Floricica

Floricica is both the wine and the grape, and the grape is the interesting part. It was bred in 1968 at Moldova's national institute for viticulture and winemaking, crossing Riesling de Rhin with Seyve Villard 20-365 - a French-American hybrid - so it carries disease and frost resistance from one parent and sugar accumulation from the other. It was only entered in the official register in 2006, which is why it is turning up in commercial bottlings now rather than decades ago. It ripens in the last third of September and piles on sugar, 210 to 220 g/L in trials, against acidity around 8 g/L.

Carpe Diem bottles it straight, 100%. The fruit is pressed gently and fermented in stainless steel held cold, at 14 to 16 degrees, then left on fine lees for several months to build a little texture without trading away the freshness the variety brings.

This 2025 is 12%, and the producer gives 2.1 g/L of sugar against 6.1 g/L of total acidity - that acid figure is the shape of the wine. It was bottled on 23 March 2026 in a run of 4,450 bottles.