Last week I was invited by my friend to his house to taste a wine I do not have access to, as it is only available to Herzog Wine Club members. The wine is the 2008 Eagles Landing Sauvignon Blanc. Please DO NOT confuse Herzog’s Eagles Landing wines with the Iowan Eagle’s Landing Winery – that is NOT kosher!

Disclaimer – I do NOT work for Herzog, but this question keeps coming up on Daniel Rogov’s forum.

So start of tangent.

What are the Eagles Landing and Waterford Lismore Reserve wines that are popping up here and there? They are wines crafted by Herzog and Joe Hurliman to showcase the winery and give the wine club an air of exclusiveness, as these wines are not available in any other way, other than through the wine club.  The wines are made in limited supply, and according to Jay Buchsbaum of Royal Wines/Herzog:

“Eagles landing is similar to Herzog reserve and Weinstocks cellar select (reserve) wines. Meaning same winemaking (and attention to grape selection) care with perhaps a slight difference and oak treatments etc than the Herzog reserve, without the ‘kosher’ recognizable brand labels. It was created as a direct request of one of our largest distributors, who recognized the, ‘Herzog reserve quality but wanted something that was not recognized as kosher, for non kosher restaurants’ (paraphrasing their words not ours). Voila, Eagles landing was born”.

In full disclosure, the Sauvignon Blanc bottle I tasted had a clear and present OU certification on the back label. I admit this is a bit different from all other Herzog bottles, which have the OU on the front and back. However, the Chardonnay bottle that my friend also received from the wine club, had ZERO kosher certification on the labels, but one was added to the bottle after the labeling was complete. A friend that I respect told me that the most recent Eagles Landing Cabernet Sauvignon was less than exciting, while the Chardonnay was nice. I tasted the Sauvignon Blanc and that was OK, but a bit funky. It is an interesting marketing idea and one that I hope gains some sea legs, as it is about time for Kosher to lose its stigma. The Waterford Lismore Reserve wines were received with a far more warm reception from my friends. I hope to taste these wines one day. Till then I will rely on my friends to keep you all up to date.

End of tangent

We were invited for Friday night to a different friend’s house, so no recipes or other designs. That said, we brought a fun bottle of ELVI Wines Classico from Spain to our friends and they shared an interesting bottle with us as well. Finally (one more), some friends of mine swung by the house and I cracked open a wonderful bottle of the 2004 Yatir Blend. We had this bottle for a fleeting moment at the Carlebach Shabbaton. This time I had more time with the wine. There is no change to report about the initial blush of this wine, but some more data about how it acts after a few more hours. So, it was a nice wine filled weekend and one that I am happy to share with you all.

The wine notes follow below in order they were tasted:

2008 Eagles Landing Sauvignon Blanc – Score: B++
The nose on this straw colored wine starts off with a nasty damp and almost petrol smelling “aroma” that dominates the nose and takes forever to blow off. Once the nose clears up, it has displays kiwi, tart lemon, slight oak, nice butterscotch (from the oak), and a balancing orange peel.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts off tart and acidic but rounds out over time. This is not a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, and is not a bottle that will ever travel there. The mouth starts with lemon and kiwi. The mid palate flows into a round-like acidic core with orange peel peeking out from under the acid haze. The finish is long, spicy, and tart with orange peel and slight custard notes. As this wine opens, it shows far more oak extraction. The wine fleshes out with a nice bright, round, spicy, and butterscotch persona. This is not your classic Sauvignon Blanc, but then, this is not a wine that everyone gets to taste, so why not shake it up a bit. Cool.

2007 Elvi Wines Classico, Ribera del Jucar – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine, which is a blended wine of 87% Tempranillo and 13% Merlot, is ripe with plum, cherry, raspberry, and spice.  The mouth of this medium bodied wine is soft with raspberry, cherry, and plum.  The mid palate is bright with core acidity and a hint of coffee.  The finish is medium long and spicy with more acid, soft tannins, coffee, and pepper/spice. This winery keeps delivering.

PLEASE NOTE – This is the ONLY Mevushal wine from the Elvi Wines group. All other wines from them are not Mevushal.

2003 Kiddush Hashem Syrah – Score: B to B+
This wine has a fair amount of lore, much of it not true. That said, it was a lovely wine some time ago. It is also a wine that the wine maker was still selling on his web site a few months ago. Recently he starting liquidating his stock, and it was a good idea. The bottles are hit and miss. I tasted this wine years ago and it was OK. Three weeks ago I tasted it again, while visiting a friend of mine, and it was felshy, black with ripe blackberry, nice tar, pepper, and licorice. This past week, it was not as good, though the fruit, tar and licorice were present. Still, the wine was unbalanced, off kilter, and trying too hard to make me like it.

2004 Yatir Blend (40% Cabernet, 40% Merlot, 20% Shiraz) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark purple to black colored wine is hopping with coffee to start, mint, dates, crushed herbs, rich oak, blackberry, ripe black plums, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is concentrated with fruit that follows the nose, blackberry, ripe black plum, rich oak, along with nicely integrated tannins. The mid palate flows off the mouth with bracing acid, oak, tannin, rich tobacco, and licorice. The finish is long and spicy with ripe plum, oak, and a cloud of tobacco. This is a nice full bodied wine.

This past week I was under a big top enjoying kosher wines from around the world and Chef Aaron Todd’s sumptuous splendors were available for all to enjoy. The event was the 2012 Herzog International Food and Wine Festival (IFWF) that was being held at the stately Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City. Last year’s event was held at the state-of-the-art Herzog Winery, in Oxnard CA. The intimate lighting and setting was lovely last year, but the combination of the Royal’s larger wine portfolio, the wonderful food, and the growing crowds made it feel like the event was getting too big for its britches. So, with much dismay we waited to hear where the event was going to move to. When the word came out that the event was going to be held at the legendary Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City – the event became the must attend hot ticket event for everyone who enjoys food and wine in the LA area – which is about all Los Angelenos.

Now before anyone thinks the event was held in the stately Los Angeles Ballroom – it was not. Actually, it was held in the lovely Plaza Pavilion, whose name does not even begin to give the unique 9,000+ square foot space its due. The event was moved from the somewhat cramped, yet intimate, setting of the winery to a beautiful tent that is a permanent fixture in the hotel and the social calendar of many a LA party hopper. Actually it is with good reason, if I may say so, as the room is a long rectangle with sufficient yet dim-able lighting and enough space to host the many food and wine stands that the 500 or so attendees partook of. Never during the evening did I feel cramped or claustrophobic like I did last year. Further, while the smell of charring wood and meat is a huge turn-on (for me), it totally messes with my olfactory abilities, which when attending a wine tasting (not drinking) event – really bites! There were copious examples of carnivore delights, which were all prepared on site, but the smells did not permeate the walls of the pavilion. The larger space allowed for more vertical sitting spaces with round tables, in case you were not heads down like I was tasting wines. Also, the ability to stroll out of the pavilion and sit in the reception area, a few feet away, made for a far more roomy feeling event. Finally, the pavilion’s lovely champagne, antique gold and chocolate-brown colors, along with the chandeliers and wall-to-wall carpeting made for an evening of sheer elegance and grandeur. Just an aside, while the surroundings were indeed attention grabbing, the guests who attended the event were equally well draped. Some came with tails and a top hat, others dressed to kill in evening ware gowns and suits. I of course, jeans and long sleeve shirt, however, the majority of the crowd were clearly channeling the elegance of the evening.

The confluence of events that just happened to fall on Wednesday, February 15th, made it feel like the odds were stacked against a successful foray out of Herzog’s home base. First it rained – I mean pouring rain! If any of you saw L.A. Story, I hope you can appreciate how rare that is – even in the so-called winter! Further, POTUS decided to do not one, but TWO drive-bys, bringing traffic to a standstill while people craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the most powerful man in the free world. Still, blessedly, nor rain nor sleet nor traffic (the latter a very common malady that Los Angelenos are used to) can keep good citizens of LA from enjoying some seriously good wine and food. The event to me was a major success for many reasons, but the main reason was the fact that sure the event was attended by Jews interested in seeing what wines to buy for the upcoming Purim and Passover. However, there was a large contingency of party goers who attended the evening festivities to enjoy good food and wine – irreverent to their religious and dietary beliefs (which trust me in LA is saying a LOT)! The opportunity to show the L.A. glitterati that the word kosher does not relegate one to an automatic 15 minute timeout, is serious step forward for the kosher industry.

As usual I was there bright and early, and kindly they let me through so that I could spend the early time taking the requisite pictures of bottles and such (yeah they may not win me any awards – but are better than last year for sure)! Once the required photos were taken care of, I moved on to going through the white wines, many of were new, and then the reds, with the rose wines sandwiched in between. There were many winners and some losers. The clear feeling from many on the forum was that for some reason the wines were wound up tight and in deep sleep. With so many to taste that leaves you very little time to awaken them from their slumber – lest you end up tasting 10 wines instead of 70. I found this to be the case as well, many of the wines were closed tight and the big red wines, like the To Kalon and others were not showing as well as last year. It caused me two problems, it slowed me down as at times I was not sure if it was me or the wines. Second, when people came to ask me what I thought about the wines, it made me give pause, as I was not sure if I was answering for the wines we tasted or for the actual wines – which is the opposite effect that the event is intended for.

In the end the clear winners were some of the French wines, which I have tasted in the past two years, but not this time around and the Shiloh Wines, a small portion of which I had tasted the night before (at the cask in LA). The Herzog wines were fine but they were more like the supermodel in the back rather than the one strutting their stuff on the runway. I hope my notes will give some light on the varied wines and wineries that were present at the event. There were some new wineries presenting their ware that we have spoken about in previous postings, like Flam Winery, Tulip Winery, 1848 winery (high-end wines of Zion Winery), and Pacifica. There were also wineries showing wines in L.A. for the first time; Psagot and Shiloh.

As usual I never did make my way to the food – the tastings were far too interesting to me. I did grab some of the fish bowl and a bunch of the lamb sausage but I missed the fried quail, beef cheeks, lamb ribs, and other wonderful stuff. Thankfully, I did get some of the sugared lamb bacon – to die FOR, along with some of the sweetbread taurine and liver pate, both of which took courage for me to try, and were quite lovely.

I need to send shout outs to Joe Hurliman for always being the consummate gentleman, and now the consummate social bug, he is all over Twitter and Facebook! Also, my many thanks to David Whittemore, Gary Landsman and the rest of the Royal and Herzog crew for the countless hours spent to make the event as enjoyable and successful as it was.

You will be seeing the complete wine notes soon, but for now, here were some of my top wines of the show:

2009 Yatir Viognier – Score: A-
Nice petrol and floral notes all wrapped into a mouth coating honey, fig, nice mineral, and tropical fruit delight. The rich mineral, fig, tart lemon, and sweet notes make for a nice round finish.

2009 Shiloh Chardonnay – Score: A-
A nose that reminds me of Castel’s ‘C’, in ways, with rich burnt toasty oak, brioche, peach, all wrapped up in a mouth filling butterscotch and lemon treat. The nice apple, summer fruit, round out the mouth and show up again in the long and spicy finish with highlighting oak and citrus.

2010 Goose Bay Suavignon Blanc – Score: B++ to A-
Though not a top scorer, quite lovely so added here. The wine is expressive with bright lemon ripe grapefruit, mineral, spice, along with a mouth that is mineral and fruit based yet bright, tart, rich, and enjoyable with enough complexity to keep your attention.

2011 Castel Rose – Score: A-
The wine is unique a real nice kosher rose that has more than just strawberry and nice fruit. This wine has complexity and concentration that belies it obvious youth. Clearly not a wine for cellaring but one that should be fine for a year or two, which is saying something for a kosher rose. The nose starts off with rich mineral, heavy attack of citrus, strawberry, raspberry, and nice cherry. The mouth is filling with good mineral, slate, bramble, and ripe red fruit.

2009 Capcanes Peraj Petita – Score: A-
In many ways this wine is consistent and not just an entry-level wine that Capcanes would like you to believe. This is a wine that many wineries would dream to be a front line wine in their portfolios. A blend of Grenache, Samso and Temparanillo, all Spanish varietals that have had great success in the Montsant wine region. The nose starts off with plum, blackcurrant, and coffee. The mouth is filled with rich coffee, ripe black forest fruit, toasty almost burnt cedar, nice black fruit, rich mouth feel, along with mouth coating tannin. The finish is long with heavy spice, toast and bramble.

2010 Tulip Just Merlot – Score: Almost A-
This is the first year that the winery released a kosher version of this wine. The wine shows clear mineral and dirt expressions, along with light oak, blackcurrant, plum, and raspberry. The mouth is mouth coating with nice tannin, coffee, and good extraction, all wrapped in a spicy and fruity finish with citrus zest and raisin.

2010 Tulip Just Cabernet Sauvignon – A-
This is the second time we have tasted this wine, and the wine continues to show nicely. The nose on this wine explodes with ripe black fruit, blackberry, blackcurrant, roasted herb, loamy dirt, chocolate, and nice cedar. The mouth is rich and focused with nice and integrating tannin, raspberry, and good extraction. The finish ends with light leather, chocolate, and vanilla.

2006 1848 Special Reserve – Score: A-
This is one of the few wines imported from Israel without an OU or OK, because it is made with the famous Badatz supervision from Israel, which is accepted the world over. The wine is a blend of 78% Cabernet and 22% Petit Syrah (written here as shown on the bottle), a lovely and unique blend. The black colored wine has a heavy nose of blackberry, black plum, blueberry, blackcurrant, chocolate, and raspberry. The mouth is super rich, with mouth coating tannin, ripe almost sweet plum, date, and heavy extraction. This wine may not be everyone’s cup of tea – but a nice new-world wine none the less. The finish is long and spicy with lots of chocolate, more ripe black fruit, mounds of vanilla, and spice.

2007 1848 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – score: A-
The wine is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 3% Petite Sirah, with each component being  aged in oak for 12 months before the final blend was made and then returned to oak for an additional 3 months. The nose on this richly purple wine starts off with heavy oak, massive plum aromas, date, tobacco, blackberry, with some anise, herb, and mint. The mouth is full but not overly sweet and not with too much oak or burnt toast. Rather the mouth is rich and mouth coating with ripe black fruit, some raspberry, currant, along with massive and not yet settled tannin. The finish is long with nice tannin, vanilla, chocolate, and plum.

2009 Shiloh Shor Barbera (Mevushal) – Score: B+ to A-
Barbera is one of those wines that can be massive or a medium bodied. It is a fruit that likes the Mediterranean environment and heat that wineries in Israel struggle with. I would not be surprised if we see more wineries in Israel using this varietal in more wines. Galil makes a lovely wine with this varietal as does a few boutique wineries in Israel. The nose on this light purple colored wine is filled with espresso coffee, currant, raspberry, crushed herb, prune, light hints of oak, chocolate, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and spicy with red candied fruit, high alcohol, mouth coating tannin, nice yet restrained oak, and herb all coming into a mouth that feels coated. The finish is long and spicy with vanilla, red fruit, light leather, spice, prune, and chocolate.

2007 Shiloh Cabernet/Merlot, Shor – Score: A-
The nose on this classic Bordeaux blend starts off with chocolate, light oak, cranberry, and blackberry.  The mouth shows expressive ripe plum, raspberry, heavy spice, cassis, and mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and spicy with black fruit, mounds of cinnamon, eucalyptus, and vanilla.

2007 Shiloh Cabernet Sauvignon, Shor – Score: A-
The nose on this Cabernet runs true to its varietal with nice black cherry, blackberry, anise, graphite, chocolate, raspberry, and spice. The mouth is rich with black fruit and integrated tannins. The finish is mouth coating with ripe fruit, plum, spice, light green notes, and olives.

2009 Shiloh Legend – Score: A- to A
This wine is following a growing trend in Israel to create a blend that is truly unique to the Mediterranean climate in Israel. It is not easy to create a blend with varietals that have no real history together. The blend of 45% Shiraz, 40% Petit Sirah, 9% Petit Verdot, and 6% Merlot is complex because the fruits must match in many ways to allow the wine to balance and show the expressive qualities that lie within each of them. Quite a lovely wine that is almost as good as the 2007 Carmel Mediterranean and other new unique blends. The nose starts with heavy burnt oak, followed by raspberry, black plum, currant, and blackberry. The mouth is rich with ripe fruit, spice, graphite, mineral, and anise, along with mouth coating tannin to make a rich yet balanced wine. The finish is long with light tar notes, crushed herb, citrus zest, mineral, chocolate, vanilla, and tobacco. Quite a rich and focused wine with a whole bunch of stuff going on. One I am sure the late Daniel Rogov tasted but never shared with us because the wine had yet to be released before his passing.

2009 Shiloh Cabernet Secret Reserve – Score: A- to A
The nose on the secret reserve is richer and blacker than the 2007 Cabernet Shor wine, with blackberry, nice graphite, cassis, and crushed herbs. The mouth is rich and full with mouth coating tannin, spice, and oak. The finish is long and aromatic with heavy chocolate, vanilla, and mineral notes that linger.

2006 Shiloh Mosaic – Score: A- to A
Another lovely blend, though more Bordeaux than unique (excepting for the Petite Sirah of course), 60% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. The nose starts off blackberry and super ripe fruit, then adds in heavy toasted oak and graphite. The mouth is layered and full bodied with mouth coating tannin, black plum, with a restrained use of oak on the mouth all coming together nicely. The finish is long and luscious with nice chocolate, leather, vanilla, and a final attack of more red and black fruit, and crushed herbs.

As stated in the previous posting on this lovely event, there were many wines to taste and there was no way I could post all the wine notes in a single posting. Here is my follow-up posting on the wines tasted at the event, including the wines that I loved and did not love.

The wine notes are listed in the order that I tasted them:

2010 Domaine Netofa – White – Score: B++
The nose on this light gold colored wine shows clean and lovely nose of green apple, peach, grapefruit, kiwi, light quince, and rich/nice loamy dirt and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and balanced with nice minerality, along with nice bright fruit that mingles well in the mouth. The finish is long and spicy with nice quince, tart green apple, grapefruit, and green tea.

2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve, Unoaked – Score: B
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, the wine was flat without much to grab your attention. The nose on this straw colored wine has apple, lemon, nice mineral, bright acid, and melon. The mouth is somewhat plush and the finish has citrus to round out the wine.

2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve – Score: B+
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, though not as bad as its unoaked twin. The nose on this dark straw colored wine has light oak, brioche, lemon, nice spice, light creme, and honey. The mouth is round with spice, summer fruit, and oak influence.

2011 Tulip White Tulip – Score: B++
This wine is a blend of 70% Gewurztraminer and 30% Sauvignon Blanc with the sweet and floral notes of the Gewurztraminer showing nicely with honey and guava, while the green apple and bright lemon notes from the Sauvignon Blanc blend together in a unique manner. The nose on this straw colored wine hits you with mineral, light honey, bright lemon, green apple, and guava. The mouth is nice and honeyed with light petrol, and citrus. The finish is long with both sweet lemon creme and bright lemon at the same time, along with fig, and tart notes. This is a great wine that would go well with fish or sushi.

2010 Flam Blanc (67% Sauvignon Blanc and 37% Chardonnay) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this straw colored wine is super bright and rich with pear, litchi, tart grapefruit, peach, rich slate or flint, floral notes, lemon rind, and nice citrus pulp. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and tart with more slate, lemon, pear, litchi, peach, and tart grapefruit. The mid palate has restrained yet almost bracing acid, mineral, litchi, and citrus zest. The finish is long and rich with bright acid, slate, citrus zest, and litchi. The citrus zest, litchi, pear, slate, and summer fruit linger long on the palate. The lovely mineral slate combined with the clear Chardonnay fruit is in perfect balance with the lovely Sauvignon Blanc fruit, a lovely example of restraint and Israeli terroir.

Drappier Carte D’Or Champagne (mevushal) – Score: A-
This is the second of two Drappier wines that Royal is releasing. We tasted the other one – Carte Blance and liked that one very much.The wine is a blend of the traditional Champagne grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The nose on the light gold and salmon colored wine is starts off with yeast, nice mineral, bright lemon, apple, and toast. The mouth on the medium bodied wine starts off with white peach, cherry, brioche, and a lovely mousse of small bubbles. The finish is long and tart with toast lingering.

Laurent Perrier Rose Champagne – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this pink colored wine starts with nice strawberry, lemon, raspberry, toast, and yeast. The mouth is filled with bright lemon, peach, mouth coating mousse of small bubbles, all balanced with tart acidity, berry, and toast finish.

2007 Selection Bokobsa Sancerre - Score: B+
The nose on this straw colored wine has peach, mineral, straw, green apple, bright acidity, floral notes, and gooseberry. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied is lively and round with tart lemon and an attack of ripe summer fruit. The finish lingers with mineral, straw, and a hint of fig.

2010 Carmel White Riesling, Single Vineyard, Kayoumi – Score: B+ to A-
This was not showing as well as it was when I tasted it in Israel a few months ago. The nose on this dark straw colored wine has lovely lemon, light honey, light petrol, good floral notes, mineral, and fig. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is round and mouth filling with bright and sweet summer fruit, honey, and fig.

2009 Goose Bay Viognier – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this straw colored wine is hits you with grapefruit, light floral notes, peach, apple, and honey. The mouth on the medium bodied wine is round with light oak influence and finishes with spicy and honeyed apricot, mineral, and citrus zest. A nice wine that is time to drink up.

2007 Binyamina Reserve Merlot – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine starts of with dried fruit, along with crushed herb, prune, raspberry, plum, spice, and chocolate. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is balanced with mouth coating tannin and oak. The finish is long and spicy with date, vanilla, and licorice.

2009 Binyamina Reserve Carignan – Score: A-
The nose purple to black colored wine is rich with classic black pepper notes, along with blackcurrant, black plum, blackberry, and chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied wine is focused and concentrated with date, lemon zest, integrated tannin, and spice all coming together into a massive and mouth coating delight. The finish is long and spicy with expressive espresso coffee and cedar. This is a really nice and unique Carignan.

2006 Shiloh Merlot/Shiraz, Shor – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is filled with blackberry, cassis, and black pepper. The mouth on this full bodied wine is massive, with inky structure, and mouth coating tannin that has yet to integrate, along with blackcurrant that makes the mouth feel more Shiraz than Merlot. The finish is long and lovely with black fruit, vanilla, leather, date, and chocolate.

I must say that I really enjoyed the three non-mevushal Baron de Rothschilds Haut Medoc. The toasted and almost burnt oak was very clear on all three them, but the wine was big enough to match the toast. The 2006 and 2007 are very similar in nature, both red and mineral based, while the 2008 is more black and richer.

2006 Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Haut Medoc (mevushal) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine starts with heavy spice, crushed herb, mineral, bright aromas, and light chocolate. The mouth is medium-bodied with mouth coating (almost drying) and integrating tannin, raspberry, plum, currant, cloves, and spice. The finish is long and spicy with olives and graphite on the end.

2007 Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Haut Medoc (mevushal) – Score: A-
The nose light garnet colored wine starts off with graphite, spice, cloves, raspberry, a hint of chocolate, and heavy toasted oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine has big mouth drying tannin that has yet to integrate, plum, and mineral. The wine has yet to start to come together, but as it does look for butterscotch. The finish is long and spicy with more toasty oak.

2008 Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Haut Medoc (mevushal) – Score: A-
The nose on this light garnet colored wine starts off with lovely cinnamon and continues with chocolate, blackberry, and raspberry. The mouth on this massive and full bodied wine is crazy rich with mouth coating and almost drying tannin, crushed herb, black plum, ripe raspberry, and lemon zest all coming together slowly into a mouth filling wine. The finish is long and spicy with more tannin, chocolate, leather, and graphite.

2010 Chateau Thenac- Fleur du Perigord (mevushal) – Score: A-
The nose on this purple colored wine is expressive with ripe black fruit, blackberry, black plum, chocolate, and graphite. The mouth is rich with mouth coating and drying tannin, raspberry, nice oak, and lemon zest. The finish is long and spicy with more rich and not integrated tannin, leather, crushed herb, pepper, and cherry.

2007 Chateau Fourcas Dupre (mevushal) – Score: A-
Another French wine winner with more heavy toasted oak, plum, and graphite. The mouth is rich but approachable with more oak, raspberry, nice integrated tannin, all coming together into a nice mouthfeel. The finish is long with nice acid, crushed herb, mineral, and spice.

2007 Chateau D’Arveyres – Score: B+
This Merlot driven wine starts with toasty oak, crushed herbs, espresso coffee, and butterscotch on the nose while progressing to a mouth of raspberry, plum, heavy tannin, currant, boysenberry, and kirsch cherry. The wine finishes up with dirt, herbal and chocolate flavors. A uniquely flavored Merlot, but not one with enough complexity to keep your attention.

2009 Herzog Chardonnay, Reserve, Russian River (mevushal) – Score: B+ to A-
This wine has always reminded me of Paula Deen as it is normally very buttery. This vintage shows off a slimmer butter profile, lemon, green apple, melon, and herb. The mouth is round and shows clear toasty oak influence, along with nice spice, and quince. The finish is long with lovely vanilla bringing up the rear.

2008 Herzog Cabernet, Reserve, Alexander Valley (mevushal) – Score: A-
The wine starts off with rich chocolate, nice oak, blackcurrant, raspberry, crushed herb, and tobacco. The mouth is rich and full with mouth coating tannin, citrus zest, blackberry, all coming together with oak influence and crushed herb. The finish is long and spicy with bramble, vanilla, and mineral. Quite a nice and reliable Cabernet that is almost always pleasing.

2007 Herzog Cabernet, Reserve, Napa Valley (mevushal) – Score: B++ to A-
Notes can be found here

2008 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Edition, Warnecke Vineyard Chalk Hill – Score: B+ to A-
I will admit that to many this wine is a very good one. Further, it has received far higher reviews in the past, but I cannot say the same myself, as the wine was simply not showing well. So these are the notes that I perceived and I cannot say much more than that. The nose was bright and red with chocolate, graphite, and tobacco. The mouth shows raspberry, currant, and nice mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and spicy with rich oak.

2008 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone Six Edition, Chalk Hill – Score: A-
The wine starts with lovely red and black fruit, raspberry, black plum, chocolate, and bramble. The mouth is rich and spicy with big mouth coating tannin, good extraction, concentrated and focused fruit, and graphite, all coming together into a lovely wine. The finish is long with spicy wood, mounds of vanilla, and mineral.

2008 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Oak Knoll, Single Vineyard – Score: A- to A
This is the second incarnation of Herzog’s Single Vineyard line of wines, and one that Joe Hurliman is truly passionate about making, as that is the wine he presides over at the pourings since the 2010 IFWF, when it was the 2007 Haystack. This is a wine that continues to impress and show well, with raspberry, blackberry, plum, chocolate, blackcurrant, and pencil shavings. The mouth is full-bodied with heavy spice, huge extraction, massive and mouth coating tannin, along with ripe but not overripe fruit, all just starting to come together into something very special. The finish is long and spicy with mounds of vanilla and chocolate.

2009 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, Single Vineyard – Score: A-
This is the third incarnation of Herzog’s Single Vineyard line of wines, and one that Joe Hurliman is truly passionate about making, as that is the wine he presides over at the pourings since the 2010 IFWF, when it was the 2007 Haystack. The wine starts with lots of oak, followed by chocolate, blackberry, currant, and bramble. The mouth is massive, black, and full bodied with mouth coating tannin, crushed herb, raspberry, and graphite. The fruit is ripe and lays on a bed of date, mint, mineral, and vanilla. Quite a nice wine but this one may well have been a bit too overripe, but quite nice none the less.

2010 Weinstock Cellar Select Petite Sirah – Score: A-
The wine starts with rich coffee, then flows into blueberry, boysenberry, citrus, floral notes, and bing cherry. The mouth hits you with massive mouth coating tannin that is just starting to integrate, along with nice extraction, good oak, all comes together into a truly enjoyable mouth. The wine is expressive but balanced given the good fruit and structure. The finish is long with leather, spice, and coffee. Get this and enjoy it for the next few years.

2008 Weinstock Cellar Select Cabernet, Napa Valley – Score: B+ to A-
The wine starts off with blackberry, ripe plum, crushed herb, and graphite. The mouth is full with cassis, not yet integrating tannin, heavy toasted oak, and extraction. The finish is rich with chocolate, mineral, black fruit, and vanilla.

2007 Carmel Cabernet Sauvignon, Single Vineyard, Kayoumi – Score: A-
This may well be the first Kayoumi Cabernet that I really liked, I have always been impressed by the Kayoumi Shiraz. The wine starts off with a rich black nose, along with blackberry, cassis, chocolate, graphite, and hints of lovely green notes. The mouth is full bodied, layered and rich with massive mouth coating tannin, nice extraction, ripe date, crushed herbs, and cedar that brings the entire package together. The finish is long with black fruit and vanilla. A prototypical Cabernet Sauvignon styled wine with oak constraint – quite lovely.

2007 Carmel Shiraz, Single Vineyard, Kayoumi – Score: A-
This is another incarnation of the richly extracted and successful Shiraz wines that Carmel has been producing from the killer vineyard. The wine starts off with mortar full of crushed black pepper, along with crazy ripe nose of blackberry, black plum, insane date notes, and tobacco. The mouth is massive and sweet with mouth coating tannin, heavy toasted oak, and black fruit creating a complex and attention grabbing wine. The finish is long and spicy with more tannin, chocolate, nice acid, and spice.

2007 Yatir Forest – Score: A- to A
This is the flagship wine from Yatir and one of the very best wines made in Israel. This vintage keeps the name and reputation alive with a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Petit Verdot and 7% each of Malbec and Merlot, all aged in oak for 16 months causing an influence of cedar and heavy extraction. The wine hits you hard with tobacco, along with sweet date, blackberry, blackcurrant, cassis, chocolate, dirt, and alcohol. The mouth shows heavy cedar, more extraction, crushed herb, along with a concentration of focused black fruit, and impressive balance for such a big wine, that brings the entire package together quite nicely. The finish is long with vanilla, olives, and nice spice.

2007 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
This is a wine that was not initially exported to the US, I am so happy that this has been rectified as the wine is good example of ripe fruit Cabernet that is not so new-world that dates take over the wine. The wine starts off with nice mineral and graphite aromas, followed by classic Cabernet aromas of blackberry and cassis. The mouth is rich and layered with concentrated and ripe and sweet black fruit, raspberry, and black plum. The finish is long and sweet with chocolate, ripe fruit, all coming together into a richly black finish with nice mineral.

2009 Psagot Merlot – Score: A-
The wine starts with date, followed by rich blackberry, plum, raspberry, and tobacco. The mouth is full with mouth coating tannin, ripe fruit, crushed herb, all coming together nicely. The finish is long with nice fruit, heavy tobacco, lots of cedar, black pepper, and spice.

2009 Psagot Edom – Score: A-
The wine is a Bordeaux blend of 61% Cabernet, 17% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot and 7% Petite Verdot. The wine is aromatic with crushed herbs, black cherry, candied raspbery, date, nice chocolate, and cedar. The mouth is full bodied and layered with soft mouth coating and integrating tannin, along with good extraction. The finish is long with nice fruit and vanilla.

2006 Elvi Wines EL26 – Score: A-
This wine is a lovely blend of 35% Grenache, 35% Syrah, and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. It starts with an aromatic nose of chocolate, along with ripe blackberry, black pepper, raspberry, and plum. The mouth is full and concentrated with mouth coating tannin, nice dirt, graphite, ripe fruit, with spicy wood all coming together into a nice mouth. Finish is long with spice and mineral. This is a massive and extracted wine with ripe fruit and one that balances well with the oak and spice.

2010 Capcanes Flor de Flor – Score: A- to A
This is a wine that only recently became kosher, a cuvee of the winery’s Cabrida wine. The wine is made entirely from old vine Grenache that are said to be 80 to 1110 years old. Capcanes did not release a 2008 or 2009 vintage of this wine, as the quality was not good enough to make a single varietal wine from them. The 2007 vintage was lovely and still intensely rich with massive tannin and toasty oak. The 2010 vintage is equally massive with toasty and semi-charred oak.

The nose on this garnet colored wine is explosive with rich espresso coffee, heavy burnt toast, raspberry, candied cranberry, and plum. The mouth on this rich and layered wine starts with a nice concentration of of red candied fruit, massive mouth coating tannin, crushed herbs, and spice that all leads into a mouth that makes you stand up and take notice. The finish is long and spicy with more spice, nice mineral, dirt, not yet integrated tannin, and olives. This is a wine that is not even starting to be accessible, but one that should have most of its components coming together in a year or so.

2006 Barkan Superieur Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
This is the flagship wine for Barkan, the wine is composed of a selection from the the best individual barrels that were sourced from three vineyards in the Upper Galil and the Golan Heights. They then underwent an additional period of aging in new oak barrels to further enhance the wine’s structure. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine hits hard with crushed herb aromas, followed by date, tons of cedar, blackberry, black plum, and chocolate. The mouth is full bodied, layered and rich with soft and accessible mouth coating tannin that are still integrating and nice ripe fruit. The finish is long and balanced with nice mineral notes along with leather, and vanilla.

2007 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon, Altitude Series 412+, Reserve – Score: A-
I found the entire 2007 vintage of the altitude series was nice, with the 624+ label being the best one. The series is numbered based on the elevation of the vineyard in meters, in anticipation that the wines will show differently because of that.
The nose is clean with good notes of raspberry, currant, black plum, and mineral. The mouth is big but with restrained oak influence, nieblack fruit, integrated mouth coating tannin, that helpsto bring the wine together. The finish is long and spicy with chocoolate and date.

2007 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon, Altitude Series 624+, Reserve – Score: A- to A
I found the entire 2007 vintage of the altitude series was nice, with the 624+ label being the best one. The series is numbered based on the elevation of the vineyard in meters, in anticipation that the wines will show differently because of that.
The nose hits you over the head with extremely ripe and expressive classic Cabernet fruit. Starting with blackberry, black plum, cassis, heavy notes of date, light graphite,and cedar. The mouth is massive and moiuth coating with clear influence from the wood and dark fruit coming together in alovely manner. The fruit is concentrated and focused while also being mouth filling and ripe. The finish is long with hints of tobacco and vanilla. This is a rich and expresive wine in both the nose and mouth and one worth finding.

