EQUINOX | 5 Elemente | 2014
feteasca regala | feteasca alba | babeasca gris | pinot gris | chardonnay

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 quite special, as this is the first and at the moment the only orange wine in Moldova – 5 Elemente 2014 from Equinox. It’s produced in a very limited edition and its blending formula is unique, not only because it is a blend of 5 different varieties, the so called ‘elements’, but also because one of them is a rare variety, called babeasca gris, that you will not find in any other wine made in Moldova.

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

Visual
Clear amber color with shades of gold towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is rich, dominated mostly by herbal and floral flavours: linden flower, apple juice, wormwood, orange bell pepper, orange zest, chamomile, honeycomb and some hints of moist oakwood.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with moderate alcohol level, high acidity and strong, grainy tannin. It tastes sharp, rough and tannic. This is wine has so much character – a bit angular, but quite crisp and complex, with a nice intensity and a full body. The wine has a fair overall balance, with tannin being the dominant element.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium-plus finish and a balanced, tannic and a bit austere aftertaste.
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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.

Conclusion: in our opinion this is a wine in its prime – a drink now orange wine. It is already quite well balanced, as it developed nicely in the bottle, displaying those delightful floral hints. But don’t get us wrong, it’s not an easy-to-drink wine, as this is a wine meant to dominate, and as so, pairing this wine with food is a must. We would strongly recommend to pair it with some butter roasted orange salmon with lemon and asparagus, to counter balance the strong tannin in the wine and compliment its herbal flavours.

WineStatistics tasting results:

EQUINOX
5 Elemente | 2014

grape: | feteasca regala | feteasca alba | babeasca gris | pinot gris | chardonnay |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

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.