CARASTELEC | Vinca | Sophia | Cuvée Barrique | 2015
chardonnay
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Tonight we are going to review a truly epic wine – Vinca Sophia Cuvée Barrique 2015 by Carastelec Winery. This wine is a single varietal barrel fermented chardonnay wine that has been aged ‘sur lie’ and maturated for 8 months in oak barrels. It has been named in the honour of princess Zsófia Báthory, who donated the forest and vines to the Carastelec village. This wine is part of the ‘Vinca‘ brand, which includes three single varietal. All three wines are named after personalities who played an influential role in the history of Carastelec village and winery. The ‘Vinca’ name comes from a species of flowering plant, which blooms nearby the vineyard, but enough theory, let’s move on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Pale, pastel yellow color with elegant, honey-melon shades towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with sweet fruits and citrus flavours: white yellow melon, quince, yellow pear, straw grass, yellow apple, lemon, hay, yellow mirabelle, gooseberry, pomelo, white peach, ripe pineapple, apricot, melissa and honey. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of vanilla, fresh oakwood, butter, walnut, white tea, camomile, iris flower, honeysuckle and some nuanced notes of brioche.
Gustatory
The wine is dry, with moderate alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. This is a fruity, oaky and citrusy wine, with a nuanced creamy-buttery profile. It tastes lean, elegant and supple, with a very good overall balance and a round, complex body that evolves into a firm and woody mouthfeel. The wine my feel just a bit angular due to its bitter-oaky tannins, but this has to be expected from an oaked chardonnay.
Aftertaste
It has a long-plus finish and a bitter-crisp and velvety-elegant aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Romania and the overall rating says the same, with 92.0 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 great chardonnay wine on the summit of its prime form – velvety and elegant, with overwhelming creaminess and mesmerizing vanilla-lactic flavours. On our memory, this is one of the most complex and balanced chardonnay wine we’ve tasted so far. The wine does display signs of ageing potential, yet we would not recommend to keep it more than 12 months in the bottle, as it may start its decline by that time and there’s risk that you may miss all this elegance and finesse. We would suggest to pair this wine with creamy dishes rich in smooth textures, like for example some crab legs with garlic and butter or lobster tails with white butter sauce. Enjoy!
WineStatistics tasting results:
CARASTELEC
Vinca | Sophia | Cuvée Barrique | 2015
grape: | chardonnay |
overall rating: | 92.0 |
maturity: in its prime
conclusion: great | a must try
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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.
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