2007 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon, Altitude Series 720+, Reserve – Score: A-
I found the entire 2007 vintage of the altitude series was nice, with the 624+ label being the best one. The series is numbered based on the elevation of the vineyard in meters, in anticipation that the wines will show differently because of that.
This wine was clearly different from its two siblings. It showed candied fruit, red raspberry, and other unique characteristics. The nose is subdued with raspberry, blackberry, and plum. The mouth is expressive with layers of candied cherry, raspberry, and cassis that are wrapped up nicely with nice integrating tannin and sweet cedar. The finish is long and spicy with chocolate and vanilla lingering nicely.

2006 Segal Argaman, Dovev, Rechasim – Score: B++
Rehasim is Segal’s label for single vineyard wines from the Merom Hagalil/ Upper Galilee region, with Dovev being the vineyard’s name. Argaman, which means ‘deep purple’ in Hebrew, was first developed by Professor Roy Spiegel of the Volcani Institute of Agriculture. It is a cross between Carignan and the Portuguese grape Souzao. The grape is still not good enough for single varietal wines, even after limiting the grapes’ vivacious yield.
The nose starts with raspberry, crushed herb, blackberry,black cherry, and date. The mouth is full with heavy tannin, candied fruit, and nice cedar to round out the mouth. The finish is long with chocolate and red fruit lingering.

2006 Binyamina Cave – Score: A-
The wine is a classic Bordeaux blend of 65% Cab, 33% Merlot, and 2% Petite Verdot. The nose starts off with heavy date from overripe fruit, blackberry, cassis, and raspberry. The mouth is rich with concentrated and focused black fruit, black plum, heavy and mouth coating tannin, nice extraction, all coming togther into a lovely mouthfeel. The finish is long and spicy with chocolate, mounds of vanilla, and crushed herb.

2006 Binyamina Aquamarine, Choshen – Score: A-
The nose explodes with heavy date, blackberry, black plum, ang nice graphite. The mouth is rich and layered with lovely cedar, spicy wood and clear oak influence that rounds out the mouth with lovely ripe black fruit, and mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and spicy with chocolate, vanilla, and tobacco lingering long on the palate.

2006 Binyamina Sapphire, Choshen – Score: A-
The unique blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Merlot is lovely, and is becoming a more common blend than one would think. The blend is not a common Bordeaux blend, as Shiraz is not a Bordeaux grape,but the blend is becoming more and more common in Israel.
The nose starts off with rich black pepper, raspberry, date, candied fruit, and crushed herb. The mouth carries the candied fruit with lovely mouth coating tannin, nice cedar, blackberry, and bramble that rounds the mouth. The finish is long and inky with chocolate, cassis, tobacco, and vanilla.

2007 Castel Grand Vin – Score: A-
This wine is a classic Bordeaux blend with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot,and 5% Petite Verdot. The nose on this purple colored wine is rich with toasty oak, blackberry, cassis, plum, earthiness, crushed herbs, and raspberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is massive and richly extracted with massive mouth coating tannin, black fruit, blackcurrant, toasty oak, and nice earth notes, all coming together in a very harmonious manner. The finish is long and spicy with almost mouth drying tannin, chocolate, graphite, mint, and garrigue.

This past weekend we enjoyed a quiet pair of meals with a controversial bottle of wine all wrapped up in a neat bundle under a canopy of some lovely recipes. The idea started when a NY friend of mine, Isaac Cohen, of the Rogov Forum, gave me a link to a wonderful rib roast recipe. I had asked him how he had made steak for Shabbos, given all the complications we have with cooking on the Sabbath? He sent me a link to a fantastic recipe that works to absolute perfection. Why? Because the recipe calls for cooking the meat at high for a short period of time, and then turning off the oven! Which for Sabbath observant Jews, is Nirvana! This recipe is not a change for the Sabbath observant (who do not cook on the Sabbath), but rather the actual recipe for cooking a slab of meat! Instead of cooking it slow and low and then blasting it at the end, this recipe calls for blasting it first and then turning off the oven, which causes the meat and its innards to cook slow and low with a lovely bark on the outside, given the blast oven start.

We did modify the recipe slightly, as we decided to NOT use the coating, but we followed the rest of the recipe to perfection. The funny thing was that we had a pair of simple Rib Eye steaks for the meal, and we turned them into the perfect Sabbath meal!

I took the 1-pound steaks and twined them together, coated them with spices and oil and then placed some homemade barbeque sauce on them and threw them into a 500-degree oven for 18 minutes, turned off the oven and left for Synagogue. I came back semi-enjoyed a glass of wine for Kiddush (more on that later), and had some great chicken soup. Then we opened the oven and low and behold the steaks were perfectly done! They were medium rare, with a hint of pink all the way through – just lovely! Bravo to my man Isaac – thanks for setting me onto this great recipe for some very good eating!

I was in need of a bottle of wine to pair with this slab of luscious meat, so I unfortunately went with a highly contentious, and in the end, not fantastic bottle of wine. Please do not get me wrong, I normally LOVE Yatir wines, but this wine seems to be a trouble child. It starts off like a normal Israeli blend, but it becomes off balance with heavy mineral and salt notes. Some on the forum were calling this wine a bitter wine, but to me it is far too mineral based. There is also that phase of time where the wine goes into heavy funk and finally it pops out with a black and red wine that is deep and layered, but the saline still lingers. To me the wine did not have what it takes to bring it to the next level. The wine is nice, but it is far too flawed to be a QPR or top line wine.

At Kiddush in the Synagogue we enjoyed another controversial wine – the 2007 Hagafen Cabernet Franc. The second the wine was uncorked I could immediately tell the wine had finally come back from the dead and turned its ugly duckling corner. This is a wine I have spoken about on this blog a few times, as well. We first tasted the wine at the winery in 2010, where we also bought two more bottles for our own subsequent tastings. This was only the second release of Cabernet Franc from the winery, with the first being in 1996, a bottle I have very fond memories about. The next time we tasted one of the bottles, the wine was entering its dumb period, and by the time we tasted this wine a second time, it was in a Cinderella-like sleep. Since then, we have tasted it off and on, at friend’s houses, the Synagogue, and other places.

Now, if you are wondering – how did we get onto the topic of sleeping in regards to wine? Simple, wine is a leaving breathing animal, it ebbs and flows with the change of environment within which it resides. It also, has a life outside of the environment. In other words, as the wine ages it goes through cycles, most of the time, the cycle is on, but sometimes the cycle is in the off mode. This means that at times the wine may decide it is time to up and go on vacation, get some beach time! When that happens, there is NOTHING you can do about it. Just be patient and wait for the wine to come back from vacation and be ready to be happy again. When the wine is on vacation, it tastes flat, empty, and listless, much like a dude on the beach, intoxicated, and with little will to anything but zone out – that is a wine that is deep under a sleeping spell.

This weekend was the first time in a long time, that the wine tasted anywhere near it did in 2010. It is not unheard of to have a wine go into a deep sleep, it is a normal occurrence, but a two year drunken stupor is not something I have experienced before. Still, I am happy to see it come out of its Rip Van Winkle nap. The wine did not taste as wonderful as I remember it at the winery, but to be fair, I had nary more than a sip, but WOW what a change to say the least.

I guess you cannot win them all. The Hagafen was a nice wake up, while the Yatir was a downer, but the meals were killer. So, my hopes and wishes to you all, that your weeks ahead are filled with success, joy, and a cessation to the horrors that life can bring our way, and a commencement of the many things your lives need and the realization of the hopes that we all carry with us. Best Wishes – the wine notes follow below:

2006 Yatir Red Wine Blend - Score: B to B+
This wine is one filled controversy because of its current state of affairs. The wine is a blend of 35% Merlot, 24% Shiraz, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot. The blend itself was one of the early and fascinating blends to come out of Israel. Please remember that the classic blends of Bordeaux and to a lesser extant other regions, were built from generations of wine families building a brand because of what was best in that location. This blend and the even more non-standard blends that have recently been made in Israel are quite interesting. Australia may well have been the first to blend Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz/Syrah together, but it is still a hard feat to complete. The Bordeaux grapes (which make up 80% of this blend) have a long history of being blended together, while Australia’s blends have barely 50 years.

With that said, the controversy of this wine has little to do with the blend and far more to do with its quality. For the longest time the wine has been panned as being to bitter, olive green, or plain old flat. Well the late Daniel Rogov took that as a challenge upon himself, before his passing of course, and did a tasting of the wine, one from the Yatir winery itself, one from his own stash, and one shipped to him from the USA. He felt overall that the wine was inline with his opinion, check it out for yourself. So, I tried the wine and I found it to be well – not so fun – till the wine opened. However, till that point, the wine went through two very distinct aroma and flavor profiles.

At first the wine opens to a cacophony of licorice, blackcurrant, blackberry, herb, and strong and almost overpowering mineral notes. The mouth is rich and concentrated with some nice black cherry, huge amounts of saline, and eucalyptus, all wrapped in a soft sheath of mouth coating tannin and cedar that give the wine an extra bit of backbone. The finish is long and spicy with lovely tobacco, milk chocolate, and black olive bitterness that throws the wine off at the end (if the mouth’s saline was not overpowering already).

Over time the wine goes from bad to worse with the salt and mineral taking back stage and an overpowering smell and taste of barnyard flavors dominating the wine. Finally, the wine gives way to a far more muted palate, but one that is free of any obvious deficiencies, outside of its more dull self. Gone are the olives, and overpowering eucalyptus and mineral. Instead the wine is filled with a lovely blackberry, cassis, black plum, graphite, tobacco, and chocolate, both on the palate and the nose. Still the wine has a bitter end with saline that though is not as offensive as at first, is still feels a bit off kilter. Drink up and maybe not with polite company.

2007 Hagafen Cabernet Franc Estate Bottled Napa Valley – Score: B++
This is Hagafen’s second release of a single varietal Cabernet Franc, the other one being the 1996 vintage. This is the fifth or sixth time I have tasted this wine and it is showing much better this time! The first time we tasted this wine, some two years ago, it was showing quite nicely. This time the wine’s body was OK, while the nose exploded with equal zest. Also, this is a wine that shows zero of the classical green or floral Franc notes, but instead shows like a light Merlot – but quite nice all the same.
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine showed a deep expression of blackberry, plum, raspberry, and herb. The mouth was layered and rich with hints of cherry, deep cedar notes, and lovely integrated tannin that bring the mouth together. The finish is long with milk chocolate, tobacco, vanilla, cinnamon, and spice. The wine may be back, but I would start drinking up whatever amount of stock you have left.

I just returned from a long and wonderful trip to Israel where I visited a total of 36 wineries in less than three weeks. To be fair, I was set to visit more, but let us just say that a family member, who will go nameless, slowed me down just a wee bit – LOL!!! All the same, it was great visiting the wineries, meeting the wine makers and owners, and getting a far deeper feel for all things wine in the land of Israel!

Yes, I brought back many bottles, and I had friends and family who helped me schlep in even more bottles. In all some 30+ bottles or so made it back to the diaspora, and I will be enjoying them in due time. Many of them are NOT available here in America and some were just too good to pass up on.

So, let us start with the facts – there are five wine regions in the land of Israel, and I visited wineries in all of them. According to Yossie’s Israel winery page that is a mash up of Google maps and his winery data, there are some 70+ kosher wineries. The kosher wineries are bunched up in the Judean Hills, Shomron, Samson, and the Galilee. There are wineries in the other wine region; the Negev, but other than Yatir, which is really the southern tip of the Judean Hills, there is no winery that I wanted to visit in the Negev (dessert – southern wine region of Israel).

I started my wine adventure in the north and went to every kosher winery that would let me visit. One of the first things I realized about wineries in Israel is that it is a business. To me, wine and wineries are like candy and big candy store. To top it off – they are kosher and in a land I love. So, when I visit a winery, I want to know everything about it and why it exists. Others see me as a pain or as a lack of dollars and cents and as such, are not so receptive to my interests. That is fair, and as such, if I was received well I will state it and if not, or I got to taste a single wine or less, I will simply state what I tasted and move on.

The first day, I dropped my stuff off at friends in the north and drove up to Tabor Winery. Tabor Winery ha recently been bought up by the Coca-Cola company of Israel, and as such has seen a fair amount of investment in both vineyards and winery facilities. They have some of the coolest high-tech gear out there, though a few others do rival them, including Yarden (which I did not visit this time), Yatir Winery (visited and loved it!), Shiloh Winery, and of course Carmel and Binyamina (because their size allows for more toys). I was really shocked there and then by the cold blue fruit that exists if you look for it. By cold blue fruit I mean that wines (Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet – YES CAB, Petite Verdot, and Petite Sirah) exhibit blueberry, boysenberry, and other blue colored fruit when controlled in a cold enough climate. They had some lovely wines there, though no WOW wines (wines that get an A- to A or higher score). Still, a very nice and wonderful winery well worth the visit, if you can handle the drive all the way up there.

Now before you laugh at one winery in a day, driving north from Jerusalem, even with highway 6, is a large haul and in the pouring rain, I rest my case. While driving my way up there – I noticed another aspect that I have not spoken about in the past – Israeli drivers. I think it was my nephew who brought this to my attention; they drive cars like they have no tomorrow, without hesitation, and without fear – almost like war. Drivers in Israel are more than happy to pass you going uphill, on a curve, in the pouring rain! In no way was this a singular or rare occurrence! If you drive in Israel and you blink or hesitate, you may well find yourself forced onto the other side of oncoming traffic by a public transit bus! I am not kidding – and in a not so hospitable location to boot! My point is, if you wish to drive in Israel, and to get to all the wineries in and about Israel, a car is required (or a tour guide), my best advice is pray a lot, and be very careful. Also, get full coverage on your rental car.

Blessedly, I returned to my friend’s house in one piece and planned my next few days. The next day, I visited Tulip Winery, where I was just blown away by the wines; many received a WOW moment score. Tulip is a winery that went kosher in 2010 and its reserve wines are now just being released. The reserve wines that I tasted all receive very high scores, and we have not even yet tasted the 2010 Black Tulip, which is Tulip Winery’s flagship wine, a Bordeaux blend. The winery is based in a neighborhood of disabled individuals, this town teaches disabled individuals the skills required to live a free and productive life in our society, things we take for granted, and then the winery hires them and puts them to work doing the things that every winery needs, from facilities to working in the showroom. They are part and parcel of the winery and the winery was built-in that location with that very idea in mind.

From there I drove to Odem Winery, but on the way I saw the sign for Bazelet Hagolan and I could not help myself. On this I made the cardinal mistake with visiting wineries in Israel, I went there without a pre-call ahead. If you are visiting a winery in Israel, please do yourself a favor and call in advance. It will let the winery know you are not just anyone driving through, looking for some red or white wine! I did not do that and in the pouring rain, I turned off course and went looking for Bazelet Hagolan Winery. I visited this winery once before, a long time ago, and this time and tasted a couple of wines. This time I was lucky enough get meet a fellow English-speaking man, but one who hails from Canada! This man was a lawyer in Canada and left the entire thing to do Aliya and go work for a winery! Since than he tells me he has learned by drinking from a fire hose – that tastes like wine and is loving every second of it. The winery is a lovely place and is not that far of from the road to Odem Winery, so I turned off and tasted a few wines there. Many of the wines were lovely, but none had the WOW factor. Still, the winery is producing some really nice wines, and they have received many great scores from Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. They are clearly doing many things correctly and I look forward to tasting more of their wines soon.

From there I started the long, and I do mean LONG trip to Odem Mountain Winery, where I was meant to meet the winemaker – Yishai Alfasi. I did meet him, but with the insane downpour that was occurring in the region, I did not get there on time to do a full tasting with him. The good news is that the wines as the Odem Mountain Winery continue to excel. Also, the wines are sourced from the mountains around Odem, including the Tabor and the Hermon Mountain. The “baddish” news is that to get there you must drive to the northern most point of Israel, and it is a drive. Still, the winery, the facility, and the wines are well worth the effort if you are not driving in the pouring rain. Yishai was very nice to met with me at all. I missed my time window, but because the next guests were also late, I got the chance to taste through some lovely wines. I did not taste a WOW wine there, but there does exist one, the 2009 Odem Mountain Har Odem Syrah Reserve – quite a lovely and rich blue and black wine.

I laugh about it now, but at that time driving home, the rain was pouring so hard and the roads so slick, and the fog so insanely thick, that the only way I knew what was ahead of me – road wise, was the map on my GPS! If you drive in Israel – YOU MUST USE Waze! Google Maps does not enable navigation in Israel, and even if it did – Google maps does not have the wisdom of the crowd that makes Waze so powerful! Waze saved my life – literally many times, on this very drive. The road and the drivers and the environment were so insane that inevitably there was going to be a very large pile up. Sure enough, Waze and the crowd sourcing folks behind it warned me of this impending doom, as I crested the hill, and I was able to stop the car and not add to the already large pileup!! Blessedly, again, I returned to my friend’s home safe – after going to a lovely humus joint called Humus Eliyaouh. It turns out that these humus places are popping up all over the place. They are places that look simple, but to make a fresh and yummy humus plate takes skill – and being placed in the middle of the Israel’s Yokneam tech center, they are packed all day long. However, they were open late at night too, and I was their last customer of the night. What I had for dinner that night was NOT last customer fare in any way! Loved it, fresh green flavors abounded in the plate of humus, along with a plate of salad – loved the place and the bread was baked fresh and tasted like heaven. Sure, I was starved, as when I am wine tasting I do not eat all day, but hey I know bad food from good food, even if I am hungry!

On my third day up north I visited four wineries – yeah I was making up for my first day. Still, only two had a wow wine, but there were some very interesting wineries – that is for sure. First I visited Dalton Winery with the head wine maker Na’ama Sorkin. The visit was delightful. First of all the Dalton Viognier is back!!! You have heard me lament on these very virtual pages – how I miss the beautiful Viognier wines they used to make. After the 2009 vintage – the vineyard went bad and they had to source new grapes. Well – they have and it is a smashing success. That along with the new 2012 Rose is lovely wines that need to be found. From there, the 2010 Alma Red SMV, Bordeaux blend, and the 2011 Petite Sirah are all crazy good wines and are once again proving the veracity of why Dalton is one of the best QPR wineries in Israel. The WOW wines were the 2010 Dalton Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve, the 2011 Dalton Cabernet, Single Vineyard, Kerem Meron, and the 2010 Dalton Alma red, Bordeaux blend. Though the 2011 Cabernet Single Vineyard Meron is a muscle car – the bad boy who all girls fall for, the 2010 Alma Bordeaux blend – is the suave, well coiffed gentleman in the corner that is not as alluring as he is elegant and sleek – a lovely wine that I personally fell in love with. I really did enjoy the time at Dalton, I got to taste almost everything there and in the works, along with the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, which is bracing and lovely. The 2011 Dalton Shiraz, reserve, single vineyard, Hoshen vineyard is dark, brooding, deep and blue! Bravo! The winery is a clear leader of the wineries up north (excluding the beast called Yarden), with some of the new upstarts (read below) that are making a run for them as well. Many thanks to Alex, Naama, and the rest of the Dalton winery folks – the wines were lovely.

The next winery was the Galil Mountain Winery. This is a massive winery that is partially owned the Yarden Winery and partially owned by the surrounding kibbutz that owns the grapes. The winery is state of the art, made to essentially run on its own, and surrounded by mountains, and spitting distance to its northern Lebanese neighbor. The winery is now changing its labels, as I explained here and while the Yiron continues to impress, the rest of the new lines are OK. The drive was fruitful, in that I could taste all the wines that have yet to come here, but when they do, stick with what Galil is calling the Galil Elyon labels; the Yiron, Meron and maybe the white Avivim – which does not often make it to the states. The middle lineup; the Galil labels include many good old standbys; the Pinot Noir, Viognier, Barbera, and now the renamed Bordeaux blend (with Syrah thrown in) – the Ela, and the Alon (the old Cab Syrah blend with Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc). I am not trying to disparage the Galil name as much as I am trying to tell you that the old labels seem to have fallen on hard times and the only real QPR wine from this winery is the Yiron and Meron which are solid A- wines that last long and taste great!

The third winery for the day was my clear second favorite and one that I never been to yet, the Lueria Winery. I arrived a bit late, a common theme in Israel – but one that I am not normally apt to do, traffic, rain, and just driving takes a toll on you. I arrived and Gidi, the winemaker of this family run winery greeted me. I took some quick pictures of the winery itself, and then we hopped into each others cars and I followed him weave and bob through the one-lane roads till we arrived at the family run bed and breakfast that is also doubles as the winery’s tasting room. Actually, I may well have helped to inaugurate the just finished tasting room, that is at the base of the bed and breakfast. The room was still filled with the smells of recently laid flooring, so we moved outside and there we happily enjoyed the wines of Lueria winery. To start – you may be asking me – where did the winery’s name come from – well good question! I asked that of Gidi, and he explained that the vineyards overlook the burial grounds of the famed kabbalist the Ari (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria). Being religious and Sephardi, Gidi saw it as a sign and named the winery after him, and hey – how can you go wrong with associated that man with any endeavor you take – it sure is not going to hurt! We had the chance to taste through all of the current wines, and many are unique, including a wine that is never to be released to the public – the 2012 almost dry Gewurztraminer. The 2012 semi-dry Gewurztraminer – is quite nice as well. They make two whites; the Chardonnay was all sold out so I missed that one. The Gewurztraminer is the other. The 2010 Inon was quite nice (named after the child who was born the same time as bottling of this wine), the 2010 Rosso, but the real WOW was the 2008 Lueria Grand Vital – WOW! Yes, it is a shemita wine, but I missed that till it was too late. The good news, I had no intention of spitting that wine, once it hit my mouth. At the end, we enjoyed a bottle of the 2011 ice wine, made from frozen Cabernet Sauvignon grapes – a nice but not awe-inspiring wine. The visit was lovely and eye opening to the abilities of small wineries to compete and make wines that would go toe-for-toe with many of Israel’s famous wines – BRAVO!

My final stop was at the winery that is slowly changing people’s opinions of religious owned wineries – Or Haganuz. I arrived on time – shockingly, but it was ill timed for the winery, and after doing mincha (afternoon prayers), I quickly tasted a few wines, talked logistics with my nephew (who will go unnamed as he slowed me down LOL!!), and finally tasted a few wines. I had tasted the 2009 Or Haganuz Cabernet Sauvignon, Namora/(Namura in the US), clearly the best wine from the winery. The Namura/Namora is a fine wine, still too sweet and far too overweight. A wine that we did taste from the winery, in NY, and liked is the Namura select, a blend of Cabernet, Shiraz, and Merlot, a nice wine, but still not a blow away wine. We tasted the 2011 Shiraz, which was nice and blue, but OK. The 2012 Amuka is really not my cup of tea, but the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Shamai was nice and was the exact wine we tasted later in the week at the Terravino award dinner, but it too was OK. The winery is really nice and the tasting room is first class, and I am sure with time that they too will find their niche and road to what they believe is their true purpose. Till then, I would say stick with the higher end wines and buy at tastings – where you get a chance to see what you like and dislike for yourself. Finally, I really hope they can cleanup their labels – they are highly confusing here Israel, and let alone in the US.

Finally, I drove back to my friend’s home after a long time out. We went to Greg’s for dinner, a sit down place that served a nice plate of eggs and cheese. After that we went to a dessert place, of which I forget the name, and then it was time to pack up for tomorrow, as I was going back to Jerusalem for Shabbos, after tomorrow’s last day up north.

The next day I drove back up north to get to the last of the winery’s that I had missed, and one that I was really looking forward to – Adir Winery. I first heard of this winery in 2008 when they won Terravino with their double gold 2005 Adir Plato, a blend of Cabernet and Shiraz. Since then the winery did not make wines that interested me and the prices were so obscene that it was moot for me in any case. However, since than things have changed, maybe it is my taste buds, or the winery, but the wines I tasted at the 2011 Sommelier – made me think I needed to visit this winery on my next trip up north. It was a real joy to visit the winery, which is also a cheese, yoghurt, and milk diary. That may sound like a very interesting combination, but if you think about it – wine is an agriculture byproduct, as is milk and cheese. It turns out that the multi-family run winery also owns a fairly large herd of goats, which is where all their milk byproducts come from. Besides owning goats, the families (Rosenberg and Ashkenazi) planted vineyards in the late 80s and again in the 90s, essentially planting much of the vines on the now famous Kerem Ben Zimra slopes and plateaus. It was a joy tasting through much of the wines that were available, that are being imported to the USA through Red Garden imports. We started with the 2011 Adir Chardonnay and it was nice, followed by the 2010 Adir Shiraz – which I found more black and tar than blue, reminiscent of a ripe Yarden, without the date and raisin flavors, essentially a controlled black and red Shiraz. The 2010 Adir Cabernet was equally lovely with ripe and controlled red and black fruit, full bodied and layered. The winner and WOW wine was the 2010 Adir A, a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet, and Cabernet Franc. It is an elegant wine that is rich, layered, but also controlled and without the sledgehammer of the Cabernet. The 2009 Plato was a nice wine, but not a wow wine. The other shocking and very close to WOW wine was the Adir Blush Port wine! It is a filthy wine with a nose that is quite crazy and unique if not a WOW wine – it is surely a BRAVO wine.

The next winery was up the street one mile – called after the mountains from which it sources all of its grapes – Ben Zimra Winery. The winery is a lovely and is right off the road that leads north to Galil Mountain Winery and south to Meron and Tsfat. The winery is owned and managed by Yossi Ashkenazi and the wine maker is Assaf Kedem. I rolled in, again without a pre-call and in the end it worked out very well. I tasted through the wines, which were all nice. While there were no WOW wines, they were very solid wines that make me want to follow the winery and watch how they continue to progress. The 2009 Ben Zimra Lior, a blend of Cabernet and Merlot, showed classic styles and was quite nice.

The final winery that I visited in the North is called Domaine Netofa Winery, owned and managed by non other than Pierre Miodownick, the head wine maker for all of Royal’s European special run wines. Pierre has been working with Royal Wines for more than 25 years as its European winemaker, which means that all the wines we loved so much from Chateau Pontet Canet, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Leoville Poyferre, and others were made under his watch, using the grapes from the respective wineries of course, but not by their winemakers, but rather by Pierre.

Well, in 2005 Miodownick moved to Israel and built a lovely home and winery in the North, close to Ben Zimra, but in flavor worlds away. The grapes may well come from the region surrounding his home, but the flavors are absolutely in the style of classic Cotes du Rhone. Rich dirt, spice, fruit, and lovely controlled oak. This is not the first time I tasted through Pierre’s wines, but it is absolutely the first time I really loved each and every one of them. In the past, I thought some of the whites were a bit light or a bit over-oaked. Now, they are really standing out from the crowd and are well on the way to prove that world-class European style wines can be built in Israel, with a spice and fruit of Israel on top. We met Mr. Miodownick in his lovely home, and I started tasting the wines as we waited for Benyamin Cantz of four gates winery to appear, with his own friends in tow! Yes Benyamin did come to Israel, but that is for an entirely different post. The first wine was quite lovely, the 2011 Domaine Netofa, Galilee, a wine made from Chenin Blanc is the classic Rhone style, not sweet, more tart and mineral. The next wine was the oak aged 2010 Domaine Netofa Latour Netofa, a Chenin Blanc aged in oak and in a wonderful controlled manner. The wine was ripe, oily, full, and rich, with years ahead of it. The next was the 2011 Rose and showing better than in previous years. If I really liked the white netofas, I really liked the reds that I tasted next because they were not at all like the wines I had the entire week. The wines showed more mineral, dirt, garrigue, along with meat flavors and blue fruit. The first red was the 2010 Domaine Netofa red (a Syrah/Mourvedre blend), with black, blue, and meaty notes, along with mineral and dirt. We also got a preview of the 2011 Domaine Netofa red – a more soft and more round version of the 2010, but one that is still opulent with black and blue fruit. The next red wine was the first WOW of the afternoon, 2010 Domaine Netofa Latour Netofa, red, another lovely Syrah/Mourvedre blend, a huge, bold, massive, and rich wine, with mineral, crazy blue fruit, and tons of mouth coating tannin. The next really nice wine was the Netofa Tinto, made from 60% Tempranillo and 40% Touriga Nacional, that smells like crazy roasted meat, along with rich mineral, roasted espresso, licorice, and chocolate, really lovely. The final wine was the next WOW wine, a Ruby Port, made in Israel, so not a real Port, but one made in the exact same manner. The sweet dessert wine was crazy awesome, rich, lovely, and insane. The wine was made from 80% Touriga Nacional, and 20% Tempranillo (AKA Tinta Roriz), aged for 24 months in oak, and topped with 77% alcohol to stop fermentation. The wine is killer and one that I would buy if I could – but ran out of suitcase space – but one to buy the next time I am in the area. There is no winery for this winery – as of now, but who cares, Miodownick’s home was a lovely replacement and it gave me the time to get to talk more with Pierre to boot.

So, there you have it, those were the wineries that I was very happy and honored to visit. However, the other aspect that I wanted to hit on in this post is the state of Israel and it wineries. A few facts that I kept hearing over and over again:

1. Wineries are planting like crazy ALL over Israel. Millions of dollars are being poured into the land of Israel, from the Negev, in the south, all the way to the Galilee, in the North. After a few years these vineyards will be coming online, and some are already online.
2. Why is there so much planting going on? Because many vineyards have been hit by a debilitating disease called: Leaf Roll Disease. If you see lovely blood-red or black-red colored leafs on vines, it could mean the onset of the deadly Leaf Roll disease. Sadly, this evil beast is killing vines throughout Israel and is one of the reasons why wineries we all love stop making certain labels or varietals, as the vines that sourced those bottles are dying off at alarming rates.
3. Much of these new plantings are the French noble grapes, but we are also seeing new plantings of other French varietals including Malbec, Petite Verdot, Petite Sirah. The real cool planting are from Spain, Portugal, and other Mediterranean regions (other than the south of France AKA Syrah), Mourvedre, Grenache, Touriga Nacional (by Netofa, Yarden, and others), Tempranillo, and even real unique ones like Oseletta. What will come of all of these new and non-noble plantings only time will tell. However, already the Syrah grape and the petite Sirah (No relations to each other of any kind), are showing wonderfully in Israel, along with the Portuguese varietals as well.
4. We are seeing the revitalization of family owned and run wineries (Hertzberg, Leuria, etc.) that are doing fine and making a go of it. We are also seeing a return of real Vignobles wineries, like Max Hertzberg who manages his own vineyards and makes the wine. We are also seeing successful integration of the small and new wineries. More and more I heard from the small wineries how they are leaning on the big boys for crush facilities, storage facilities, general knowledge exchange, and aid in others facets. Either way, Israel is truly showing its brotherhood in many ways – and especially in the winery business.
5. Many continue to believe that this cannot continue, that there is just not enough wine drunk in Israel to meet the supply being created. When I visited the wineries both large and small, I was shown the wine room, and sure it looks like a ton of bottles, but they say they sell it – where? The most consistent and the most touted responses were: from the winery itself, from restaurants, and from export to the US, Europe, Japan, Germany, and other countries. Time will tell where the wines go, but for now we are seeing a growth in plantings – but not a growth in wines – because of the loss of vineyards. In the essence the new vineyards and the new supply are really just an exchange for the lost supply.
6. The export business from Israel to the state is a five horse race; Royal Wines, Allied Importers (adding Gvaot recently), Happy Hearts, Red Garden, The River Wine (adding Tishbi recently). Along with a couple of single wine importers; Victor Wines, Palm Bay (Recanati), and Skurnik Wines (tzora). Other than Red Garden there really has not been new importers, rather wineries are moving from importer to importer – until they find the right niche for their product. Cleary the biggest importer, and the 500 pound Gorilla is Royal Wines. Like I have stated many times recently, they have been doing a really good job at getting wine rags to score Israeli wines, and the scores have been solid (Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast). Royal drives the market and that is a great thing, it teaches the world about Israeli wine and even if what they push and teach is only Royal wines – who cares, the world needs the knowledge. The export will continue to grow that is quite clear, wineries are growing in size, in leaps and bounds, and they need the 20 to 30% export to make their growth a reality. So, look for more wines and wineries you never heard of showing up at your local wine shop.
7. Sadly, with the one year anniversary of Daniel Rogov’s passing – no one has stepped up and taken over the mantle of wine writer for Israel. The single man and his knowledge has been lost, much like the much of the wine world is moving from a few famous names (E.G Robert Parker and others who have had a bad past year in the wine trade rag industry).
8. Deep passion for all things Israel is hard to miss when you stay in the country for three weeks and all you do is visit with people who are insanely passionate about wine as well. Wine makers and winery owners are coming to grips with the fact that wine starts in the vineyard and more and more I hear that wine making is a slow way to lose money, and NOT a fast way to make money. The old adage, how do you make money in the wine business? Start with a bigger pot of money and buy a winery. The wine business is a slow cycle business, and this is a statement I heard over and over again from almost every wine maker in Israel, meaning that by the time you know that something is a hit – three years has passed. Why? Because, you try something in the vineyard and you harvest it, ferment the grapes, age the grapes and make a wine out of it – and that is a turnaround of three years. Now, you realize the idea is not quite correct, so you have to tweak it again, so by the time you turn around – ten years has passed and you barely had three tests in the vineyard. That is insane, and a test of your patience – that if you have investors – is not something that goes well, if you make one mistake in the middle of the plan. Worse, is you make a blend or a wine that is not what everyone thinks is a good idea, so you make 10,000 bottles of it, by the time you find out it is a hit, that is three years too late! Your customers are banging on your door asking for that “new” wine, but three vintages have passed and you decided not to continue your “crazy” experiment. Well, that crazy idea is now mainstream and you were a year ahead of the tide, well now you are three years behind the tide. The wine business is a fickle mistress and if you do not feed it with imagination and work, you will find it turning on you – in what you think is a heartbeat, but is rather more like a slow wine business cycle.
9. Inclosing on this subject – Israel is a complex place to live and a complex place to do business. The joy of it though is that Israel is a group of brothers and sisters who may have more bureaucracy than an Army, but are folks who look out for each other. Wineries are slowing growing and slowly improving product wise and name wise – which is great! Israel is slowly getting the name recognition that it needs. I was at a winery on my trip, and I was at the table with the wine maker and a group of folks from Finland. The group praised this winery’s wines and told the winemaker where they buy the wine – Israel! This group flies in every few months, for work, and goes to the wine store in Tel Aviv and buys this winery’s wine – and so they asked – why is it not available in their native country? The answer – our wine is too expensive! It was hilarious – because I and them both responded the same thing and the same time – your wines are world-class and they are NOT too expensive. Israel has what it takes to compete on the world wine scene – in the upper echelon of wine snobs. What is missing is the next level down – to compete with wines on the world scene at the 30 dollar and the 20 dollar range – that is still an issue in Israel and I believe they are working on it. When I was in Israel – I heard wine makers repeat that they want to make wines that everyone can enjoy, but “everyone” is a subjective statement. The hope is that they all see the need to get quality down at the 15, 20, and 30 dollar range, and not just save their best wines for the 50 and up range. Time will tell, but there are many small producers that are pushing the big guys – in this very space – good wine at a reasonable price, and I think it will inevitably find its ay to the rest of the Israeli wine industry.

