ALIRA | Flamma | Rosu Savuros | 2013
feteasca neagra | cabernet sauvignon | merlot

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.

Today we are going to review another wine blend from Romania – Flamma Rosu Savuros 2013 by Alira. The ‘Alira’ name was formed as a merge between the names of the two localities where the vineyards are located: Aliman and Rasova – a special place where nature and man are working in a synergy with one sole purpose: to make wines worth of a man’s dream. Alira’s logo is a centaur, a creature from an ancient roman legend that could not control its animal behavior when consuming wine, thus hinting at the wild nature of the wines that are bearing the centauri logo. This wine was matured in french oak barrels for 3 months and is a blend of feteasca neagra – responsible for the wine’s identity, cabernet sauvignon – forms the body and structure and merlot – rounds up the final blend. But enough theory, without further ado, let’s get straight to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Deep but not opaque ruby color, with copper shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruits and spice flavours: sour cherry, cherry seeds, black mulberry, black plum jam, red delicious apple, blackcurrant, black plum and blackberry. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of black pepper, tree bark, nutmeg, leather, allspice, lightly roasted oakwood and some subtle notes of wood polish.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and rough tannin. It feels heavy, warm and quite angular, with a nuanced bitter-charred yet fruity accent. This is a quite sharp, rough and austere wine, as it tastes muscular, spicy and aggressive. The wine feels bold and extracted at first, but woody and green towards the end – quite a bit off its balance, with unripe, sharp tannins and a decent amount of alcoholic warmth showing through.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an angular, very rough and austere aftertaste.
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This is definitely a good Wine of Romania and the overall rating says the same, with 89.8 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 wine that has not yet reached the prime of its form – unbalanced, rough and quite austere – a wine that needs time to smoothen. We would recommend a couple more years of bottle ageing, so that all the wine’s elements will get just enough time to form some kind of synergy and harmony that is expected from a wine blend. The wine’s grippy rough tannins and the overwhelming alcoholic warmth makes it an ideal pairing partner for any barbecued or spicy meat dishes, like for example grilled lamb chops with rosemary and buttery garlic or a barbecued rib-eye steak with an oregano-lemon marinade, as all the wine’s sharpness will be perfectly covered by the meaty-charred flavours of the dish, making the overall pairing more harmonious. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

ALIRA
Flamma | Rosu Savuros | 2013

grape: | feteasca neagra | cabernet sauvignon | merlot |

region: Romania | Danube Terraces

overall rating: | 89.8 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: good | recommended

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(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.