PRIPA | Rara Neagra | 2017
rara neagra

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Today we are going to review a wine that has quite some reputation amongst the local wine enthusiasts – Rara Neagra 2017 by Domeniile Pripa. This is a single varietal rara neagra wine, an indigenous grape variety that is also known as babeasca neagra in Romania, a variety that is famous for its ability to highlight aspects of terroir. The wine has been aged for 6 months in veritable moldovan oak barrels and produced in a very limited edition, thus it is a rarity even here in Moldova, as this is true microvinification. But let’s not get carried away by all that theory, without further ado – on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Pale and transparent garnet color, with hazy copper shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red fruit & black fruit flavours: sour cherry, sweet cherry, redcurrant, red plum, ripe cranberry, ripe wolfberry, blackberry, black cherry and some subtle irony hints. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, sweet tobacco, sun dried oak and some subtle hints of vanilla.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and fine-grained tannin. It tastes rough, tart and green, with a wide and quite opulent body, which forms a very flabby palate and an austere, even aggressive mouthfeel. The wine feels angular, with overwhelming alcohol that create an unpleasant burning sensation – this is a wine that lacks structure and harmony between its elements. As a result, it has a wide and flabby character and it creates the impression of a poorly balanced rara neagra wine.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium finish and an austere, fruity-tart aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fair wine of Moldova and, with a total of 88.7 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Conclusion: this is a fair rara neagra wine – fruity, opulent and austere – a wine that is still on the rise. Certainly, it can resist some more bottle ageing (1 or 2 years), yet we’d definitely not recommend it, as the wine does not hold any promises for further improvement – a fine example of a wine that should be enjoyed sooner rather than later. Indeed, there are wines that might gain some elegance with age (if you’re lucky enough) while losing most of the flamboyance, but there are also wines that does not have the prerequisites for bottle ageing, thus enjoying them young and fresh is the better outcome. That said, we would suggest to pair this wine with dishes that are rich in natural umami accents with hints of leathery flavours, like for example a very-rare ribeye steak with butter or a rare to medium-rare marinated venison steak. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

PRIPA
Rara Neagra | 2017

grape: | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Stefan-Voda

overall rating: | 88.7 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: fair | (quite good)

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© 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. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.