ET CETERA | Chardonnay | {barrel fermented} | 2014
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.

Tonight we are going to review a wine that is regarded by some as the best expression of the grape variety it is made of – a single varietal chardonnay wine. But, we’ve not picked for the review tonight the regular, crisp chardonnay, nope, not at all, as we’ve chosen the other one – the oaked chardonnay. Oaked means barrel fermented, which in its turn means that malolactic fermentation is responsible for the creaminess in the wine, thus making the resulting wine less tart and more silky. But enough theory, let’s get back to the wine we’ve selected for the review tonight – Chardonnay 2014 from Et Cetera.
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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep yellow color with nuanced topaz yellow hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is rich, filled mostly with sweet fruit and citrus: almond, homemade butter, sun dried oakwood, hay, dried apple, honey wax, pineapple, lemon, honeycomb, persimmon and some nuanced notes of vanilla.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with high alcohol level, moderate acidity and firm tannin. It tastes bitter-seedy, quite woody and rough, with a nuanced citrusy accent. This is a muscular and sharp wine, with a fair overall balance between fruit and barrique, maybe just a bit unbalanced.

Aftertaste
It has a medium finish and a balanced, bitter-seedy aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 88.7 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 definitely over its prime form, clearly on the decline slope, that is not worth any more bottle ageing. It feels a bit too rough and angular, with a nuanced citrusy profile. We would recommend to pair this wine with fat-rich dishes, like for example baked white fish or grilled avocado, as the later one is an epic pairing indeed.

WineStatistics tasting results:

ET CETERA
Chardonnay | {barrel fermented} | 2014

grape: | chardonnay |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 88.7 |

conclusion: fine | highly recommended

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© 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.