RADACINI | Fiori | Feteasca Neagra & Syrah | 2016
feteasca neagra | syrah

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 – Fiori Feteasca Neagra & Syrah 2016 by Radacini. This wine is a blend of feteasca neagra and syrah grape varieties, where feteasca neagra forms the main body and brings local terrior to the blend, while syrah adds primary fruit flavours and builds the wine’s structure. This wine is part of the Fiori wine series, which is made of 3 wines that are easy to drink and enjoy without too much fuss. But let us skip past the theory side and move on, straight to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep and noble garnet color, with hazy rubby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe black fruit flavours: overripe sour cherry, ripe blackcurrant, ripe black plum, overripe blackberry, black mulberry, black raspberry, dried plum, dried cherry and cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with noble notes of roasted oakwood, nutmeg, black pepper and some hints of sweet tobacco.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and firm tannin. It feels grippy, firm and seedy, with a nuanced acrid-tart accent. This is a quite bold and tannic, as it tastes youthful and quite spicy. The wine is a bit angular and off-balance, as it lacks harmony and elegance, with a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through on the mouthfeel.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and a balanced, yet acrid-seedy aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________

This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 91.0 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 wine blend indeed. We would suggest 12 to 24 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 youthfulness in the wine will be tempered by the nuanced flavours of the meat. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

RADACINI
Fiori | Feteasca Neagra & Syrah | 2016

grape: | feteasca neagra | syrah |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 91.0 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: fine | highly recommended

___________________________________________________________________________
(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.