ET CETERA | Cuvee Rouge | 2015
cabernet sauvignon | merlot | saperavi

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 that we are going to review tonight is a rare wine blend from the winemaker’s premium line, also known as the ‘black label’ – Cuvee Rouge 2015 by Et Cetera. The wine has been produced in a limited edition of only 6000 bottles and, as is the norm for this kind of wines, it has been aged for 18 months in new oak barrels. The wine itself is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, which is responsible for the wine’s body, merlot, which adds rounds up all the sharp edges and ass suppliness, and saperavi, responsible for the color depth and leathery notes in the final blend, but enough theory – on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Not deep but opaque garnet color with pale ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black and blue fruits flavours: blue plum, leather, blackcurrant, black cherry, black soil dust, ripe blackberry, ripe sour cherry, ripe black plum, black mulberry, smoked plum, dried cherry, dried cranberry and some nunced notes of red wood. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, cherry tree wood and some elegant hints of sweet tobacco.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, strong acidity and smooth tannin. It feels young, supple and opulent, with a quite bold and tart body. This is a lean, smooth and a bit green wine, as it tastes woody, fruit-forward and maybe just a bit too acrid on the mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, with a fine-tannic grip on the palate.

Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and an balanced, bitter-sweet aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.7 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 youthfull wine that has yet to reach the prime of its form. Due to its high acidity and green tannins, this is a wine that requires a couple more years of bottle ageing (at least 2 more years as far as we can estimate). The wine itself lacks a bit of firmness and finesse on the mouthfeel, a sit feels too round, too lush and too plumpy. We would recommend to pair this wine with meaty dishes that display slightly sweet accents, like for example a pan seared filet mignon with red wine reduction sauce or a garlic and ginger steak caramelised in soy sauce. Noroc!

WineStatistics tasting results:

ET CETERA
Cuvee Rouge | 2015

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | merlot | saperavi |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 90.7 |

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.