PRIPA | Saperavi | 2018
saperavi

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Today we are going to review a wine that is considered amongst the best single-varietal saperavi wines from Moldova – Saperavi 2018 by Domeniile Pripa. This wine is made of grapes that were 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. Some even go as far as to say that the saperavi wines that are made in Moldova are of a better quality that the ones from Georgia. This particular wine has been aged in veritable moldovan oak barriques and produced in a very limited edition, thus it is a rarity even in Moldova. That said 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
colour: deep & opaque ruby color
clarity: hazy ruby shades on the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful & expressive
fruit profile: black fruits & blue fruits
__black fruits: black plum | blackberry | black cherry
__blue fruits: blue plum | blueberry
fruit character: overripe & jammy

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | sweet | earthy | other
__spice: red pepper & nutmeg
__oak: roasted oakwood | liquorice | tobacco | black tea | oaktree bark
__sweet: blueberry jam | blackberry jam | dried figs & dates
__earthy: hints of black soil dust & turf
__other: subtle hints of wood varnish
primary layer: oak

//Palate
sweetness: bone dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: high
__grip: fine
balance: fair
__dominant: alcohol
body: rough | full body

//Taste
fruit profile: black fruits
fruit character: overripe & jammy
non fruit: spice & oak
finish: medium+
aftertaste: seedy-hot

//Scoring
PRIPA | Saperavi | 2018
variety: saperavi
country: Moldova
region: Stefan Voda | Purcari
rating: 91.7

//Conclusion
maturity: developing | age for 3-4 years
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Moldova and, with a total of 91.7 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.

Verdict: this is a very good saperavi wine: fruity, oaky and spicy – a wine that is still developing in the bottle, thus one that can resist 3 or 4 more years of bottle ageing. It tastes rich and jammy, with a nuanced fruity-oaky profile and a quite austere palate. The wine has elevated acidity and overwhelming alcohol warmth on the mouthfeel, which leads to a spicy, burning-hot aftertaste. This is a full-bodied saperavi wine, with firm yet fine-grained tannins, a muscular palate and a very expressive nose – a wine made in an extractive, new-world and fruit-forward style, with plenty of overripe and jammy black fruits and a very nuanced spicy-oaky, and slightly smoky finish. What this wine lacks today is a bit finesse on the palate, as in its current state it feels sharp, angular and a bit aggressive (mostly due to the high alcohol content). This is a wine that requires a bit more time to settle down and round up its rough corners, still a wine with a great ageing potential and one that will definitely improve with additional bottle ageing.

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