F’AUTOR | Negre | 2015
feteasca neagra | rara 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 one that we hold dear to our hearts, as this is a 100% genuine Wine of Moldova – a wine that is made only of local, indigenous grape varieties – feteasca neagra and rara neagra. We have already mentioned the enormous potential of these two local varieties, and it seems that we are now witnessing a historical rise in overall quality and popularity of indigenous wines. The wine we are going to review tonight is one of these, we will be talking about for many years from now – Negre 2015 from F’autor.
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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep and opaque garnet color, with shades of noble ruby towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe black fruit: overripe sour cherry, black cherry, blackberry, black mulberry, black plum, black currant and some hints of cinnamon. An instant later comes secondary and tertiary notes of red and black pepper, game meat, tobacco, roasted oakwood and some subtle hints of truffle.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with high, but very well integrated alcohol level, high acidity and ripe, fine-grained tannin. It tastes fruity, delicious and tannic, with a nuanced fruit-forward profile. This is definitely a new-world blend – expressive, dense and spicy, with overwhelming acidity. The wine has a good overall balance between barrique and fruit, with a nicely highlighted toasty accent.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a balanced, a bit tart and bitter aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 91.9 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: in our opinion this wine is still too young to drink now, as its acidity and tannin are not yet settled at the moment. We would strongly recommend to keep it a couple more years uncorked. What we do like about this wine, is that despite its fare share of fruit and oak, it does have some nice rustic hints of meat and leather. We would strongly recommend to pair this wine with game meat, like for example some venison steak or venison carpaccio, as the acidity and the ripe tannin in the wine will cut well through those gamey and rustic notes in the dish.

WineStatistics tasting results:

F’AUTOR
Negre | 2015

grape: | feteasca neagra | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 91.9 |

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.