PELICAN NEGRU | Soft Red Blend | 2015
cabernet sauvignon | malbec

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 yet another wine blend with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ – Soft Red Blend 2015 by Pelican Negru. This wine is a rare blend, made of cabernet sauvignon and malbec grape varieties, where cabernet sauvignon forms the body and main structure, while malbec adds the primary fruit and finesse to the final blend. It was a rarity to find malbec blends on the market in the past, yet things has changed and malbec is gaining popularity lately. Malbec is known for its plumpy, dark fruit flavors and smoky finish, mouthwatering acidity and deep purple hues. But enough theory, without further ado, let’s get straight to the tasting and find out how good this wine is!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Noble garnet color with elegant ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black and red fruits flavours: black plum, black cherry, black mulberry, overripe sour cherry, blackberry, ripe red plum, blackcurrant, ripe redcurrant and overripe pomegranate. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of lightly roasted wood, red pepper, nutmeg, black tea, cloves, anise and some subtle hints of black soil dust.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and fine tannin. It tastes round, lean and supple, with a nuanced fruitiness and a fine tannic grip on the mouthfeel. This is a quite balanced, bitter-seedy and lush wine blend, one that feels quite velvety and appealing, lacking a bit of boldness and structure on the plate. Still, the wine has a fair overall balance between fruit and wood, with some oaky and tart accents.

Aftertaste
It has a medium finish and a round, lean yet quite acrid aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.7 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 fine wine blend that is still on the rise, a wine that is very close to the summit of its prime form, thus we are strongly advocating for some more bottle ageing (12 months should suffice). At the moment the wine feels just a bit off its balance, as it tastes tart and lush, grippy yet lean, still, the potential is there – all it needs is a bit of time and patience. In order to counter-balance all that youthness in the wine, we would recommend to pair it with meaty dishes that are rich in smooth textures and natural fat, like for example a seared pepper beef carpaccio or some cheese and cold cuts platter.

WineStatistics tasting results:

PELICAN NEGRU
Soft Red Blend | 2015

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | malbec |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 90.7 |

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.