There you are – my first few days in Israel and the wineries I visited. I hope this is of service to you to see which wineries you may want to visit yourself. If forced, I would say Adir, Dalton, Tulip, Netopha, with a special mention to Lueria. I did miss a winery that I had hoped to visit – Ramot Naftaly.

We left Midbar Winery, and we drove the 3 kilometers that separate the Midbar Winery (in the outskirts of Arad) from Yatir Winery (in Tel Arad). By now most of the readers of this blog know my deep affinity for all things Yatir, and I was looking forward to tasting all the wines. We arrived a bit late and as such Eti Edri, the assistant manager, was holding down the fort and keeping the guests from Finland happy as we showed up a few minutes behind the time. Thankfully, we caught up with the crowd and we were able to watch Eran Goldwasser in action.

Say the name Eran Goldwasser and I cannot help but remember how the late Daniel Rogov called him one of the very the top winemakers in Israel. The winery is state of the art, it was state of the art in 2002 and it continues to add to its technology. The picture to the left shows the immaculate state of the tank room where the wine must/juice goes into after being crushed outside and pumped into the tanks. When the red wines have gone through the desired fermentation the wine is pressed with the press you see behind Eran. For whites they are either pressed immediately and then left to lie on their lees in barrel or in the tanks themselves.

Eran than took us around the barrel rooms where he explained the time the wines stay in the barrel before being bottled. Depending on the wine – it may stay longer of shorter and than finds its way to the glass entombment that keeps the wine fresh until it graces your table.

If you look at the success of this winery it is clear why Carmel winery built this edifice to the wine gods and why they continue to fund it. The vineyards that are sourced to make the wine are high above Tel Arad, in a forest called Yatir Forest. The forest was the brain child of the late Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister and one of the founders of Israel. Many scientists, according to lore, told him that it could not be done, that a forest could not be grown in the arid air and ground of Arad, in and around desert land. In classic Ben Gurion style, his response was, great than lets change the scientists! The result is the amazing Yatir Forest for which the winery is named and for which the flagship wine is named.

The vineyard was planted in 1997 and the inaugural vintage was the 2001 vintage. Initially, the winery pumped out two wines, an Australian blend (Bordeaux grapes and Shiraz) along with a more high-end Bordeaux blend the Yatir Forest. The Yatir blend in some ways has now taken a more secondary importance to the newer wines. In 2004 Yatir released their first white wine – the Yatir Sauvignon Blanc. In 2005 the Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz were released. In 2007 they released a lovely Viognier. Then in 2008 they released a new label again – the Petite Verdot which was killer! All the while, they continue to pump out the Forest and the blend and each of the varietal wines as well.

The winery’s vineyards are cut up into five sections, which has grown as the winery and its success has grown. The roughly 100 acres of vines have a maximum altitude of 900 meters and in the hot arid heat here in the southern tip of the Judean Hills, every meter counts. The Negev may well be in eye sight, but the region is without doubt the Judean Hills and it is for that reason that the winery chose to use the lion (the symbol of Judea) as its company logo. I am not sure if you caught this video of the Robert Mondovi Of Israeli Wine – Adam Montefiore and his interview with Erin Burnett, one of the anchors on the CNBC network – who happens to have a thing for all things camel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzopL4OVI4

Well ignoring Erin Burnett taking issue with Montefiore’s use of the term pest – what exactly do these animals do to the vine? Simply said – the crush it, munch it, and toss it about as we would a bowl of salad. Not quite the kind of thing that makes for a profitable and sustainable winery! So, to handle these pests that may sound exotic, Carmel uses the same technology that has ben used for hundreds or thousands of years to keep out pests – fences. However, these fences had better work – really well! If even one camel breaches the perimeter, we are not talking about a few vines that a deer could consume or injure for a year; we are talking about hundreds of vines. These animals are voracious eaters and could lay waste to an average sized vineyard in a matter of hours! We are talking about permanent damage – not the damage of the buds for a year, but the damage of total destruction. This is the same damage control that Yarden and others have to keep a vigilant eye out for from wild boar in the north and the same pest that wineries in the Shomron are ever concerned about. While the boar is no small problem, literally and figuratively, the camel is a far greater one for Yatir and the surrounding vineyards and orchards of the south.

The five vineyards, spread across roughly 100 acres, are currently planted with the usual suspects, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Malbec, Carignan, Tempranillo, Mourvedre, Viognier, and an unusual varietal new-comer Tannat.

With the tour being complete we found our way to the great room in the winery where a royal long table is surrounded by chairs and wines that are available for purchase in the winery.

The tasting consisted of all the wines being sold by Yatir and was attending by Eran Goldwasser, who opened and poured the wine, my nephew, and myself, and by the clan of Finland fans who routinely buy Yatir wines in Israel. Turns out that this group of wine lovers from Finland has a very close affinity to the winery. They were shown the wine by a wine merchant in Tel Aviv, which is close to where the group of guys hang out when staying in Israel. When I explained to them that this event was not like all the other events they may have attended, by the fact that Eran was present throughout and that all the wines were on the table, they commented back that they routinely buy the wines and bring them back to Finland. It was at this point that they asked – why are they required to schlep the bottles to Finland – why are Yatir wines not available in their homeland? Actually they said there is little to no Israeli wines in Finland other than some not-so-enjoyable wines.

It was at that point that I stated to Eran and later the next week to Adam when we met at Carmel winery, that Yatir is one of the wineries that can demand a higher price as they have higher quality wines. In hindsight what I can say about Yatir winery is that they are the most consistent top-level winery in Israel. There may be better wines out there from some wineries, like say Yarden Rom, Katzrin, and some El-Rom wines. However, there is no other winery in Israel that I know of, that consistently does not miss and one that deserves the high prices that Yatir wines command.

My clear feelings aside, the Yatir winery has received accolades from critics such as Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, and the Wine Enthusiast. They were one of a handful of wineries in Israel that scored 5 stars with Daniel Rogov; from almost the first year he covered them till his passing. A fair amount of the credit goes to Eran Goldwasser, the fore mentioned head winemaker of the winery. Clearly much of the wine making and blend decisions are to his credit. He was one of the first to bring his Adelaide university training and Australian traits to the Israeli market. He worked for many wineries before joining Yatir winery from its very beginning. This was no small investment that Carmel put into Yatir, it was clear from the first time I entered the winery that this was one of those very special places in Israel. To be given the keys to this very expensive sports car – was quite an achievement for Eran, but as he showed over and over again at the table and during the entire visit his deep and honest humility is what separates him from his many peers, who at times show ego-maniacal tendencies, while some shockingly have far less skill to humility.

Still, all wine starts in the vineyard and that is under the purview of Ya’acov Ben Dor, the general manager of the winery, and one of the men who were instrumental in planting the initial vineyards in the Yatir Forest in 1997. The trait of humility seems to be a prerequisite to working at this wonderful oasis in the edge of the desert.

As my mind returns to the tasting, I missed the wonderful 2010 Sauvignon Blanc – that was on me. However, some of the other wines were out of my reach, because I do not drink Shmitta wines. So, I was forced to take in the redolence of the lovely wines and dream of better days when I can smell and taste all the wines I hold. I tasted through the rest of the wines and they were all wonderful wines, no losers and no slackers. Only sold A- or higher wines. I was just talking with a friend of mine, who makes wine in California, and who is not Benyamin Cantz, and he what were the asked the top wineries in Israel? That list I rattled off is a death wish, if it comes from me, but I have no qualm saying Yatir is on that list – very much towards the top. I really hope the guy-trip Yatir fans from Finland truly understood the special treatment they were so deservedly privy to. The whole table showed the proper respect for the man who made these wonderful creations and were a great group of guys, who love wine, especially Yatir wine!

I must say many thanks to Eran Goldwasser, Eti Edri, and the rest of the Yatir Winery clan, along with our wonderful table buddies from Finland, and finally to the (living) Robert Mondovi of Israel, Adam Montefiore – my wines notes follow below:

2010 Yatir Viognier – Score: A-
As I have stated a few times now, this is definitely one of the top Viognier in Israel, but none touch the Midbar Viognier. Still, a wonderful Viognier from grapes sourced from their vineyards in the Yatir Forest. The nose starts off with classical Viognier green notes, peach, a huge and lovely perfume of honey joy, honeydew, along with crushed flower petals, and dried apricot. The mouth on this medium to full bodied Viognier wine explodes with rich layers of fruit, honey, mango, guava, green and yellow apple, all wrapped inside an oily and rich textured wine that is layered and rich, with good balancing acidity. The finish is long and mineral based, with bushels of summer fruit, awesome lemon/lime curd, with a touch of bitterness and herb on the long rise.

2008 Yatir Blend and 2008 Yatir Shiraz – Skipped for Shmitta

2009 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
This was the fifth wine and I had only tasted one wine so far – AHH! Well, I was well rewarded fro my patience with a Cabernet Sauvignon that is rich and elegant – classic Yatir control. The wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Malbec, and 7% Cabernet Franc. The nose is classically European with lovely green notes, rich blackberry, black cherry, perfumed nose of dark fruit, intoxicating and elegant, dried fruit, and licorice. The mouth on this full-bodied beast is rich, layered, and concentrated with fruit that is unctuous and crazy extracted, with loads of raspberry, cassis, crushed herb, and cedar notes, melding with massive mouth coating and no yet integrated tannin – what a mouth! The finish is long and spicy with cinnamon, cloves, chocolate, tobacco, and rich leather with nice green notes and a hint of bitter herb and mineral on the finish.

2009 Yatir Petite Verdot – Score: A- to A
This wine is a blend of 85% Petite Verdot and 15% Merlot. Now with that taken care of WOW! What a wine! The nose on this wine explodes with a crazy perfumed nose of floral notes, mineral, heaps of herb, black cherry, plum, and roasted espresso coffee. The mouth is so unique it really must be enjoyed to be believed, with layers of rich, ripe, and concentrated fruit, mouth drying tannin, lanolin, blackcurrant, all wrapped up in layers of big aggressive mouth drying tannin, that melds perfectly with the wine’s heft and balance, all focused by sweet cedar, and a potpourri of flowers. The finish is long and spicy, with crazy tannin, chocolate, tobacco, graphite, floral notes that keep on giving, dark kirsch cherry, and crushed herb – WOW. It is a real shame that this wine is not sold in the USA.

2009 Yatir Forest – Score: A- to A (or more)
WOW! This may be the clear winner of the lovely portfolio, but that is still like saying this is the best all-star at the all-star competition, clearly all the Yatir wines are stars. The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, and Malbec. This wine takes the fruit to the edge but stays controlled and elegant, well as elegant as a sledgehammer can be anyway! The wine is insane and layered with what can only be called a red perfumed glimpse at the Garden of Eden! The nose is rich, perfumed, and redolent with big black cherry, dried cherry, blackberry, plum, herb galore, mint, lovely green notes, graphite, and dried cranberry. The mouth is insanely rich and layered, with concentrated big black fruit, blackberry, cassis, all wrapped up in mouth coating and rich tannin, along with sweet cedar. This is a truly an opulent mouth with layers and layers of fruit that take your breath away. The finish is long and rich with tobacco, mineral, graphite, chalky notes, sweet herb, and a hint of bittersweet herb. This is another great example Israel showing its hot stuff without reverting to poor fruit management – where all you taste are date and raisin. This wine is controlled, showing clear sweet and ripe fruit, but also great finesse, and vineyard management to keep this beast of a wine under control while still truly enchanting and captivating – BRAVO!!!

Wine Mill wine shop in the center of Jerusalem

The Wine Mill wine shop

Last week I posted that I was in Israel for three weeks over the month of December, and in that first post I wrote about the wineries I saw in the Galilee wine region (the north of Israel). What I failed to talk about was Gabriel Geller and his wine shop in the middle of Jerusalem. I spoke about the Wine Mill wine shop in a previous post, it is located smack dab in the middle of Jerusalem, close to the city center, and to many hotels and restaurants. The address for the Wine Mill wine shop is 8, Ramban Street, 92422 Jerusalem, Israel, it is a shop that I can say is stocked with wines that I would be happy to enjoy and is the main wine shop that I use when in Israel. Why? Because Geller knows his wines, sells only wines he or his customers like, and knows the wines he sells. His shop is filled with wines that are often only sold at the winery itself, like Midbar Winery wines (see below) or Herzberg Winery wines (see below). His shop is also filled with small winery wines, like Weitzman Petite Verdot, or Gat Shomron Winery, and many others. Please do not think that this is a paid advertisement or something – LOL! I do not take money from people. I bring up Gabriel Geller and the Wine Mill, because during my three week stay in Israel, I was either in Geller’s store, with Geller himself, or calling Geller everyday, including Friday day and Saturdays (Saturday night of course)!

As I ended the previous posting – I wrote about my take on the Israeli wine scene, and I would like to add some more thoughts to the thread:

1. If I had to give a color or fruit that best describes the 2010 vintage in Israel – it would blueberry! YES blueberry! No, I am not talking about malbec or Syrah or Petite Verdot. What I am talking about is all of those and more shockingly, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! Try it out and see for yourself. When I asked the wine makers about it, they said that the growing conditions of 2010, hot and then cool led to the blue flavors.
2. 2010 and on can well be the year of the small wine maker. Wineries are coming and going – that is for sure, but it is also a fact that small production wineries, like Herzberg Winery and Gat Shomron winery are popping up and staying afloat – because they do not have that much wine to move. Time will tell.
3. Finally, more and more high level and high quality mevushal is occurring in Israel. Shiloh winery has been doing it for a few years now, as is Binyamina on its reserve series and cave, and others. It is not widespread or low quality. The process is being done at great cost and at great effort – bringing forth quality wine that happens to be mevushal, much like Herzog and Hagafen. While this is true of the few that I have listed above, Recanati has started doing it to some of their diamond label wines and the outcome is not that great. The 2010 Shiraz tasted cooked while the non-mevushal bottle in Israel did not have that taint – time will tell how these experiments will turn out.
4. If you must pick a single varietal that shines in the Shomron – it would be Merlot. All the Merlot wines we tasted from the Shomron (whether made from a winery in the Shomron or wineries that source their grapes from the Shomron – like Teperberg) – the winners were always the Merlot! If it is the cooler weather the higher acidity – who cares – it is great wine!
5. Wineries are getting the message – making more old-world wines with Israeli fruit. What that means to me is to make ripe and sweet wines that are controlled without the overripe date and raisin bombs that were so very prevalent some 5 years ago. In its place I find that Israeli wineries are producing wine with sweet and ripe fruit, while all the while showing clear control of both the sweetness of the fruit and the amount of oak used.
6. Israel residents are finally starting to understand that they live in a Mediterranean country (with one of their borders on the Med) with blazing hot summers and therefore need to start appreciating white wines! I know, Jews like to drink red wines, something to do with the whole kiddush and shabbos thing. Still, white wine is lovely and is a wine that can be done well in Israel. Take the Midbar winery as an example. A winery that was built on the premise of making GREAT white wines in Israel! It took a long time for the perfect storm to occur, the nexus point of Israeli residents wanting white wines and for wineries to excel at the production of good white wines. Maybe it was a chicken-egg thing between the wineries and the residents, or maybe it was the whole culture thing – but Israeli wineries are figuring it now. More and more every winery is making a Rose, a Chardonnay, and many are doing Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling wines, and many others. So keep a look out for very solid Israeli white wines – they may actually remove them from Israel’s endangered species list!
7. The main high end red wines being poured at wineries in Israel are shmitta wines, wines from the 2008 vintage. I say this simply as a warning and no more than that. If you care, than skip the wines. If you do not worry about it – than do what you wish. I simply state it here as an informational notice.

My first day in Israel I actually was in Jerusalem and met Elchonon Hellinger (the monster that we created) and his nice chef friend; the Mendelnik (who rumor has is even crazier of a driver than the rest of Israeli drivers). We enjoyed a bunch of wines from David Edri’s Kinor David Winery – a winery based in Hebron and one that Elchonon has been raving about for months. We had the chance to taste some of the reds, which were not very good, as they were older wines. We got to taste his mythical ports and sherry wines! Those wines were in indeed crazy good and quite enjoyable, while some of his newer red wines were OK (we tasted them later in the second week).

Another fact that I need to repeat, Yossie Horwitz’s Israel winery mash-up map was a lifesaver when needing to lookup addresses and contact info for each and every winery that I visited!

Hamasrek Winery

On the Friday that I returned from my trip up north, I visited Geller and we tasted the 2009 Niakanor Merlot, Reserve and the 2011 Ruth Dessert wine, which we spoke about in a previous post here. On the following Saturday night Geller and I went to Hamasrek winery, after lighting the Hanukkah candles and it was nice meeting with the winemaker; Nachum Greengrass and tasting a bottle of the winery’s flagship wine; 2006 Hamasrek The King’s Blend, Limited Edition, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Zinfandel. The wine was nice, though it is not a wine that Royal imports anymore, so if you want some, it is available at the winery in Israel.

Tzuba Winery

On Sunday I spent most of my day scheduling the week of wine tastings and I was able to swing by the Tzuba Winery, though I came too late to spend time with Paul Dubb, the winemaker, like in the past, but I did spend time with Eiton Green, the General Manager of Tzuba and the nice Mashgiach who put up with my late timing and was willing to stay around and pour me some really nice wines. The 2011 Tzuba Chard is really nice, along with the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, but the Metzuda wines (the flagship labels of Tzuba) were the WOW wines for sure. The 2009 Tzuba Metzuda (70% Cab, 15% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc) was a very close WOW wine, and a wine that I liked more in New York last year than at the winery, but that may have been more about not letting the wine open up properly. The 2010 Tzuba Metzuda blend (44% Cab, 44% Merlot, and 12% Cabernet Franc) was a clear and present WOW Wine – very solid and well done wine with blue, green and black notes, big muscles, heavy spice, and great acid. Finally, the 2010 Tzuba Syrah Metzuda was the best wine there and one that is truly really nice and one that could be easily mistaken for a northern California Syrah – Bravo! Many thanks to the Tzuba winery, Paul, Eiton, and the Mashgiach, who put up with my late arrival and were still kind and happy to share their wonderful wines with me.

Ella Valley Winery

On Monday, I picked up Gabriel Geller and we started a very long day of wine tasting. The first winery we visited is Ella Valley Winery, where I had hoped we would meet Lin Gold, the new winemaker that took over for Doron Rav Hon, in 2011. I really wanted to meet her, but she was out of the country when we visited and we missed her by a few days – such is life. We did meet with Ilan Bezalel, VP of Ella Valley Vineyards, and we tasted through some of Gold’s new wines and some old wines from Doron. The 2011 Ella Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Rose are clear shift in Gold’s approach with sweeter and riper notes, gone is the lemon peel and herb. Instead the fruit is ripe, expressive, but fully controlled without overbearing ripe notes. It is a fine line to walk and one that will be harder to implement in the red wines. I look forward to trying Gold’s red wines to se if her approach is the same in red as it is in white and if it can be done with equal control. We enjoyed the 2011 Ella Valley Everred Rose’s salmon pink color and fruit. The 2007 Ella Valley Merlot was quite nice, but the star of the tasting was the 2009 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc. Yes, I like Cabernet Franc, get over it, but this wine was a solid A- to A wine and worthy of the WOW award! One of the saddest things I heard in Israel, was at Ella Valley Winery, when Ilan told me that there will be no more Pinot Noir after the 2008 vintage – I am not sure why – but that is what I was told. It is a real shame as the Ell Valley Pinot Noir was quite impressive. Many thanks to Ilan and I hope next time we visit we will have the opportunity to meet with Lin Gold.

Teperberg Winery

From there we went to one of the clear highlights of my trip – Teperberg Winery. The last time I wrote about Teperberg Winery was after a tasting at the 2012 Gotham Wine Extravaganza, where the Chief Winemaker Shiki Rauchberger of Teperberg Winery came to the tasting and poured many Teperberg wines, including a few barrel samples, and the still unreleased and unnamed premium label for the winery. At that time, I sad that the winery was on the correct course and was a winery that was clearly improving year over year. I was looking forward to visiting the Teperberg winery because I wanted to see if this path to improvement was continuing or not, and indeed the upper level labels have truly improved their trajectory towards being a top level wine producer. We arrived on time and were met by Olivier Fratty, Teperberg’s French oriented winemaker, who happens to also be Tunisian! The winery is massive to say the least, producing many not so interesting wines for the sugary drinking crowd and some very nice higher-end wines for the wine drinking crowd. They make 1 million bottles of wine a year and 35% of that is sold under the Teperberg label, and that percentage is slowly moving up. The winery is planting vineyards like they are going out of style. 120 dunam in the Galilee, and 1700 dunam in the Shomron, with 2500 dunam overall planted or being planted throughout Israel. After showing us around, Olivier took us to a trailer where we were blown away by the number of wines that littered a conference room sized table! Olivier told us that Teperberg was working on building a new visitor center and until than this was where he greeted and tasted wine with visitors and colleagues. When I entered all I could smell was fried chicken! I looked around and I asked – do you guys also make fried chicken? Olivier replied that the smell was wafting out of the box of fricassee sandwiches! Fricassee is a Tunisian sandwich, which is so Tunisian in so many ways! When I talk about Tunisian recipes, they start and end with oil – it is the framework for all Tunisian recipes – fried food covered with oil and tasting – OH so good! Well, these fricassee sandwiches are essentially stuffed doughnuts! The doughnuts are commonly stuffed with tuna fish, egg salad, and other such sandwich fare.

We enjoyed tasting some 17 wines at the winery and the take away I had was that many of the newer vintages were solid to very solid wines with a few WOW wines sprinkled in. The wine tasting started with a surprising pair of close to WOW and absolute WOW wines; the 2012 Teperberg Sauvignon Blanc, Terra and the 2011 Teperberg Viognier, Terra. There is a person on the Israeli and Kosher Wine forum who craves acid and all I can say is that the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc is as close as you can get to biting into a ripe raw lemon and truly enjoying it! The Sauvignon Blanc is a shocking and screaming citrus explosion with crazy ripe and beautiful fruit – BRAVO. The 2011 Viognier is crazy nice and is equal in nature to the old Dalton Viognier and the new 2012 Dalton Viognier. However, both of them are not quite up to Midbar’s Viognier (more on that below) – but they are two of the best kosher Viognier wines out there. Many of the wines we enjoyed at the tasting were either recently bottled or not yet bottled, so not only do I not have many pictures, many of these bottles will not be available immediately. The 2009 Teperberg Malbec is a lovely and medium bodied Malbec with big beautiful blue and black fruit. The 2010 Malbec is as good as the 2009 vintage – but the 2011 is CRAZY FILTHY and WOW (by now I hope you know that is a compliment – right?), quite a lovely wine. Rich, layered, and in your face, but controlled and ripe. The Merlot Terra wines were nice, the 2009 was OK in a classic green and red way, while the 2010 Terra Merlot was unique and more rich, with blueberry, boysenberry, green and black fruit and floral notes – nice! The 2009 and 2010 Terra Cabernet were OK, with the 2010 showing elegantly, but the shocking QPR 2010 stole the pairing by far! The 2010 Terra Cabernet is massive freight train with power, muscle, and fruit to spare, a highly extracted and expressive wine.

The next wines were the reserve wines and the differences between the tasting at Gotham (of these wines a year ago) and the wines now are quite interesting. The next wines were the 2009 and 2010 Merlot reserve wines from the Shomron. At the Gotham tasting the 2009 Merlot reserve was tight as a drum and showed little expression. WOW! What a year makes! This wine is a clear WOW wine and a fantastic example of what a Merlot can be. The 2009 is a filthy, expressive, green, black, and red monster with huge shoulders, rich body, and ample fruit to spare. The 2010 Merlot reserve is also nice and rich and a solid showing for this winery! The Shiraz reserve from 2009 is a wine we liked more at the tasting in Gotham than in Israel. I tasted its brother (the 2010 vintage), at the Terravino dinner and the 2009 vintage at the winery. The 2010 vintage seemed hollow or short while the 2009 was nice but did not blow me away. Still nice wines and maybe they will fill out in the future. The Cabernet reserve is a wine that is a blend of fruit from the Shomron, Galilee, and Judean Hills. From what I saw of Shomron Cabernet Sauvignon – this is a really good idea. The Shomron Cabs, that we tasted, showed greener and redder than this lovely black and balanced wine. The 2009 Cab Reserve is anotehr wine that showed tight and closed at the Gotham wine tasting that at the winery a year later was KILLER! The 2009 Cab reserve is a massive, extracted, and rich Cabernet – rich and expressive, black, red, and full of vigor. The 2010 vintage is well – blue! Like I said in my trends for 2010, Cabernet fruit from Israel in 2010 shows blue fruit! It is unique, not expected and quite lovely. It helps to round out the wine. The wine is not as extracted as its older brother but is equally spicy with good richness and mouth cover, both are solid A- wines. The 2009 Merlot reserve and Cabernet reserve did not show well at the Gotham wine event – no matter how hard Shiki tried with decanters and god knows what else! But waiting a year and letting god take care of the aging – the wines now show beautifully! Another great example for why age rather than technology is the way to enjoy a wine!

The final dry red wine was the 2010 Cabernet Franc – and yes – I LOVED IT! It is still a solid A- wine and tasting very much like at the Gotham wine event! What a green, red, and tobacco monster it is! Rich, layered, and elegant all at the same time. At this point we were hurrying to get out and go to the next winery, but Olivier was not going to let us go before we had a taste of his new bubbly sweet moscato wine, which was OK, and the Teperberg Nevel Port Style wine – which though I know will get me in trouble with Adam M, is still an OK port to me. At this point I was starving and I helped myself to a few of the wonderful fricassee, but man by the time we were done the platter was gone and someone, who will go unnamed, left with some of them stuffed in his pocket – LOL!!!! It was a truly enjoyable tasting and one that shows how much this winery is growing and learning about its fruit. Thanks so much to Shiki and Olivier.

Flam Winery

From here we drove to Flam Winery – where Golan Flam affirmed for me what many have been saying for years – that Flam Winery is a European powerhouse in the Judean Hills. The winery, while producing awesome wines for years, only recently turned kosher in 2010, and so the reserve 2010 wines are finally bottled and are being shown in the winery for those in the know and they were quite lovely! The winery’s decor is styled in a comfortable yet stylish European family setting. The table upon which we did the tasting looks like it was pulled from a Italian home in Tuscany. The china cabinet that faces the other wall looks like it came out of a French villa in the 1900s. The styling is very reminiscent of what the family ants to project – a family run European winery in the middle of Israel. The wines and the winery follow this theme to a tee and it was a real joy to be ion the winery again.

We arrived a bit late but Israel Flam, the patriarch of the family, was more than kind to sit down with us and allow us to taste through the wines that are currently available, along with a few wines that are not yet available. Flam Winery recently received high praises from Mark Squires of the Wine Advocate, when he gave 90 to the 2011 Flam Blanc. We were graciously accepted even though we were late, with Israel Flam sitting down with us to start the tasting. As, I previously explained in my past post about Flam Winery, Israel Flam is one of the superstars in the Israeli wine scene. Mr. Flam was originally head wine maker at Carmel winery and never imagined his kids would get into the business. However, after Golan went to wine school and Gilad went to business school – things looked like Golan would be in the wine business sooner or later. However, the real shocker was when Gilad spoke with his father and asked him if the wine business is a good idea? Israel replied, that if you want to make money quickly – than go start a start-up or go into banking. If you want to lose money quickly or maybe make money very slowly – go into the wine business. With that kind of resounding reply – Israel was surprised to hear soon after that Golan and Gilad were going into the family business and they did both ideas! They started a winery – the family owned and operated Flam Winery, and they started a wine and liquor start-up, involved in the import and export of alcohol throughout Israel and abroad. Proof positive that it is always a good idea to listen to your elders!

Soon enough, after we started tasting the 2011 Flam Blanc, which was a nice A- wine, Golan Flam was very kind to come and join us, not withstanding are out of control tardiness. After the Flam Blanc we tasted the 2010 Flam Classico, and it reaffirmed for me that I did not love it as much as I did the first time I tasted it last year. You see, last month we did a tasting of many kosher blends and the 2010 Flam Classico was one of them, and it did not go over well on the table, a B++ wine, rather than the A- wine I tasted a year ago at the winery. So, I was looking forward to seeing if it was the wine or my storage/transportation. In the end, it is a nice wine, but not the same A- wine I remembered, even after tasting it again at the winery. However, all of this is irrelevant in comparison to what we tasted next. It was the reserve wines that we have been waiting for an entire year to taste, that fully explains the mad cult following that Flam reserve wines have in Israel, even before they were kosher.

After we tasted the Classico, we were given the opportunity to taste the recently released 2010 Flam Syrah, reserve. This is a wine that is a pure WOW wine in every way, with blueberry, blackberry, power and finesse coursing through its veins. This is a bull/powerhouse of a wine that can easily do a pirouette in a china store on one foot – finesse and elegance all wrapped in a blue, black, licorice and espresso coffee body – BRAVO! The mind melting thing here was that this was just the start, the next two wines were equally mind melting, with perfect balance and control, the fruit is Israeli in every way, sweet, bright, and ripe, yet the wine is controlled and kept in its European style – quite a hard thing to implement, and Golan Flam has done it with aplomb. The great news here is that this wine is available now in Israel and will be available for tasting at the Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE) in NY and at the International Food and Wine Festival in LA, Golan told me he will be at both events!

The next wine was the 2010 Flam Merlot, reserve and it too was a WOW wine, deep and rich with a classic style, green notes, red and light black notes with many layers of deep extracted fruit, lovely tobacco and insane mouth coating tannin that is mineral based with graphite and loamy dirt. Quite a lovely wine that does not shy away from its searing tannin, concentrated fruit, and deep fruit extraction. Double WOW and BRAVO!

The final wine was the craziest wine of the bunch, the 2010 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve with you guessed it – blueberry fruit! The 2010 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve is crazy rich and layered with blue, black, and red fruit. The mouth is rich, layered, and insanely complex, with massive rich tannin, crazy black and blue fruit and deep rooted mineral. The finish is long, spicy, and luscious with crazy tannin, all while dressed in a long leather trench coat, holding a piping hot cup of espresso coffee, while taking a long pull on a fat stogie with a side of chocolate mocha java. Double WOW and BRAVO again!

The three reserve wines show the true potential of Israeli wines. Wines that are distinctly Israeli, with big ripe fruit, all while controlled with good mineral and dirt, nice cedar, and oak extraction. Anyone who has enjoyed these wines can see why Daniel Rogov continually gave them high scores and why Mark Squires also loves them a bunch. Thanks so much again to Israel Flam and Golan Flam for taking the time to met with us and to share their liquid gold with us as well – I am sure the wine will sell well whether we wrote about it or not – so again many thanks to everyone from the Flam Winery.

Herzberg Winery

Once we left the Flam Winery we made our way to Herzberg Winery a winery that is owned, run, and operated by a single man – Max Herzberg. It was pouring rain as we made our way to his lovely home – which doubles as his winery and vineyard. Yes, he reminds me of my good friend Benaymin Cantz (from four gates winery), another of those home bound Vignobles who live, breath, and eat winemaking in and around their very abode!

Max Herzberg is a world famous biotechnologist who has single-handedly created and sold more companies than many of us even know or can keep track of. Max immigrated to Israel from France and quickly became a world class biotechnologist and a leader in his field and in the corporate world!

Max Herzberg at his winery – Herzberg Winery

However, after getting his fill of running biotechnology departments at universities and running and starting companies, Max decided he would plant a vineyard. One day Max approached his clearly intelligent wife (who happens to be a Tunisian – so that helps a lot of course) and asked if she minded if he planted a few vines? His wife replied, you mean you want to plant the entire field – right? Sure enough, in 2005, by the time Max was done, the entire 3 acre field, right next to his home in Moshav Sitrya was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec. It is not clear if this particular location within the Judean Hills is well situated for Malbec, but as Max puts it – time will tell. Max also makes use of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from a neighboring vineyard. The first true year for the winery was in 2008, though there was some 300 bottles from the 2007 vintage.

As usual, Geller knows everyone and him and Max hit it off really well. It helps that Geller speaks a perfect French (so jealous), the native tongue of the French born Max Herzberg. It was with this knowledge that we arrived at his home and he showed us around the winery – though by this time it was pitch dark and we were walking around very carefully. We soon made our way to the well lit tasting room, that is adjacent to the winery and that is where we tasted through the winery’s entire line. A few weeks after we visited, Max had a winery tasting at his winery to show off the new 2009/2010 red wines and from what I can see on his Facebook page – it was a smash! Max is one of those honest, down to earth, humble and talented wine makers that enjoy what he is doing and it shows in his wine and in his passion for his craft.

