EQUINOX | Trei Crai | 2017
merlot | cabernet sauvignon | malbec

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The wine we are going to review tonight is one that that struck the market incognito but became a hit right away – Trei Crai 2017 by Equinox. The wine is a blend of three major french varieties: merlot which form the main body and delivers a more refined mid-palate, cabernet sauvignon which adds structure and texture to the blend, and malbec which is responsible for up-front richness and a lusher finish. Yet what makes this wine really unique, is that fact, that it has no added sulfites and is the first Bio certified wine of Moldova. But this is not all the story behind the bottle, as each variety was vinified separately from each other, thus merlot has been aged for 2 years in big, 500-liters oak barrels, while cabernet sauvignon and malbec were aged for 2 years in small oak barriques. That said, 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
clarity: clear
concentration: deep
colour: ruby
hue/rim: purple

//Sight
stain: medium
viscosity: medium
sediment: none

//Olfactory
outset: clean
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits | blue fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | sweet cherry | red plum | cranberry
__black fruits: wild cherry | black plum | blackcurrant | blackberry
__blue fruits: blue plum
fruit character: ripe | overripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak
__spice: red pepper | black pepper | nutmeg
__oak: vanilla | cinnamon | roasted oakwood | tobacco
__wood: new / roasted
aroma: primary | secondary

//Palate
sweetness: bone dry
acidity: med(+)
alcohol: med(+)
tannin: high
__grip: ripe
texture: round
body: full
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
complexity: complex

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits
fruit character: ripe | overripe
non fruit: spice | oak
finish: med(+)
aftertaste: velvety

//Scoring
EQUINOX | Trei Crai | 2017
variety: merlot | cabernet sauvignon | malbec
climate: moderate
country: Moldova
region: Stefan Voda
rating: 92.4

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise
verdict: great
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This is definitely a great wine of Moldova and, with a total of 92.4 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.

Verdict: this is one of the finest wine blends produced in Moldova in the last couple of years, a wine with a clear-cut varietal profiling: fruit-forward, extracted and expressive, with firm tannic grip on the mouthfeel, supported by crisp acidity and a well integrated alcohol level. Nonetheless, this is a very youthful wine, one that is still developing and one that can definitely age for another 3 to 5 years in the bottle, as the acidity is quite excessive and dominating other the palate. Overall the wine feels well structured, a bit too tart for our taste, yet seedy and grippy as we like, with a quite complex body and a noble touch of oak, maybe just a bit more than expected. Anyway, this ia an extremely appealing and, dare we say, flamboyant wine blend with a huge ageing potential. Enjoy!

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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.