MAXIMARC | Cadarca | 2020
kadarka

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Tonight we are going to review a single-varietal kadarka wine from the relatively cool Minis-Maderat region of Transylvania – Cadarca 2020 by MaxiMarc Winery. Recent research suggests that an ancestor of kadarka, the papazkarasi variety, found in the Strandja region of Thrace (modern days Bulgaria), was taken westwards and planted around Lake Scutari, near the today’s Albania and Montenegro border, where it was crossed with a local variety skardarsko, creating kadarka. Kadarka is a high-yielding grape variety and can result in opulently-flabby wines, but when yields are restrained, kadarka can make full-bodied and tannic wines. Today, kadarka can also be found in southern Slovakia, western Romania (in Recas and Minis where it is known as cadarca), northern Serbia and in Bulgaria (where it is called gamza). This grape variety is quite susceptible to rot, thus, in some vintages, a small amount of botrytis-affected grapes can be added to the final wine in order to provide more richness and complexity. This particular wine underwent a long fermentation (that lasted 1 month) on ambient yeasts, followed by a period of extended, post-fermentation maceration, that was meant to extract as much flavour and color as possible from the skins of the grapes. In order to preserve the varietal typicity of the kadarka grapes, half of the wine has been matured in romanian oak barrels, while the other half has been aged in stainless steel tanks. 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 garnet color
clarity: pale garnet shades

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & savory
fruit profile: red fruits
__red fruits: redcurrant | cranberry | sour cherry | wolfberry | rose hips
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: vegetal | spice | oak | earth | savory | other
__vegetal: wormwood | coriander | sage
__spice: thyme | cloves | anise 
__oak: cherry tree wood | sun-dried oak | rooibos tea
__earth: loam | clay | marl
__savory: brown olive | old leather
__other: pomegranate skin
primary layer: fruit

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: medium+
alcohol: high
tannin: medium
__grip: seedy
balance: fair
__dominant: alcohol
body: angular | medium-

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits
fruit character: ripe
non fruit: spice & herbs
finish: medium
aftertaste: bitter-hot

//Scoring
MAXIMARC | Cadarca | 2020
variety: kadarka
country: Romania
region: Transilvania | Minis-Maderat
rating: 90.6

//Conclusion
maturity: in its prime | drink now or within 1-2 years
verdict: nice | enjoyable wine
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This is definitely a nice wine of Romania and, with a total of 90.6 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 quite rough, astringent and angular kadarka wine, with a nuanced fruity-herbal profile and a bitter-hot mouthfeel. The wine is right there, at the peak of its form, therefore we would recommend to drink it today or within the next 2 years, as we firmly believe that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. On the nose the wine delivers ripe red fruits and a some herbaceous notes in the foreground, followed by a quite savory background and a subtle earthy layer in between. On the palate the wine showcases underwhelming acidity, rough and seedy tannins and quite a touch of alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel, that leads to a bitter-hot aftertaste. All in all, this is a quite austere, heady and unbalanced kadarka wine, that in its current state lacks harmony and structure on the palate. Judging by the wine’s structure and its flavour profile, we would recommend to pair it with spicy or rustic meats, like for example peppercorn-crusted tomahawk steak or veal steak with sour cherry sauce. Cheers!

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