EQUINOX | 5 Elemente | 2015
carmenère | merlot | syrah | rara neagra | 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.

Today we are going to review a legendary wine blend that is made with no fewer than 5 grape varieties: carmenère, merlot, syrah, rara neagra and malbec – all of them combined to the point of excellence – 5 Elemente 2015 from Equinox. Each variety was harvested individually at its optimum ripeness and aged separately for 30 months in new oak barrels. Only then, the winemaker blended each of them, turning the five wines into one of the most complex wine blend we’ve ever tasted thus far. Needless to mention that it has been produced in a very limited edition of only 3400 bottles, thus the wine is a rarity even here in Moldova, but enough theory, 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
Deep and noble garnet color, with pale and transparent ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe red and black fruits flavours: sour cherry, blackcurrant, ripe red plum, redcurrant, blackberry, black mulberry, ripe sweet cherry, black plum and cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of roasted oakwood, smoked plum, nutmeg, sweetwood, anise, dried figs, red pepper, tobacco, charcoal and some insistent hints of smoke.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels noble, complex and elegant, with a nuanced fruity-crisp accent. This is a quite velvety, expressive and extracted wine, as it tastes ripe, bold and refined. The wine is a quite harmonious and well structured, without any nuanced edges as it neither feels flamboyan nor overwhelming on the palate.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an velvety-noble aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 92.6 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 wine that is still on the rise, a wine that has yet to reach its top form, yet one that is very close to its summit. We think that it will get there in about 1 to 2 years of bottle ageing in optimal conditions. Despite its youthfulness, it has a firm accent on the palate, a nicely textured mouthfeel and a very elegant finale, with some mouth-watering acidity, that make this wine nothing less than a bottled mixture of ripe fruit and noble wood. We would recommend to pair this wine with meaty, but not spicy dishes, that are rich in umami flavours and smooth textures, like for example tournedos rossini beef medallions with foie gras and truffles or a filet mignon steak seared in garlic herb butter, in order to match all the wine’s elegance. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

EQUINOX
5 Elemente | 2015

grape: | carmenère | merlot | syrah | rara neagra | malbec |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 92.6 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: excellent | (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.