EQUINOX | Carmenère | 2009
carmenère

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.

Still reviewing Wine of Moldova but this time we’ve decided to bring out something rare and quite special – Carmenère 2009 from Equinox. There are only a few winemakers in Moldova who produce single varietal carmenère wines. Carmenère is known as ‘the lost grape of Bordeaux’ and is rejuvenated in Chile with great success over the last decade. Carmenère is considered a very good alternative to merlot, it’s also very good at blending, but it can also stand on its own as a prime variety. That said, let’s get to the most delightful part of the review – the wine tasting.

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

Visual
The wine has a deep ruby color that turns garnet under indirect light, with some hazy copper shades towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is strong and insistent, with no signs of wine faults. The main flavors on the first nose are those of red fruits mixed with elegant floral notes: sour cherry, redcurrant, rose hips, dried cherry, red plum, cranberry, pomegranate, wolfberry and jostaberry. Later on, the nose is filled with some noble hints of violets, red olive and medium roasted wood.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with no signs of residual sugar. It has moderate and well integrated alcohol level, high acidity and medium tannin. This is a zesty, fruity and velvety wine – tart, lean and quite delicious. The wine has a fair overall balance – it has a nuanced fruit-forward profile, a clear example of it’s new-world ideology – friendly and round.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium finish and a balanced aftertaste. It is acrid and velvety towards the end, and it leaves a quite pleasing feeling overall.

This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 89.9 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.

Conclusion: this wine is on its prime – ready to be uncorked now, but, at the same it still displays some signs of a good ageing potential. Nonetheless, we would not recommend to store it any longer, as it is too high on acidity and too low on tannin to be considered for longer bottle maturation. We would also like to mention that this wine is the perfect pairing partner for the tender filet mignon steak – just try it yourself, you will not regret it, we promise.

WineStatistics tasting results:

EQUINOX
Carmenère | 2009

grape: | carmenère |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 89.9 |

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.