PRIPA | Feteasca Neagra | 2017
feteasca neagra

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Today we are going to review a wine that has quite some reputation amongst the local wine enthusiasts – Feteasca Neagra 2017 by Domeniile Pripa. This is a single varietal wine made of feteasca neagra grapes – which in fact is the most famous grape variety in Romania, grown for hundreds of years in the south of Moldova and eastern Muntenia – a variety that has not been yet explored at its full potential in Moldova. This particular 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. But let’s not get carried away by the theory and, without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Pale and transparent ruby color, with hazy purple hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is rich, filled mostly with black and red fruit flavours: black cherry, sour cherry, black plum, blackcurrant, redcurrant, red plum, blackberry, aronia berry and some subtle hints of swett wood. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, sweet tobacco, cloves and some subtle hints of vanilla.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with strong alcohol level, high acidity and fine-grained tannin. It tastes rough, austere and wide, with a quite aggressive and opulent palate, which leads to a bitter finale. The wine feels fruity yet angular and flabby, with overwhelming alcohol that create an unpleasant burning sensation – this is a wine that is off its balance – it lacks structure and harmony between its elements. As a result, it has a sharp and green character and it creates the impression of a poorly balanced feteasca neagra wine.

Aftertaste
The wine has a medium-plus finish and an austere, rough and warm 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 feteasca 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 would definitely not recommend it, as the wine does not hold any promises for further improvement due to lack of structure – 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 slightly spicy meaty dishes, like for example a grilled peppercorn-crusted filet mignon. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

PRIPA
Feteasca Neagra | 2017

grape: | feteasca 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.