VINARIA DIN VALE | Ice Wine | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2014
cabernet sauvignon

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Still reviewing Wine of Moldova as one can find some very good value here, and in line with the fast growing trend for dessert wines, we’ve decided to pick one from our cellar – Ice Wine Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 from Vinaria din Vale. This is a dessert wine, and dessert wines are bottled sugar syrups – delicious, easy to drink and very aromatic, but what really makes this wine intriguing is that, according to the winemakers, this is a true icewine, made of grapes that were harvested in mid-December, completely frozen on the vines.

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

Visual
The wine has a clear amber color, with some elegant golden hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is rich and nuanced, with no signs of wine faults. The first nose is clear and insistent, with notes of jam and honey: apple jam, apricot jam, quince jam, peach jam, white cherry jam, honey, raisins, mango, overripe nectarine and dried figs, all of them twisted into a delightful flavored mix.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-sweet with lots of residual sugar, which turns the wine into a sweet fruit syrup. It has moderate alcohol level, high acidity and medium tannin, which makes the wine taste quite jammy and honeyed. It has a fair overall balance – this is a sweet and delicious summer elixir.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium finish and a balanced aftertaste – it feels a bit tannic, a bit aggressive and zesty, but quite oily on the finish.

This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 89.0 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 is quite an amazing dessert wine, it is definitely over it’s top form and on the decline, but it is still able to deliver sunshine through the glass. We’ve noted some hints of oxidation – a hint that this wine is not meant for bottle ageing, this is a wine best enjoyed in its youth. This is a wine that can be served as an aperitif or as a dessert drink after the main meal. We would recommend to pair it with a lemon dressed Panna Cotta or a blueberry cheesecake, as the wine’s oily texture will pair amazingly well with the smoothness of those desserts – simply because it’s delicious.

VINARIA DIN VALE
Ice Wine | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2014

grape: | cabernet sauvignon |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 89.0 |

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.