We started the tasting with the 2009 Herzberg malbec, the very wine that made Max and his winery famous. I was told by many that this was a must taste wine, and so I bought a bottle at the Wind Mill for Shabbos. The bottle I got was lacking in many ways, so I was hoping it was just a bad bottle and that I would be enjoying the true version of the malbec. Sure enough the 2009 Herzberg Malbec that we tasted was indeed quite lovely. The wine was not a OW wine, but to be fair I have yet to taste a WOW Malbec, with the possible exception of the 2009 Tishbi Malbec, but that is for another post. I would score the wine a B+ to A-. The malbec was not blue, but rather red and very spicy with a perfumed nose, a medium body with good tannin structure and good usage of oak. The 2009 Merlot is very much in the same ilk of the Malbec with plenty of red fruit, along with nice green notes, heaps of floral notes and a solid medium bodied structure. The mouth is well balanced with aggressive almost mouth drying tannin, near sweet cedar, and ripe red and black fruit. The finish is packed with mineral and charcoal – a unique and lovely Merlot. The next wine was the 2009 Reserve, a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 20% Malbec. The nose is unique with sugared and candied plum, mineral, green notes, and ripe fruit. The mouth is medium plus in weight with good tart fruit, more mouth drying tannin, and sweet cedar. The finish is long with more mineral and chocolate covered tobacco. The next wine was from the 2010 vintage – the 2010 Herzberg Asado Blend, which is a blend of 50% Malbec, and 25% each of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Asado was a dirtier more earthy wine than the 2009 wines, with deep rooted green notes, loamy dirt, mushroom, red and black fruit, more mouth drying tannin, good red and black fruit, and wonderful balance. The finish is long and spicy with green, vanilla, and crazy spices like cinnamon, cloves, and tobacco. The Asado name is a nod to Argentinians who have clearly made a name for themselves in the wine world with their version of the Malbec fruit.

Max was very kind to share with us his 2010 wines and those are a clear bump up from the 2009 crop. The 2010 Merlot and Reserve wines of course continue the 2010 theme with huge amounts of blue fruit, but they are also broader, deeper, and more concentrated wine with weight and fruit that can carry the strong handed use of oak. The fruit is dark, brooding, rich and truly complex – in a manner that makes you stop and take notice. Are they WOW wines? Not quite, but they are solid A- wines and ones that I would have bought if they were available.

The 2010 Herzberg Cab fruit is ripe and jammy, full, with crazy floral notes and blueberry, followed by black fruit, and currant. The mouth is medium to full bodied with tannin that goes forever, concentrated fruit, and deep layers of blackberry, cassis, sweet cedar, and mouth drying tannin. The 2010 Herzberg Reserve is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% each of Malbec and Merlot. Once again the nose is ripe with ribbons of blueberry, blackberry, violet, licorice, and controlled spice. The mouth is rich and full bodied with softening yet aggressive mouth drying tannin, sweet ripe fruit, and a concentrated mouth that is coming together nicely. The finish is long, balanced, and sweet and spicy at the same time with chocolate covered tobacco, with vanilla and spice.

We had a few other wines and stuff that is undocumented and it will stay that way – but the entire tasting was a true joy and one that gave me the chance to see a man who has nothing to prove in this world. A man that has made his mark on it and yet a man that decided he wants to strike out in a different direction, one that he loves and cares about and is willing to spend his retirement years doing! I say bravo to you sir and best wishes for another successful vintage! Thanks so much for making time for the two of us!

Well, when one is on a winery hunt – a few wineries a day is really not enough – it is kind of like castle hunting for folks who visit Scotland. For me, in Israel, it is all about winery hunting. So, it was a brisk Tuesday morning that I realized that I was late to pick up my nephew who was joining me for my mad adventure – half way across the world! I soon parked at Lod Airport, in the pouring rain and parked the car in short term parking.  There waiting for me was my nephew and the start of a whirlwind adventure for him – I think more than he knew he was getting himself into! The day was young and after stopping for some coffee, sandwich, and pastries, it was off to the first of two wineries; the Yaffo Winery and the Gush Etzion Winery. They are both right next to each other, some 10 kilometers or less away from each other, and the Yaffo Winery is literally right next door to the Ella Valley Winery, a winery we visited two days earlier (see above :-) ).

Yaffo Winery

We rolled into the Yaffo Winery on time, but from the wrong direction and from a very soggy and wet dirt road. We took the wrong entrance and it was a miracle that we could get the car up the steep and short incline, but blessedly we succeeded and smartly decided not to try that on the way out!

As we rolled up to the winery, Moshe Celniker, the owner and original winemaker of Yaffo Winery, greeted us. Soon after his son Stephan the current winemaker at the winery joined us. The rain had passed and the crisp clean air and almost cloudless skies made for a quite picturesque setting in the winery surrounded by vineyards for as far as the eye could see.

Yaffo Winery sign from the street

Yaffo winery was started in 1998 by Moshe Celniker in his basement, when he made some 2000 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. From there, the winery has grown to 40,000 bottles in the most recent 2012 harvest. At the start Moshe was the winemaker, owner, and all around “guy” who ran the company. However, in time his son Stephan decided he wanted to join the family business and went to study agriculture at Hebrew University in Rechovot and then went on to study wine making in Bourgogne, France. He then worked in Bordeaux for a couple of years before rejoining his father and taking over wine making duties a few years ago.

Stephen Celniker (winemaker of Yaffo Winery) pouring a glass for the seated Moshe Celniker, owner of Yaffo Winery (from the winery’s Facebook page)

In 2007 the winery moved to its current location, at the edge of Ella Valley (Emek HaElla), not far at all from the Ella Valley Winery. It is also very close to the winery’s 40 dunam of grapes. The vineyards surround the winery and they are comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, along with a bit of Mourvedre, and Carignan. The winery takes in 40 tons of fruit and uses it to make 6 labels; Rose from Cabernet, a varietal Carignan, Chardonnay, Merlot/Syrah blend, varietal Cabernet, and their flagship Bordeaux blend called Heritage.

As we sat in the lovely winery, I could not help but wonder about this and the other small wineries I have visited, and smile at how far the industry has come here in Israel. Here was another small family run winery that worked hard to create solid wines in an appealing and old world style, while still letting the Israeli fruit shine through.

The tasting did not include the Chardonnay or Rose as they were sold out of both of them, but we did taste the other red wines and while the first two were not WOW wines, they were very solid B+ and B++ wines. The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon was a solid wine with good old world characteristics in the nose, showing herb, red and black fruit. The mouth was medium weight with good balance, unique butter characteristics, sweet cedar, and dark fruit, all supported by nice mouth coating tannin and vanilla, with green notes, tobacco, and tannin lingering. The 2010 Syrah/Merlot blend is a 50/50 blend of the two grapes and showed lovely roasted animal notes, blueberry, mounds of black fruit, earth, and rich tilled dirt. The mouth is medium in weight but showing concentrated blue and black fruit, along with wonderful control of the sweetness along with good tannin structure that supports the wine through its long and spicy and mineral based finish. The wine was another solid B++ to maybe A- wine. The Heritage is as close to a WOW wine that you can come without being on. The 2009 Heritage is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 15% Syrah. The nose is big, rich, and perfumed with black and red fruit, all covered over by a lovely canopy of green foliage with a side of toffee and graphite. The mouth on this massive and full bodied wine is layered with concentrated black and red fruit, sweet cedar, and a mouth coating tannin structure that lingers long. The finish is classically balanced and so Israeli with tobacco, chocolate, mineral, graphite, along with unique butter coated tobacco, herb, and mineral. They also sell a Carignan and we did not have time to taste it so they were very nice to give me a bottle and I will taste it in the near future and write it up in a future blog posting.

After we drove off, I missed the chance to get a picture of the sign for the Yaffo Winery that is on the road. It is a small sign that points to a road that looks like you need a 4×4 to get through. But actually, the dirt road is very solid, even after raining for a few days straight and was easy to navigate, as long as you knew where to enter. We entered through the back way and we were very happy to make our way back to the main road, using the correct and easy entrance point. When visiting – keep your eye out for the small and hard to see sign – it points to a lovely winery and one that is on the road to solid growth.

Gush Etzion Winery

The next destination on our winery hunt was the Gush Etzion Winery, a short distance from the Yaffo Winery, once you join up on route 60. We have written before about the Gush Etzion Winery in this post, and one that we really like in many ways. The winery has been around for quite some time, some 18 years actually! The building we visited was built in 2005 and the restaurant where we enjoyed a few cups of coffee was built in 2007, along with the massive tasting room anchored by an S&P 500 corporate sized table in the middle of it! For more on the winery and its background please look at our in depth posting of the winery from last year.

The funny thing was that I did the write-up last year before I had ever visited the winery (I did note that in the posting). It was great to actually walk into the winery and take in the ambiance and see the cool steel decking that wraps around the massive tank room.

Once we had walked through the winery and waited for a large group to lave the tasting room, we were shown our way to the tasting bar which at the back of the tasting room. It was here where we started our assault on a long list of wines, 10 to be exact. There were more but many of the red wines are from the 2008 vintage, a shmitta year and I do not drink shmitta wines in Israel – not for this post.

The first thing you will realize is that Gush Etzion is one of those new up and coming wineries that is more than happy and proud to make solid to very solid white wines in Israel! Of the 10 wines we tasted, six of them were white wines. That is not to say that Gush Etzion does not have many red wines, it only means that the current crop of red wines at wineries today is the 2008 vintage – which causes me some consternation, but such is life. The nice man who was pouring for us, did go out of his way to go get us 2009 vintages for a couple of wines, so many thanks for that and many thanks to the entire Gush Etzion winery people for making us feel at home and showing us a great time!

The white wines were all B+ to B++ wines with the blessed white being a solid B+ to A- wine, along with special mentions to the Gewurztraminer and white Riesling, for their rich and good varietal flavors. The remaining red wines were really quite lovely, including the 2007 Nahal Hapirim (A-) a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 9% Petite Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, and the 2007 Blessed Red Valley (A-) a blend of 77% Merlot and 23% Cabernet Franc. The WOW superstar wines in the tasting were the 2009 Gush Etzion Syrah, Lone Oak and the 2009 Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc, Reserve. The real adjective for the Cabernet Franc is filthy, in all the right ways, with the Syrah being WOW! The Cabernet Franc is one of those wines that is so true to its varietal roots that if you do not see it is a Cabernet Franc, just give up and walk away! The nose explodes with floral notes, rich and perfumed red fruit notes, all under a canopy of herb and green notes, with a hint of date. The mouth is wow, with massive, yet controlled mouth coating tannin, layers of ripe and concentrated black and red fruit all presented in an elegant box of cedar planks and integrated tannin. The finish is long, and mineral in its core with graphite, leather, crazy spice, and good oak influence- BRAVO!

The 2009 Gush Etzion Syrah, Lone Oak is another of those Northern California Syrah wines that happen to be popping up all over Israel. The wine is big, bold, Spicy, blue, red, and black all over – just the way a proper Syrah should be built (in my opinion). This was another Bravo wine for sure.

Visiting Yaffo and Gush Etzion winery was a great way to break in my nephew for the what faced him in the coming days, taking the winery hunt to a whole new torturous level!

Psagot Winery

The next day we started out early and were headed into the Shomron wine region of Israel. The Teperberg Winery sources much to most of its grapes from this region, and it is essentially defined as anything north of Jerusalem, meaning many of the wineries that I stated as being Judean Hills wineries, like Tanya Winery and Psagot Winery are actually Shomron wineries.

One of the clear things we saw at Teperberg and a theme that continued through the third week – was that Merlot rains supreme in the Shomron. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz/Syrah works as well, but the best grape in the Shomron has shown to be the Merlot grape, after many tastings. The wineries we visited on Wednesday were only Shomron wineries, but we did visit more in the third week with Geller. I picked up my other nephew who was studying in Jerusalem and made our way to Psagot Winery. We have posted here a few times about the wonderful Psagot Winery in the lands of Binyamin, how it continues to improve its product and how I continue to find out how much I really appreciate the wine they make. We have posted a few times already about the Psagot Winery, so check here for more information on the winery. Josh once again was so very kind to share his wines with us, and we had the opportunity to taste through the entire line of 2010 wines along with a surprise 2011 glass of wine as well.

The winery has some 40 dunam of grapes, consisting of; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, (from Mata), Chardonnay, and Petite Verdot. The winery started in 2003 with 4000 bottles and in 2012 they made 200,000 bottles, so it has been quite a ride – to say the least! The grapes are sourced from Judean Hills, a bit from Ben Zimra vineyards, and the majority from the Shomron area. After Josh Hexter (the wine maker of Psagot Winery) showed us around the winery and then sat us down upstairs and brought over a plate of lovely cheeses and crackers and lineup of 7 wines to taste, the current lineup that is available in Israel and in the USA.

The 2011 Psagot Chardonnay was a nice B+ to A- wine with lovely tropical fruit, butterscotch, and slight burnt wood. The 2010 Cabernet Franc continues Josh’s success with this varietal! The A- wine showed great varietal characteristics, with dark red fruit, green notes, and a perfumed nose. The mouth is medium in body with red and black fruit, soft and caressing mouth coating tannins that meld together beautifully. The finish is long and tobacco based with lovely mineral and graphite influence, with a hint of leather and nice spice. The 2010 Merlot was not quite the hit that the 2009 was, with slight oxidation that blows off or slides to the back with ripe candied fruit, graphite, and green notes. The mouth and finish show black fruit soft caressing tannin, sweet cedar, with good acid, vanilla, chocolate, and butter. The 2010 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon is a lovely perfumed wine big black fruit, with green notes, and light date. The mouth is ripe, rich, and mouth coating with big black concentrated fruit, with sweet fruit. The mineral based finish is long and leathery with hints of chocolate and flint (A-). From here, the next wines were all WOW or very close to them, starting with the 2010 Psagot Edom, a blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petite Verdot, and 12% Merlot. This is a wow mouth wine with great sweet but controlled wine, rich, concentrated, layered and dark with black and red fruit, sweet cedar, and rich mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and spicy with green notes and good oak influence, with crazy tobacco, and burnished toast notes.

The next big winner was the 2010 Psagot Shiraz, though it showed light oxidation it also was lovely with big black and blue fruit, crazy spice, and lovely licorice. The mouth is rich and in your face, ripe and powerful, with big black, blue, and red fruit, that are supported by mouth coating tannin, that is surrounded by a candied fruit orchard with nice cedar layered, rich, and concentrated. The finish is long and crazy with rich mineral, spiced fruit finish, that lingers with sweet fruit, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and white pepper, with hard core black licorice and butter finish.

The final crazy winner was the 2010 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon, Single vineyard wine. It is a big and aggressive wine with massive broad shoulders, with tons of dense fruit, layers of concentrated flavors and aromas, while holding back on date and raisin notes – BRAVO! This is a beast of a wine that will be appreciated by hardcore fans and a wine that I absolutely rave about – WOW and Bravo!

I asked Josh if her could share the 2011 Cabernet Franc with us and he was very kind to grab some of it from a barrel and let us taste it. The wine is a bit sweeter and shows more strawberry than the 2010 raspberry. The wine also shows lovely notes of cut green grass, currant, and green foliage. The wine is green and red and lovely all over. A clear A- wine that will evolve a bit more in oak and be ready for the bottle soon.

Thanks so much to Josh Hexter and the entire Psagot Winery for making time for us and making our trip a true joy.

Beit El Winery and the Lewis Pasco Winery

The next winery on the hunt was the Beit El Winery, in Beit El, a 20 minute drive from Psagot. I have had the chance and opportunity to taste Beit El wines in the past, and I was not so impressed. However, with the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, a very solid B++ wine, I was intrigued to see more about the man. I met Hillel Manne in the bay area, of all places, when he came to see his mother! This is a man who grew up in my backyard and though the meeting was short, it planted another seed that made me think I need to get more information about this winery and the man behind it. However, if that was not enough, Lewis Pasco, the head winemaker of Recanati Winery through the 2006 vintage, contacted me and told me that he was making wine again in Israel at Beit El winery! That was it – I had to see Hillel Manne and Lewis Pasco side by side (enough said)!

Beit El winery was started by Hillel Manne in 1998 in his house and has grown bit by bit. It started by Hillel selling the grapes he grew in his vineyards and then slowly moving from a vineyard manager and grower to a winemaker. His vineyard that is right next to his newly created winery is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Hillel recently planted a new vineyard of Carignan – that is built on a rocky mountain slope and one that is breath taking given its surroundings, and one that made crazy good wine in 2012!

In 2010 the winery produced some 10,000 bottles and with more of the Carignan coming on line and getting better, expect that or a bit more going forward. We met Hillel and his wife Nina at their house, where Lewis Pasco hangs out when he is in Israel, and after a lovely lunch, they drove us to the winery.

In 2012, Hillel Manne reached out to Lewis Pasco and asked him to help him, in a hands on manner, with Beit El’s 2012 vintage. The 2012 wines we tasted were a clear evolution from the 2010 wine we tasted to a classic Lewis Pasco wine – big, broad, aggressive, but maybe a bit more tempered than the old Lewis Pasco. Who knows, maybe experience or maybe the environment created these 2012 wines that almost perfectly mimic the Lewis Pasco of old, but with a bit more herb and control on the insane fruit forward wines of the past. In no way, am I in any way criticizing Lewis Pasco – I have no right, knowledge, or ability to do so! It is more what I sense from the wines he made in the past to the wines he has created in 2012 – they are lovely and with Hillel Manne’s fruit and fruit that Lewis has gathered from the Har Bracha area – they are lovely!

We had the chance to taste through the 2012 barrels and I do not score barrels as they evolve and though I can clearly get a sense for where the wine is and where it is going, I cannot score them like Rogov has done in the past. That said, the two wines that Lewis made for his winery; 2012 Lewis Pasco Merlot from Har Bracha, follows the my strong belief that the Shomron and especially Har Bracha’s merlot is some of the finest Merlot in all of Israel. This particular wine is the perfect combination of Lewis Pasco and Har Bracha Merlot, great acid, fantastic fruit, and sure a hint of date and prune in the background, from sweeter fruit. Still, the wine is full bodied, controlled, broad, sweet, and deep with concentrated fruit and bracing acid – so prevalent in Har Bracha fruit. Time will tell where this wine will go, with leather and more fruit showing over time, and butter, marzipan going to the background.

The next wine is a blend 64% Cabernet Sauvignon from Gvaot, 31% Merlot from Har Bracha, and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon from Shiloh – clearly Shomron grapes, and it shows in the mouth with less black and dirty fruit and more clean and dark red fruit. The wine is huge and unctuous and deep and ready to brawl, but also controlled with ripe fruit and good balance.

The next wine was the 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon, but before we could taste it, Hillel had to take off masser and terumah, tithing of fruit from Israel produce. Once that process was complete we enjoyed two wines that Lewis was part of making with Hillel, the 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2012 Beit El Carignan. The 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon showed from Lewis Pasco’s touch. Where the 2010 was very old world and herb driven, the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon is new world with dark red and black sweet and candied fruit, along with some nice green notes, but all supported by nice body lines, acid, and great structure. The wine shows long and spicy finish with her, rosemary, and spice showing. As this wine gets oak age on it (not in oak yet), it will round out and show with nice chocolate, quite nice!

Still, the killer wine of the tasting was the 2012 Beit El Carignan! WOW! What a crazy and insane wine! We had the chance to taste the 2011 Beit El Carignan and the 2012 Carignan. Sure the 2011 vintage was VERY different than the 2012 vintage, but you could still see the new 2012 Lewis Pasco all over this wine. It was sweet, ripe, but controlled and WOW, did I say WOW yet? This wine was dense, rich, layered, blue/black/red and crazy all over. This wine is a MUST buy when it comes out. If I could buy the wine now I would! It tastes awesome now, and I am sure it will only get better with a year of oak – BRAVO!!! The wine is filled with blueberry, boysenberry, and blackberry, along with crazy root beer, dried sweet ginger, and lovely dead animal doing a backstroke in my glass! The mouth is full bodied with deep unctuous crazy mouth coating tannin, huge body and great fruit. The finish is filled with cloves, cinnamon, heavy spice, and ripe balanced fruit – BRAVO!

We left the winery and went to see the beautiful Carignan rocky vineyard with Lewis Pasco, Hillel Manne, and his wife Nina Manne. Hillel planted this vineyard by hand on the slope of a lovely and rocky hillside. Hillel being an agriculturalist by profession pointed out many lovely plants that were popping up in rock walls and on the path, all over the place. MANY thanks to Hillel and his lovely wife for taking us in and sharing their story and wines and food with us, it was a joy and treat! Also many thanks to Lewis Pasco for being back in the game – the wine world missed you man- we need good wine makers to continue to push the envelope in Israel and evolve the country to the next level – thanks again.

Tanya Winery

Once we jumped back into our cars we went on the road to the last Shomron winery for the day- Tanya Winery. We have spoken about Tanya winery twice on this blog here and here as well. What can I say; Yoram Cohen is one unique individual winemaker, to say the least! He makes some great wines, wines that are richly oaked, with crazy mouth drying tannins, but one that has more lore about him than he even lets people know about. As I have written about before, Yoram is always the life of the party, and he is also makes some awesome wines. So we were super happy to hear that though Yoram would not be there to greet us, his nephew would be there to show us the visitor’s center and let us taste some of the wines.

I was really happy that we got the chance to do this because it has been a year since we have tasted through some of the Tanya’s wines and we were very interested in seeing what the winery was doing with the 2010 and 2011 vintages. We met Yoram’s nephew, who is the winery’s mashgiach, at the winery and from there we made our way to the visitor’s center. When we got there we were graciously served many wines, and at the very end of the tasting – we had a surprise visit from Yoram and as usual it was a true treat.

Tanya winery has been around since 2001 by Yoram Cohen as a family owned and run winery. In 2007 one of Chaim Feder’s friends tasted Yoram’s wines and was sure that Yoram was the next big thing in wine. Chaim and his partners met Yoram and the rest is history. They upgraded the winery’s future productivity by purchasing new equipment, plantings new vineyards, and leasing more space for the winery. The Winery is named after Yoram’s daughter Tanya, and the labels are named after his other children. The winery currently has 60 dunam of vineyards in and around Ofra, the city where Tanya winery has its winery.

Once we came to the visitors center, we seated ourselves in the tasting room and we started to enjoy a bunch of wines. The first wine we tasted was a barrel sample of the 2010 Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was clearly out of the barrel for sometime, but the wine as still quite lovely.

We had a chance to re-taste the 2009 Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve, Halel, the sad thing is that we did not like the wine as much as we did the last time we had it, but it is still a solid red and black wine, dropping to a B+ to A- with rich tannin and obvious oak influence. The next wine was a new label for the winery, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Shiraz, Reserve, Ivri, a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 15% Shiraz. The wine is unique and lovely, though it is a bit lower level than the Halel, it is still a very solid wine. The wine is filled with dried and candied red and black fruit, kirsch cherry, mouth coating tannin, lovely acid and great balance with leather, cinnamon, and insane spice bringing up the end on the rise.

Indeed the labels for Tanya are now, Ivri, Halel, Eliya, and Enosh. The next wine was the 2009 Tanya Shiraz, Reserve, Eliya. The wine is crazy good, blue, red, black, and animal all over. It is a classic Shiraz with blue and black fruit, with great spice and licorice. The Mouth is full and aggressive, with blue and black fruit, blackcurrant, earth, and dead animal, with cedar, and mouth coating tannin that is concentrated and attacking. The finish is long and with light hints of bitterness, chocolate, leather, tobacco, and licorice. A lovely wine but not a WOW wine.

The final wine is not a wine as much as it is a dessert port style wine that I thought was OK, but the real joy of this part of the tasting was the sighting of Yoram Cohen who joined us at the end of the tasting. It was great seeing the man who continues to seem to produce solid to great wines and to get a chance to better understand what makes the man tick and how he integrates his two passions into a single quest – his family and his wine.

Let me say thanks to Mr. Feder and his family and to Yoram and his family for letting us come so late in the day, during his Hanukkah vacation. The visit and tasting were a true kick as usual.

Well that wrapped up Wednesday but I cannot close this day off without reminding people about the mad drivers that hog the roads in Israel and make driving feel like a game of bumper cars or far worse. On our way back from the wineries we were literally forced off the road and into oncoming traffic by non other than an EGGED BUS! The public transportation company that takes Israeli from here to there. Well in this case they took us from here to the other side of oncoming traffic and did not even blink an eye. I have never been so horrified while driving in my life and was another example of how many times I was freaked out for my life while driving the roads of Israel. Of course this was one crazed driver and in no way am I trying to throw the entire Egged bus driver union under a bus (sorry I could not help myself – Doron you are rubbing off). Thank God I survived this and many other harrowing experiences that really should never had occurred, but who am I to dictate how people drive in Israel. This is more of a warning to Americans when driving in Israel, keep your distance and ignore the madness because it is something you cannot control. With that PSA completed, we now return to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
The next and final day on this week, started off as a simple idea, go to two wineries and head back home, but it turned into a lot more than that rather quickly. The day started off pretty innocently, with me telling my nephew about this wonderful place on earth called Ein Gedi and the dead sea, which really had nothing to do with my agenda – again that being wineries and wine and more wineries. However, as I am oft to do, I fell for the – we can do it slogan, and we tried to slam a quick trek to the main water fall of Ein Gedi into our travels to the most southern section of the Jerusalem Hills – called Arad. We have often spoken about the sensational winery called Yatir! I do not normally drink their wines given their price and all, however, as we spoke at the winery with the head wine maker of Yatir, Eran Goldwasser, Yatir is one of those wineries whose kosher product can stand on its own in the worldwide wine community, without the needing to bow to conventional wisdom and limit themselves to solely selling to the kosher community. More on that in a moment. Anyway, as is the case often, man plans and god laughs, I was hoping to get in and out and sure enough we got in – but it took forever to get OUT!!! I blame my nephew 100% on this one! First of all, it was not on the plans. Second of all, we went the wrong way! Yeah the walk actually has a direction to manage the human foot flow! Either way, we were doomed the second we stepped out of the car. With the number of humans going through there at the same time – it was inevitable that we would run into a Pkak Tnu’a in the middle of a national park – bad idea!!

Once the detour was completed and we returned to the car we knew we were going to be late no matter how fast we drove. Of course, I forgot that the last 10 miles of this drive were up and down a mountain side, from negative sea level (the dead sea is one of the lowest places on earth) to thousands of feet above sea water and than back to sea level – yeay!!! By the time we arrived at our first destination we had to be a good 20+ minutes late and that meant we skipped wines later on – more on that soon.

Midbar Winery

So, I have teased about this winery long enough, and because it was way too long I posted it in a separate thread on all things Midbar Winery and Yaacov Oryah. Of course I cannot help but state that the entire time we spent there I was in awe of the man and his abilities. Still, I hope my wine notes are unbiased as much as possible. Also, I have too great a picture of my nephew in front of the Midbar Winery to not post it! Also, the fact that there are no red wines in the post is not a reflection in any way on Yaacov, but rather a reflection of our tardiness – hint, hint? Enough said?

My many thanks to Yaacov and to the Midbar winery for taking his time to share his knowledge with us and sharing his hard work with us as well.

Yatir Winery

From there we drove the 3 kilometers that separate the Midbar Winery (in the outskirts of Arad) from Yatir Winery (in Tel Arad). You can find out more about our Yatir antics in my other posting here. They truly are one of the most consistent wineries in Israel and one whose product does not ail from the lack of high-end product. All their wines are solid and impressive and can match up well against non-kosher wineries – the world around. Proof was the collection of guy-trip wine lovers from Finland! They love Yatir wines and had to visit the winery. We felt so honored to have the entire tour and then the full tasting of the current Yatir line of wines with the winery’s head winemaker Eran Goldwasser. He was the consummate gentleman and such a humble man – what a breath of fresh air, when compared to some other egomaniac winemakers that incorrectly think they are close to his equal.

It was a grand time and many thanks to Eti, Eran Goldwasser, and Adam Montefiore.

It was at this point that my phone rings – I am not lying, which was constant in Israel, either it rang or buzzed (text message). Gabriel Geller was calling to tell me that there was a wine event in Ashdod! Hey! That is along the way home, unless we wanted to go to Livni, which was not an option, as he was not in the country at that time. So, Ashdod it was! We had a heck of a time finding the event hall, which was actually the gymnasium of a college – there in Ashdod. However, once we found the place we were hooked! There was nothing but kosher wines and it was lovely! I really cannot go through all the wines I had there – that would be another 1000 or more words, as if this is not long enough already! The highlights were:

• 2009 Assemblage wines – the 2009 Orange rind riddled Tzafit was indeed nice, but its 2009 brethren, the Eitan and Reichan we so-so.
• 2011 Recanati Rose – I felt tannin, toast, and animal on this wine. Gil Shatsberg (the head winemaker at Recanati) was shocked and said it was a bad bottle. Personally, I liked it that way and more complex and real Rose – wonder what others have thought of this wine?
• 2004 Ben Haim Merlot, Heritage – best Ben Haim I have ever had, A- score, and really the only real drinkable wine I have ever tasted from this winery. Maybe I have tasted over the hill vintages or bad bottles, but this old vintage was perfect, alive, and lovely. Very tannic, but losing steam in the fruit category – so drink now!!
• The Ugav wines and the Nikanor reserve wines from Jerusalem Gold Winery. All of these are VERY SOLID B+ or B+ to A- wines that all rate for both QPR and quality – Bravo! A small winery showing that good wine can be made at a reasonable price. These are not Yatir wines, but they do not cost that much either. Solid wines for a great price!
• Kinor David wines – this requires a more involved posting. David Edri is one unique individual! His 8 year port (really sweet wine not a port) was lovely! The dry red wines were OK.

There you have it! My second week in Israel – whew! I will expand on some of these wineries in follow up posts with more tasting notes (that is not a threat do not worry).

It has been a few weeks since I posted my wine notes. I have been posting other ideas, but this was a long time coming. The biggest take away for me was that the 2013 Terrenal Malbec was out, a new Terrenal kosher wine that can be bought at Trader Joe’s and it is mevushal. Sadly, I was not a fan. It is OK, but for me, I will look elsewhere. It is a shame as the non mevushal Terrenal wines from Spain continue to impress!

The other take away from these wines was that the new NV Freixenet Cava Excelencia Kosher Brut was no fun either. The final notes revolve around the return of Lewis Pasco and his wines! Mr. Pasco was the head wine maker at Recanati until 2006. After that he did wine in the US and other places and in 2012 he returned to Israel to work with Hillel Manne of Beit El Winery, and to make his own wines as well! The wines we tasted in early 2012 were nice, but the Pasco wine has really come around with oak and time. The insane Carignan wine of 2012, is not as good as we remembered it from the barrel in the winery, but it is still very nice a clear QPR.

Finally, as I stated when I was at the Tzora Winery, the 2012 Judean Hills is lovely and is a crazy QPR wine. That said, the notes have not changed but the wine needs serious time to open and when it does it shows its blue and black madness. The wine has really just arrived to the US and it seems to be in bottle shock, so either wait a month or two to enjoy, or open it now and decant for at least 2 to 3 hours ahead of time. If it is not black and blue, wait!!!!

So, I hope you enjoy the notes and have a great Shabbos! The notes follow below:

2012 Shirah Rosé – Score: A- (and then some)
WOW What a rose! This wine is 100% rose of Grenache. The nose is bright and tart with crunchy roasted herb, forest floor, garrigue, red fruit, and spice. The mouth is insane on this medium bodied wine, it starts with an attack of red currant, followed by blue fruit, herb, and crazy acid. The finish is long and attacking with mad acidic tart summer fruit, kiwi, candied strawberry, intense slate, mineral, and crazy tart zinberry that lingers forever, long after the wine is gone. The acid is so intense it is awesome and the fruit is ripe and expressive – BRAVO!!!

2012 Tzora Judean Hills – Score: A- (and more) (crazy good QPR)
When I was at the Tzora Winery, the 2012 Judean Hills was showing lovely and was a crazy QPR wine. That said, the notes have not changed but the wine needs serious time to open and when it does it shows its blue and black madness. The wine has really just arrived to the US and it seems to be in bottle shock, so either wait a month or two to enjoy, or open it now and decant for at least 2 to 3 hours ahead of time. If it is not black and blue, wait!!!!

This is a wine that is made of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petite Verdot, Syrah that was fermented and aged in oak, and named for the terroir and vineyard that the wine was sourced from. This was a barrel/tank sample but such a wonderful wine and one very close to bottling that I had to write about it. The nose on this deeply black colored wine is rich with crazy black fruit, along with ripe blueberry, blackberry, along with deep mineral notes, roasted animal, and nice floral notes with slate. The mouth on this lovely full bodied and elegant wine shows far more control than the 2011 vintage, with great control and style, with layers of concentrated black and blue fruit, rich graphite, bracing acid, coming together with mouth coating tannin, and spicy oak. The finish is long and mineral with lovely chocolate, bright fruit, and lovely sweet spices. BRAVO!

2013 Terrenal Malbec Kosher – Score: B
The 2012 vintage of this wine was a favorite of mine last year, till it turned into a flower bomb. This vintage is starting that way out of the chute. The noise on this purple colored wine starts off with nice blue and black notes, followed by floral notes that feels disjointed, along with plum, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows blackberry fruit, blackcurrant that spikes, along with nice tannin and blueberry/green notes. The finish is long and all over the place with green blue notes that cover over the nice root beer notes.

2012 Beit-El Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B+
This is a fine wine for the price for sure. The nose on this wine starts off with blackberry, spice, dark cherry, blueberry, and herb. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has controlled fruit, searing tannin, crazy black and blue fruit, with nice mouth coating tannin, spice, and sweet oak. The finish is long and spicy with tannin, blue fruit, plum, watermelon, and nutmeg lingering.

2012 LEWIS PASCO Pasco Project #1 (QPR) – Score: A-
A Bordeaux blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% merlot, along with 3% of Petite Sirah, for rounding and depth. The wine was aged for 9 months in new French barrels. The nose on this purple colored wine starts with Merlot barnyard funk, black fruit, spice, and herb. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and layered with concentrated fruit, lovely extraction, showing spicy oak, mouth coating spicy tannin, mounds of oriental spice, blackberry, and dark cherry. The finish is long and balanced with still searing tannin, acid, dark chocolate, with nutmeg, cinnamon, hints of blueberry, and fig lingering long – BRAVO!

