F’AUTOR | Chardonnay – Rkatiteli | 2012
chardonnay | rkatsiteli

WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.

We continue to review Wine of Moldova and keep up with the white wine theme, but this time we are going to review a white blend. Blending is a technique, used by the winemakers, meant to improve the overall quality of their wines, but let’s not get too much into the theory side, better let the tasting do the talking. The wine that we’ve selected for the review tonight is not a bestseller around here, but it is quite intriguing nonetheless – Chardonnay-Rkatiteli 2012 from F’autor.

Let’s take a deeper look at the tasting notes and the wine’s review statistics:

Visual
The wine has a pure, crystal clear yellow color, with the rim color of a brilliant greenish shade.

Olfactory
The nose is strong with no signs of wine faults. The first nose is sharp and insistent, with very nuanced notes of sweet fruits and citrus: mango, white mulberry, pineapple, lemon, quince, pear and a hint of apricot.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-sweet to medium-dry, with just a hint of residual sugar left after fermentation. It has moderate alcohol level and quite high acidity, which makes the wine taste lean but zesty-tart and summer refreshing. It also has medium tannin and an overall good balance – which makes it taste fruity, rich and delicious. This is a fresh and nuanced wine, one that will bring you some fresh air into those hot summer evenings of late.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a velvety, a bit tart aftertaste – it is refreshing and crisp, with quite nuanced acidity.

This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 89.5 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.

Last but not least, even though this wine is not very well known here in Moldova, on the international scene, it has been recently awarded with a commended accolade at the most important wine competition of them all – Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). This is a quite prestigious award, even before taking into consideration the age of this wine, but the most amazing aspect regarding this wine is it’s acidity – it will attack your taste buds from the very beginning, and it will keep the siege even after a dozen minutes, that’s why we recommend to pair this wine with some summer fruits – peach or nectarine will do just fine.

WineStatistics tasting results:

F’AUTOR
Chardonnay – Rkatiteli | 2012

grape: | chardonnay | rkatsiteli |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 89.5 |

conclusion: fine | highly recommended

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(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.