TARABOSTE | Pur Aristocratic | 2015
cabernet sauvignon | merlot

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Today we are going to perform a trip into the past and re-evaluate a wine that is rightly considered among the best ever made in Moldova – Taraboste Pur Aristocratic 2015 by Château Vartely. This wine was the winemaker’s flagship red blend and one of the most famous wines with the label ‘Made in Moldova‘ – a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot grape varieties, where cabernet sauvignon forms the wine’s main body and structure, while merlot adds up-front richness and rounds up the final blend, delivering some much desired smoothness on the finish. Taraboste, which is a tribute to dacian ancestors who set up the bases of winemaking in nowadays Moldova, is a classic example of a modern Bordeaux-styled blend, aged for 18 months in new, french oak barriques. Here you can find all the other versions of this wine: 2015, 2016 and 2017. But enough theory, 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: medium-deep garnet color
clarity: hazy copper shades on the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & mature
fruit profile: red fruits
__red fruits: dried sour cherry | dried cranberry
fruit character: dried

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | earthy | other
__spice: red pepper | cloves | anise
__oak: sun-dried oakwood | dried cherry tree wood
__earthy: loam | clay | marl | hints of forest floor | sweet potato
__other: wood varnish | dried leaves | wormwood | dried tomatoes | tobacco leaf | dried herbs
primary layer: tertiary

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: medium+
__grip: ripe
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
body: plump | medium+

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits
fruit character: dried
non fruit: herbs
finish: medium+
aftertaste: crisp & seedy

//Scoring
TARABOSTE | Pur Aristocratic | 2015
variety: cabernet sauvignon | merlot
country: Moldova
region: Stefan Voda | Bugeac
rating: 92.5

//Conclusion
maturity: past its prime | on the decline
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Moldova and, with a total of 92.5 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 crisp, round and seedy wine blend, with a plump palate and very nuanced tertiary notes on the nose. The wine is fully developed, past its prime form and on the decline, therefore we would recommend to enjoy it today rather than tomorrow. On the nose the wine brings a mixture of dried red fruits and herbs in the foreground, followed by a spicy-earthy background. On the palate the wine delivers mouth-watering acidity, ripe and fine-grained tannins and just a touch of alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel, which leads to a crisp and seedy aftertaste. All in all, this is a well structured, rich and complex wine blend that is totally dominated by the tertiary flavours. This wine is still enjoyable today, yet it is a wine that is a couple of years too late, left with only hints of its former glory, as the fruit is completely gone, along with all the secondary aromatics that once were it’s trademark. Nevertheless, we do recommend to try this one out, if you want to understand how a wine evolves over the 5 to 7 years of bottle ageing – a good practice for all those who can appreciate an aged Bordeaux-blend. Our suggestion is to pair this wine with fat-rich, meaty dishes, like for example filet mignon with herbs & butter or a pan-seared filet mignon with chimichurri, so that all the acidity in the wine will cut nicely through the fats of the dish. An amazing pairing indeed. Cheers!

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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.