FÁUTOR | Negre | 2017
feteasca neagra | rara neagra

We will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss our reviews. 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 wine we are going to review today is one that we fell in love with from the first sight, as this is a 100% genuine Wine of Moldova – Negre 2017 by Fáutor Winery. A wine blend that is made of only local, indigenous grape varieties – feteasca neagra and rara neagra, aged for 12 months in french oak barrels and produced in a relatively limited edition of 19000 bottles. We have already mentioned the enormous potential of our two red local varieties, and it seems that we are now witnessing a historical rise in overall quality and popularity of indigenous wines, a rise that has been also mentioned by Andreas Larsson. This is also a wine with a story behind the bottle, as there is a swallow depicted on the label, with the tail separated by the label frame, which is done intentionally, as feteasca neagra is also known as ‘coada randunicii‘ (the swallow tail). That said, without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results and find out how good this wine really is.
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep and noble ruby color with ripe pomegranate hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe red and black fruit flavours: sour cherry, red plum, redcurrant, black cherry, black plum, blackcurrant, blackberry, black raspberry and some nuanced hints of cherry tree wood. An instant the nose is filled with elegant notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, cloves, sweet tobacco, leather, vanilla, cinnamon and some subtle irony hints.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and fine tannin. It feels fruity, rustic and youthful, with a supple and round body. This is a quite seedy, tart and noble wine, with a quite appealing character and overwhelming acidity on the mouthfeel, as it tastes crisp and expressive. It has a fair overall balance between all its elements and it feels ripe, rich and velvety, with pronounced primary fruit and subtle oak-infused flavours.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a quite pleasing, tart and seedy aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________

This is definitely a fine wine of Moldova and, with a total of 91.6 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 fine wine blend that is yet too young to be enjoyed today – a wine that is still on the rise – fruity, round and very appealing. It might be very close to the peak of its form, therefore we are strongly advocating for another year of bottle ageing in order to enjoy it at its finest. Still, as we’ve already mentioned before, it is of paramount importance to understand a wine’s limits: there are wines that might gain some much desired elegance with age, but there are also wines that are elegant enough in their yearly stages and age will only take its toll on them. Older wines might develop more complex and less fruity flavours by losing the flamboyance of their youth – fruit turns from ripe to overripe to cooked, while tannins and acidity rounds up and smoothens, turning the wine into a pure hedonistic experience. Our recommendation is to drink it in the next 6 months and pair it with medium-rare steaks, like for example beef rossini medallions with foie gras and truffles or a very-rare T-bone pepper steak. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

FÁUTOR
Negre | 2017

grape: | feteasca neagra | rara neagra |

region: Moldova | Valul lui Traian

overall rating: | 91.6 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: fine | (highly recommended)

___________________________________________________________________________
© 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.