JIDVEI | Eiswein | 2018
gewurztraminer

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.

Tonight we are going to review a quite rare wine, as it is not only a mesmerizing dessert wine, but in fact a true ice wine from Dealurile Tarnavelor wine region in Romania – Eiswein 2018 by Jidvei. Ice wines are one of the treasures of the wine world: made from grapes that are left on the vines to freeze deep into the winter, so that the sugar content increases due to dehydration and frost and, as a result, those wines are highly concentrated in acids and sugar. Once you taste a true ice wine, it is really hard to ignore this wonderful gift that a marriage of grapes and cold weather can deliver. This particular wine is made out of raisinated gewurztraminer grapes (known as Traminer Roz in Tarnave) that were left to freeze on the vines deep into December, until ambient temperatures reached -10°C, before being harvested. But enough with all that theory – that said and without further ado, let’s move on straight to our tasting results.
_________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
color: medium-deep yellow color
clarity: bright topaz-yellow hues

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful & honeyed
fruit profile: sweet fruits | stone fruits | tropical fruits
__sweet fruits: pear | quince | yellow apple | dried pear | dried quince
__stone fruits: apricot | peach | nectarine | dried apricot
__tropical fruits: mango
fruit character: overripe & jammy

//Flavor
non fruit: floral | herbal | sweet
__floral: acacia blossom | linden flower | elderflower
__herbal: straw grass | hay
__sweet: honey | raisins | sugar syrup | quince jam | lemon jam | apricot jam
primary layer: fruit & jam

//Palate
sweetness: extra sweet
acidity: high
alcohol: medium
tannin: medium-
__grip: ripe
balance: fine
__dominant: sugar
body: round | medium+

//Taste
fruit profile: sweet fruits & stone fruits
fruit character: overripe & jammy
non fruit: floral & sweet
finish: long
aftertaste: velvety

//Scoring
JIDVEI | Eiswein | 2018
variety: gewurztraminer
country: Romania
region: Tarnave-Jidvei
rating: 97.0

//Conclusion
maturity: in its prime | drink now or age for up to 7 more years
verdict: exceptional | (simply epic – an outstanding wine)
_________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely an exceptional wine of Romania and with a total of 97.0 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 an outstanding and a really delicious dessert wine – one that has already stepped on the pedestal of its prime form – drink it now or age for another 5 to 7 years. This wine feels more of a summer nectar than an actual wine – lusciously sweet, oily and extremely appealing, with a nuanced fruity-jammy profile and a mesmerizing, velvety aftertaste. The wine is medium+ in body, with mouth-watering acidity and well integrated alcohol, which makes it taste round, syrupy and voluptuous. On the nose it delivers overripe and jammy sweet fruits in the foreground, followed by some very nuanced, floral and sweet notes in the background. All in all this is a really amazing dessert wine: well structured and complex, with a very harmonious mouthfeel and an appealing phenolic seediness in the aftertaste. This is a true summer elixir – if summer was a flavour, it would have tasted exactly like this wine. Simply delicious!

_________________________________________________________________________
© 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.