CARLEVANA | Raritet | Rara Neagra | 2014
rara neagra

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 very rare wine – Raritet Rara Neagra 2014 by Carlevana. This is a single varietal rara neagra wine, which is an indigenous red grape variety that is growing in popularity in the last couple of years and which is steady reaching its full potential here in Moldova, mostly due to its ability to highlight local terroir. This wine is part of the ‘Raritet’ wine series, composed of three single varietal wines, all of them aged in french and canadian oak barrels. Quite impressive, but let’s not get carried away by the the theory side – on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep and noble garnet color, with bright ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red and black fruits flavours: sour cherry, black plum, black mulberry, blackberry, blackcurrant, jostaberry, ripe pomegranate, cherry seeds and cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with noble notes of smoked plum, nutmeg, red and black pepper, black tea, tobacco and some hints of roasted oakwood.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and smooth tannin. It feels firm yet supple and lean, with a nuanced, fruity and bitter-crisp accent. This is a quite smooth, tart and a bit angular wine, as it tastes firm, seedy but not tannic. The wine is a bit off the balance, mostly due to the overwhelming acidity.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an balanced, seedy and tart 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 quite firm and noble wine that is just a bit over its prime form – a wine that can resist some more bottle ageing (2 to 3 more years), yet we would not recommend it, as there are no signs of ageing potential. It has a nuanced seedy grip on the palate, with a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through towards the end of the plate. Due to this characteristics, we would suggest to pair this wine with meaty dishes rich in umami-sweet accents, like for example a medium-rare sirloin steak or a pan-seared skillet steak with browned butter sauce,s the later one is an epic pairing indeed. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

CARLEVANA
Raritet | Rara Neagra | 2014

grape: | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Codru

overall rating: | 90.4 |

maturity: over 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.