ARTISAN | Feteasca Neagra | 2011
feteasca neagra

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.

The wine we are going to review tonight is made of feteasca neagra grapes, which is an indigenous local variety that is not yet explored at its full potential. More than that, there is no definite style for this wine yet, as a result, every here and there we get feteasca neagra wines that assemble different wine styles and profiles, from crisp, light-bodied to spicy, full-bodied wines. The wine we have selected for the review tonight is Artisan Feteasca Neagra 2011 from Aurelia Visinescu – a famous Romanian winemaker, who produces wines of exceptional quality, wines with a certain philosophy behind every bottle.

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

Visual
Hazy ruby color with shades of pale copper towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with savory and vegetal notes, mixed with some ripe red fruit: leather, redcurrant, prosciutto, dried plum, wormwood and some hints of violets. An instant later comes secondary and tertiary notes of red pepper, cinnamon and the elegant flavor of a roasted oakwood.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high, but very well integrated alcohol level, high acidity and dry tannin. It tastes earthy and leathery, with a nuanced old-world profile. This is a complex, elegant and firm wine, with a well structured body. The wine has a good overall balance between barrique and variety, as neither dominates, which lets the fruit and the vegetal notes express themselves at its best.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium-plus finish and a balanced-velvety aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Romania and the overall rating says the same, with 91.5 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.

Conclusion: this is a wine that is a bit over its peak form, definitely ready to drink now, and not meant for long term bottle ageing – a fine and complex wine with a well structured body and dry, but quite ripe tannin. We would strongly recommend to decant this wine in advance for 30 minutes in order to bring out the best it has to offer. We would recommend to pair this wine with some homemade pasta with mushrooms and prosciutto, as this is an epic food’n’wine pairing, we promise.

WineStatistics tasting results:

ARTISAN
Feteasca Neagra | 2011

grape: | feteasca neagra |

region: Romania | Muntenia & Oltenia

overall rating: | 91.5 |

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.