This wine came on the market in a quantity of 14 thousand bottles, making itself known during a wine tasting at the InVino wine room. Taraboste Chardonnay, 2013 deserves special attention.
If you want to experience body in white wine, this is the case. The high alcohol content—14% and maturation in new oak barrels (barriques) for six months, provided for its rich body. This wine may be readily added to a collection, since it has potential for maturation and further development in the bottle. With time (as long as you don’t take too much time) it will become even more noble, justifying the “Pur Aristocratic” inscription on the label.
The wine is of shiny straw colour with greenish nuances. The greenish tone and shine are considered exterior traits of quality wine.
The bouquet of the wine is very interesting and complex as maturated wine should be. First of all notes of banana, walnut, vanilla, caramel, melon and succulent yellow pear are felt. The secondary flavour (after the wine will have rested a while in the glass)—features summer herbs. One must note that, since wine is a live organism, its aromatic qualities change over time. Observe that the aroma, (bouquet) of the wine described on the label of the bottle might not always coincide with what you have in the glass. This is because technologists characterised the wine when it was poured into the bottle, where it continued to live and change. This especially refers to maturated wine. Additionally, each person interprets aromas in their own way.
The taste of wine is soft, silky. Regardless of the high alcohol content, it does not burn since the wine is well balanced. If the glass is turned, on its walls one may see “feet”—traces of natural glycerine, formed following the spirited yeasting of the vine must. Thanks to the glicerine content, the taste of wine acquires velоurness and fullness. The tones of maturity are not intrusive either. Generally taste perceptions are very rich, with notes of yellow pear and berberis. They finish with a long pleasant aftertaste (13 seconds) with citrus notes.
In the words of InVino chef-sommelier Mihail Druta, Taraboste Chardonnay—is a gastronomic wine, which would perfectly marry even with dishes that may be combined with red wines, specifically with grilled meat dishes. Given its vanilla notes, it also goes well with tuna steak.
I agree with the specialist opinion that this wine requires food. In my view, it would pair well with a juicy chicken shish kebab, some of the participants at the tasting proposing rabbit meat.
Taraboste Chardonnay, 2013 costs around 220 lei. Foreign wine experts state that the general “price/quality” ratio for wine of the Taraboste series is amazing. Wine of this quality level from famous wine regions are a lot more expensive. It would thus be a shame not to profit from it.
P.S. Maturated white wines are better enjoyed in special glasses—with wide openings, with a greater contact area of the wine with the air. Thus the wine enriches with oxygen faster, opening its bouquet.
