Moldovan Wine Question

WINE TALK
1

I was at a local tasting - an annual charity event hosted by the McLean Rotarians - and one of the tasting tables featured wines from Moldova some of which were quite delicious.

I particularly enjoyed the red 2012 Rarã Neagrã from (by?) Cricova and ended up buying a three-pack but I have been unable to find much if any detail on CT and the intertoobz about the wine like what sort of grape(s) it is made out of etc.

So I am hoping that someone in the community has experience with this wine and can either describe it for me or point me in the right direction for more information.

The front label says:

Rarã Neagrã - grape variety
Cricova - region?
Orasul Subteran - ?

On the back is some descriptive text in (what I assume to be) Moldovan with an English translation but it is quite general. One fascinating thing to me is that the Moldovan text is definitely a romance language which I can almost understand given my knowledge of French.

For me the wine is somewhat reminiscent of a Chinon Cab Franc so I’m very interested in the grape variety Rarã Neagrã it was made from, and how it may relate historically and genetically to other varieties.

2

The official language of Moldova is Romanian.

From Wikipedia I learned that Rarã Neagrã is an indigenous grape usually blended with other red grapes, and is an important component of Negru de Pucari, a wine favored by Queen Elizabeth II.

I suspect Cricova is a producer, not a region.

P Hickner

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1 Like
4

That NYTimes article is fascinating! Thanks for posting.

5

Awesome! Thanks for posting the link.

6

Yes, the language of Moldova is Romanian, which is a Latin language (“Romania” is from “Roman”). On paper, it looks very much like Italian.

And, yes, that NYT story was a fun read. There’s no love lost for the Russians in Mondova.