EQUINOX | Merlot | 2011
merlot

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 are tasting Wine of Moldova for quite some time and we’ve decided to raise the bar a bit here – this time we will be back to the world’s most underrated grape variety – merlot. The wine that we are going to review today is one of those wines that leaves you speechless in disbelief – Merlot 2011 from Equinox. This is a world class merlot wine – it is so well balanced that one may take it for a blend – this is the kind of wine that redefines the ‘top wine’ standards.

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

Visual
The wine has a noble garnet color – it is dense and opaque, with the rim-color of a clear garnet-crimson shade.

Olfactory
The nose is clean and rich, with no signs of wine faults. The first nose reveals strong notes of black fruits: black cherry, black plum, blackcurrant, black mulberry, blackberry, cherry seeds and ripe sour cherry. The second nose brings clear notes of a medium-plus roasted wood, black cherry jam, black tea, tobacco, black pepper a hint of black chocolate.

Gustatory
The wine is extra dry with no hints of residual sugar. It has high, but amazingly well integrated alcohol level, high acidity and dry tannin. This is a muscular, expressive and persistent wine: a bit seedy and a bit zesty, with well nuanced oak flavor, dense and extracted. The overall balance is good – the wine is fruit-forward, elegant and nuanced, with a highlighted tannic body and a refined palate – boldness is that one word that would describe this wine as a whole.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish with a balanced-velvety aftertaste – sharp, seedy and tart at the same time. This is definitely a new-world type of wine.

This is definitely a great Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.5 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, it is to be mentioned that this is a wine that is highly under-appreciated. One can find a similar quality merlot wine here in Moldova, but one cannot find a better merlot than this one for the time being. And we are proud to state that we’ve opened this wine at the right time – it’s either on its peak or nearby, and it only takes one glass to fall in love with, sip after sip, discovering the true terroir of a world class merlot wine made in Moldova. We are definitely impressed.

WineStatistics tasting results:

EQUINOX
Merlot | 2011

grape: | merlot |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 90.5 |

conclusion: great | a must try

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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.