Moldova is a very old wine-producing region. It was the eastern-most region of Romania until 1945, when Stalin made it a separate state within the new Soviet Union. During the cold war, the US and UK basically didn’t talk to anyone east of Austria. France, on the other hand, was happy to talk wine with both Romania and Moldova, and were very instrumental in modernizing both nations’ wine industries. What I find in most Moldovan wines, is that they tend to toe the line between old world and new world, stylistically. By this I mean primarily there is a unique balance of fruit to earth/mineral attributes. New world wines tend to be more fruit dominated, old world wines tend to be dominated by non-fruit elements; earth, mineral, others such as leather and barnyard, and so on. This Savvy, and indeed most from Moldova tend to show like a blend of several disparate regions; the citrus (especially grapefruit) of New Zealand, the sturdiness of Chile, the fruitiness (not sweetness!) of California, and the green herbs and minerality of France’s Loire Valley. Were I blind tasting this, I would know it was a Sauvignon Blanc, but I would struggle with provenance. On one day I might say Bordeaux, another, I might say Sonoma. It is profoundly pleasant, and dangerously easy to drink. Moreover, it retails around $9-$10, and punches way above its weight, so plowing through a good amount of this stuff on a warm day, is about as difficult as putting on your socks.