2012 Beit-El Carignan (QPR) – Score: B+ to A-
I first tasted this wine at the winery from the barrel with Lewis Pasco and the Hillel Manne. Now the wine shows more earth and spice along with the insane blueberry and blackberry it showed in the barrel.
The nose on this wine starts with rich roasted meat, ripe blueberry, blackberry, heavy spice, and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows lovely mouth coating tannin with great fruit control, ripe blue and black fruit, along with spicy oak and red plum. The finish is long with lovely tart blue fruit, root beer, watermelon, licorice, and sweet spices, nutmeg, and sweet basil – BRAVO!!! Please be careful, the one bottle I opened was throwing sediment.

2013 Lueria Gewürztraminer Upper Galilee – Score: B+ to A-
This is the third version of this wine. I personally, LOVE the dry version that Gidi makes, but he sells that to a restaurant and is not available to the consumer. The nose on this off dry wine starts with deep notes of intense orange, melon, honeydew melon, along with rich floral notes, rose hips, and nectarine. The mouth on this medium to full bodied off dry wine is sweet, please be aware of this and be ready for the residual sugar, showing in a not quite oily texture (but close enough), honeysuckle, pineapple, kiwi, and guava, along with peach, good spice, great balancing acid and bitterness and good nectarine liquor. Lovely!!!

NV Freixenet Cava Excelencia Kosher Brut – Score: B
This wine was not for me, far too sweet, and with far too much sweet quince, fig, and massive toast – pass for me – still very nice structure and GREAT spice, yeast, and intense medium bubble mousse attack.

2012 Hagafen Don Ernesto Collage, White – Score: A-
Well, this wine is clearly asleep! I opened it and it was a dud, all oak and no joy. Two days later the remnants are rocking and rolling. The wine is a classic Rhone Rider blend of Roussanne and Marsanne. The nose on this dark straw colored wine, is candied with summer fruit, crunchy herb, and straw. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely, almost oily textured with great acid, green notes, herb, dried sweet quince, nectarine, green apple, grapefruit, and earth. The finish is long and herbal with loamy dirt, slate, and more herb.

2000 Château Labégorce-Zédé – Score: A- (and then some)
The wine was at its peak or over it, so the wine is in drink up mode, but was lovely still. The nose on this wine starts off with lovely barnyard notes, loose dirt, mushroom, and raspberry. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine, is layered and rich with concentrated red and black fruit, blackberry, along with spice, and mouth coating tannin that linger long. The finish is long with great acid, dark chocolate, leather, graphite, and more mineral lingering long. BRAVO!

2013 Dalton Pinot Gris – Score: B+
The wine is nice with a solid QPR given the low price, the good acid, and the biting bitterness that wraps up the wine well. Serve very well chilled.
The wine has a lovely nose of straw, hay, cut grass, mineral, stone fruit, and good spice. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine starts with green notes of apple leaves, along with spiced green apple, kiwi, floral notes, with intense spice, pepper notes, and spicy melon cider. The finish is long and mineral based with slate, intense bitterness, that masks the sweet grass and loamy dirt, with spice, peach, and fruit lingering.

2010 Weinstock Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Select (QPR) – Score: B+ to A-
I tasted this wine during my visit to the winery last year. The wine shows the effects of 2010, with green notes and not so quite ripe fruit, but still a lovely wine. The nose on this wine shows green notes, bell pepper, slight heat that blows off over time, with raspberry and plum. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine shows off sweet cedar and sweet milk chocolate, leafy tobacco, all wrapping sweet and tart cherry, black plum. The finish is long and tart with green and red fruit, with lovely oak influence, and sweet herb.

2005 Yatir Shiraz – Score: A- (and then some)
To be fair this wine is lovely, but I enjoyed it when I was drinking heavily on Purim. In the end, the wine shows lovely with deep black and red fruit, lovely extraction, and layers of concentrated fruit that mingles with tar, rich earth, and spice. Bravo!!

2010 Shirah Counter Punch Vogelzang Vineyard – Score: A- (and then some)
The wine is a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah, but from different vineyards than the 1-2 punch. The nose on this wine is really intoxicating and has now come together. The nose starts with white peach, apricot, kiwi, followed by pomegranate, ripe raspberry jam, crazy blue fruit, and earth. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is filled with nice watermelon, great spice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ripe blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and ripe with sweet mocha chocolate, leather, nice rich mouth coating tannin, root beer, black tea, black pepper, and licorice. This may not be the same animal, and to be fair was actually punched out by the 2008 1-2 punch. However, this wine has come together, and I am happy that I hung on to some bottles!

2010 Recanati Petit Sirah-Zinfandel Reserve – Score: B++
Initially the nose and body were far too sweet for my tastes with strong date and lacking in blue and roasted meat notes. With time, the nose opens to show rich roasted meat, earthy notes, tar, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is less full and spicy, with good mouth coating tannin that rise, along with blackberry, plum, and cherry. The finish is long and spicy with sweet tobacco, dirt, mineral, charcoal, cloves, black pepper, and coffee.

2011 Eagles Landing Cellars Merlot – Score: B to B+
The nose on this almost cherry colored wine starts off wine notes of coffee, toffee, toast, green notes, and dark cherry. The mouth on this light bodied wine is filled with sweet tobacco, sweet cedar, plum, and spice. The finish is long with nice sweet fruit and more spice. It is a fine quaff but beyond that it lacks the complexity or body to grab your attention. With time the wine opens to a nice tobacco, tart fruit, and sweet cedar wine.

2007 Four Gates Merlot Kosher – Score: A- (and then some)
While the last bottle I enjoyed was free of added sulfites, this wine had clear sulfites in it and what a difference sulfites make. The past wine was clearly at peak or beyond it, two years ago, throwing sediment. This wine is barely at peak, no sediment to be found and crazy sick tannins that were lacking in the sulfite free wine.

This wine is 100% Merlot, aged for 24 months in French Oak. Still dark purple in color, the nose shows lovely fruit, luscious blackberry, ripe black plum, ripe raspberry, along with lovely crushed herb, graphite, and mineral. The mouth on medium to full bodied wine, comes at you in layers, with concentrated dark and red fruit, followed by licorice, pencil lead, balancing acidity, mouth draping tannins that grip to your mouth, along with spicy oak. The finish is long and ripe with jammy fruit, lingering tannin, coffee, jam, and vanilla that keep going on and on and on. This a fantastic wine that is not yet at its peak, and a wine that will hold its own for at least another 5 years.

2009 Tabor Adama Kosher – Score: A-
The nose on this wine starts off with lovely barnyard notes, mushroom, red fruit, cherry, and green notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and layered with nice tart fruit, currant,blackberry, sweet bell pepper, mouth coating tannins that raise the body, and herb. The finish is long with great acid, spice, crazy sweet tobacco, chocolate, and sweet basil.

2007 Tabor Cabernet Sauvignon Special Edition 1/19000 – Score: B+ to A-
The feature of this wine was not the fruit or the mineral, but the lovely sweet mouth coating tannin! This is a wine that never made sense labeling wise, but is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the choicest of plots and vineyards, sadly and unfortunately it did not show well at all.
The nose on this wine starts with little to no fruit, followed by ripping mineral and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine followed the lead of the nose, with little to no fruit, but had lovely mouth draping tannin with good graphite, and hints of currant and blackberry, all wrapped up in sweet cedar and coffee. The finish is green and minty with bell pepper, eucalyptus, dirt, and vanilla, with hints of smokey notes.

When one speaks about Israeli wine – the name Yarden is sure to be one of the first wineries that are spoken of. Why? Because simply stated they are the defacto standard for quality in Israel. That was at least until the past few years, when the red wines took a very clear and strategic direction towards more ripe and classic new world styled wines. Why? Well, as I wrote here in my year in review, the kosher wine public is still a few years behind the wine learning curve, and they crave wine that is as subtle as a two-by-four between the eyes. Why? Well, to be blunt, starters do not have the capacity to appreciate the more subtle aspects of old world wines. That takes training and in the words of the late Daniel Rogov – the best way to appreciate and learn more about wine – is to drink more wine. Until that point, we will all have to wait for the majority of the kosher wine buying public to learn the joy of subtlety and stop craving sweets, and live with the result of that fact – meaning sweet and overripe wines. Thankfully, there are wineries that are still interested in creating well-rounded and all around enjoyable wines – like Tzora, Recanati, Netofa, Yatir, Castel, Dalton, Flam, Four Gates, and many others.

That said, Yarden is still the clear king of white and bubbly wines in Israel. First of all, there are few wineries with more than three quality labels of white wine. Many are still just producing one white wine. Tabor is one of those wineries that is showing it QPR value and clearly coming out from under the haze of Coca Cola and its perceived wine quality, in their situation “perception is NOT reality”.

Proof of this can be found in the bottle. Tabor Adama Roussanne, Gewurztraminer, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc are examples of GREAT QPR wines, though only the Sauvignon Blanc is available here in the US.

The Yarden 2013 Sauvignon Blanc may very well be the best kosher Sauvignon on the market and maybe ever made. yes, that is high praise for a white wine, but ignoring the sweeter side of Sauvignon Blanc (AKA late harvest or Sauterne) this is one of the best or the best kosher version of a dry blanc that I have tasted yet. Along with that the Yarden Gewurtz and Yarden Chardonnay – both Odem and non are great this year. Finally, the Viognier and the entire line of bubbly wines are absolutely crushing it! Even the Gamla Blanc is very nice. Essentially, while Yarden may have had some missteps or may want more ripe red new world fruit, the whites still are showing why Yarden is king of the kosher bubbly and white wines. The only real competitor in the kosher market to the vast array of Yarden’s whites would be Hagafen’s vast array of white wines and rose wines.

The Yarden red we had was an older vintage and showed well enough. The 2005 Yarden Merlot, Kela Vineyard is a lovely Merlot and one that is in clear drink up mode.

The 2005 Yatir Cabernet shows why Yatir continues to shine and excel at its craft. The wine was not on the edge, though it is in drink up mode. The wine still held its ripeness in check and showed a clear level of constraint in both wood and ripeness and shows why Yatir is one of the best wineries in Israel.

We also had a bottle of the lovely 2011 Teperberg Malbec, Terra. The wine showed just as well here as it did in Israel and though the wines are not complex in nature they are very impressive all the same. Teperberg Winery continues to push the envelope and produce solid wines with good acidity and fruit control.

Finally, we had a Midbar Orange 44 from the 2010 vintage, when Yaacov Oryah was still doing the kashrut and the wine continues to impress me. The wine is rich and layered and shows more than enough acidity to keep the fruit in check – lovely and BRAVO Yaacov!

The wine notes follow below:

2011 Teperberg Winery Malbec, Terra – Score: A- (plus more)
I finally had the chance to drink this wine over a shabbos and I was NOT disappointed! After having had the chance to taste the Yarden Malbec and the Ramot Naftali Malbec, I can say safely that of the Malbec wines from Israel, that I have tasted, this is the best one.

That said, it is not an overly complex wine, yet it is a supple, rich, and layered wine. This nose is downright insane, with what I can only call a California Grenache/Syrah nose, showing ripe blueberry, boysenberry, black cherry, lovely smoked meat, along with earthy notes, and rich smokey notes. The mouth on this full bodied wine, has layers of ripe and rich blue and black fruit, along with mouth coating tannin, blackberry, black plum, tart raspberry, and lovely sweet cedar. The finish is long and tart, with sweet ripe and tart fruit, great balancing acidity, nutmeg, cinnamon, root beer, rich chocolate, and good sweet spice. BRAVO!

2013 Yarden Sauvignon Blanc – Score: A- (plus more)
I had this wine a few times in Israel and in the US and the continues to impress, which makes me so happy. This is a wine that is 100% Sauvignon Blanc and was aged in French barrels for 2 months. The oak gives the wine lovely roundness but it does not get in the way of the wine or the acid which is insane! I strongly believe that this may well be the best kosher Sauvignon on the market. For the price it is a 100% STEAL!!

To start this wine still needs time to open, PLEASE make sure to open this wine an hour or two in advance and then be sure to serve this well chilled. The nose on this light straw colored wine is aromatic and redolent with intense gooseberry, fresh cut grass, melon, white flowers, and lovely mineral – what a nose! The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and expressive yet not over the top, with lovely control and ripe fruit, starting with lemon/lime friache, tropical fruit, guava, and kiwi, grapefruit, nectarine, and lovely green notes. The finish is long and mineral based with great core acidity, that carries the fruit forward but allows for the slate, rock and lemon to clean up at the end – BRAVO!!!!

2010 Midbar Orange 44 – Score: A- (plus more)
The wine is the first kosher Orange wine I had ever tasted. It is a blend of three grapes (yeah – get over it) 52% Chenin Blanc, 24% Chardonnay, and 24%, Viognier. This was unique and different to me, but to many it is becoming a lightening rod – why? I am not sure, but many are finding orange wines to be too much of a fad in the non-kosher world. For me, there is only one of them – so one a fad does not make. The wine is different – it is not a white wine and while it is not a red wine the long skin maceration, 14 days in this case, causes the wine to take on an orange hue. The idea here is that the grape skins gives the wine tannin and it gives the wine more body.

The nose starts off with almond paste, oaked honeysuckle, ripe floral notes, and passion fruit. The mouth is ripe and medium in weight with nice mouth coating tannin, cherry, orange fruit, lemon, apple sauce, creme bruelle, lovely sweet cedar, all melding together with brioche, grapefruit, yeast, and a creamy and balanced mouth feel. The finish is long and spicy with cloves, allspice, butterscotch, kiwi, apple, marzipan, tart fruit, and cinnamon, along with biter notes and tangerine. A unique wine and one that may not be for everybody – but it sure works for me!

2013 Tabor Gewürztraminer, Adama, Chalk Soil – Score: B++
This is a nice enough off dry wine with some classic Gewurztraminer notes, but it is a wine that shows better with time so that the extreme bitter notes blow off. The nose on this straw with green halo colored wine shows off aromas of mango, guava, pineapple, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is clearly sweet with residual sugar, showing well with good acid, nice bitter notes, orange pith, kiwi, and straw. The finish is long and bitter with more pith, lovely honeysuckle, honeydew melon, and rose water that lingers on a long and bitter finish.

2005 Yarden Merlot, Kela Vineyard – Score: A-
This wine is a sweet new world wine, but the structure, backbone, and sweet fruit help to hide the date like notes that normally really bug me. The nose on this black colored wine is redolent with dark forest fruit, insane licorice, mint, date, smokey notes, and blackberry jam. The mouth on this full bodied wine shows the oak influence with sweet cedar, concentrated and extracted black fruit, raspberry, plum, and intense mouth coating tannins that linger long on the rise. The finish is long and herbal with more dark fruit, chocolate, leather, green notes, spice, and fig.

2005 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A- (plus more)
What a lovely wine – this wine is still screaming with intense tannins and smokey notes – lovely!! This was the first true varietal true Cabernet Sauvignon from Yatir, until then all the Cab was blended into the blend of the Forest. The wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Shiraz. The nose on this purple to black colored wine is screaming with oriental spice, rich leafy tobacco, cloves, black fruit, and roasted herb. The mouth on this full bodied shows still searing tannin, toasty notes, spicy oak, along with layers upon layers of concentrated cassis, blackberry, raspberry, and mouth coating tannin. The finish is long with intense earthy notes, mineral, heavy graphite, chocolate, and dates that recede over time. BRAVO!!! This wine will last for another 3 or so years. The wine is at peak, not improving from here. Enjoy now as the sweet notes are rising and why wait – you have a wine at peak – enjoy it there!!!

cc licensed flickr photo from irishdragongreen

With the Jewish Holidays at their end, I must say that I really did enjoy them, but spiritually and wine wise! I have been slowly but surely changing over my collection from wines that I thought I liked to wines I actually do like. Sure, I have a few duds here and there, but for the most part, I think I have thinned the ranks of the unwanted.

Years ago – I blindly bought whatever red reserve Yarden wines the late Daniel Rogov scored a 92 or higher, and to his credit it was a grand time for a bit. But sadly before he passed, his  golden touch, in terms of picking the perfect Yarden Reserve red was losing its aura. To be fair it is not a detriment to the man I truly respected. It is simply that my palate and interest have moved so starkly from the overripe notes of old, that I have finally broken down and written my Dear John letter to many Israeli wines.

As I stated 9 months ago in my year in review and ahead, I stated that I would start to track wines that I find overly ripe in style, whether it comes from Israel or anywhere else. I have been doing that in my wine notes, but I and finding less and less of them, simply because I am turning over my library in the direction of wines like Tzora, Yatir, and so on.

To be fair, wineries are making wines like this because that is what the public wishes, or so they say. I understand that a palate is a hard thing to come by, and that it may well be an evolutionary road for many. Still, there is a thing called nuance and then there is a thing called a 2×4. To create wines that are so obtusely in your face – one has to stop and wonder if the winemaker is actually unwilling to trust his wines to you. Maybe it his/her way of saying – here I dare you not to taste something in this wine! Mocking you as the winery takes your money and you are left with that aching feeling that is more akin to a used car lot than a culinary experience.

So, I thought it was time to publicly publish my Dear John letter to wines from Israel or elsewhere that continue to cater to the LCD (least common denominator) – and make wines that only a dead person could miss notes in.

Dear overly ripe wines,

I have to be honest, for the longest time you were a wonderful accompaniment to my weekend dinners. However, in these past 5 years, I cannot help but think that we have drifted apart. Oh come on, do not flutter those sweet and cloying tannins at me, you know how I hate that so. I wish I could say it is me and not you, but I would be lying. This is all on you!

This is not about you or about me “winning or losing”, you know I have lost so much over the years when I happily gave away bottles of the 2004 Ortal Merlot and so much more. There is no denying that we have changed so much, you continue to be so sweet, of course, but what I finally realized is that you are also so empty. Sure you have those wonderful structural qualities, that we all look for in a companion, but the rest is hollow, no stuffing, no meaning, just a flat and empty being.

I tried so hard to make it work, to ignore my wine friends, telling them that it was just a bad night or a really bad weekend, like that bender in December. Sadly, it always turns out the same way when I wake from another night of debauchery, I am thankfully a bit lighter of you and you are always the same – big, bold, loud, and empty!

So, I am happy to say I think I am rid of you from my cellar. I have worked hard to empty it of your kind and thankfully, I can now say that you are in my past. I waited too long to write this letter, for that I am sorry to you and my guests. However, going forward I know that I have made the correct decision and wish you and those wineries all the best. I even have a lovely new moniker for you DJL – if you see that on a note I write, you will know that you have found a wine you will truly come to love. For me, it will be a badge of shame.

Thanks for all the great times, and I am also happy to say good riddance and bon voyage!

That was something that was a long time coming, and I am happy to have said it out loud. I want to be sure that we clear the air of any misconceptions though of wines like Shirah versus the 2009 Yarden Cabernet. The 2009 Yarden is a wine that is cloyingly sweet with nice structure and sweet notes that would turn sweet tooth into cavities. However, a wine like the 2009 Power to the people, is an entirely different beast. Sure, it is clearly new world, with sweet notes, but it is balanced, controlled, and shockingly still has enough acid to keep going. Of course a wine like the 2011 Chateau Moulin Riche is an entirely different beast! That is a wine that is so French, it is insane. The wine is ripped, showing a core structure, with rich mineral, graphite, and dirt  – that you have to work hard now to find the fruit. Fear not, in a few years the fruit will come out, but for now let it rest in your cellar and enjoy it here and there at tastings.

I point this out, as I have before, because I want it to be clear that I still very much like “sweet” controlled ripe wines. The DJL was for uncontrolled, date, prune, raisin wines that are thankfully a thing of the past from my cellar.

Below are Israeli wines that are older and clearly wines that did not yet have the BIG BOLD AND BAD pedigree (facetious of course) that its younger siblings are now showing is all the rage.

My wine notes follow below:

2006 Yarden Merlot, Odem Organic Vineyard – Score: A- (and more)
This is the first single vineyard Merlot from the Odem Vineyard. This vineyard is tended to organically, but the word Organic is nowhere on the label as there are sulfites added. The last time we had this bottle the first thing that hit you was the massive amount of menthol and spice that there was. This time the menthol and herb was under control, and it was accompanied by candied plum, nice chocolate, blackberry, eucalyptus/menthol aromas, and black cherry. The mouth is massive and inky with mouth coating tannin, layer upon layer of spice and herb, black fruit that is focused and concentrated, and sweet cedar that is integrating and rich in the mouth. The finish is super long and spicy with lovely tobacco, chocolate, blackcurrant, orange rind and loamy dirt. Over time the wine opens further and shows layers of butterscotch and creamy vanilla.

2011 Cuvee Chabad, Zinfandel, Napa Valley - Score: A-
This wine has sweetness to it, but the wine is more ripe than sweet and the rich smokey notes really help round the wine out. The added earthy, dirty, and roasted animal that lie in the background add to the overall wines appeal.

The nose starts off with sweet notes, and the heat of old is gone, along with great spice, black and blue fruit, root beer, roasted animal, loamy earth, and lovely dirt. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows no more sweet notes, with ripe boysenberry, blackberry, dark almost liqueur kirsch cherry, ripe red plum, crushed herb, along with lovely mouth coating tannin and sweet oak. The finish is long and spicy with nutmeg, root beer, black pepper, smoky notes, and vanilla, along with a long drag of cigar and leather – BRAVO!

2010 Agua Dulce Winery Zinfandel - Score: B+
I must say that though I did not like this wine as much in the past, the wine is now coming together, showing less heat and sweetness and more brawn. The wine has lost its blue and sweet fruit nose, and is now more dense and black. The nose on this dark purple colored wine explodes with nicely smoked meat, dark and brooding fruit, and great spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine starts off so nicely with layers of dark and rich jammy fruit, blackberry, strawberry, sweet oak, and lovely mouth coating tannin, thankfully the heat and dates are gone, and in their place are clear notes of herb and eucalyptus. The finish is long with more spice, with the green notes of the past coming to the fore, olives, rich and freshly ground pepper, chocolate, and more spice. Clearly better than the past – NICE!

2007 Yarden Syrah, Avital Slopes – Score: A- (and a bit more)
The nose on this purple colored wine is one that is true to its core, no dates or overripe notes to be found. This is a wine redolent with rise but controlled fruit, concentrated dark fruit, all giving way to roasted meat aromas, tar, and mounds of fresh tilled earth. The mouth on this full bodied wine holds true with deeply concentrated and extracted fruit, dark cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and dark plum, with hints of herb and sweet figs, all brought together with sweet cedar wood, and tannins that are just starting to give way. The finish is logic with good acidity, black pepper, graphite, chocolate, and spice -bravo!

2008 Galil Mountain Winery Yiron - Score: A- (and more) (QPR)
The 2008 vintage was the last vintage I have bought the Yiron, as the 2009 and 2010 are not wines I like. To be fair, much of the “Yarden” empire has been cursed with this issue. The nose on this garnet colored wine is hopping with an expressive and intoxicating smokey perfume of licorice, spice, tar aromas, and animal fats. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is truly explosive with now integrated mouth coating tannin, rich mouth feel and concentration of black cherry, ripe blackberry, ripe plum, and raspberry, followed by tart fruit, sweet oak, softening tannin, sweet herb, and nice acid. The finish is long, spicy and expressive with green notes, eucalyptus, graphite, dirt, tobacco, espresso coffee notes, and oriental spices – BRAVO! Start drinking up, it threw a bit of sediment, this wine has is at peak or very close, and after that who cares – the fun starts to abate, get it while the going is fun!

2006 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon - Score: A-
This wine is clearly at peak or over and should be drunk VERY soon. This wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petite Verdot. The nose starts off with lovely barnyard, followed by black fruit, loamy dirt, herb, and green notes. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is layered and rich with blackberry, dark cherry, spice, good extraction, along with plum, intense mouth coating tannins, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and spectacular, with tannin that does not give up, along with cloves, green herb, coffee, citrus peel, tart fruit, dried ginger. BRAVO!

2007 Galil Mountain Winery Yiron - Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and 7% Syrah. The wine is a sweet wine, the sweetest of the group, but it is still hanging on, so if you like your wines more controlled, drink soon.

The nose on this wine is black and blue and red all over, with black berries, blueberry, boysenberry, hints of white summer fruit, black pepper, apricot, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine shows dried fruit, graphite, candied cherry, insane tannins that do not stop, along with roasted oriental herbs, blue fruit that captivates you, and spice. The finish is long and intensely spicy, with chocolate, leather, cloves,a nd more spice. BRAVO!!

2009 Psagot Edom - Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine is a blend of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Petite Verdot. The nose in rich and black with sweet notes, dark berry, loamy dirt, and lemon zest. The mouth on this full bodied wine is lovely, layers of concentrated sweet fruit, that is balanced and controlled with ripe blackberry, cassis, along with still searing tannin, sweet cedar, and spice. The finish is long with nice tannin, good acid, leather, blackcurrant, cloves, black pepper, chocolate, and citrus rind on the long rise. BRAVO!

2010 Herzog Meritage – - Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine tastes like it did a few months ago, and is a wine that has serious aging potential. Decant for one hour before enjoying.

This wine is a commemorative bottle that Herzog has created called Herzog tasting Room Reserve – a wine that is sold only at the tasting room in Oxnard. The wine was made to commemorate the 25th year of wine making under the Herzog wine label. The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, the classic melange of French Bordeaux wines.

The nose on this red to purple colored wine screams from graphite and mineral, followed by red and black fruit, green notes, herb, and sweet cedar. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts closed and needs a good hour of decanting to fully enjoy. Once open the mouth is layered with sweet cherry, blackberry, plum, sweet bell pepper, and lovely mouth coating tannin that lingers long. The finish is long and sweet with tart fruit, chocolate, vanilla, leather, spice, and more graphite along with an almost saline finish and bitter almonds that rise on the long and elegant finish – BRAVO!!!!

2009 Bravdo (Karmei Yosef Winery) Merlot - Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine has evolved a bit since we last tasted it and it is really coming together nicely. Sadly, this was my last bottle and this wine has another two years in its legs. It is at peak or maybe a month or two ahead of that – so enjoy it in the next six months – to enjoy at peak for sure.

The nose is green, earthy, with OK control for a 2009 Israeli wine, dark cherry, cranberry, and raisin notes. The medium to full bodied mouth hits you with integrating but still attacking tannin, rich and layered concentrated and extracted fruit, tannins that do not let up, along with lovely sweet cedar, dates that have receded, chocolate, crazy black plum, and dark forest berry. The finish is long and herbed, with sweet herbs, oregano, mounds of sweet tobacco, sweet dried fruit, and spice. With time the wine opens further to show a far darker side, with leather, tar, graphite, raspberry, blackberry, dark currant, and rich smokey notes. Of the 2009 Bravdo wines – this is the one that has showed the best in the last year or so.

2010 Weinstock Cellars Cabernet Franc Select - Score: A- (and a bit more) (QPR) (Mevushal)
Weinstock Cellar Select wines are truly becoming a no brainer wine in the mevushal camp and even if you are not looking for mevushal wine! This was the first vintage of Cabernet Franc for Weinstock and they really created a great wine! The wine is classic, with green notes and plum, but steeped in dirt and mineral notes. Fantastic QPR wine to say the least!

The nose on this wine starts off with classic green notes of bell pepper, followed by ripe red and black fruit, herb, dirt, and mineral. The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is intense and layered with concentrated and ripe cherry, raspberry, plum, and more dirt, with smokey notes, sweet cedar, and mouth coating tannin that has yet to fully integrate. The finish is long and mineral, with graphite, rock, dirt, mint, tar, and tobacco, with hints of toffee and more tannin on the long rise. BRAVO!!!!

2011 Dalton Petite Sirah, Samson –  Score: B+ to A-
This wine is one of those wines that continue to prove to me, that PS may be epic in ways, but also not complex in others. It is not as shallow as malbec, at least in the kosher scene, but most PS in the kosher scene, have a nice line but not much holding/staying power. That said, the Dalton PS here is solid with great acidity and good enough body to keep most interested. If you are searching for complexity, look elsewhere, but if you are looking for earth, dirt, tar, and fruit – in that order – this is a nice example. PLEASE READ – before enjoying this wine – cool it off in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes and the wine will show less alcohol/heat and more fruit.

The nose on this wine starts with heat that blows off very slowly, followed by white flowers, black fruit, spice, black pepper, and herb. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is all black with hints of red, with blackberry, dark cherry, nice soft and integrated tannin, butterscotch, brown sugar, along with a soft, creme mouth feel, all wrapped up in sweet oak and spice. The finish is long and sweet, with lovely dirt, earth, tar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and more sweet notes, followed by a lingering coffee flavored vanilla ice cream.

2010 Tabor Merlot, Adama, Bazelet - Score: A- (and a bit more) (MAD QPR)
This is a wine I had with a friend of mine in January at the winery and I was not that impressed, which just goes to prove that tasting wine at a winery with 10 minutes or less to let the wine open and show it potential, is not the best way to judge a wine. The wine showed well, but not this well. Further the wine recently received a 93 from Wine Enthusiast, which judges kosher Israeli wine far more on par than other wines than other publications that I also read.

So, I had to give this wine a second chance and man were they right! This wine is a screaming QPR wine, it is rich and layered and shows black and red fruit throughout. It has no clear flaws and the acidity is what brings it all together.

The nose on this wine shows rich smokey notes, barnyard notes, along with candied Kirsch cherry, freshly rooted dirt, and ripe black notes. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine shows lovely and rich complexity from beautiful mouth coating tannin that lingers long, along with ripe concentrated blackberry, plum, raspberry, along withe sweet cedar, and spice. The finish is long with rich mineral, intense graphite, loamy dirt, lovely acidity, all culminating to an impression of a dark and brooding male with a long leather trench coat, puffing on a freshly rolled cigar, while enjoying some bitter chocolate and a cup of espresso. BRAVO! and double BRAVO for the insane price and quality! I have said before that Tabor is the new QPR leader in white wines, and throw this one on top of the heap at well!!

2009 Shiloh legend – Score: A- (Mevushal)
The nose on this mevushal purple colored wine explodes with ripe blueberry, dark cherry, ripe raspberry, licorice, and lovely spice, with a hint of roasted meat and smokiness which leaves soon enough for more crazy spices and ripe fruit. The mouth on this full bodied, ripe, round wine is expressive with sweet fruit, blackberry, ripe strawberry, plum, more blue fruit, along with sweet cedar, and mouth coating tannin that lingers and makes the mouth feel ripe, sweet, and round. The finish is long and spicy with nice vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate mocha, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mint. Over time the wine opens further to show grapefruit, pineapple, watermelon, and more lovely baking spices – BRAVO!

With all the overripe and over sweet 2009 wines from Israel – this is a wine that shows you what control in Israel can taste like.

Well, 2014 has come and gone and my top wines of the past year were too many to limit to 10. Now these wines comprise a list of wines I enjoyed over the year. Some were released in 2014 and many were released a long time ago. Either way these are wines that made an impression upon me and that is the only characteristic that I used to define this list.

Some of these wines may not score a solid A, but they deserve to be here because of their trail blazing characteristics Take for instance – the 2012 Recanati Marselan. It is the only kosher Marselan and it is very good. The 2013 Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, one of the best whites to come out of Israel along with the 2012 Tzora Shoresh White, a wine that I believe is better than the 2013 Shoresh white, were both on my list last year, so they are not on it this year. The 2013 Tzora Shoresh is on this year’s list and if you have not gotten any – you are making a huge mistake. I had both in 2014, and even though I liked the 2012 a bit more, the 2013 is an epic white wine, in its own right. The best rose, hands down, was the 2013 Hajdu Pinot Gris rose. It is tied for best ever kosher rose with the 2012 Shirah rose, but that was already enjoyed in 2013. The next white wine was the epic 2013 Dalton Viognier, a wine that is worthy, once again, of the Dalton reserve label. It beats the 2012 hands down, and reclaims the title as the best kosher Viognier that is available in the US or Israel. There may be a French Viognier that is available there, but I do not know of them. The final non red wine was the 1996 Four Gates Chardonnay, which while never released officially, it was an awesome wine indeed! I tasted while tasting an entire vertical of all of Benyamin’s Chardonnay wines and this was the best of the bunch. Many others were solid A- and maybe a bit more wines, but the 1996 was a A- to A wine that was truly epic.

The rest of the wines are red, and there are many special wines there including the fantastic 2012 Recanati wild Carignan and Syrah/Viognier wines. BRAVO! There were many more French wines, but they will have to fall till next year, when I get a chance to sit down and enjoy them over a long meal. The 2012 Chateau Giscours, the 2012 Pavillon de Leoville Poyferré, and the 2012 Roches de Yon Figeac are lovely wines and may well get on the list next year. In the end, California, France, and Spain continue to be my sweet spot. There are a few exceptional wines from Israel, like the epic and insane 2000 Yarden Katzrin and others. Along with current releases from Tzora Winery, Recanati Winery, and Yatir Winery. In the end, Israel will improve by having 2009, 2010, and 2011 in their rear view mirror, all the while enjoying the new 2012, 2013, and from what I hear 2014 vintages.

The wine notes follow below:

Wines of Spain

2012 Capcanes Peraj Habib (Crazy QPR) – Score: A- to A
Before I talk about this epic wine, I must sadly say that one of the wines that was on my list last year – the 2012 Capcanes Carignan – never made it into its own bottle. Sadly, it was not deemed worthy of a leading role. Thankfully, it found its place here, in this fantastic 2012 Peraj Habib! The wine blend for 2012 is not far off from 2011, consisting of 40% Grenache, 30% Carignan, and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from very old vines.

The nose on this dark and impenetrable purple colored wine is redolent with roasted animal, intense black fruit, and mounds of dirt and mineral. The mouth on this full bodied wine hits you with an intensely inky structure, filled with layers of of rich concentrated fruit, ripe freshly squeezed black berries, cassis, plum, along with tart fruit, spice, and mouth coating tannins that may well make some people think that this is the best Capcanes Peraj Habib ever made. The finish is long and purely mineral based to start, like sucking on a salt and graphite stick, as it recedes, you sense the incredible balancing acid, which is then immediately replaced with richly roasted coffee, sweet and herbal spices, more black fruit, a sense of animal fats, leather, hints of tobacco, and finally followed by bitter notes on the long finish. BRAVO!!!!

