F’AUTOR | *310 Altitudine | Merlot – Rara Neagra | 2016
merlot | 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.

The wine we are going to review tonight is neither new nor old, as it was released on the market a couple of seasons ago, yet it is still relatively unnoticed by the wine lovers – *310 Altitudine Merlot – Rara Neagra 2016 from Fautor Winery. This wine is a blend made of merlot and rara neagra grape varieties, where merlot forms the main body and structure, while rara neagra adds the primary fruit flavours and local terrior notes to the final blend. The wine is part of the *310 Altitudine wine series, that consists mainly of fresh, appealing and easy to drink wines. That said, 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 garnet color with pale ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red and black fruit flavours: ripe sour cherry, ripe sweet cherry, ripe red plum, red mulberry, redcurrant, blackberry, ripe blackcurrant, black plum, black mulberry and nuanced notes of cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of red pepper, nutmeg and some subtle hints of sweet tobacco.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It tastes round, ripe and lush, with a quie noble and seedy accent and a touch of alcoholic warmth. This is a quite lean, fine and fruity wine blend, as it feels crisp and supple, lacking maybe just a bit of harmony and finesse on the mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, with a plumpy-velvety accent.

Aftertaste
This is a wine with a medium-plus finish and a seedy-ripe aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.4 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 wine blend that is right at the summit of its prime form – quite appealing and fruity, a wine that is ready to be uncorked or kept for 12-18 more months of bottle ageing. In order to maximize its noble character, we would suggest to pair this wine with meaty dishes that are rich in natural fat and umami flavours, like for example a tournedos rossini fillet with foie gras and truffles or some beef tenderloin steak with herb pan sauce, as those smooth-irony accents in the dish will complement almost to perfection all those seedy-crisp notes in the wine. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

F’AUTOR
*310 Altitudine | Merlot – Rara Neagra | 2016

grape: | merlot | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 90.4 |

maturity: in its prime

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.