The flavor of stone in wine of Moldova
Discover the of Moldova wines revealing the of stone flavor during the olphactive analysis (nose) and during the gustative analysis (mouth).
Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, one of many former Soviet states in that region. It is separated from the western shores of the Black Sea by the province of Odessa in Southern Ukraine and Lies just North of Romania and Bulgaria). Moldova gained independence from Russia in 1991. It is now officially called the Republic of Moldova.
The BordeauxGrape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have made their way into all Moldovan wine regions. As in many other regions, they have been grown with some success. Similarly, their Burgundian counterparts, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, are also present in Moldovan wines, as are German Riesling and light Italian-style Pinot Grigio. Grape varieties of more local origin are rather backward.
These include Feteasca Neagra, a red grape, and the unrelated light-skinned Feteasca Alba. In Moldova, the latter has often been confused with Feteasca Regala. These varieties translate into Black Maiden, White Maiden and Royal Maiden respectively. Rara Neagra is another dark-skinned variety that sometimes appears on export markets.
Imagine you went to a restaurant and ordered what you thought was a modest Burgundy, but it tasted like a great Bordeaux. Would you be disappointed? Even if what I received was technically a better wine, I think I would be. After all, quality isn’t the overriding criteria when I select a bottle of wine to drink; most of all, I’m thirsting for a specific style. That’s why I’m sometimes wary when hearing about a change of direction in an appellation. Am I still going to find the wine I’m looking f ...
Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...
I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...