One year of Tandem, the fruit of the friendship between Liliac and Castel Mimi wineries: over 40,000 bottles of wine sold

The Tandem wine collection, launched as a first in the wine industry in the country – a collaboration between a winery from Romania – Liliac, and one from the Republic of Moldova – Castel Mimi, is one year old.

The Tandem collection contains three types of wine: the red and rosé wines are made by Castel Mimi in Bulboaca, while the white wine is produced by Liliac in Batos.

In the first year since its launch, 45,000 bottles of Tandem have been sold.

By the end of 2022, 38,000 bottles of wine have been sold:

• 60% were white wine,
• 25% rosé wine,
• 15% red wine.

The wines went on sale in specialty and retail stores in the second half of 2022, recording a turnover of 650,000 lei by the end of last year.

An initial investment of €300,000 was needed to create the wine collection. The focus is currently on the Romanian and Moldovan markets, but the two co-creators expect the wines to enter other markets this year.

The story of Mimi Castle began in the 20th century, when Constantin Mimi, the last governor of Bessarabia, who became director of the National Bank of Romania in 1926, built the first castle in Moldova. The castle was one of the largest wine factories in the USSR, employing 1600 people, and a railway was built by 600 people over four years to export the wine to the Soviet Union. Today Castel Mimi employs around 250 people.

Liliac, the winery in Batoș, Mures county, keeps alive the heritage of Transylvanian terroir through its young-spirited wines, revitalising the Lechința wine region. Established in 2010, the boutique winery uses modern winemaking techniques that bring out the essence of local grapes, ripe under the mild Transylvanian sun and hand-picked from the 52-hectare vineyard on the hills of Batoș (Mures County) and Lechința (Bistrita County).