PRIPA | Saperavi | 2017
saperavi

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Today we are going to review a wine that has been considered amongst the best local wines since its first appearance on the market – Saperavi 2017 by Domeniile Pripa. This is a single varietal saperavi wine made of grapes that are sourced from the famous Purcari area in the Stefan Voda wine region. Saperavi is a teinturier grape variety, which means that the flesh of the berry is also dark, thus the wines are very deep in color with high natural acidity and firm tannins, which makes them respond 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 for 6 months in veritable moldovan oak barrels and produced in a very limited edition, thus it is a rarity even here in Moldova. 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 & opaque
colour: ruby
clarity: hazy
hue/rim: purple

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

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | earth | other
__spice: black pepper | cloves
__oak: roasted oakwood | liquorice | sweet tobacco | black tea | hints of smoke
__earth: dust | black soil
__other: dried black plum | dried black cherry | leather | cherry tree wood
__wood: new / medium+ roasted

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: med(+)
alcohol: med(+)
tannin: medium
__grip: fine
body: round | medium
balance: fair
__dominant: acidity & alcohol
complexity: moderate

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

//Scoring
PRIPA | Saperavi | 2017
variety: saperavi
country: Moldova
region: Stefan Voda
rating: 90.6

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise | developing
verdict: good | recommended
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This is definitely a good wine of Moldova and, with a total of 90.6 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.

Verdict: this is a very good saperavi wine – fruity, oaky and spicy – a wine that is still developing in the bottle, one that can resist another year or two of bottle ageing. That said, we would recommend to keep track of its development, as this is a fine example of a wine that should be enjoyed sooner rather than later, as it lacks harmony between its elements in order to hold good promises of future greatness. The wine tastes tart, seedy and austere, with nuanced hints of smoke and a bitter-angular finale. All in all it feels neither bold nor flabby and it creates the impression of a fair, well made wine, yet one that lacks some structure and complexity on the palate. The wine is mostly compromised by the oak, as it feels too oaky on the nose, with wood clearly dominating over the fruit. We would suggest to pair this wine with meaty dishes that are rich in flavour, like for example a sirloin steak, so that all those oak-infused flavours would be counter-balanced by the delicacy and smoothness of the irony-meaty notes in the dish. Cheers!
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