GITANA WINERY | Saperavi | 2018
saperavi

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.

Today we are going to review another wine that is growing in popularity with each new release – Saperavi 2018 by Gitana Winery. This is a single varietal saperavi wine, which is Georgia’s main red variety, that is also planted on substantial areas in Moldova. Saperavi is a teinturier grape variety, which means that the flesh of the berry is also dark, thus the saperavi wines are very deep in color with high natural acidity, which makes them respond very well to ageing. Although Georgia is the birthplace of saperavi, there are a handful of other european countries that also grow and produce high-quality saperavi wines and Moldova is one of them. This particular wine has been aged in clay amphoras in order to preserve all the genuine varietal and terrior flavours of the grapes. That said, without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
concentration: deep & opaque
colour: ruby
clarity: clear
hue/rim: purple

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: black fruits
__black fruits: black cherry | black plum | blackcurrant | blackberry | black mulberry
fruit character: ripe & overripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | sweet | other
__spice: red pepper | black pepper | nutmeg | cloves | rosemary
__sweet: black cherry jam | liquorice | sweet tobacco
__other: leather | dried black plum | black tea
__wood: none

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

//Taste
fruit profile: black fruits
fruit character: ripe & overripe
non fruit: spice & sweet
finish: med(+)
aftertaste: seedy & sweet

//Scoring
GITANA WINERY | Saperavi | 2018
variety: saperavi
country: Moldova
region: Valul lui Traian
rating: 92.3

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise | developing
verdict: great | a must try
___________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely a great wine of Moldova and, with a total of 92.3 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 a very fine saperavi wine – velvety, rich and extremely appealing – a wine that is still on the rise and one that can resist another 2 or 3 years of bottle ageing. It tastes crisp, ripe and bitter-seedy, with a very expressive and extracted fruity-spicy profile and a bitter-sweet finale. This is a quite grippy and well structured wine, with a firm yet elegant palate and a fine-tannic grip on the mouthfeel. Our recommendation would be to drink it today rather than tomorrow and enjoy it in its full flamboyance. The wine delivers some very nuanced liquorice-leathery hints in the foreground, followed by plenty of spice in the background – truth to be told, this is one of the finest saperavi wines we’ve tasted so far. Our recommendation is to pair this wine with meaty dishes that are rich in flavour, like for example an extra-rare filet mignon or a peppercorn-crusted filet mignon steak with wild mushrooms and cognac/divin cream. Enjoy!
___________________________________________________________________________
© 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.