UNICORN ESTATE | Equilibrium | Pinot Noir | 2015
pinot noir

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 quite unique and rare wine – Equilibrium Pinot Noir 2015 from Unicorn Estate. It is rare because it takes some skill to find a bottle of this wine, as it is a pinot noir wine with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ and it is unique, because it is a late harvest pinot noir wine. Pinot noir is the most highly prized wine in the world, as the grape itself is weak, suffering from a variety of diseases and its genetics make it highly susceptible to mutation. Despite the difficulty in growing the grape, it is capable of producing divinely scented, gorgeously fruity expressions of its ‘terrior’. But let’s not get bored with too much theory, let’s move on to the tasting.
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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Clear and transparent ruby color, with shades of bright copper towards the rim.

Olfactory
The nose is rich, filled mostly with red fruits flavours mixed with some savory notes: red currant, ripe sour cherry, cranberry, cucumber leaf, cherry tomato, red olive and some hints of overripe pomegranate. An instant later comes secondary and tertiary notes of red pepper, cinnamon, petrichor, forest floor and some subtle hints of coppa meat.

Gustatory
The wine is medium dry, with strong alcohol level, high acidity and fine tannin. It tastes austere, sharp and firm, with a nuanced bitter-crisp body. This is a quite muscular, expressive and astringent wine, with overwhelming acidity and mouth-watering fine tannin. The wine has a fair overall balance and a quite nuanced rustic-savory accent.

Aftertaste
It has a medium finish and an astringent, a bit aggressive and sharp aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 89.2 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: this is a well rounded pinot noir wine, which almost reached its top form – a wine that may benefit from a couple more months of bottle ageing, but one that is ready to be enjoyed as it is. This is one of the best pinot noir wines with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ – sharp, firm and aggressive – exactly as expected from the southern terrior microzone. We would recommend to pair this wine with local rustic cuisine, like for example a grilled beef steak or some roasted pork chops – as the tannins in the wine will cut nicely through the fattiness in the meat, while the high alcohol content will counter-balance the dish spiciness.

WineStatistics tasting results:

UNICORN ESTATE
Equilibrium | Pinot Noir | 2015

grape: | pinot noir |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 89.2 |

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.