PURCARI | Vinohora | 2017
feteasca neagra | montepulciano

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 today is a special one, as this is a rosé wine blend, made of two non-traditional grape varieties: feteasca neagra, the one responsible for body and flavour and montepulciano, which brings delicateness and character to the final blend – Vinohora 2017 by Purcari. This wine is part of the ‘Vinohora’ wine series, that is a set of three wines, each one with its own personality and character. The philosophy of this series is to marry the indigenous varieties of Moldova with famous international ones. The Vinohora rosé blend is a moldo-italian hora, which combines the delicateness of feteasca neagra with the playful charisma of a true italian – montepulciano. But enough theory, on that note, without further ado, let’s get straight to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Pale salmon-orange color, with bright opal-amber hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with sweet and sour fruits flavours: sour cherry, red mirabelle, wolfberry, berberry, rose hips, candied peach, red plum, cranberry, red currant, boysenberry, candied apricot, loganberry, white cherry, orange cherry tomato and some nuanced hints of moist oakwood.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with moderate alcohol level, high acidity and smooth tannin. It tastes lean, crisp and refreshingly appealing. It has a fair overall balance, as it feels zesty, lush and supple, with a quite delicate fruity mouthfeel and a fine, soft and a bit opulent body. This is a very fine rosé wine, quite close to the delicate Provence rosé style: smooth, a bit tart and seedy, with a nicely balanced body and a watery-tart finish.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium finish and a balanced, lean and crisp aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.4 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 in its prime: fine, delicate and very appealing, with a nuanced fruity and zesty accent – drink now or in the next 3 to 9 months. Just remember that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. This one has a very harmonious structure and it feels well balanced overall, therefore we believe that this wine style, with its light body and briny salinity, is a match made in heaven for slightly salted seafood dishes with delicate flavours, like for example a mediterranean avocado salmon salad or some smoked salmon bruschetta, as the last one is an epic pairing!

WineStatistics tasting results:

PURCARI
Vinohora | 2017

grape: | feteasca neagra | montepulciano |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 90.4 |

maturity: in its prime

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.