EQUINOX | Echinoctius | 2017
cabernet sauvignon | rara neagra | merlot

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Today we are going to review a wine that is regarded by many connoisseurs as a living legend – Echinoctius 2017 by Equinox. This is the winemaker’s flagship wine – a blend of cabernet sauvignon, rara neagra and merlot, where cabernet sauvignon forms the main body and structure, rara neagra adds cherry fruit flavors and a more refined mid-palate, whereas merlot rounds up the blend and delivers that smooth and lush finish that many adore. Before making it into the final blend, each variety has been harvested individually at its optimal ripeness and aged separately for 30 months in new oak barrels, needless to mention that this wine is produced in a very limited edition, as only 2050 bottles were ever made. 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
concentration: deep
colour: ruby
clarity: hazy
hue/rim: ruby

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: black fruits
__black fruits: black cherry | black plum | blackcurrant | blackberry | aronia berry
fruit character: ripe | overripe | dried

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | sweet | earth
__spice: black pepper | hints of paprika
__oak: cherry tree wood | roasted oakwood | liquorice | sweet tobacco | hints of smoke
__sweet: dried black cherry | dried black plum | black plum jam
__earth: black soil
__wood: new / medium+
aroma: primary | secondary

//Palate
sweetness: bone dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: medium+
__grip: fine | ripe
body: full
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
complexity: complex

//Taste
fruit profile: black fruits
fruit character: ripe | overripe
non fruit: spice | oak
finish: medium+
aftertaste: seedy-crisp

//Scoring
EQUINOX | Echinoctius | 2017
variety: cabernet sauvignon | rara neagra | merlot
country: Moldova
region: Stefan Voda
rating: 93.2

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise
verdict: great | a must try
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This is definitely a great wine of Moldova and, with a total of 93.2 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 definitely a great wine blend – one of the finest we’ve tasted so far – a wine that definitely needs more time to develop (4 to 5 years of bottle ageing) before it will come close to the summit of its prime form. It tastes rich, firm and complex, with an expressive fruit-forward profile and a touch of alcoholic marth showing through on the mouthfeel. The wine feels round and grippy, with overwhelming acidity and a seedy-crisps finale, where the primary fruit is complemented amazingly well by the oak-infused flavours. What this wine lacks today is some elegance and finesse, traits that will surely come with time spent in the bottle. In its current state the wine feels quite extracted and tastes supple, even voluptuous, with a full body and very ripe, fine-grained tannins. We would suggest to aerate this wine at least 45 minutes before serving. All in all, this is one of the best, if not the best, red blends on the market.
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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.