FÁUTOR | Illustro | 2016
cabernet sauvignon | merlot

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Today we are going to review a famous wine that is considered to be among the best ever made in Moldova – Illustro 2016 by Fáutor Winery. This is the winemaker’s flagship wine – a Bordeaux-styled blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, made of grapes sourced from the Valul lui Traian region in the south-west of Moldova, where cabernet sauvignon forms the main body and structure, whereas merlot adds up-front richness and rounds up the final blend, delivering some much desired smoothness on the finish. The curious fact is that cabernet sauvignon & merlot blends are the world’s most popular blending formula for red wines, as those two varieties combined can mask each other’s flaws and elevate each grapes’s characteristics to new levels, thus resulting in more complex, balanced and elegant wines. Illustro is a classic example of a modern Bordeaux blend that was vinified in a new-world style, aged for 12 months in french oak barriques, with several years of bottle ageing before being released on the market. 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 ruby color
clarity: hazy garnet shades

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & mature
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits | dried fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | cranberry
__black fruits: black plum | black cherry | aronia berry
__dried fruits: dried black plum | dried black cherry | dried sour cherry | dried cranberry
fruit character: overripe & dried

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | sweet | earth
__spice: peppercorn | black pepper
__oak: roasted oakwood | cherry tree wood | black tea | cherry tree bark | charred wood
__sweet: dried figs | dried dates
__earthy: black soil dust
primary layer: fruit & oak

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: high
__grip: firm
balance: good
__dominant: acidity & alcohol
body: firm & sharp | full body

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits & black fruits
fruit character: overripe & dried
non fruit: spice & oak
finish: medium
aftertaste: rough & tart

//Scoring
FÁUTOR | Illustro | 2016
variety: cabernet sauvignon | merlot
country: Moldova
region: Valul lui Traian
rating: 92.0

//Conclusion
maturity: past its prime | on the decline | drink now
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Moldova and, with a total of 92.0 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 a rough, angular and slightly unbalanced wine blend that has already stepped on the decline slope, therefore we would not recommend any further bottle ageing, as it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. It feels austere and sharp, with overwhelming acidity, firm and grippy tannins and quite a touch of alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel. On the nose the wine delivers overripe to dried red & black fruits in the foreground, supported by a very nuanced, spicy-oaky accent in the background, with a subtle earthy-dusty layer in between. All in all, this is a quite rough, bold and slightly aggressive wine blend that lacks some harmony and balance on the palate. We would recommend to pair it with spicy or barbequed meats in order to counter balance all those rough edges in the wine and enhance the expressivity provided by those fruity-oaky flavours on the nose. Cheers!

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