PRINCE STIRBEY | Vin Spumant ~ Extrabrut | #
novac

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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 ~ Extrabrut by Prince Stirbey. Made only with novac 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. This wine started its vinification cycle as a red wine, aged in oak barrels for 6 months before it was transferred to the bottle, where the second fermentation occurred, where the wine spent 4 years on fine lees (sur lie ageing) in order to gain extra complexity and creaminess. The novac grape variety is widely different from the mainstream grape varieties, as the resulting wines are neither extracted nor concentrated, but finely nuanced and elegant, with a pronounced rustic profile. It has been obtained by individual selection and crossing of two indigenous varieties: romanian negru vartos and georgian saperavi. But enough theory, 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 peach-pink color
clarity: clear salmon hues on the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: pronounced & yeasty
fruit profile: red fruits | stone fruits | berry fruits
__red fruits: sweet cherry | red delicious apple
__stone fruits: pink peach | pink mirabelle
__berry fruits: wolfberry | berberry | cranberry
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: herbal | yeast
__herbal: hay | straw grass | wheat
__yeast: bread crust | baguette | bread crumbs | butter | yeast | crème brûlée | brioche | bisquit | dough
primary layer: fruity-yeasty

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

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

//Scoring
PRINCE STIRBEY | Vin Spumant ~ Extrabrut | #
variety: novac
country: Romania | Oltenia
region: Dragasani
rating: 93.5

//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 93.5 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 an outstanding sparkling wine: supple, plump and round, with a nuanced leesy-yeasty profile on the nose and a well structured palate. The wine is right there, at the peak 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 ripe stone fruits, ripe berry fruits and nuanced yeasty notes in the foreground, followed by some subtle herbal hints in the background. On the palate the wine delivers exuberant acidity and a well integrated alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel, all of which evolve into an appealingly-crisp and refreshing aftertaste. All in all, this is a quite noble and well balanced crémenat wine that doesn’t lack neither structure nor complexity on the palate. We believe that this is one of the fines sparkling/crémenat wine we’ve tasted so far and definitely one of the best from Romania – a wine that is very close in character and style to all those classics like Champagne or Crémant d’Alsace wines. Enjoy!

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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.