The Trial of Eichmann, at the Opera. They thought the Opera was just people screaming \u2013 my kids said the same thing when I took them \u2013 but after they went, they changed their minds. This Trial of Eichmann production involved a team of 170 people, including actors, something extremely scenic. It\u2019s necessary for someone to offer them the access, the contact, the moment. The question is: are they responsible for their choices, when they\u2019re handicapped \u2013 no one offered them the chance, they don\u2019t even get the chance to find out what they like?
Marcel Vulpoi:<\/strong> Because no one is taking care of education. The idea is to give them an option. I did an experiment right there at the Music Club. I went on Men\u2019s Day to a party with all the guys from the team and I invited someone to sing jazz. When they saw the microphone, instruments and heard it was going to be jazz, they almost grabbed their heads. And I got an invaluable study. I asked them before the concert who they would have invited if it was their company. Nicu Paleru, \u021aanc\u0103, BDLP (editor’s note: Bogdan de la Ploie\u0219ti)… Not even traditional l\u0103utari. And that\u2019s because this stuff is easy to access, easy to find, easy to understand. And at the concert, 20\u201330% went outside to smoke, 20% were chatting with each other, but the rest were listening, slightly intrigued, and were saying \u201chey, this isn\u2019t bad, it doesn\u2019t sound bad at all.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had almost convinced Marcel Vulpoi to write monthly for Wines of Romania, but when we reached a delicate subject, namely the profitability of wine companies… He started a paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":61538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews","category-gramophone"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61639,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61534\/revisions\/61639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}