RADACINI | Reserve ’15 | 2015
cabernet sauvignon | merlot | syrah

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 classic Bordeaux-style blend with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ – Reserve ’15 2015 by Radacini. The wine is made in a limited edition of only 6981 bottles – a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah grape varieties, this wine is part of the winemaker’s flagship line that has been released on the market this past autumn. As is the norm for this class of wines, it has been aged for 24 months in french oak barrels, followed by a long maturation period in the bottle, but let’s not put too much emphasis on the theory side. 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
Hazy ruby color, not too deep, with pale copper hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red and black fruits flavours: ripe sour cherry, blackcurrant, ripe redcurrant, viburnum berry, ripe red plum, boysenberry, ripe red mulberry, marionberry, red bell pepper, loganberry, sun dried oakwood and cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with nuanced notes of red pepper, rooibos tea, anise, cloves, nutmeg, leather, black soil, clay and some subtle hints of sun dried meat.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels earthy but fruity at the same time, seedy, noble and a bit wide, with a nuanced spicy-green accent. This is a bold, complex and angular wine, as it tastes tart and rough on the mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, with a firm and supple mid-plate.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an ripe at first, yet tart and green aftertaste towards the end.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.6 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 bold and noble wine in its prime form and on the edge of the decline slope, thus we would suggest to drink it now, with a 25-30 minutes of aeration before serving. Overall this is a fine wine, yet it feels quite a bit off the balance – angular and rough, with nuanced green bitterness – a wine that lacks character and structure to be considered up there, amongst the elite. Despite all its angularity, the wine has a very appealing mid-palate and a nuanced fruity-supple profile. We would suggest to pair it with flavoured meaty dishes, like for example a butter basted flank steak or a pan seared garlic & butter steak with mushroom cream sauce. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

RADACINI
Reserve ’15 | 2015

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | merlot | syrah |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 90.6 |

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.