Ruby…

Back to a very special red, the 2011 Anima Syrah.  This one has no memory attached to it as we first drank it a few days ago. And boy, were we impressed! I mean, we were expecting this one to be a very good wine since it’s made by Aurelia Visinescu and just like all her wines, this one is also a limited edition, with only 14.204 bottles for sale. D bought it based on a hunch and my conclusion to this after taking a sip was that he should always trust his instinct. And we are talking a bout red wine and this is me writing it!

The very first thing you notice, before tasting it, is its rich ruby colour and then you feel the complex fragrance it dispenses. Just based on those two things you quickly realise this one is a special etiquette. Obviously, being a dry red wine, it’s crisp and rough, but a very good kind of rough! The first thing I felt at first sip was the rich spicy aroma, complemented by a subtle blackberry taste. The aftertaste is even more complex as it had a dark rich chocolate accent that lingered for a while. Once you get used to the spiciness of it you start detecting hints of vanilla. All that made me think that I’m dealing with a very complex and rich red that clearly moved to the top of my red wines list.

Surprisingly (for me!) this wine is not from the Transylvania area, but way closer to home (Bucharest), in the Dealu Mare area. It comes from a very small and exclusive winery, that only produces limited edition wines sold all over the world. The winemaker is the best known Romanian woman in this area of expertise, that decided to put all her knowledge and expertise into this little winery giving us some very complex wine bouquets. This one is made out of three types of Syrah grapes from France and one from California.

Syrah is D‘s favourite wine type and I know that every time he buys wine, we end up with at least two different etiquettes of Syrah.

This wine should be enjoyed at 18 degrees C alongside either red meat or cheese (YaY!). This one is quite a strong wine in a sense that it hits you right at the knees after one glass, but the great thing about it is that it doesn’t affect you upper body (no headaches whatsoever). Therefore you should consume it with caution.

All in all, I have a new favourite red! Yes, I know we should at some point review a rose wine and we will, especially since we do have a few favourite roses. Maybe we’ll do that next week.

L.