PELICAN NEGRU | Silk Red Blend | 2015
cabernet sauvignon | malbec | rara 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 yet another wine blend with the label ‘Made in Moldova’ – Silk Red Blend 2015 by Pelican Negru. This wine is a Bordeaux-style blend with indigenous accent, made of cabernet sauvignon, malbec and rara neagra varieties, where cabernet sauvignon forms main body and structure, malbec adds primary fruit, while rara neagra delivers local terrior and finesse to the final blend. That said, without further ado, let’s move on, 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
Deep and noble garnet color with pale ruby-copper shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruit flavours: blackcurrant, ripe sour cherry, blackberry, black plum, black mulberry, black cherry, black raspberry, black soil and paprika. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, currant leaf, beetroot, sweet tobacco, black tea and hints of hazelnut.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It tastes seedy, firm and elegant, with nuanced fruitiness and an oaky-tannic grip on the mouthfeel. This is a quite velvety, supple and complex wine blend – with a full-bodied mid-palate and a fine, well structured mouthfeel. It has a fair overall balance between fruit and wood, with some nuanced oaky-tart accents.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium-plus finish and a supple, seedy-tart aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 91.4 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 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 a couple more years of bottle ageing. At the moment the wine feels just a bit too youthful, as it tastes seedy and tart, with a fine grip on the mouthfeel. Still, the potential is there – all it needs is a bit of time and patience in order to round up and gain some elegance and harmony between its elements. In order to elevate this wine to its true potential, we would recommend to pair it with meaty dishes that are rich in natural flavours with slightly spicy accents, like for example grilled skirt steak with red wine marinade or filet mignon steak with garlic and butter dressing. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

PELICAN NEGRU
Silk Red Blend | 2015

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | malbec | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 91.4 |

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.