VINARIA DIN VALE | Vintage | Codru | 2016
cabernet sauvignon | 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 classic Bordeaux blend with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ – Vintage Codru 2016 by Vinaria din Vale. This is a blend of the two classic varieties – cabernet sauvignon and merlot, which, in fact, is the world’s most famous blending formula, where cabernet sauvignon forms the main body and structure, while merlot adds smoothness and rounds up the final blend. The wine has been aged for 6 months in french oak barrels – a technique that is growing in popularity with each passing season, but let’s not put too much emphasis on the theory side, therefore, without further ado, 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
Deep but not opaque garnet color, with hazy ruby hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is rich, filled mostly with red and black fruit flavours: ripe sour cherry, red currant, blackcurrant, cherry tree wood, black plum, dried cranberry, overripe blackberry, black plum jam, dried cranberry and some delicate animal hints. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of red pepper, nutmeg, allspice, sweet tobacco and some subtle hints of red wood.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It tastes firm, bold and muscular, with a quie round, yet seedy and austere body and a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through. This is a quite fine, tart and fruit-forward wine blend – a wine that feels bitter-tart, angular and a bit off its balance, lacking maybe just a bit of finesse and harmony on the mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, with a seedy accent.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and a grippy, yet tart and a bit aggressive aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.1 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 and voluptuous wine blend that is still on the rise, a wine that is bit off its balance, therefore we are strongly advocating for a couple more years of bottle ageing (1 to 2 years should suffice). At the moment the wine is too tannic and too nuanced, as it tastes angular and austere, with overwhelming acidity, still, the potential is there – all it needs is a bit of patience and care. In order to counter-balance all that sharpness in the wine, we would recommend to pair it with meaty dishes that are rich in spicy flavours, like for example ribeye steak with wine sauce or some spicy ribs. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

VINARIA DIN VALE
Vintage | Codru | 2016

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | merlot |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 90.1 |

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.