2010 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah – Score: A- to A
The 2010 Clos Mesorah is the 2nd vintage of this epic wine from Moises Cohen and Elvi Wines. The 2009 vintage notes can be found here, with much of last year’s wines. The blend is not defined on the bottle, but if it is anything like the 2009 vintage, it is made up of a blend of Carignan made from 90 year old vines, Grenache, and Syrah. This is the second of the Clos Mesorah wine in a kosher format and it is well worth the wait. The wine is lovely and personally edges out the Capcanes Peeraj Ha’bib and makes it the best kosher Montsant out there, by a hair. The reason why I say this is because the Clos Mesorah has a more controlled nose and mouth that is devoid of raisin and date and also does not have the overly loud toasty/burnt oak. That said, tasting this side-by-side the 2012 Capcanes Peraj Habib would be very interesting indeed!

The wine has a crazy rich and perfumed nose of ripe but controlled black fruit, black cherry, lovely blueberry, floral notes, chocolate, nutmeg, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, crazy concentrated and layered with black and blue fruit, all balanced with still searing tannin, blackberry, black plum, root beer, along with a massive attack of spice, herbs, and good cedar that fills the mouth and makes for a rich mouth-feel. The finish is long and spicy with truly rich milk chocolate, almost mocha, vanilla, along with boysenberry, more sweet fruit, butterscotch, and herb. BRAVO!! This is a wine that will start to show lovely leather in a year or two and the chocolate will give way to more butterscotch and smoke.

2009 Elvi Herenza Rioja, Reserva – Score: A- to A
This wine is made up of Tempranillo grapes grown at the highest altitude in Rioja, Rioja Alta. The Reserva moniker in the DOC classified area of Rioja, means that the wine must be aged for at least three years, of which at least one year is in oak. This wine was aged in French and American oak for 20 months and then bottle aged till last year. The nose on this dark colored wine is filled with dark fruit, ripe plum, root beer, sweet oak, and what I can only call soy sauce. The mouth on this full bodied wine is richly layered and extracted with more dark fruit, showing a crazy inky structure, with candied fruit, dark plum, blackberry, spice, more extraction and sweet cedar. The finish is long and mature with great structure, milk chocolate, dill, spice, dark herb, and a bit more soy sauce. This is a uniquely different wine than the common Cabernet or Syrah, it is a wine that is really out there and shows the prowess of Moises and his winery – BRAVO!!

Wines of Israel

2012 Reacanati Marselan, Reserve - Score: A- (and more)
To start, I am so impressed with what Gil Shatsberg and Ido Lewinsohn have been doing with Recanati since Gil took over as head winemaker after the 2006 vintage. The fruit is moving to more control while still being ripe and Israeli, in all the right ways. According to the all knowing Wikipedia; Marselan is a red French wine grape variety that is a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. It was first bred in 1961 by Paul Truel near the French town of Marseillan. The vine is grown mostly in the Languedoc wine region with some plantings in the Northern Coast of California.

In the kosher wine world – this is a first, we have never had a kosher Marselan! By the way, I do love how the name was changed from Marseillan (the name of the city the grape is named after) to the spelling we have today. Also, this combination was conceived for the hot region of Rhone, let us hope it flourishes well in Israel.

Being a partial relative of Grenache, it was expected to find lovely ripe blueberry on this redolent nose, along with bright and sweet notes, chocolate, sweet cherry, root beer, spice, and charcoal. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with ripe boysenberry, blackberry, dark fruit, all wrapped up in mouth coating tannin, and delivered with a massive and brooding body attack of sweet fruit, and balancing acid, with nutmeg, mineral, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and spicy with sweet tobacco, blue fruit lingering long with great baking spices, and chocolate covered espresso beans. BRAVO! All of this form 5 year old vines, I can only start to imagine what we hope for this wine in future vintages.

2012 Recanati Syrah/Viognier, Reserve – Score: A- to A
This wine is a blend of 97% Syrah and 3% Viognier, very much like another of the top 25 wines from Shirah Winery; Shirah White Hawk Syrah. The nose on this wine also is redolent with sweet ripe fruit, summer fruit takes a background place, but it shows beautifully with peach, apricot, mineral, spice, boysenberry, and raspberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is layered and rich with crazy mouth coating tannin, black and blue fruit, showing ripe black forest berry, freshly crushed blueberry, along with concentrated plum, watermelon, and layers of sweet spice. The finish is long with sweet fruit, lovely tannin, balancing acidity, more sweet spice, root beer, and more layers of blue and black fruit, wrapped in leather and sweet tobacco. BRAVO!! This would be a ton of fun to taste alongside the Shirah white hawk Syrah blind, look for that soon.

2012 Recanati Wild Carignan, Reserve - Score: A- to A (and maybe more)
This wine may well be the best scoring wine of the newest releases, but each and every wine here is a unique experience indeed. This wine is no exception to that opinion. Ever since it blasted unto the kosher wine scene with its inaugural 2009 release, this wine has been, and rightfully so, making waves throughout the region. Israel, was finally shown that wines can be made New World, ripe, sweet, but controlled, with crazy unique characteristics, that may well be unique in nature to Israel, but all the while not tasting like liquid dried fruit/date.

The rest of the red wine reserve line, including the fantastic 2012 Petite Sirah (that barely missed making this list) comes from the fact that Gil Shatsberg and Ido Lewinsohn, and the Reacanati winery made a decision, one that I approve of, but one that many in Israel do NOT. They decided to make a world class set of reserve wines, from grapes that were indigenous to other hot climates throughout the world. Carignan, has been grown for many years in Israel, but it is a grape that requires serious whacking to keep its yields low. These grapes are sourced from very old vines, that are “wild” in nature, meaning that they are bush-like, similar to how Pinotage is grown in South Africa.

The nose on this dark purple wine is ripe and rich and redolent with dirt, more dirt, and more dirt, followed by freshly roasted meat, rich blackberry, and raspberry. The mouth on this wine may well be the craziest of the list, sure the 2001 El Rom is intense and unique, as was the 2000 Katzrin, but this wine is the “beast-mode” of kosher wines. Even the mad White Hawk Syrah is a step behind this beast in attack, it reminds me of the 2008 Four gates Merlot M.S.C. and the 2007 Brobdignagian Grenache when it was first released. The mouth on this wine seems to be lacking in realism, when we attempt to describe it as full-bodied, it is that and much more, with intense and crazy extraction, followed by layers upon layers of concentrated blue and black fruit, boysenberry, spice, blackberry, black currant, and more roasted notes, wrapped up in unwielding mouth coating tannin, with rich mineral, dirt, and graphite. The finish is long and rich with lovely freshly minted milk chocolate, heavy leather, tobacco, and more great graphite on the long and never ending finish. This wine is so crazy you need to open one now to truly understand the madness, and then lay it down for two years to watch all the parts come together. BRAVO!!

2010 Yatir Forest – Score: A- to A
The Yatir winery is truly one of the very best in Israel and one of the few wineries that have successfully produced great wines even in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 (from what I have heard) vintages. The US labels have sadly been affected to some extent, but the Israeli labels are rock solid and highly impressive.

The Yatir Forest is Yatir Winery’s flagship wine and this year the blend is made up of; 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Petite Verdot, and 8% Merlot. The nose on this black colored wine is perfumed in a perfectly well executed Israeli wine made in a Bordelaise manner, with black fruit, mineral, graphite, dirt, sweet oak, and chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied wine is unique with layers of refined and elegant tannin, along with layers of concentrated blue and black fruit, but tempered by mouth coating tannin, soft yet searing, all the while packed with intense blackberry, cassis, roasted animal, and spice. I have stated before, that 2010 was the year in Israel of blue Cabernet Sauvignon, and though this wine is majority cab, the blue fruit is clearly emanating from the Petite Verdot, as the 2010 Cabernet has no blue fruit. The finish is long and spicy, with oriental spice, leather, green notes, chocolate, tobacco, and great spice – BRAVO!

2013 Tzora Shoresh White – Score: A- (and more)
The Tzora Winery is clearly one of the best wineries in Israel, and has been making world class wines for the past 6 years and more. The 2013 vintage, like many of the previous vintages since the late Ronnie James started the naming scheme, is named after the vineyard in the Judean Hills – Shoresh Vineyard, where the Sauvignon Blanc grapes are sourced to make this wonderful wine. The 2012 vintage may well be a tad better than this vintage, only because it was a bit more ripe, but this wine is still epic and wonderful in its own right.

The nose on this wine is redolent with quince, intense pink grapefruit, green apple, spice, and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine belies the fact that it was aged 7 months in French oak, the wine is indeed round, and the hints of oak are present, but it is the fruit that takes stage – front and center. The first thing you notice is the intense acid, followed by tart citrus, rich apple cobbler, hints of brioche, pineapple, melon, all wrapped up in a rich body tyhat comes together so nicely with earth, dirt, and fruit. The finish is long and acidic, with more tart fruit, spice, cloves, roasted herb, hints of vanilla, and bitter notes. BRAVO!

2013 Dalton Viognier, Reserve, Wild Yeast – Score: A- (and more)
All I can say – IT IS BACK!!! Thank goodness for that! It has been too long without a GREAT kosher Viognier option. The 2012 was a nice wine, but it paled in comparison to the 2007-9 vintages. The 2013 is CRUSHING in comparison and is the best kosher Viognier I have ever tasted, so BRAVO!

Now to the wine notes. BEWARE this wine needs to decant or age or better yet open the bottle 6 hours ahead of time and let it breathe. Either way, I opened the wine and it was dull and somewhat flat, it then went into a comatose nap for a few hours, then it was back and ready to enjoy! PLEASE PLEASE give this wine the respect it is due and AIR it out!!!

The wine continues it heritage of wild yeast fermentation and was aged in French oak for four months. The nose on this wine shows beautiful notes of ripe melon, pear, peach, along with crazy floral notes of violet and rose. The mouth on this full bodied wine is oily and textured with layers of honeyed notes of peach and apricot, spiced melon, mango, crazy acid and intense concentration of ripe summer fruits, all balanced with bracing acidity, bitter notes, and sweet oak. The finish is long and intensely spicy with saline, mineral, slate, white pepper and hints of vanilla and lovely bakers spices. BRAVO on many levels!!!!!

2000 Yarden Katzrin – Score: A
WOW! What a wine! Clearly this was the best wine of the evening, but it may well be one of the best wines I tasted in 2013. The wine is a blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this still black with hints of garnet colored wine starts off with crazy herb, mineral, floral notes, along with lots of red fruit, and freshly shaved pencil. The wine is throwing serious sediment so be careful. The mouth on this full-bodied, rich and layered wine, starts with lovely sweet tannin, then comes at you with layers of concentrated sweet fruit, black plum, cassis, blackberry, chocolate, and more sweet cedar. The finish is long and sweet with nice vanilla, chocolate, more mouth draping tannin, black tea, and sweet herb – BRAVO!!

2001 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon, Elrom – Score: A
As I have said countless times, this may well be the best El Rom of all time (though the 2008 is looking GREAT), and is right up there with the 2008 Yarden Katzrin and other Yarden Cabernets from yesteryear. Please give this wine an hour of air time before enjoying it.
What a wine, what a lovely wine this is! The nose starts off a bit funky and with time shows barnyard and some reduction, but blessedly that blows off to show a nose of rich and expressive mineral, spice, black and red fruit, green notes, and lovely leafy tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, layered, expressive, with insane fruit structure, silky rich tannin that linger insanely long, along with rich earthy notes, graphite, and layers of concentrated blackberry, cassis, and currant all coming together into a symphony of fruit, tannin, and mineral. The finish is long and earthy, with rich mineral, spice, oak, and tobacco that lingers long with leather, chocolate, and earth finishing the long rise. BRAVO!!!!

Wines of California

2012 Shirah Syrah, White Hawk (Huge QPR) - Score: A- to A
This may well be the best Shirah pure Syrah yet, it is as intense as the Thompson Syrah wines of the past, but it adds depth and crazy extraction that is classic Shirah! The wine is a classic Côte-Rôtie blend of 98% Syrah and 2% Viognier from White Hawk vineyards, in Santa Barbara County. The wine was aged for 15 months in French and Hungarian oak. The nose on this black purple colored wine is crazy intense with wonderful aromas of roasted animal, blue fruit, graphite, intense summer fruit notes, peach, apricot coming from the lovely Viognier, along with earth and dirt. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is intense with layers of spice, showing a silky smooth texture yet richly extracted, one of the Weiss brothers richest and most supple expressions yet. It shows black fruit, mineral, blueberry and boysenberry, with layers of rich blue and black fruit, coupled with sweet oak, and more spice. The finish is long and mineral rich with dark chocolate, slate, smoking tobacco, insane blue fruit, wicked charcoal, root beer, watermelon, and sweet spices. The wine is so intense and layered with spices that does not stop – what a joy – BRAVO!!!

2008 Four Gates Merlot, M.S.C. – Score: A- to A
The nose on this black colored wine was insane with ripe blackberry, eucalyptus, mint, dark plum, followed by intense dark chocolate, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine hits you in layers of concentrated ripe and dried fruit all at the same time, raspberry, cherry, red and black fruit, followed by intense dirt, mineral, roasted herb, all wrapped up in crazy mouth coating tannin and sweet oak. The finish is so long I could not clean my palate, with acid that seems to have been born from a lemon, yet perfectly balanced within the whole, with chocolate, oriental spice, fig, and roasted notes. BRAVO! FILTHY! This is a wine that is going nowhere anytime soon, and will be at peak very soon. Enjoy until 2018 with the peak hitting soon if not already here.

1997 Four Gates Merlot – Score: A­- to A
This was Four Gates’ official inaugural release, though he made an entire line of 1996 wines as well, but they were never sold. This nose on this 100% Merlot wine is insane and filthy, in all the right ways, with crazy dirt, earth, mineral, barnyard, graphite, and black fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine is showing layers of concentrated fruit, mouth puckering acid, lovely mushroom, black fruit, plum, cherry, and blackberry, all layered with spice and green notes and lovely mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and green/mineral with great acid and chocolate. BRAVO!!!

1997 Four Gates Pinot Noir ­ – Score: A­- to A
This was Four Gates’ official inaugural release, though he made an entire line of 1996 wines as well, but they were never sold. The nose on this 100% Pinot Noir wine showed lovely dirt, earth, mushroom, cherry, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine comes at you in layers, with layers of dark cherry, plum, raspberry, and currant, showing beautifully and so old world with dirt and spice a wine that is complex and rich, a hedonistic experience which can only be described as both old world and yet truly rich and ripe. The black fruit was still kicking with cherry cola, deep and freshly rooted earth, mushroom and sick tannin that were still attacking. The finish was long and mineral with more dirt and coffee expression! BRAVO!!!

1996 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A- to A
This was Four Gates’ un-official inaugural release, though, as his first released wine was the 2007 vintage. In many ways, the 2006 was superior, but it did not has the lasting power that the 2007 has shown for so many of his varietals. The clear winner though of his Chardonnays has always been the 2006 vintage, IMHO. The nose on this gold colored wine is pure butter, a very classic American California Chardonnay, on the nose, with lovely butterscotch, rich fruit, layers of ripe marzipan, lemon, and fig. The mouth on the full bodied wine is rich and crazy layered with intense acid and rich summer fruit, pineapple, guava, and rich extracted fruit, sweet cedar and tart notes. The finish is long and spicy with sweet dill, cedar, more butterscotch and caramel. BRAVO!

2013 Hajdu Rose, Pinot Gris – Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine is NOT a bleed off or saignee, this is 100% Pinot Gris, it is rose from lying on the skins for a few hours. The nose on this lovely salmon colored wine is lovely and starts off with intense bubblegum and cotton candy, however, after 30 minutes the wine turns into a saline and mineral redolence with crazy floral notes. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is well structured with layers of saline, intense acid, grapefruit, cloves, and melon. The finish is long and balanced with candied orange, mineral, intensely tart fruit, candied strawberry, and more spice. This is a unique, one of a kind wine, that is serious and brooding wine – not for the faint of heart, but what a wine it is!!!

2012 Hajdu Syrah, Brobdingnagian – Score: A- to A
The 2012 Syrah is still very closed and not ready to party, that said with time or heavy decanting it is a wine that can become a superstar. This wine is classic Brob Syrah, big bold and in your face, but always with great control and good balance. The nose on this wine is slight closed now with rich blueberry, red and black fruit, root beer, licorice, earth, tar, and more earth. The mouth on this full bodied wine is inky dense and rich with layers of concentrated blackberry, cassis, candied and spiced dark plum, with loamy earthy notes, wrapped in boysenberry, sweet oak, and crazy mouth coating tannin. The finish is long, rich, and spicy with more blue and black fruit, tart fruit, great balancing acid, black pepper, nutmeg, and chocolate. BRAVO! This is a wine that can be enjoyed now, but better in a year and then till 2020.

2012 Hajdu Petite Sirah, Brobdingnagian – Score: A- to A
Like the 2012 Brob Syrah, this wine is really not ready for prime time, it reminds me of the 2007 Brob Grenache in that when we opened that bottle after release all we smelled and tasted was dirt, earth, tar, and crazy toast! The nose on this black colored wine is about at the same place; the fruit is under layers of wood, dirt, spice, and hints of root beer. The mouth on this massive, brooding, and full bodied wine is a pure attack on your senses, with deep extraction, rich layers of dark fruit, sweet oak, and tannin that does not let up. The finish is long with layers of dark fruit, leather, spice, Swiss mocha, boysenberry, and nice tart sweet fruit. With time, the fruit will start to show. This is a wine that needs time; open one if you must, but best from 2015 till 2021 and maybe more – BRAVO!!

2007 Brobdingnagian Grenache, Santa Barbara County - Score: A- to A
The name on Jonathan Hajdu’s wine comes from the colossal, gigantic, extremely tall, and giant creatures discovered by Gulliver in his travels on the Northwest coast of California and is used today (although not by anyone I know) to describe anything of colossal size. That said, the wine does in many ways follow the moniker. The wine has a 16.3% alcohol, is massive in the mouth, and in the bottle! The bottle (empty) is one of the heaviest I have ever seen, quite extreme. The name of the winery, though unpronounceable by me, is one you already know by association. The wine is made by Jonathan Hajdu, the associate wine maker for Covenant Wines, owned and operated by Jeff Morgan.

The last time we opened this wine, the wine was inaccessible for many hours. However, this time the wine was immediately accessible with concentrated dried red fruit, raspberry, toast, smokey aromas, roasted animal, sweet cedar, insane and mad milk chocolate, and spice. The mouth on this browning colored wine is super concentrated, almost laser focused, and layered with dried strawberry, cranberry, raspberry, blueberry, root beer, and plum. The attack is what makes this wine; it is clean lined with heft and power, yet focused on delivering not a single but many blows of dried fruit and oak. The mid palate flows from the mouth with acidity to balance the beast, along with still searing tannins, cedar oak, and tobacco. The finish is super long and concentrated with more mouth coating tannin, sweet herb, licorice, white pepper, cloves, lovely acidity, sweet watermelon, and more spice – BRAVO!!!!

This wine has a year or so left – but I would start drinking them now for another year – drink UP mode.

Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 – Score: A- to A
I have had this wine a few times now and in different settings. Once was a few years ago, soon after release – big mistake. Once was a year ago and with a ton of air time. This time we also gave it air. Well, the results were all over the place. The initial time a few years ago, was way too early. Far too tannic, no life, almost bland. Last year was nice, but still pretty dormant. Finally, this past time, I could see what made Robert Parker and other stand up and take notice.

The nose on this garnet red wine is crazy loaded with cassis, raspberry, and tobacco. The mouth of this full bodied and coating/velvety wine has intense layers of cassis, blackberry and a slight hint of mint, herb, and vegetal flavors. The mid palate is where this wine takes off – it is still acidic in nature, which gives it structure, and a fair bit of tannin as well. From there the oak overtakes the palate in an impressive, while not overpowering manner, and flows into a long and complicated finish of fig, tobacco and chocolate. Quite a nice showing and though much of the latter part of the evening’s festivities are a haze, the notes of this wine were well preserved in my memory. This wine rocked and BRAVO to Jeff for believing in his dream and making it such a huge success!

Wines of France

2012 Vignobles David Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Masques – Score: A- to A (maybe higher)
This wine may well be the best kosher CDP (Chateauneuf-du-pape) on the market and is better than its older 2011 vintage! It is a blend of 85% Grenache, 10% Mourvedre, and 5% Syrah all from very old vines.

The nose on this wine is screaming with blueberry, blackberry, sweet boysenberry, sweet spices, along with ripe mineral and graphite. The mouth on full bodied wine is crazy rich, layered, concentrated and full of intense ripe black and blue fruit, rich raspberry, and intense spice, with massive sweet and mouth coating tannin that sticks to your mouth long after the wine is gone. The finish is jammy and fruity, with fantastic control, impressive, with layers of rich tannin, spice, root beer, tart and sweet watermelon, that comes at you in an intense attack and does not let up, truly impressive. The finish ends with sweet spice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and hints of white fruit – BRAVO truly an impressive wine!

2011 Chateau Moulin de la Clide St. Emilion – Score: A-
This is a wine that I was given to taste, a barrel sample that comes from an existing winery that until now did not make kosher wine. The wine is 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc. The wine took hours and hours to open up. At first all you smell is dirt and mushroom. As the wine started to open up it, the red fruits and chocolate start to make an appearance. This is a classic Saint Emilion blend, that is also a fully kosher cuvée, not just a single kosher run inside a non-kosher winery. Finally, it may well be the closest thing we will get to Cheval Blanc in the kosher wine world, so far anyway.

The nose starts off closed as tight as a steel drum, and then it opened up after 10 hours of air and crystalline double decanting (opening the wine for many hours, decanting and then rebottling). The nose starts to open with ripe fruit, loamy dirt, ethereal forest floor, and red fruit perfume – what a lovely experience of watching wine open. The mouth on this medium plus wine follows classic French style, no hammering fruit, no fruit forward issues here, but to be fair it also requires you to take notice of more subtle intonations and characteristics. Here the wine is not a wallflower, but while it is not a Cali wine – it does not lack in complexity, but it is not an extracted wine either.

The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is rich and ripe with blackberry, cassis, ripe black plum, lovely black cherry, and tart raspberry, all wrapped up in insane mouth coating tannin that does not give up – two days later! Clearly the star of the show is the tannin and loamy dirt, but the fruit and oak add to the wine’s complexity, that help round the mouth and add depth to its meaning. The finish is a bit short, but does lengthen with time, with classic French balance, great acid, mineral, graphite, chocolate, more dirt that mingles with tart red fruit, leather, and tobacco to make for a long lingering wine. Over time the wine shows even more massive size and expression with bigger and richer tannin, blacker fruit expression all still balanced well with zesty red fruit, dirt, and mineral. Look for this wine to round out more and fill in earlier on.

2011 Chateau Moulin Riche, Saint Julein (QPR) – Score: A- to A
This is a wine made by the same producer and with the same care as the famed Chateau Leoville Poyferre! The wine may be called a younger sibling or smaller sibling of the Leoville Poyferre Grand Vin, but it is not true in any way! I have now tasted this wine three times, in the short time period of a month, and this wine is ripped and muscled with deep and rich mineral notes that blew my mind along with acid and fruit that makes for a wine that will clearly be around for at least another 10 years.
This wine is a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, and 10% Petite Verdot. The PV addition adds great depth to the blend and builds the wine’s muscled earthy structure.
The nose on this black colored wine is lovely and rich with barnyard notes (interesting for such a young wine), graphite, along with fresh black fruit, lovely red fruit, raspberry, and dark cherry that comes together with perfumed sweet herb. The mouth on this crazy rich and layered full bodied wine, comes at you with layers of crazy mouth drying tannin, rich blackberry, cassis, rich minerality, charcoal, all integrated into the wine’s rich fruit structure making for a wine that can handle anything you throw at it. The finish is rich and long with crazy mineral and fruit, leather, coffee, and roasted herb. BRAVO!!!!

2011 Echo de Roses Camille, Pomerol – Score: A-
The wine starts off closed and cold shouldered as can be with medicinal funk, eucalyptus, and loamy dirt, with the mouth following the nose with medium body and good tannin. After a fair amount of decanting this wine finally came out to play. Until then the wine was hollow and empty in the middle. Once the wine opened it showed a nose of loamy dirt, red fruit, mineral, green forest underlay, and classic bell pepper. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is layered with ripe red fruit, cherry, raspberry, plum, and hints of cassis, all coming together with a nice mouth coating tannin that lingers long, with sweet cedar, and green notes. The wine is well structured with great acid and nice layered fruit. The finish is long with good balancing acid, tobacco, chocolate, leather notes, herb, eucalyptus, and lovely sweet tart red fruit that lingers long after the wine is finished. I MUST STRESS – this wine is not ready for prime time. Please let this lie in your cellar for a year. If YOU MUST open it, I mean this with all seriousness, open the bottle 24 hours before enjoying. I saw the best in this wine after 24 hours of air and no refrigeration.

Sadly, Sommelier 2015 has come and gone and I can fairly state that I found nothing to be heartened about, in terms of the Israeli kosher wine scene. To be fair, the issue is still the same, wineries are deepening their love for all things over ripe and the excuse of poor vintages is really just that – an excuse. Having tasted almost every viable kosher wine at the event, I can safely say that only a few wineries care to make wines that are not over ripe, and the rest are the usual suspects. Before, anyone says there were many great wines, I can say I totally agree! The clear winners, winery wise were:
1.    Tzora Winery (the 2012 vintage is insane)
2.    Gvaot Winery (the 2012 Masada may well be their best ever)
3.    Recanati Winery (clearly the biggest winery with a desire to build very good wines from the bottom up)
4.    Tabor Winery (they continue to excel at the Adama series, though the Adama II wines have lost a step since 2010). Still, the whites, rose, and reds of Adama were impressive.
5.    Carmel Winery (the whites continue to excel and even the reds are solid, sadly the US labels are date juice)
6.    Yatir (nothing new here they are one of the best of the bunch)
7.    Yarden – SOLELY for the whites and bubbles. The reds were all date juice, the classic example of a winery that has purposely and consciously taken the road of over ripe fruit.
8.    Netofa Winery (the 2013 and 2014 wines will blow your socks off) – not listed here because I will post separately
9.    Mia Luce (Another winery made by a Recanati Associate Winemaker, this one being kosher) – maybe the best wines of the entire event
10.   Tura Winery (continues to push the boundaries and improving mightily. Love the Merlot, blends, and the new Gewurztraminer. Will post their wines on a separate post).

A few to keep track of – if they keep things up:
1.    Kishor Winery (some of their reds were truly impressive, their new whites were a step behind 2013)
2.    Jezreel Winery (Their white blend and the Carignan were nice, they need to tighten up the rest)
3.    Gush Eztion (Their whites were solid though they too need to tighten up on the reds)

Sadly, of the 200+ kosher wines at the event, fewer than 40 reds were anything to write about. It was the whites, even at wineries that I found physically painful to taste at, were quite acceptable. In the end it was the white wines that saved the event for me. White wines are the clear new trend in Israeli wineries and a trend that continues to impress. Sadly, the 2014 whites are step behind the 2013 vintages, as many did not add acid to the wines, but they are very solid none the less.

In case anyone goes crazy here and starts adding up the wines I liked, the matter I am highlighting here is simple. Of the 40 or fewer reds that I liked, they were almost ALL from wineries that are my usual suspects. So, sure there are wineries in Israel making great wines – I am not contesting that. What I am annoyed about is that the vast majority – new and old – are making wines that I and many others do NOT like!

Think about it – 7 years ago if you has said that Israel would become the white/bubbly/rose wine kosher capital of the world, people would have laughed you out of the room. Now, there are wineries that are crushing it in the white/bubbly/rose kosher wine category! Sadly, reds are a different story all together.

On Facebook, we have been pounding the subject of overripe fruit and date juice, and the like. To be fair, some wine makers have weighed in and some have simply said we are getting there, eventually. Some say, it is the vintages and other say it is the varietals, while others say it is where those varietals are planted, or how they are managed.

To all that I say the following – poppycock! I am sorry, but I have asked many a person who have lived their entire life in Israel, and they are not sure if temps have gone up much in the past 20 years. However, even if they have, they have not gone up so much to explain the clear change in alcohol content and over ripe fruit that litters the kosher wine scene. Look at Yarden in the 90s, in the aughts, the alcohol levels then were in the 14s or lower sometimes. Now the alcohol levels are off the charts. With them have come wines dedicated to the sweet toothed, date drinking public, that so many think rule the kosher wine world. That is the rational I have been given by many a winery.

I am sorry, but there were grapes ten and twenty years ago that seemed to work just fine, how was that possible, if they are the wrong varietal and in the wrong places??? I totally agree, that the ideas like Recanati’s Med series, or Tulip’s Maia series, or Netofa’s direction are all correct for Israel’s temperature and climate. But come on, Yarden has been making blockbuster wines, in the El Rom series for many years now, and in the 2011 vintage there are clear and present notes of date and over ripe fruit. Is there truly nothing sacred anymore! In 2011 to create over ripe fruit, in a winery like Yarden with such tight and impressive controls can only mean one thing – they wanted it that way!

On the first of the two days of Somm, I found myself at the Yarden booth and there standing – pouring white wines – was none other than Victor Schoenfeld, head wine maker of Yarden Winery. I decided not to bring up this subject as I had heard his responses in the past and just wanted to taste the wines and go on my way. Well, surprise – surprise, a young man walks on over and starts talking to Victor about this very subject – no prodding or comments from me at all!

The good news is that this is nothing new! California went through it in the 70s and 80s and now is creating wines with lower alcohol and higher acid content. Now please, understand that I have NOTHING against ripe wines, what I take issue with is over ripe wines. Many of the kosher wineries I love from California are ripe wines, Shirah, Hajdu, even Covenant and Hagafen. Four gates and ripe are a true oxymoron, but he grows his grapes in Santa Cruz mountains! Still, the issue here is that there seems to be a learning curve with fruity wines, they are easy to accept and drink, because they are hard to miss. The bigger, badder, bolder, and fruitier they are – the more obvious they are to the consumers. As consumers improve their palates, they will start to grow tired of high alcohol contents, as they did in California, and I hope the final outcome will replicate itself in Israel very soon.

Another note of importance is that we live in a society and generation of instant gratification – of instant money, value, growth, and outcomes, without even a thought of the issues that are involved. In my personal career, I have lived through this many a time. However, if you want to play that game in the wine world – that will fail epically! Why? Because the turn around time for an idea that a winery wants to implement, is not like just getting a bunch of geeks in India together and whipping out an app! In the wine world, from gestation of an idea to its release to the market, is anywhere from 4 to 7 years! Four years if it involves no vineyard changes, seven or more if a vineyard or a change of location is needed. After that, perfection takes even longer, just ask the French about that!

Now, with that said, I go back to Yarden and Tishbi and others that have been around for a long time and none the less, have found themselves siding with the date drunk public. I state this because the wines of 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 and others in the 90s were very good to epic wines. They were ripe, they were sweet, they were VERY Israeli, and they were great! Why the slow and gradual change to date juice? Are we saying that the public was unhappy with ripe wines and that now they have changed their palate so much that ONLY over ripe wines would sell? That is why I call the answers I stated above to be poppycock! Clearly, Rogov helped Yarden a ton, and with his passing they lost a huge cheerleader, but is the only answer – over ripe fruit? I can assure you that over ripe fruit is not a phenolic or control issue, Yarden and many other date drunk wineries are so technologically advanced – that it would make NASA look like children. This is a clear direction, but why were the wines of the aughts not an option? Why the clear and sudden and deeper commitment to sweeter notes required?

The data does not backup the sudden changes at many wineries, from nice ripe wines to over ripe wines. OK, I think I have beaten this horse to death – and I am sorry in advance for that – but Sommelier 2015 was an eye opener for me. I may be picking on Yarden in this post, but I assure you, I tasted almost every kosher wine there, and the wines listed below are all that I could recommend! So very sad. Every winery that wanted to show its goods, did so by begging me to sit through over ripe, over extracted, inelegant wine after painful and indiscriminate wine, one after the other. They all tasted the same and were the same – wines that I could never recommend.

I truly hope that by highlighting the good wineries, that we will all find a way to force wineries to make better wines. I understand it may take 4 to 7 years, and that cost will be born by us all. My answer to the winemaker that was kind enough to reply to me on Facebook was – all this means is that I will spend my money at wineries that make me happy. I hope you will also do the same!

Wines of note:
I though I would list the wines and wineries of note, beyond the quick list I posted above – so that you have an idea of what wineries were there and where they are on the oenological curve:

Gvaot Winery:

1.    2012 Gvaot Vineyards dance – lovely wine!
2.    2012 Gvaot Pinot Noir, Gofna – rich and luscious and earthy
3.    2012 Gvaot Pinot Noir, Masada – lovely wine, rich and layered and extracted, though to me less typical a Pinot Noir wine than the Gofna
4.    2011 Gvaot Masada – Lovely wine
5.    2012 Gvaot Masada – maybe the best wine ever from the winery
6.    2013 Gvaot Petite Verdot – typical and lovely!
7.    2013 Gvaot Chard/Cabernet – the first ever vintage of this wine that worked for me
8.    2014 Gvaot Rose – thankfully Shivi returned to making actual rose wines, not like last year’s Beaujolais Nouveau – and what a crisp wine it is – BRAVO!

Jezreel Winery:

1.    2013 Jezreel White Blend – a lovely and perfect example of how a wine can be far greater than the sum of its parts
2.    2013 Jezreel Carignan – a nice earthy, meaty wine with focus and power

Ramot Naftaly Winery:

1.    2012 Ramot Naftaly Barbera – thankfully a return of this Italian grape to prominence in the hands of Ramot Naftaly – here is hoping for more solid vintages to come! The wine was blue and bright, not overripe like 2011, and with dusty tannins that bring the whole wine together nicely.

