GITANA WINERY | Autograf | Merlot | 2014
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.

Tonight we are going to review another single varietal merlot wine – the world’s most underrated grape variety – Autograf Merlot 2014 by Gitana Winery. Merlot is usually regarded as the underdog to cabernet sauvignon, but make no mistake here – merlot wine is first class. Cool climate merlot is more structured with green tannins and round body, while warm climate merlot is more fruit-forward with ripe tannins. There are many fine merlot wines almost in every wine-producing country and Moldova is no exception. The wine we are reviewing tonight is part of the ‘Autograf’ collection, made of four single varietal wines, each of them bearing the signature of one of the owners – the Dulgher family. But enough theory, let’s move on straight to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Noble and deep purple color, with dark indigo hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red and blue fruits flavours: ripe blue plum, sour cherry, blackberry, red mulberry, black cherry, blackcurrant, red pepper and roasted oakwood. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of leather, nutmeg, black tea, tobacco, lavender, violets and some elegant hints of blue iris.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and firm tannin. It feels seedy, tart and velvety-elegant, with an off-dry, bitter-tannic accent. This is a quite smooth, crisp and fruity wine, as it tastes lean, supple and quite appealing. The wine has a fair overall balance, where wood fusions nicely with the fruit, forming a very round and harmonious body, that has a nuanced new-world profile on the mouthfeel.

Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and an balanced, bitter-seedy 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 firm, well structured merlot wine that is still on the rise – one that has yet to reach the summit of its prime form. It has a fine-tannic grip on the palate, with a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through – a real crowd pleaser. Due to its nuanced youthfulness, we would recommend a couple more years (2 to 3 years will suffice) of bottle ageing, so that the wine will get enough time to smoothen and round up its edges. In order to get the best of it, pair this wine with slightly sweet meaty dishes, like for example a mongolian beef steak with garlic and ginger or a seared medium-rare steak. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

GITANA WINERY
Autograf | Merlot | 2014

grape: | merlot |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 90.4 |

maturity: on the rise

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.