Segarcea – “the most wished land” in its Latin name – is one of the twelve domains given in the administration of the Royal House of Romania in 1884, during the times of King Carol I, by the Parliament. This was the moment when it was founded the Administration of the Crown Domains (ADC).
The role of the domains was to support financially the Royal House and of constituting implementation centers and of spreading the agricultural techniques of the latest hour for that given period.
Among these domains, the one from Segarcea was the only one to whom a series of agronomist and viticulture specialists coordinated by Florian Davidescu and Dobre Rădulescu, gave it as destination the cultivation of the grape vines.
Since then, the wines from the Segarcea Crown Domain accompanied the Royal House during the diplomatic dinners and the official events and they were witnesses to the historical events, as a silent and loyal servant.
A vineyard which was loved and respected gave its King what it had the best. In the first years, at Segarcea there was founded a nursery garden of grape vines, where there were cultivated 60 types. Further on, there was originated the plantation of grape vines, on a surface of 300 hectares. Between 1906 – 1908, according to the project of two Romanian architects, Iosif Exner and Jean Pompilian, there was built up the wine cellar, under the coordination of Ștefan Făgădău. It was one of the first constructions of steel concrete from Romania. Built in the shape of a Greek cross, this used the principles of the gravitational wine making and bears the signs of the Crown: the blazon of the Royal family and the crown of royal lilies, which embellished its entrance.
Under the administration of the Royal House the domain bloomed, and the qualities of the terroir started to become known. By the decree of the Council of Ministers from May 1929, the vinicultural area from Segarcea is decreed as “having the right of being obtained wines with name of controlled origin”. The qualities of the wines from Segarcea made a good impression throughout the times at the international profile contests. In the period in which Temistocle Jugureanu is occupied with drafting the wines, the products were awarded with golden medals at contests such as the one from Paris, from 1936.
After a half of century of communism which changed profoundly the architecture of the plantation, centralizing the cultivated surfaces and favoring the productivity to the detriment of the quality, after a post-communist period of carelessness, the Crown Domain Segarcea was taken over even on the day of the royalty, on the 10th of May 2002, by the Anghel family, who, through their entire investment, aimed to bring back to life the royal values and of the highest standards of producing the wine, about which the King would have been entirely satisfied.
The plantation of 300 ha was completely redone starting with 2005, being followed the architecture from the period of the monarchy: 60% of the surface is destined to the black types and 40% to the white ones.
Together with bringing back to life the Domain, there were conserved its historical values, the ones which define its identity.
The spirit of the Domain was passed on and it is kept even in the present in the winery from Segarcea, which hosts a real oenological thesaurus. Among the oldest wines from the collection kept here there are numbered wines from 1917 and until the years 1974. The glasses from the period of the royalty bear the Royal crown of the suzerain in whose period they were produced, and their shape from back then serves as inspiration in choosing the bottles for the current wines.
