RADACINI | Fiori | Feteasca Neagra | 2016
feteasca 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 single varietal feteasca neagra wine, which is an indigenous romanian variety with moldovan origins – Fiori Feteasca Neagra 2016 by Radacini. Feteasca Neagra is the most famous grape variety in Romania, one that has not been yet explored at its full potential in Moldova. It can produce some bold and complex reds, wines that can be compared to new-world cabernet sauvignon, mostly due to their full body and elegant texture, thus resulting in quite distinctive wines, with a pronounced typicity and spiciness. This wine is part of the Fiori wine series, which is made of wines that are easy to drink and enjoy without too much fuss. But let’s not get carried away by the the theory aspect – without further ado, on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Noble and not too deep garnet color, with pale rubby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe black fruit flavours: ripe black plum, black mulberry, ripe black cherry, dried plum, ripe blackberry, ripe blackcurrant, cherry tree wood, roasted oakwood, nutmeg, red pepper and some nuanced hints of sweet tobacco.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels fruity, youthful and angular, with a bitter-seedy and tart accent. This is a quite appealing and ripe, as it tastes tart and quite complex. The wine is a bit off-balance, as it lacks harmony and elegance, with a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through on the mouthfeel.

Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and an acrid, bitter-seedy aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.0 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 quite youthful wine that is still on the rise – fruity, tart and seedy, with a bit more angularity that expected, nonetheless – a fine feteasca neagra wine. We would suggest 12 to 18 more months of bottle ageing, so that the tannins and acidity will get enough time to settle down, as the potential is there. Despite its angularity, the wine has plenty of tannic grip on the palate and a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through. Our recommendation is to pair this wine with spicy meaty dishes with smoky accents, like for example a grilled venison steak or a smoked ribeye steak, so that all the angularity in the wine will be tempered by the deep flavours of the meat. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

RADACINI
Fiori | Feteasca Neagra | 2016

grape: | feteasca neagra |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 90.0 |

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.