WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.
Tonight we are going to review one of the rising stars of local crémant wines – Cuvée de Purcari Alb Brut by Purcari. This sparkling wine is made using the classic and authentic ‘méthode traditionelle‘ style, using all three grape varieties that are allowed in the Champagne region: chardonnay, pinot blanc and pinot noir. The wine underwent a long term bottle fermentation, a process that delivers creaminess and roundness due to the ‘sur lie’ wine contact and an elegant ‘perlage’, which are the two most essential characteristics of a sparkling wine. But enough theory, let’s get straight to the tasting.
Visual
Deep pastel yellow color with bright, topaz-yellow hues towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with sweet fruits flavours: quince, baked bread, lees, yellow apple, lemon, apricot, butter, candied peach, gouda cheese, yellow mirabelle, cheesecake, pomelo, pineapple, apple seeds and some nuanced hints of bread crumbs.
Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with moderate alcohol level, high acidity and smooth tannin. It tastes creamy, fruity and round, with a nuanced buttery-yeasty accent. This is a quite lush, supple and crisp crémant wine with a quite fair overall balance – very appealing, noble and elegant, yet it does lack some firmness and structure on the mouthfeel.
Aftertaste
It has a medium finish and a balanced, smooth and zesty aftertaste.
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This is definitely a fine Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 90.6 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.
Conclusion: this is a fine sparkling on the peak of its form – creamy, round and opulent, with a fruity-yeasty profile and a nuanced zesty accent. It may lack some structure and firmness on the body, yet it feels very well balanced and extremely appealing. We would recommend to drink it now, as this wine is not meant for long term bottle ageing. In order to amplify its elegance, we would recommend to pair this wine with creamy dishes that are rich in smooth textures, like for example some tagliatelle ai funghi with butter or tagliolini with white truffle, as all that creaminess in the dish will be extremely well complemented by the smoothness of the wine. All you need is just one try. Cheers!