Kishor Winery:

1.    2013 Kishor Syrah – a lovely, ripe, controlled wine that reminded me of Cali Syrahs, with sweet notes, ripe fruit, roasted animal and blueberry galore
2.    2013 Kishor Red Blend – a stunning wine that is a Bordeaux blend and one that excels at its core. Dirt, mineral, graphite, and dark fruits abound.
3.    2012 Kishor Riesling (sweet) – a lovely wine that reminds me of Hagafen’s hit wine series. Ripe, petrol, oily texture, with tropical fruit, honey and spice.

Herzberg Winery:

1.    2011 Herzberg Village – a wine that was made on a dare I placed on my blog begging for well made affordable wines to be produced in Israel. This is not a homerun wine, in terms of QPR, but it is a solid double. At 50 to 60 NIS by the case, the wine has potential. It is a blend that was co-fermented 33% Malbec, 33% Cabernet, 33% Merlot! We need more wines like this than what I tasted at the show

Tabor Winery:

1.    2014 Tabor Roussanne – another solid wine from Tabor
2.    2014 Tabor Riesling (dry) – lovely example of what can be done with a dry Riesling, ripe, tropical, mineral, and spice
3.    2014 Tabor Rose – EPIC! Maybe the second or third best of the show behind Recanati Rose Gris and Gvaot, and maybe not – they are all neck to neck. Pure focus, with crisp bracing notes, mineral and pith. Made from Barbera grapes – this is a MUST buy!

Gush Etzion Winery:

1.    2013 Gush Spring River white blend – a lovely blend of 5 white grapes that bring out many of the varietals qualities – a bit sweet but still quite lovely
2.    2010 Gush Riesling – a lovely 5 year old dry Riesling that tastes as fresh today as it did three years ago, ripe, refreshing, with core acid and mineral

Carmel Winery:

1.    2013 Carmel Riesling, Kayoumi – this is not a new release, but it will be for the US, EPIC and clearly the best kosher Riesling out there. QPR star – buy it and enjoy! Crisp, dry (almost) and purely enjoyable, with clean lines, focus, acid, and minerals galore!
2.    2013 Carmel Admon Vineyard Chardonnay – I had seen this out on the market in Israel, and in many ways it reminded me of the Odem vineyard chardonnay from Yarden – quite lovely. The ripe tart fruit, controlled use of oak, not another oak/butterball bomb. acid core with good brioche and fruit.
3.    2010 Carmel Vineyards Cabernet Franc (Israeli) – This is the second year for the new labels as they replace the appellation series. The CF was the best of the bunch, and this was just for Israeli labels, I have yet to taste the US version.
4.    2011 Carmel Cabernet Sauvignon, Kayoumi (Israeli) – this marks the return of the Kayoumi cab to the market, after taking a break in 2010, the wine is clean and black and richly extracted and a lovely expression of Cab at a reasonable price. This is a wine that will appeal to the date lover (not from over ripe fruit but from the rich extraction) and to the old world wine lover as well – very nice.

Yatir Winery:

1.    2013 Yatir Viognier – sadly this is a wine that is no longer imported to the US, so get some in Israel as I did! Lovely, rich, oily, layered, floral, with pear and honey and summer fruits.
2.    The rest of the yatir wines were the older vintage – but they are all great

Yarden/Gamla:

1.    2009 Yarden Rose Brut – In many ways even better than the 2008, and now this epic wine will be sold in the USA! This vintage shows more red fruit than 2008, but the insane acid is there, with small mousse attack and citrus madness.

2.    2008 Yarden Brut de Brut – The 2008 vintage is more tart and citrus than the epic 2007 vintage and in many ways, it is also better. The 2007 was richer and more hedonistic than the 2008. The 2008 though is rich and layered with beautiful mousse, more red fruit, and a never ending finish. In ways I think this vintage is a bit more elegant than the beast that the 07 was.

3.    2014 Yarden Sauvignon Blanc – Lovely, it tastes more bone dry than the 13, but with more intensity and mineral. Still, the 13 has it beat simply on the acid levels.

4.    It was fun tasting the 11 and 13 Yarden Katzrin Chard side by side, an early tasting from one of the private tastings. The 13 showed richer and smokier notes with more oak and creamy notes. The 11 is more focused, streamlined, tart, and green tea driven. In the end, both will be great. The 11 is ready now, while the 13 needs time for the oak to settle down.

5.    2013 Galil Avivim – the blend is 87% Viognier and 13% Chardonnay. The wine is rich and oily and textured with rich floral notes, honeysuckle, spiced pear, and peach. The mouth is oily and textured with spice, quince, great acid, balanced with green apple brioche, good earth, and more sweet honey notes. The finish is long and spiced with nutmeg, cloves, pith, and bitter notes – lovely

Gros Winery:

1.    The newer 2012 vintages are too ripe for me, but the 2011 was just perfect and nice. The 2011 Gros Cabernet Sauvignon , with 4% Franc, was mineral driven, with black ripe but controlled fruit, showing nice structure, dense and draping tannins, wrapped in elegance.

Recanati Winery:

Recanati continues its impressive run at managing fruit while creating wines that are more acclimated to the country’s warmer climate. Sure, they still make wonderful Cab and Merlot but their true future lies in the Mediterranean series. In the grand scheme of things, I find that even the Yasmin wines have improved, while the base line series (called Diamond in the US), are solid B+ wines. Still, they shine brightest at the next level, in with what is called the Mediterranean series, which now has the crazy Carignan, the new Marselan (starting in 2012), the epic Syrah/Viognier, and the reasonably priced but killer Petite Sirah. They all combine to show that Israel has a future in wines that shows finesse as much as it shows firepower. Of course, there is also the Cab reserve and the Merlot reserve topped with the Fantastic Recanati Special Reserve.

Beyond the known wines of Recanati, there are the unknown wines of Recanati. They make two blends for restaurants, they sell a wine in the UK that is available just there (a PS and Carignan blend) and they made a rose last year that was for sale only in Duty Free. Thankfully they opened that now and the rose gris is available in all of Israel, GET SOME!!! Besides the Barbera only Tabor Rose, this is a made from Marselan – and what a wine it is!

1.    2013 Recanati Marselan, Mediterranean – what a lovely expression of sweet, controlled, cool weather Rhone varietal wine. Ripe and blue with roasted animal, red and blue/black fruit, lovely and rich extraction that wraps the wine is a cocoon of spiced plum, sweet cedar, root beer, chocolate, and spice. Lovely.

2.    2013 Recanati Carignan, Mediterranean – this may well be the best one so far. The 2013 vintage was a blessing after 10,11, and 12 for some people. The 13 was kind to everyone! The wine is layered, extracted, rich, and truly unique. The earth, roasted animal, mineral, and fruit, all come together with crazy extraction, spice, and more dirt! The wine is well balanced with acid, spice, boysenberry jam, leather, and spices galore. BRAVO!

3.    2013 Recanati Petite Sirah, Mediterranean – This is a lovely expression of petite sirah, one of the best so far from Recanati and one of the best so far from Israel for sure. The best kosher expression of this grape, still lies in the hands of Hajdu wines, but it is still a lovely wine. The wine is rich and layered and blue all over, with fantastic fruit structure, extraction, along with floral notes, green notes, and mad mineral. Lovely.

4.    2011 Recanati Blend #5 – this is one of the blends for restaurants, and I can assure you the patrons of those restaurants are very lucky folks. The wine is a blend of 90% Cab and 10% Syrah, with ripe and controlled black fruit, mad fruit structure, intense mouth drying tannins, and graphite that make the Cab’s presence felt. The Syrah is there to add spice and body to the blend – BRAVO!

5.    2014 Recanati Rose – This is the classic blend of Barbera and Merlot, and not my favorite of the two rose wines. It is crisp and clean, but misses a dop of acid to really make it shine. Still a lovely go to rose that is available in the US and Israel.

6.    2013 Recanati Special White Blend #3 – the wine is made of 95% Colombard and 5% Chardonnay – WOW!!!! Please make this available to everyone. To me, I prefer this wine over the white RSR. I have never been a huge fan of the white RSR, to me it lacks the acid and while it is a more polished and professional wine, this wine makes me happy.
The wine is so tart and ripe and pithy that it puts a smile on my face when I tasted it. The wine is lovely with ripe quince, melon, hints of brioche, and vanilla. The mouth is layered and rich with tart fruit, mad spice, honeysuckle, floral notes, and lovely pith. Please make this wine available!! BRAVO!

7.    2014 Recanati Gris de Marselan – this wine may be at the same epic status as the famed 12 Shirah rose and the 13 Hajdu rose. The nose is pure heaven, with mad spice, mineral, kirsch cherry, and quince. The fruit is candied but controlled with mind blowing acidity and mineral that it cuts through anything I was tasting. The pith is searing with the perfectly focused acid, topped by pink candied grapefruit, lemon, gooseberry, candied raspberry, dirt, and more pith. The finish is so tart it is crazy with mineral and earth closing it out! BRAVO!!!! This is a must buy, go out and get a bunch!

Tzora Winery:

Everyone knows my feelings about Tzora, they make wines that do not speak to Israel as much as they speak to Eran and the winery’s desire to create great wines in Israel. They have embraced and truly succeeded at creating wines that speak to the terroir of Israel, without succumbing to the climate of Israel – so special.

They had two wines at advanced tasting – the 2012 Misty hills and 2013 Shoresh red. I did not take great notes of the 13 Shoresh red, but suffice it to say, that it is another home run!

1.    2012 Tzora Misty Hills – what a lovely wine! I think it may be their best ever, and that is truly saying a lot. The wine is ripe and tart and green all at the same time. The wine is elegant but austere, with full bodied attack of dark fruit, along with hints of barnyard, crazy earth, dirt, and mineral, all wrapped in layers of rich extraction, cassis, and dark fruit. The finish is long and green with fruit structure that lingers forever.

Trio Winery:

The 2012 vintage was made under the watchful of Yotam Sharon (his second year there at that time), and you can feel his passion in every sip. The wines are rich and far better than the 2011 vintages, showing more time with the fruit, and better control.

1.    2012 Trio Spirit Of Jerusalem – the blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah shows nicely with fine control of red and black fruit, nice layers of concentrated fruit, good extraction, and sweet oak. The finish is nice ad extracted with good acid, mineral, graphite, blackberry, nutmeg and cinnamon.

2.    2012 Trio of Alona – the 100% Carignan wine is lovely! The nose is rich with roasted meats, crazy dirt and mineral, and more dirt to be sure. The wine is full bodies, extracted, rich, layered, with white fruit, smoked peach, raspberry, currant, mad mouth drying tannins, kirshe cherry, and more earth. The wine is a tannic bomb that needs time, with time the leather, dirt, and roast coffee, and root beer will become more pronounced and the wine will be ready to enjoy –  BRAVO!

Pasco Winery:

I have to be honest here – I really was not sure about these wines. These are clearly wines that will appeal to many folks but to me they are too sweet. With that said, the wines are professional expressions of Israel, and are far more accessible than the 2012 Pasco #1 wine. Some will find these too sweet with date – while others will look past that issue, as it does not dominate the palate, to see the lovely body and structure.

1.    2013 Lewis Pasco #2 – the wine is a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 7% carignan thrown in instead of Petite Sirah like last year. The nose still has lovely blue and black notes, with crazy earth and currants. The mouth is well structured, but sweet to the taste, with date, nice mouth coating tannin, and softer tannins and structure than in 2012, with good elegance, nice extraction, and spice. The finish is long with blue/black fruit and tannins lingering long.

2.    2012 Lewis Pasco Liquidity – you have to love the names that Lewis gives his wines; both cheeky and with a hearty smile – but lovely in all the right ways! The nose is still closed with great spice, more blue and black fruit, perfumed and elegant. The mouth on this full bodied beast is elegant with rich extraction, blackberry, plum, vanilla, dill, plum, cassis, with dates bringing up the rear. The finish was rich and layered with mouth coating tannins, spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, all served along side a cup of steaming roasted coffee and pith. An impressive wine with body and structure, I just wish the fruit was more controlled, but that is me.

Gvaot Winery – Masada vertical:

Shivi was nice to bring a vertical of Masada wines; the 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011 (that was at the tasting), and the 12 (which was behind the table).

1.    2006 Gvaot Masada – The 2006 was the craziest of the bunch – by far! The wine is pure mineral, herb, green, and gnarley, with raspberry, and lovely basil. The mouth is full bodied with clear barnyard, red fruit, intense extraction, tannins that go forever, mixed with blackberry, plum, and sweet oak. The finish is never ending with tannins that do not give up, graphite, saline, slate, spice, all accentuated with green notes, and fresh tarty fuit. CRAZY! BRAVO! WOW! One of the best wines I have tasted from Israel, not at all an Israeli wine.

2.    2007 Gvaot Masada – the 2007 vintage is at its end, a wine that structure wise will keep going, but fruit wise is already too sweet for me and ripe all over. The wine is still lovely, if you can get to it in the next 8 months or so. Crazy black fruit is all over this wine, blackberry, cassis, black spiced candied plum, with notes of oxidation, balanced with nice barnyard, anise, Asian spices, and sweet fruit. The secondary wine notes are now showing with leather candied fruits, and mad spices. Enjoy!

3.    2009 Gvaot Masada – the 2009 vintage is clearly the ripest of the bunch, but also the closest vintage to the 2006. It is the perfect blend of mineral, ripe fruit, dirt, earth, madness, and the starting notes of barnyard. The blackberry, mad extraction, ripe plum, sweet herb, and fruit structure show a wine with elegance and brawn at the same time. The finish is super long and extracted with layers upon layers of earth, ripe red and black fruit, and lovely leather – BRAVO!!!

Dalton Winery:

Dalton seems to have had issues with the 12 vintage. Many of the wines show clear leanings towards date and over ripe fruit. Some of the higher end wines are controlled, but some of the Alma series and the D series is moving in that direction – from the 12 vintage anyway. I hope this was a one time blip. We had a lovely 13 Zinfandel at the winery, that was well controlled, so I hope 12 was one of those vintages….

1.    2012 Dalton Alma Cab/Shiraz – the wine is simple enough, clean and well made with blue and black fruit on the nose with mineral on the side. The wine is medium bodied with layers of spice, searing tannin, graphite, nutmeg, and saline. The finish is long with blackberry, blueberry, and spice. NICE!

2.    2012 Dalton Alma Cab/Merlot – BRAVO! this is what typifies Alma to me. The wine that is so Bordeaux, reasonably priced, and lovely! The nose is pure mineral, graphite, and earth. The mouth shows a medium plus body with rich fruit, nice structure, roasted herb, all in full control with tannins to spare. The finish is long and layered with blackberry, cassis, raspberry, all wrapped in leather and more mineral – BRAVO!

3.    2013 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Reserve – the nose and mouth on this wine is pure gooseberry, herb, green notes, and forest foliage. This continues in the medium bodied mouth with quince, guava, crazy pink grapefruit, tart apple, lovely citrus, and lime. The mineral and saline close it out with pith on the rise – BRAVO!!

Binyamina Winery:

I tried all the wines and to me they were all over ripe and typical to my rant. However, the 2010 Cave was nice. Not a wine that is worth the price, but still nice.

1.    2010 Binyamina Cave – Here is a wine that while showing hints of date, is still a nice expression of Bordeaux wine in Israel. The nose shows herb, mineral, and earth. The mouth is controlled, but pushed to the edge, with hints of over ripe fruit, green notes, lovely fruit structure, plum, cherry, currant, cloves, and mouth coating tannin, wrapped in an elegant package. The finish is long with herbal notes, pomegranate, and hints of date on a long spicy finish.

Mia Luce Winery:

Personally, this was my surprise of the entire event for sure, and maybe the best wine I tasted at the event, and it is clearly the best Carignan out of Israel so far. The wine is made by Kobi Arviv, the other associate wine maker at Recanati Winery. Both associate wine makers at Recanati, Ido Lewinsohn and Kobi make wine at home, but Kobi’s winery; Mia Luce is kosher! Mia Luce means my “My light”, loosely translated it means my life/meaning. Kobi is passionate about his craft and it shows in his wine for sure! I sat down with him near the winery, and spoke about what wine means to him and what he wants from it. He started it because his family loves wine, a love that was instilled into him at a young age. He was part of the first class to graduate from Tel Chai College, and he has been making wine since the 2009 vintage!
In 2009 he made wine using the Carignan grapes from the same vineyard that Recanati makes it from, the Wild Carignan vineyard on the Judean Hills. In 2009 he also made an almost pure Merlot wine from the Judean Hills as well. In 2010 he returned to only the Carignan, same in 2011 and 2012. In 2012 he also made a white blend wine, called Bianco, that is 93% Colombard and 7% Chardonnay. I bought all the bottles I could and will post on them when they settle down here in the US.

1.    2012 Mia Luce Rosso – to me this wine has a bit more mineral, spice, saline, and hedonism than the Recanati Carignan, but they are both lovely wines! this wine is a blend of 97% carignan and 3% syrah. This wine starts off with rich charcoal, mineral, earth, and dirt, followed by roasted animal notes, tar, and blackberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, black, and intense, layers of black fruit, extracted with crazy coffee, intense black olives, bb, black currants, and cassis. The finish is super long with mounds of mineral, saline, tannins coating the mouth with spice, green notes, and and leather. BRAVO!

Eyal Winery

The last winery I tasted wine at was Eyal Winery – a winery I see posting all over Facebook, but one I never have visited in person. The winery is family owned and Eyal has been making kosher wine from his family’s vineyards since 2009. He makes some Carignan, but that was not at Sommelier, or it was “further under the table” than I could reach! Either way, of the wines I tasted – two stood out, a white and a red. The wines are very ripe, which is not my cup of tea, but one red worked nicely.

1.    2013 Eyal Gewurtztraminer – this is a nice semi-dry wine with rich tropical notes that work well together. Guava, lemon, melon, jasmine, and hints of soap make for a lovely perfumed nose. The mouth is rich, textured, and almost oily with more crazy floral notes, honeysuckle, honeyed fruit, and spiced peach. The finish was long and mineral with slate and residual sweetness – nice!

2.    2012 Eyal Shani – this is a blend of 40% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Shiraz. The nose is controlled, mineral, spice, and trat fruit. The mouth is controlled, with good acid, nice medium plus body, with sweet fruit, blueberry, herb and spice. The finish is long with nice tannins, spices, leather, and sweet tea.

This past weekend was the 16th anniversary of OTBN (Open That Bottle Night), and what a party we had. I originally posted that we would get to the nine bottles of wine, well we did but not those nine! Benyo brought over a bottle of the famous 2003 Syrah and a friend brought over a bottle of his own concoction, and so the Ella Valley and Katrzin will have to wait for another week.

Kiddish was made over my friend’s Quail Lodge Cabernet Franc, which was super smooth and fruity. After that we had some awesome whole wheat Challah, that my wife makes, and then on to some very nice olive and bean soup. The soup never ceases to amaze me, I love how the kalamata olives dominate the flavor profile, while the beans add the heft and body to the dish, really fun.

Wine wise, things started off with a bang! The 2006 RSR was my last bottle – but this wine has another two to three years left in the tank easily! WOW! What a great wine that is. The layers are rich, dense, almost fleshy with rich mineral and earth – truly extraordinary! The 07 Yatir Shiraz was nice, but it really showed its colors the next day. The Netofa Latour red, was insane, a lovely black and blue wine – so old world in style that it was shocking that it was made in Israel.

At this point we brought out the Beef Bourguignon, which if you follow the official recipe is not very kosher at all :-) Now, to be fair, the original video of the recipe did not call for bacon at all, instead she browned the meat in olive oil, in the video above. Still, the book has the bacon and so it has become the “law”. Since, our Jewish law does not allow for either bacon or the butter (no milk and meat), I was stuck with modifying the recipe to my liking. Instead of bacon I used Meal-mart Beef Fry and instead of butter and flour to thicken, I used chicken fat and flour. In the end, it was definitely not the fat free or healthy diet food of the 20th century, but we did serve a lot of wine with it – so if the 60 minutes episode about the French Paradox has any truth, we will all be alive to write about it!

This was my recipe for kosher Beef Bourguignon:

Ingredients

• 1 pound of meal mart beef fry (2 packages), chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 pounds of chuck eye roast cut into approximately 2″ chunks
• 4 carrots, sliced into large chucks
• 3 onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon pepper
• 8 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups full-bodied red wine
• 3 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme

For the small onions

• 4 bag frozen white pearl onions, defrosted and patted dry
• 4 tablespoons chicken fat
• Salt and pepper

For the mushrooms

• 3 pound mushrooms, quartered
• 6 tablespoons chicken fat
• Salt and pepper

Follow Julia’s recipe – but use the ingredients listed above!

For the non meat eaters, we made the onions and the mushrooms without any animal fats, along with roasted potatoes, and roasted vegetables. For side dishes, we went with rice and a fresh green salad for all.

At this point the wines went California very quickly, and with it a few complications. The Power to the People wine had no issues at all, it showed exactly like it did two years ago and before! I could not believe that the sweet apricot and peach from the Viognier was still front and center to start! Soon enough the blue and black fruit took center stage and what a joy that wine was! The bottle emptied quickly. The next was the 2010 Brobdingnagian Petite Sirah, and wow were we WRONG! We opened the wine and it was closed, a few hours later the wine was still closed. So by the time we served it that night the wine was nowhere. However, the next day the wine started to open and 36 hours after opening the wine was at peak!!! Are you KIDDING ME!!!

To be fair, I had stated that the PS in the kosher wine world was not for long storing and that it should be drunk within 5 years. However, the Hajdu/Brobdingnagian PS from 2010 is clearly NOT a wine to be trifled with! I was concerned for nothing and shocked by how closed the wine really was! Sadly, none of my guests had the chance to taste the massive beast! This wine was beyond anything I had imagined when I opened it and what a joy it was to enjoy two days later. I was so happy that my custom of saving wine to taste the next day worked out so well for me in this case. Also, to be fair, Lowell Jacobson of psychospath and a poster on the Rogov forum before his passing, did warn us that some PS need 36 hours of air – and he was 100% RIGHT! Thanks Lowell!

The next wine was the 2003 Four Gates Syrah, the classic first and best Syrah that four gates has ever made.  The wine was as rich as ever and not showing any deterioration. The bottle was a shiner, a non publicly sold bottle, without a label. When it was opened it had a bit of effervescence, but that blew off quickly and the wine shone beautifully. Sadly, by the time I could get to the bottle, it was empty, so I could not retaste it the next day.

The last two bottles – were the 2008 and 2006 Single vineyard Yarden wines. As I stated in my OTBN article, these wines are the last of the great wines from Yarden, before they decided to go the way of over ripe fruit. Sadly, the 2006 Yarden Merlot, Odem is slowly moving in that direction. I would start drinking those up VERY FAST! The 2008 Yarden Cab, El Rom, is clean and beautiful and showing no dates of any sort. Still, the wine did not shine at that point like I had hoped. The wine did not shine much brighter the next day. I think the wine is asleep right now and that I will revisit it in 6 months.

Well, there you have it – another lovely OTBN – an evening where I get a chance to open some of my better stuff and enjoy it with like minded individuals. Thanks to all my friends for putting up with the food and wine onslaught! Thanks to John and Dottie for the great idea, and hopefully next time we will bat 100%!!!

The wine notes follow below:

2006 Recanati Special Reserve, Galilee – Score: A- to A
The nose starts off with an intoxicating perfume of rich mineral, freshly shaved pencil, black cherry, mad tobacco, spice, and crushed herb. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered but elegant with now softening integrated tannin that coats and lingers, along with rich concentrated black fruit, that is not forceful but ever present, with sweet cedar, densely packed earth, spice, and herb. The finish is long with chocolate, tobacco, and great play between the tannin, fruit, leather, and herb, each giving way to each other o make for a very enjoyable experience. BRAVO!!!

2007 Yatir Shiraz – Score: A- (and then some)
The wine is rich and layered and lovely in all the right ways. This wine took a LONG time to open. To start it was a blackcurrant bomb that was out of control. With time that passed and the wine opened to a barn full of hay and barnyard notes, rich with dark fruit, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered and deeply extracted with lovely black currants, dark cherry, blackberry, lovely oriental spices, tart currants, raspberry, and sweet cedar. The finish is long with lovely acid and spice, nutmeg, leather, coffee, and tar – lovely!

2010 Domaine Netofa Latour – Score: A- (and more)
The nose on this wine is super and very ripe, with jam like and perfumed boysenberry, spice, ripe black fruit, and nutmeg. The mouth is insane with concentrated jam fruit, wrapped in intense mouth coating tannin, backed by lovely elegance and fortitude, showing lovely blue and black fruit, with spice, loamy fresh dirt, nice acid, along with sweet oak. The finish is long and spicy with root beer, watermelon, black tea, and spice – LOVELY!! The wine is so old world in style while being new world in reality, that people were split on the table. Some loved it and some were not sure. The wine is great – said it then and a day later as well – BRAVO!!!

2009 Shirah Syrah Power to the People – Score: A-
Good news! The wine is showing very much like it did a few years ago. The wine is still ripe and vibrant with rich acid and sweet notes. This is the 2009 edition of the Weiss brother’s micro boutique winery production. Each year, since 2008, the Weiss brothers have produced wine that was generally available to the public. This is the inaugural release for their officially named winery – Shirah (now we can stop using the term Weiss brothers). It is a blend of McGinley Vineyard grapes and Thompson Vineyard grapes, both in Santa Barbara County and both cool weather vineyards. The wine is a blend of the two vineyard’s Syrah grapes and 2% Viognier grape.

Having tasted both parts before tasting the blend – you can see how both parts make up this whole. The nose on this electric purple colored wine starts off with a unique attack of peach, apricot, and lovely violets and other floral hints. These stemming from the 2% Viognier, making one wonder how 2% of any fruit can impact a wine so. This wine is only four years old and still showing it well. As the wine opens more, the peach and apricot leave and the floral notes stand in their stead, both from the Viognier and from the Syrah. The wines from Shirah and the Weiss brothers never cease to amaze me with their sweet and ripe fruit that is also NOT overripe, hot, or overly new-world in style. The nose on this purple colored wine starts with the unique Viognier nose and then moves on to redolent notes of blueberry, black cherry, and blackberry. The mouth on this is rich, layered, and inky with pure and focused fruit, cedar backing, raspberry, sweet berries, and lovely spice that highlights the wine and comes together with mouth coating integrated tannins. The finish is long and spicy with animal notes, graphite, tobacco, and leather all coming together with blueberry, watermelon, and cinnamon lingering nicely.

2010 Brobdingnagian Wines Petite Sirah Eaglepoint Ranch – Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple colored wine is hopping with mad blackberry, freshly crushed blueberry, freshly made raspberry tea, and rich spices. The mouth of this full bodied wine is finally coming out after 24 hours! The wine was not ready to play at the tasting – when we opened it, but now 24 hours later it is really shining well.

The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with black cherry, ripe plum, blueberry, boysenberry, and layers upon layers of intense searing tannin, concentrated and extracted! This is crazy wine with root beer commanding the mid palate, searing acid, lovely spices, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and bright with tart blueberry, searing tannin, chocolate, vanilla, watermelon, and lovely sweet spices – BRAVO!!! With even more air, 2 days later, the extraction now commands the palate and the sweet fruit, blue and black are balancing with still searing tannins and great sweet chocolate on the long finish – WOW!!!

2003 Four Gates Syrah Rare & Reserve Single Barrel Webb Family Vineyard – Score: A- to A
This was the first Syrah that Four Gates Winery has ever released, and maybe the best one so far. The wine is clearly in drink NOW mode, but still showing very well. The wine starts off as black as the night with lovely blackberry, black plum, blueberry, smoky notes, and graphite. The mouth on this full bodied and rich wine starts off with layers upon layers of concentrated black and blue fruit, blackcurrant, raspberry, good oak extraction, green bell pepper, lovely green notes, and lovely cedar that is now coming together into a lovely mouth coating and round wine. The finish is long and balanced with spoons of spice, cloves, black pepper, baker’s chocolate, and tobacco, on a bed of ripe black and blue fruit. The fruit is not as sweet as the Weiss and Brob wines, but rather the wine is more Rhone in style with mineral, oak extraction, leather, black pepper, and baker’s spices.

2006 Golan Heights Winery Merlot Yarden Odem Vineyard – Score: A-
This is the first single vineyard Merlot from the Odem Vineyard. This vineyard is tended to organically, but the word Organic is nowhere on the label as there are sulfites added. The last time we had this bottle the first thing that hit you was the massive amount of menthol and spice that there was. This time the menthol and herb was under control, and it was accompanied by candied plum, nice chocolate, blackberry, eucalyptus/menthol aromas, and black cherry. I must say that the wine is turning sweet and starting to show candied fruits. So, I would start drinking up if u dislike dates like I do. The mouth is richly extracted and needs an hour to open with massive and inky with mouth coating tannin, layer upon layer of spice and herb, black fruit that is focused and concentrated, sweet candied raspberry, and sweet cedar that is integrating and rich in the mouth. The finish is super long and spicy with lovely tobacco, chocolate, blackcurrant, orange rind and loamy dirt. Over time the wine opens further and shows layers of butterscotch and creamy vanilla.

2008 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon, El Rom Vineyard – Score: A- (and then some)
I was hoping for so much more from this – please do not think I did not like this – but I did not love it. I am sure it was a bad day for me or the wine, and I will keep trying them over the coming years, as I have more. The nose is super ripe and rich with dark fruit, sweet cedar, oriental spices, and rich tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is brooding and rich, and I think asleep right now, with massive layers of concentrated fruit, blackberry, black plum, ripe and controlled and not a date to be found, with sweet vanilla, dark rich chocolate, and mad toasted wood all around, backed by searing tannins and light extraction. The finish is long and sweet with more cafe mocha, rich chocolate goodness that lingers very long!

Back In March I had the opportunity to spend some time in NYC and hang with some friends. It was three days of wine tasting in foodie heaven and I wanted to post about the wines and the food, because some of it was just spectacular! It all started on a Monday night after the very average City Winery event, I made my way to SB and DF’s home and continued the wine tasting there. Sadly, I seemed to have misplaced my notes for two of the wines; namely the 2007 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Vineyard Choice and the 2004 Ella Valley RR, Vineyard’s Choice. The RR, if I remember correctly was all over the place and on the other side already in puppy heaven. The 2007 VC Cab was rocking, with rich layers and lovely barnyard, but for some reason I do not have the notes, no idea why! Of what I do remember the 2007 Cab VC was very old world in style with barnyard and lovely dirt and mushroom notes, with blackberry and plum, lovely! The 2007 Carmel Kayoumi Shiraz started off OK, but went all over the place quickly and went into blackcurrant madness and lost all balance, sadly. The 2004 Castel C was DOA, not fun at all. In the end, the first night was ruled by the epic 2007 Hagafen Late disgorged Brut and the 2007 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Vineyard Choice.

After that, it was off to bed, as we had a long day ahead. I woke up pretty much on time the next day, and we were off to see a wine store in the area, where I picked up a few bottles for the next few nights festivities and then it was back to the house to enjoy bubbly and some insane meat along with two wicked red wines; the 2005 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2003 Malartic Lagraviere, Pessac-Leognan. Both were insane, but the Malartic is an entirely different world wine, with filthy layers of fruit, tannin, and barnyard – madness!!! Still, the 2005 Yatir Cabernet (their first varietal cab) was really impressive and had no flaws.

The next day I jumped on a bus and made my way to Brooklyn where I hung out with friends of ours, and for dinner I made my way to YC’s house, where a crazy dinner was being setup. By the time I arrived, YC and YB were going mano-a-mano, side by side, with varying types beef tartare, and rib roasts, while YB handled the burgers exclusively. Humorously, looking back at the dinner it really turned out to be an entire night of uncooked fish and beef tartare – really! When I arrived I was famished so we ordered in a LOT of Sushi for the guests who were already arriving, while the two cavemen “prepared” the meat, there really was no cooking going on here! Once we had inhaled the sushi (or most of it) and were accepting of a time-out, I ripped through a few of the white and bubbly wines described below, for note purposes only (they were not that enjoyable) and then we were ready for the serious food, cooked or not! On a total aside, the sushi came from an establishment called Five day sushi! Now, I am not into marketing, seriously, but who the heck came up with that name?? Do you think anyone who looks at that name, would care that fish were created on the fifth day of creation?? NOT ME!! All people looking at that name, for the most part, will think they sell sushi that is five days old, how safe or appetizing do they think that sounds?? With that said, the sushi was great, albeit the horrific name.

The meat evening started with two courses – one made each by YC and YB – of beef tartare, YC’s was more Dijon mustardy and spice, while YB’s had smoked tongue rilletes, oil, and lots of herb – if I remember correctly. From there they went to rib eye two ways, which was essentially raw meat with a  slight sear – LOL!!! Actually, YB brought this sick looking chunk of meat and that went on the girl for about 30 seconds, maybe a drop more! The inside was still moving and blue while the outside was well seared, as I said raw meat night! Next, there were burgers, of which I cannot remember, but again it was well seared raw beef patties, really beef tartare but in a ufo shape! Finally, YC brought out a huge chunk of rib eye meat (AKA roast) and I grabbed the bone, and finally there was actual cooked meat! However, to be honest, by then I was cooked, I was not spitting much and the raw meat was fermenting in my stomach and I was out for the count.

While the food was lovely, and equally beautiful to look at, the true stars of the evening were the wines. I started with a bottle of Rambam Prosecco, which was drinkable, I spat that one! The next was another white wine, a bottle of 2012 Giersberger Riesling, and it was nice enough, clearly the best of the lineup they bring to the US, but a B+ at best. Next we moved to the 2007 Yarden Pinot Noir, and while it is nice, it is nowhere near the epic 2008 PN. The 2007 was a solid B+ wine that is in drink up mode. Next was the 2012 Hajdu Cabernet Franc, which is a lovely wine, but it is starting to show a bit more ripe than I remember last, and while it is not flawed it did not show well that night. That was followed by two wines that are clearly lightning rods for me. I posted before about the two new Lewis Pasco wines, and while they are clearly ripe, some do not think they are over the top. To me, they have power but they are unbalanced and not wines I would stock up on. The 2012 – project #1 is going sweet, so watch out. The Liquidity 2012 is sadly over the top, and when I had it in 2013, from barrel, at sommelier it was beautiful. When I had it in 2014, from bottle, at sommelier – I posted that I thought they were over the top. I wanted to get a bottle here in the USA and get a chance to sit down with them and taste them over a dinner or more, and sadly after doing so, my opinion of them is worse than it was in Israel. Yes, I am in the minority, and I have no issue with that. I find them rich and extracted and unctuous, but also too ripe, unbalanced, and date like. I understand this will not be accepted well by many, but these are my notes, for my tracking, and do with them as you see fit.

