PRINCE STIRBEY | Vin Spumant ~ Brut | #
cramposie selectionata

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Today we are also going to review a quite unique sparkling wine that is rightly considered to be one of the best crémant wines of Romania – Vin Spumant ~ Brut by Prince Stirbey. Made only with cramposie selectionata grapes that were sourced from the Dragasani region in Oltenia and produced using the authentic méthode traditionelle technique (also called méthode champenoise), the same way the famous french Champagne is made. After the second fermentation in the bottle, the wine spent 2 years on fine lees (sur lie ageing) in order to gain extra complexity and creaminess. Cramposie Selectionata (also known as Carloganca) is a very old grape variety that dates back to pre-Roman Empire days, when the region between the Danube river and the Carpathian Mountains was inhabited by the Dacians – it is one of the very few dacian varieties that have survived to present days. Being an autosterile variety (whose flowers cannot bear fruit by their own pollen), it used to be cultivated alongside the Gordan variety, which was a good natural pollinator. To eliminate the phenomenon of sterility in Cramposie, a group of researchers from Dragasani, led by Doctor Mircea Marculescu, created the Cramposie Selectionata variety by direct sexed hybridization between Cramposie and Gordan varieties. That said and without further ado, let’s move on straight to the tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
color: medium-deep pastel yellow color
clarity: clear yellow hues at the rim of the glass

//Olfactory
intensity: pronounced & yeasty
fruit profile: sweet fruits
__sweet fruits: pear | quince | yellow apple | apricot | asian pear | dried apple
fruit character: ripe & overripe

//Flavor
non fruit: herbal | yeast | other
__vegetal: wheat | hay | straw grass
__yeast: bread crust | bread crumbs | baguette | yeast | butter | brioche | bisquit | crème brûlée | dough
__other: cashew
primary layer: yeast

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: medium+
alcohol: medium
tannin: none
__grip: ripe
balance: good
__dominant: none
body: round | medium+

//Taste
fruit profile: sweet fruits
fruit character: ripe & overripe
non fruit: lees/yeast
finish: long
aftertaste: appealingly crisp

//Scoring
PRINCE STIRBEY | Vin Spumant ~ Brut | #
variety: cramposie selectionata
country: Romania | Oltenia
region: Dragasani
rating: 94.0

//Conclusion
maturity: in its prime | drink now or in the next 2-3 years
verdict: great | a legendary wine
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This is definitely a great wine of Romania and with a total of 94.0 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 sparkling wine: supple, plump and velvety, with a nuanced leesy-yeasty profile on the nose and a very well structured palate. The wine is right there, at the summit of its prime form, therefore we would recommend to drink it today rather than tomorrow or within the next 2 or 3 years. On the nose the wine brings a mixture of sweet fruits and nuanced yeasty notes in the foreground, followed by some subtle herbaceous hints in the background. On the palate the wine delivers mouth-watering acidity and a well integrated alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel, all of which evolve into a velvety-smooth aftertaste. All in all, this is a very round and well balanced crémenat wine that doesn’t lack neither structure nor complexity on the palate. We believe that this is one of the best sparkling/crémenat wine we’ve tasted so far and definitely one of the best of Romania – a wine that is very close in character and style to those from Champagne region or Crémant d’Alsace wines.

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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.