EQUINOX | Echinoctius | 2012
cabernet sauvignon | rara neagra | merlot

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 one of the best ever wines made in Moldova – a wine blend made of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and rara neagra grape varieties, where the last one is the key to this fabulous blend, as it is an indigenous variety that adds local terroir into the final blend. We have already mentioned the enormous potential of indigenous local varieties, and it seems that we are now witnessing a historical rise in quality, up to the point where adding indigenous varieties to an already famous blend formula, will improve the final blend with more flavours, complexity and structure. The wine we are going to review tonight is one of these, we will be talking about for many years from now – Echinoctius 2012 from Equinox.
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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Noble deep garnet color, with shades of ripe pomegranate garnet towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe red fruit: ripe sweet cherry, overripe sour cherry, black currant, sweet cherry jam, red currant, black currant jam, candied sour cherry and some hints of cloves. An instant later comes secondary and tertiary notes of red pepper, sweet tobacco, cinnamon, roasted oakwood and some subtle hints of nutmeg.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high, but very well integrated alcohol level, high acidity and firm, fine-grained tannin. This wine is a fruit bomb – expressive, quite extracted and bold. It tastes fruity, delicious and tannic, with a nuanced fruit-forward profile, a clear hint that this is a new-world blend. The wine has a good overall balance between all the elements (sugar, alcohol, acidity and tannin) with a mouthwatering and elegant oaky accent.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a velvety, a bit tannic but quite fruity aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 92.2 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 a bit too young to drink now, as its acidity and tannins are yet to be settled down. We would strongly recommend to keep it a couple more years uncorked, say for 2-3 more years. What makes this wine stand out, is the time it has spent in those famous, french oak barrels – 36 months, and nope, this is not a typing mistake, it’s 3 whole years in the barrel. Contrary to our initial expectation, the wine does not feel spicy, oaky, nor hot – not at all, this is a very well balanced wine, with an unmatched level of complexity and structure. To be honest, we would not recommend to pair this wine with food, but if you insist, try to preserve the wine’s identity – those fruity accents that we’ve fell in love with, pair this wine with light meat-based dishes, like for example some venison steak or venison carpaccio. Enjoy.

WineStatistics tasting results:

EQUINOX
Echinoctius | 2012

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | rara neagra | merlot |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 92.2 |

conclusion: excellent | (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.