From this point it went straight up and flat-out insane, with a bottle of a Napa wine that is not to be spoken about (no names), crazy rich and unctuous wine with layers of rich mineral, blackberry, cassis, insane extraction, and graphite that does not stop, a crazy wine which is a once in a lifetime wine. Next was the 2007 Mirvis Creek blend, which was the same fruit that Four gates used to make the 2005 Four Gates Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2007 version of the Mirvis Creek wine was better than the 2005, a solid wine, but nowhere in the same planet as the Napa wine or the next wines. Next came the 2006 Falesco Marciliano – MADNESS in a bottle! YC invited a few guests and one of them asked what we would like, I begged for some Falesco and this was the reward! WOW! The Falesco versus the Napa, the Napa wins, but sheerly from its aggressive and in your face style. If finesse, elegance is what you are looking for with a lovely balance of power, then the Falesco is your winner. Either way you would not be unhappy, If you are looking for a winner when two epic wines are on the table, just look at what gets finished first, when there is unencumbered and unfettered access to both bottles – winner: Falesco by a mile. Maybe the roughness and graphite mineral attack of the Napa wine was too much, but either way they were winners!

It did not stop there, next was the 2006 Ella Valley Merlot – epic! A lovely barnyard and mushroom heaven with black fruit, green notes, and mad funk. It is lovely to see a properly stored and well made wine evolve, and this is a perfect example of that! I wish Israel still made wines like they used to! Next was a 2003 Carmel Kayoumi Shiraz, and here it showed much better than the 2007 I had two nights before. Here the wine was perfectly balanced with rich age, barnyard, funk, and balanced beautifully with blackberry, plum, and raspberry – very impressive wine. My many thanks to YC and YB for hosting and serving up a plethora of good food and wine. Then it was back home to get some sleep and get ready for another day of food and wine.

The next day I took my time getting up and out, and made my way to Five Day Sushi for lunch, and I must say they were once again solid sushi. After that I walked back to where I was staying, packed up my things and made my way to the next and last wine and food event, in Manhattan, with food made once again by YC. The wines were quite impressive, with a list of old french and Cali wines, with only one Israeli date wine to speak about, and the rest were rocking, except for a corked wine that sadly was the epic 2003 Covenant Cabernet, but that is what you get with cork, Russian roulette with great wines!

Food wise, the event was really about the wine, with some wonderful food interspersed into the festivities. To be fair, I do not think the wines and dishes were throughly thought out in advance, though many worked well. This event is more about enjoying lots of wine, and getting YC to serve his food!

1) The party started with gribenes, which while I tasted one piece, I left the rest for the other guests! This dish was paired with 2001 Haut Condisas.

2) The next dish was Chicken and waffles, and as the affable donkey in Shrek said (though some 12 hours off), “and then in the morning I’m making waffles”! – who does not love waffles! Throw in some deep fried animal protein and we have a winner! Not the winner of the night mind you, but a very solid dish indeed! Wine was the pairing was a nice bottle of 2000 Sarget De Gruaud-Larose. It was nice, but paled in comparison to the epic Haut Condisas.

3) The next dish was Veal Scallopini, which is really fried veal, and while I love veal, this one did not tickle my funny bone, but it was very nice none the less. It was paired with a bottle of 2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon – which was sadly corked. Such a waste of lovely wine, but as stated, there is nothing on e can do about a corked wine (yeah I know about the plastic wrap trick). Sadly it was DOA.

4) The next dish was one of the five winners of the night; Beef Prosciutto, AKA cured and smoked beef rib and it was filthy! Salty, smokey, earthy, with good meaty umami flavor all over! It was paired to perfection with another earthy dirty beast – the 2005 Carmel Limited Edition (Israeli label). Lovely – truly lovely pairing!

5) The next dish was Beef Jerky and it was another of the winners of the night, it worked great for me, I was nibbling on that all night. Wine wise it was paired with a bottle of the 2007 Carmel Limited Edition. The 2007 vintage was supposed to be better than the 2005, but not these bottles.

6) The next dish was Beef lardo, and this did remind me of YB’s beef lardo to some extent, either way it was a lovely dish indeed! It was paired very well with a bottle of 2005 Four Gates Syrah.

7) The next dish was another great use of a pot of oil; Pastrami egg rolls! I loved them, but then that is a sickness I have with taking almost any protein and adding a bucket of super hot oil – and you get meat heaven! Add in some flour (or store-bought wrappers – who cares), and you take the meat to another level! Flour, meat, and super heated oil – is all you need to make this grown man happy! Wine wise, it was paired with one of the next super winners of the night; 2005 Hagafen Melange, Prix. It is a crazy rich wine and its elegance can be seen for miles, even if it is mevushal!

8) The next dish was very nice but barely made the top five; shredded beef slider, beef pastramii that was sous vide and would normally go so well with a lovely glass of red wine. Sadly, my glass on this dish was the 2007 Yarden Cab, which was date juice, but hey who is complaining – one glass of date juice versus 10 other impressive wines – I can handle a little date!

9) The next dish was corned chuck eye, which while I like chuck eye meat, this one was just ok for me. It was paired with another of the best wines of the night; the 2008 Yatir Petite Verdot (shmitta). Epic insane wine – BRAVO to Yatir on another smash wine!

10) Finally, the last dish was the best by far, and yes I helped with its peroration by using a blow torch on it, which is like living in meat heaven! Give me 72 hour sous vide beef ribs, throw in a mean smoked BBQ glaze, and then hand me a pyrotechnic device – are you freaking bleeping me! I loved it! I may have gone overboard on a slab or two, but no one seemed to mind! The more sear the better – just joking! The wine it paired with was a perfect match; 2008 Yarden ElRom Cabernet Sauvignon. It was rich and earthy and perfect for the rich and sweet meat that was finger linking good!!

11) Desert was a glass of 2013 Tzora Or which was just fantastic as was the entire evening!

My many thanks to the host and hostess of the event and YC for letting me mess with his food, and to the many people who brought wines they have saved for a long time – to share with us all!

Wines from first events:

2003 Malartic Lagraviere, Pessac-Leognan – Score: A- to A
WOW what a wine, nothing new here, this wine has been crushing it for years. The nose on this wine is dreaming with dark fruit, black cherry, currant, lovely funk. barnyard, mushroom, along with lovely mineral. The mouth on this full bodied wine is richly extracted with layers of lovely dark fruit, wrapped in intense mineral core, rich blackberry, along with more black fruit, still searing tannin, and all buoyed by a wonderful fruit structure. The finish on this wine is ripping with core acid, mouth coating and draping tannins, along with lovely leather, tobacco, intense graphite that scrapes the mouth, and dark bittersweet chocolate. BRAVO!!! This wine has 8 more years ahead of it easily.

2005 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
What a lovely wine – this wine is still screaming with intense tannins and smokey notes – lovely!! This was the first true varietal true Cabernet Sauvignon from Yatir, until then all the Cab was blended into the blend of the Forest. The wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Shiraz. The wine is a solid hit with nice dark fruit, good mineral, blackberry, along with crazy licorice, and nice green notes. The mouth on this full bodied wine is nicely extracted, with blackcurrant, nice tannin, along with rich chocolate, sweet notes, mineral, graphite, and nice green notes. The finish is long and green, with a lovely mineral core, mounds of tobacco, raspberry, herb, and oriental spices – Lovely! Drink UP!!!

Wines from second event:

NV Rambam Prosecco – Score: B to B+ (mevushal)
This wine shows nice yeast, good acid, lemon and medium sized mousse. A nice enough wine and mevushal.

2007 Yarden Pinot Noir – Score: B+
The nose on this wine is classic in nature, showing dark cherry, kirsch, and candy corn. The mouth on this nice medium bodied wine is nice, with sweet notes, bordering on date, with sweet raspberry, candied plum, and mushroom that appears over time. The finish is long with impressive acid, good tannin, sweet cedar, chocolate, and oriental spices. Nice! Drink UP!!!!

2013 Lewis Pasco #2 – Score: B+
I tried the wine again, as I said I would, with bottles bought in NYC, and the best I can say about them is that they are still in your face, but man are they sweet and ripe. This wine is a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 7% carignan thrown in instead of Petite Sirah like last year. The nose on the wine is ripe, with blue and black notes, nice green notes, along with earth, and red fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine has a nice fruit structure, but it really has gone sweet, really sweet, with super sweet black fruit that dominates, nice mouth coating tannin, with nice spices and herb. The finish is long and tannic with a softer side than the 2012, but not close to the elegance or control that the 2012 shows.

2012 Lewis Pasco Cabernet Sauvignon, Liquidity – Score: B++
I tried the wine again, as I said I would, with bottles bought in NYC, and the best I can say about them is that they are still in your face, but man are they sweet and ripe. The nose starts closed, but opens to show anise, roster herb, blue and black fruit, along with toasty oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine is very much in your face, with clear date and ripe fruit leanings, along with wild mouth coating tannin, richly extracted with blackberry, plum, cassis, date, and green notes. The finish is long and spicy with nutmeg, cinnamon, roasted coffee, and tar.

2007 Mirvis Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, Cuvée Yitz, Rowe – Score: B++
The wine is a classic mineral bomb wine with the mineral sticking out, but it has now calmed down and is integrating well. The nose starts off a bit closed, but with time it opens to brooding black fruit, candied plum, mounds of mineral, graphite, slate, and loamy dirt. The mouth on the medium to full bodied wine shows clear rich mouth coating tannin, along with raspberry, blackberry, cassis, and the barest of blueberry ribbons, along with nice oak, intense mineral, graphite, herb, and green notes. The finish is long and lasting with more mineral, nutmeg, leather, coffee, chocolate, black pepper, and eucalyptus. This is a nice wine that is a younger brother to the 2005 Four Gates Napa Cabernet that was created from the same grapes.

2006 Falesco Marciliano – Score: A- to A
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, from the Umbria district in Italy. What can I say, I have been craving this wine for a long time, and when YC said a friend could bring it over to share during the evening’s festivities, I begged for this bottle. This was the best wine of the evening or the second depending on what you defined as best. This was the only wine that was 100% empty at the end of the night, but from a perspective of pure power, the Napa wine was a bit more in your face. From a perspective of elegance or complexity, this was the best of the night. Either way it was a true treat and one I hope to be able to enjoy again one day!

The nose on this fantastic wine is redolent with lovely mushroom, loamy dirt, and hints of brett, with crazy earth, forest floor, strawberry, and raspberry. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is balanced with intense acid, lovely funk, barnyard notes, along with spice, lovely tobacco, wrapped in crazy mouth drying tannin, along with layers upon layers of concentrated dark fruit, blackberry, plum, lovely green notes, rich mineral, with more forest floor. The finish is perfectly balanced balanced with mad mineral, cloves, more tilled earth, intense spices, chocolate, and tannin that rises long. BRAVO!!!!!!

2006 Ella Valley Merlot – Score: A- (and more)
What a beautiful wine, showing lovely age with grace and elegance! The nose on this wine shows beautiful dirt, earthy goodness, mushroom, and mounds of barnyard, lovely! The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and nicely extracted with mouth coating tannin, more mushroom, dirt, green notes, along with sweet herb, crazy sweet tannins, along with searing acid, blackberry, plum, and more black fruit. The finish is long with green notes, funk, lovely graphite, mineral, and earth. The wine is proof that great wines can and have been created in Israel, if care is there. What a lovely elegant wine indeed – BRAVO To Doron!!!!!

2003 Carmel Shiraz, Kayoumi Vineyard – Score: A-
Another old Israeli wine that keeps on giving – how we miss you. The nose on this wine is lovely with ripe blackberry, dark plum, lovely funk, mushroom, smoke, and roasted meat. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with more mushroom, leather, earth, impressive tannin, dirt, and spices galore. The finish is long and rich with layers of boysenberry, blackberry, and earth, with lovely coffee, licorice, and sweet notes lingering long. Bravo!!!

Wines from third event:

2001 Haut Condissas, Prestige Medoc – Score: A- (and then some)
Well, if this was not the winner of the night, it was in the top three for sure, but it had stiff competition. The nose on this lovely wine is redolent with lovely black tea, rich and crazy barnyard notes, dirt, and black fruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is richly layered and elegant with rich dirt, blackberry, currant, dark cherry, along with green notes, and lovely mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and rich with more earth, good bracing acid, lovely mineral, graphite, coffee, and leather – BRAVO!!!! Another three years or so, but at peak.

2000 Sarget De Gruaud-Larose – Score: A-
This wine was once but clearly showing its age and on the way down. The nose on this wine is lovely with mad mushroom, barnyard, and intense dirt. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is nice with rich dirt, nice tannin structure, along with sweet herb, more barnyard funk, blackberry, plum, cherry, balanced well with rich mouth coating layers mushroom and acid. The finish is long and acidic with more dirt, green notes, lovely mineral, coffee, anise, and rich vanilla. Bravo! Drink UP!!!!

2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: NA
Sadly this epic win was corked.

2005 Carmel Limited Edition (Israeli label) – Score: A- (and more)
What a lovely and dirty wine this is. The wine is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Petit Verdot, 15% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine explodes with dark fruit, lovely blackberry, dark plum, and anise. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with mushroom, mouth coating tannin, lovely mushroom, all accentuated by an impressive fruit structure of black fruit, raspberry, and cassis. The finish is long and mineral based with lovely supple tannins, chocolate, leather, lovely sweet tobacco, mineral, fresh coffee, vanilla, and oriental spice. Bravo!! Drink Now!!!

2007 Carmel Limited Edition – Score: A-
This was another lovely wine, but the 2005 vintage was better, whether that was bottle variation, storage, or the vintage, I am not sure, but this wine had clear date and over ripe leanings. This wine is a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Petit Verdot, and 5% each of Merlot and Malbec, and 2% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine showed date, blackcurrant, lovely dirt, and nice mushroom notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has good structure, with a plush and supple mouthfeel, wrapping plum, blackberry, dark cherry, lovely mineral, and balanced well with good acid, but the sweet notes do come through. The finish is long and herbal with roasted herb, spice, and more mushroom and barnyard on the long finish – Very Nice! Drink UP!!!!

2005 Four Gates Syrah – Score: A-
The nose on this black colored wine filled with tar, chocolate, black pepper, licorice, alcohol, oak, black plum, blackberry, and thyme.  The mouth of this full bodied and layered wine is filled with mouth coating tannins, black plum, blackberry, and tar.  The mid palate plays off the mouth coating palate with more tannin, acidity, oak, and chocolate. The finish is long and smoky, with tar, black pepper, plum, and acidity.  Drink up!!

2005 Hagafen Melange, Prix – Score: A- to A (and more) (mevushal)
The nose on this Bordeaux blend is insane and lovely with a rich elegant nose showing crazy mineral, menthol, pencil, and herb. WOW What a lovely wine with crazy fruit structure, with still searing tannin, rich fruit with blackberry, and insane acid, that balanced with chocolate, cassis, and raspberry with layers upon layers BRAVO! The finish is long and sweet, yet tart and acidic with lingering tannin, mad spice, chocolate, sweet dill, roasted herb, oregano, and mint.

2008 Yatir Petite Verdot (shmitta) – Score: A- (and then some)
A truly impressive wine from one of the best vintages in recent memory. The wine is a blend of 85% Petit Verdot and 15% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this lovely wine is redolent with crazy earth, dirt, dark fruit, and intense vanilla. The mouth on this full bodied wine is richly extracted with mad hedonism, lovely roasted animal, dirt, blackberry, black fruit, along with roasted herb, and hints of green notes, all supported by rich draping tannin and mad fruit structure. The finish is long and extracted with rich smoke, roasted coffee, mineral, bittersweet chocolate, and lovely sweet cedar. BRAVO!!!!

2008 Yarden ElRom Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A- (and then some)
The last time I had this wine, it was very closed, while this wine was far more open and accessible. The nose on this lovely wine has already started to show mushroom and loamy dirt notes, just like its 8 year older brother, the 2001 elrom. The continues with dark fruit, with rich chocolate, sweet raspberry, and dark plum. The mouth on this full bodied wine is ripe, and richly extracted with layers upon layers of mad dark fruit, blackberry, followed by dirt, some sweet notes, hints of blueberry, lovely sweet spices, along with intense mouth coating tannin that have yet to start to integrate. The finish is long and sweet with blue and black fruit, lovely rich supple leather, licorice, and dried tobacco. Bravo!!!!!

2013 Tzora Or – Score: A- and more
What a lovely wine made from “iced” Gewurtztraminer grapes that were picked late. The nose on this golden elixir is ripe with juicy pineapple, crazy sweet guava, melon, jasmine, floral notes, and an intoxicating perfume of tropical sweet fruits. The mouth on this full bodied assault vehicle is viscous, rich, mouth coating and crazy with an oily texture that coats along with honeyed fruit, honeysuckle, sweet white chocolate, white peach, and candied kiwi. The finish is long and well balanced and all together fantastic, with bracing acid, candied fig, and mineral, stone, and lovely pith – BRAVO!!!

Well, I have posted my year in review, and now I wanted to get to my top wines for 2015. Please beware that I know I missed many wines and that this list does not include wines that I have tasted that are not available on the open market – like older Covenant Wines and the sort.

I wanted to make this post short and sweet – so the criteria are simple I could care less about price, color, or where it was made. All that matters is that it is/was available this year sometime to the public at large and that I tasted it in a reliable environment, not just at a tasting, and that it was scored an A- or higher. Anything less would not be on my list.

On an aside, there continues to be a whole mess of madness around wines notes and scores, even the Jewish Week weighed in on the matter. So, let me explain this really simply – go look at some of my recent blog posts – they talk about some nice enough wines, but wines I would not specifically buy. They have all the nice words and such, which were all true and to the point. But without the final value score, I can tell you a Cabernet is full bodied with good fruit and spice – and you may say cool I want that – but then I would say well, yeah but it was not complex or layered. You could try to reason that out of the words I wrote, because the words complex and layered are missing. However, the simple fact that it was scored a B+ or whatever, would have told you that it is not always a wine worth going after (unless it is the Terrenal or such where it gets a QPR moniker).

My point being that wine notes – without a proper context (AKA a real score) – is like looking at a wedding hall through a slit in the window. Sure you can “see” the hall, but are you really sure you want to get married there? I never scored wines to tell people to listen to my score. I score wines to set the context and to always read the notes to see if that sort of wine works for you!

OK, enough of the darn score rant for the day, back to the matters at hand, being wines of the year. The list is long – get over it. It is a list of wines that I would buy, have bought, and will buy again – simple enough I hope. I did not differentiate by another other criteria or aspect – if it was solid (A- or higher) it made the list. I hope you enjoy!

2013 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah – Score: A- to A
This is the flagship wine of Elvi Wines (though the Herenza Reserva may have a word to say about that) and it is a blend of 50% Carignan, 30% Grenache, and 20% Syrah. Elvi Wines makes 7K of these bottles. The wine was sourced from vines that are 20 to 100 years of age. The nose on this wine is insane and intoxicating with aromas of watermelon, root beer, ripe boysenberry, blueberry, along with chocolate and black fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine hits you with layers of concentrated fruit, with an attack of blue and black fruit, balanced perfectly, showing great elegance, along with mad mineral, graphite, slate, rich and freshly tilled earth, along with deeply concentrated black fruit. The wine is the perfect example of elegance and balance with ripe fruit that flows into a plush mouth made from mouth coating tannin and rich fruit structure. This is truly a wine speaks for itself. The finish is long and intense, showing rich roasted animal, lovely mushroom, and floral notes. With time, the wine shows mad barnyard, mushroom, and even more loamy dirt. Bravo!!!

2010 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja Reserva – Score: A- to A
There are only 4K of these bottles made and each one is a true gift! The wine is closed and slow to open, but with time and a fair amount of decanting, the nose shows of mad soy sauce (like the 2009 Herenza Reserva), chocolate, richly tilled earth, loam, along with crazy mushroom and mad mineral. This wine is the epitome of umami, showing intense layers of umami with white summer fruit, cranberry, craisins, blackberry, pomegranate, and tart cherry in the background with mounds of earth. The finish is intensely long and dirt filled, with  dark chocolate, licorice, blueberry and red fruit. BRAVO!!!!

2012 Chateau Haut Condisas, Medoc – Score: A- (and much more)
The 2011 was very nice, but the 2012 a slight step up. The nose on this wine is rich and redolent with lovely dirt, dark black fruit, barnyard, earth, and mushroom. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, ripe, and in your face with nice chocolate, mad toast, mouth drying tannin, all wrapped in crazy acid, but bigger and riper than the 2011, almost Israeli in nature, but classically French controlled, with blackberry, raspberry, plum, with mineral and graphite. The finish is long and dirty, with hits of herb, along with layers of concentrated fruit, more mad mineral/earth/dirt/mushroom with dried raspberry, and rich garrigue. WOW! BRAVO!

2010 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listric – Medoc – Score: A- (and more) (CRAZY QPR)
This wine is on the list for its insane value and its goto ability above all wines from France for the price! The 2010 was a nice wine – but the 2012 is even better! The nose on this wine is lovely with rich dirt, cherry, crazy tart and juicy raspberry, followed by more dirt and mineral galore. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely and still young but give it time, the acid is impressive along with nice spice, mouth coating tannin that is gripping along with lovely blackberry, cassis in the background, along with crazy mushroom, and layers of fruit and earth and forest floor that come at you and do not give up. The finish is long, with insane acid and more mouth drying tannin, more earth, dirt, tart lingering fruit, and lovely mineral/graphite. The fruit and mineral lingers long – BRAVO!!!!

2012 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin – Score: A- to A
To me this may well be there best Grand Vin, other than the 2008 (which was a Heter Mechira shmitta wine). The nose on this wine is perfumed and intoxicating, a mixed aroma therapy of mad ripe black and red fruit, wrapped in insane dark chocolate, and candied plum. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with intense fruit structure, rich extraction, ripe plum, blackberry, intense saline and charcoal with crazy mineral and currant, all wrapped in searing tannin and so young, with ripe black fruit and draping mouth cotton. The finish is long and crazy rich, with chocolate, more mineral, graphite, and lovely oriental spice! MAD PROPS BRAVO!!

2013 Tzora Shoresh White – Score: A- to A
This wine was the clear winner of the tasting, maybe one of the best whites to be released by ANY Israeli winery. When I last tasted this wine the oak did not dominate the aromas, now the fruit is slightly subsiding on the nose and exploding on the mouth. The nose starts with crazy oak, pink grapefruit, green apple, smoke, flint and vanilla. Wow wow wow what an acid bomb, ripping acid that blows my mind, some of the deepest acid I have ever tasted from an israeli wine, laced with rich quince, mad tart citrus, lovely apple cobbler, hints of brioche that are now showing very well and integrated, candied pineapple, melon, all wrapped in a crazy body balanced and complex and layered – WOW! The finish is long and acidic with rich toast and mad herb, cloves, slate, rock, hint of vanilla, and butter – INSANE!

2012 Gvaot Pinot Noir, Masada – Score: A- to A
This is the first time that Shivi decided to make a Pinot Noir in the Masada label, he thought the wine was that spectacular that it needed to be at the Hero level. The nose on this lovely wine starts off with lovely plum, dark fruit, rich mineral, slate, and more dark fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine is not about ethereal notes – but rather about the in your face kind of characteristics that one would get from an Israeli Pinot Noir. The mouth is full bodied and rich, with layers of fruit, rich extraction, full and mouth coating fruit structure, with a soft but deep body, dark plum, nice spice, earth, dirt, rich mushroom, cherry, and blackberry. The finish is long and rich in layers with more great structure, cloves, mouth coating tannin, all wrapped in sweet but controlled fruit. Impressive!

2013 Carmel Riesling, Single Vineyard, Kayoumi – Score: A- (and more)
This may well be the best Riesling out of Israel. The nose on this lovely wine is crazy, with petrol, rich notes of honeysuckle, dried green tea, and fresh-cut straw. The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is ripping with intense acid, lovely yellow grapefruit, lemon, tart green apple, sweet melon, pear, that flows into crazy mineral, spice, and garrigue. The finish is long and spicy with tart fruit, slate, and hints of bitter almonds.

2009 Yarden Rose Brut – Score: A- to A
In many ways even better than the 2008, and now this epic wine will be sold in the USA! This vintage shows more red fruit than 2008, but the insane acid is there, with mousse of small bubbles and citrus madness. The wine is a blend of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, giving it a pinkish hue.
The nose on this lovely rose colored bubbly is ripe with raspberry, plum, yeast, and spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with lovely structure, along with layers of sweet and tart fruit, pomegranate, candied cherry, grapefruit, lemon, and strawberry, all wrapped in a small focused mousse attack and ripping acid. The finish is long with a clean attack of acid, tart fruit, lemon friache, floral notes, and yeast. BRAVO!!!

2013 Recanati Carignan, Mediterranean – Score: A- (and much more)
What can I say this may well be the best one so far. The 2013 vintage was a blessing after 10,11, and 12 for some people. The 13 was kind to everyone!
The nose on this wine is insane with lovely rich roasted animal, blue and black fruit, spice, with pomegranate, and green notes. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is lovely with extraction, rich fruit, that attack you with rich mineral, spice, all wrapped in a rich body and fruit structure, it is on the edge in its fruit forward approach, but it is controlled with blackberry, cassis, and nice layers. The finish is long and blue with ripe and juicy boysenberry, crazy blueberries, leather, with sweet spices, nutmeg, and sage.

2012 Mia Luce Rosso – Score: A- to A
To me this wine has a bit more mineral, spice, saline, and hedonism than the Recanati Carignan, but they are both lovely wines! this wine is a blend of 97% carignan and 3% syrah. This wine starts off with rich charcoal, mineral, earth, and dirt, followed by roasted animal notes, tar, and blackberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, black, and intense, layers of black fruit, extracted with crazy coffee, intense black olives, bb, black currants, and cassis. The finish is super long with mounds of mineral, saline, tannins coating the mouth with spice, green notes, and leather. BRAVO!

2011 Flam Noble – Score: A- to A
The wine is a blend of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Petit Verdot, 11% Merlot & 11% Cabernet Franc sourced from the best plots of Flam’s Dishon & Ben Zimra vineyards (Upper Galilee) and Mata (Judean Hills). The nose on this wine needs time to open, but with time it shows ripe notes, sweet dill, lovely blueberry, candied plum, crazy graphite, mad roasted bend, rosemary, crazy mineral and earth. Wow what a mouth, full bodied, with rich acid, mineral, saline, black olives, with crazy elegance and rich chocolate and sweet dill that attacks with layer after layer of concentrated and saline driven sweet fruit with mineral that does not give up with raspberry and cherry. The finish is long and saline with tart raspberry and sweet dill and green notes with chocolate that lingers long with leather and oriental spices. Bravo!

2013 Gush Etzion Mourvedre – Score: A- (and more)
This is one of the first pure Mourvedre wines made in Israel and what a joy it was to enjoy it! The nose on this wine is truly lovely! Intense, with a classic cali nose, blueberry, raspberry, floral notes, violet, nutmeg, sweet spices, toast, smoke, and smoked meat. The mouth on this medium bodied wine with rich black olives, crazy earth and dirt, mad sweet spices, cloves, and bleak pepper. The finish was long, spicy, and richly floral juice, toasty herb, with mad kirshe cherry, candied fruit, tar, all lasting long with mineral and saline.

2014 Matar Special Edition – Score: A- (and more)
This is a special wine made for the Derech Hayain wine stores. It is mostly Chardonnay with a bit of Sauvignon Blanc added in. It is crazy because this was tasted blind like all the other wines in this tasting and we thought it was an SB – no way this was a chard! The bit of SB overpowered this wine in a very special manner. This wine has a lovely nose of wet grass, cat’s piss, gooseberry, with citrus and lemon. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is crazy with sick ripping acid, intense crazy citrus pith, nectarines, with rich sweet and tart fruit, it flows into lemon grass, pineapple and tart yellow grapefruit. The finish is long with straw and mineral finish with crazy kiwi lingering. BRAVO!!!

2012 Tzora Misty Hills – Score: A- to A
This wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Syrah. The nose on this wine is filled with ripe fruit but awesome control, with rich elegance, ripe black fruit, nice saline, mad roasted animal, and mineral, with rich green notes. The mouth on this flagship wine is full bodied with crazy saline, mad Kalamata olives, butterscotch, insane acidity and rich attack of layers and mad complexity of blackberry, blueberry, plum, with butterscotch and intense graphite and rich balance and green notes that come together with draping tannin and insane chocolate. Long and spicy and green, with a lovely graphite finish, showing such finesse and elegance, mixed with mad earth and mineral, and balanced with leather and spices.

2011 Teperberg Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve – Score: A- (and more)
The nose on this wine is intoxicating and rich with ripe and fresh fruit, with black and red fruit, cherry, bell pepper, spice, and blackberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and layered with concentrated fruit, black fruit, black plum, searing tannin, along with crazy sweet oak, that lingers long with still not integrated tannin. The finish is long with great balancing acid, spicy notes, along with ribbons of blueberry, leafy tobacco, chocolate, spice, cloves, and black/red fruit lingering long. Bravo this is a fantastic wine!

2011 Yatir Forest – Score: A- to A
This wine is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and 35% Petite Verdot. The wine is a sheer beauty, impressive, what a lovely wine with ripe fruit, but lovely control, showing a lovely intoxicating nose of control, and mineral. The mouth on this full bodied wine shows crazy acid, draping elegant tannin, with nice saline, mineral, dried green notes, with oriental spices, ripe fruit, blackberry, blueberry, with lovely elegance of tannin structure, and extraction all balanced by wicked power and attack. The finish is long, deeply concentrated and lingering, with elegance, chocolate, oriental spice, leather, butterscotch, and vanilla. Bravo!!

2011 Four Gates Frere Robaire – Score: A- to A
The wine gets its name from Benyamin Cantz’s brother – Robert, but the name does bring a smile to my mind when I think of the other meanings. The wine is a blend made up primarily of Merlot and fleshed out with some Cabernet Sauvignon. In comparison to the 2011 cab, which was a slight step back, the 2011 FR is a freak, from its clear Merlot leanings! It may well be the best or a close second to the best of the frere robaire wines.

The nose on this lovely wine is rich with dark plum, ripe strawberry, along with crushed herb, forest floor, and ripe raspberry. Lovely medium to full bodied wine with layers of refined fruit, rich complexity, showing spicy oak with still searing tannin, along with crazy intensity, and extraction, followed by dark fruit, blackberry, intense oriental spices and forest floor. The finish is long and green with nice spice, more mouth coating tannin, green notes, barnyard, and dill, with butterscotch and tea lingering. Bravo!!

2009 Hagafen Melange, Prix – Score: A- (and much more) (mevushal)
What can I say, this is an epic wine, refined and elegant and it is mevushal – crazy! The 2004 vintage was and is legendary, and though each vintage may be a bit behind it, they never disappoint! The nose on this lovely wine is redolent with spice, ripe plum, cassis, crazy anise and dirt. The mouth on this medium bodied Bordeaux blend wine shows lovely finesse, sweet cedar, lovely dark chocolate, with vanilla, dill, crazy mouth coating tannin, all enveloped in an elegant mouth, followed by layers of plum, cherry, and blackcurrant. The finish is long and spicy with more chocolate, dill, expressive layers of spice, nutmeg, and leather followed by vanilla and butterscotch. Long and luscious, and joy. BRAVO!!!!!

2013 Covenant 
Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder Vineyard – Score: A- to A
Personally, this is the best wine so far ever made under the Covenant Cabernet wine label, and its fruit was also sourced from Rudd’s Mount Veeder fruit. The nose on this epic wine shows crazy intense and extracted aromas with mineral, graphite, black cherry, blackberry, and herb. The mouth on this massive and fully extracted wine shows with crazy rich fruit, an inky structure, with layers of concentrated black brooding and intense fruit, currant, cassis, and intense anise with ginger, mineral, graphite, all wrapped in rich dark fruit, along with mouth coating tannin, and rich herb. The finish is long with green notes balanced with crazy ripe fruit, lovely leafy tobacco, dark chocolate, along with pith, intense graphite, bringing imagery to mind of a leather coat with rich cigar smoke. This wine is better than the 2012 vintage, with more extraction and richness, but balanced with ripping acid, herb, pith, anise, and mad mineral. DOUBLE BRAVO!!

2011 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Solomon Lot 70 – Score: A- to A
I can honestly say that Solomon wines seem to have this insane mouth coating and draping quality to them, almost like a velvet robe – very impressive. As we have stated before, the name Solomon comes from Leslie’s Rudd’s Hebrew name (Jeff’s partner in the Covenant Winery) and the number 70 is an ode to the container number in which the wine was fermented in 2008 (the first year of the Covenant Solomon). The number 70 just happened to also be the numerical value of the wine in Hebrew (Yayin)! The 2011 vintage in California was not as hot as many would have hoped, but Jeff waited for the fruit to come to him, and in 2011 he waited till the very last day – when rain would be falling, and picked it as close to its true ripeness as possible. The outcome is quite a wine! The nose on this wine is rich and intoxicating with insane chocolate, green notes, garrigue, intense cranberry, currant, black plum, and spice. The mouth on the full bodied wine is richly extracted, with great concentrated fruit, cassis, and blackberry, along with nice spice, green herb, mushroom, loamy dirt, and inky fruit structure with more black and red fruit, searing acid and tannin, but perfectly balanced with rich mineral and graphite. The finish was long with crazy good chocolate, vanilla, followed by a dollop of citrus zest – quite a nice wine.

2013 Capcanes Peraj Habib, Flor de Primavera – Score: A- (and more)
The wine is a blend of 40% Grenache, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20% Carignan. The nose on this lovely wine is quite jammy with rich toast, lovely currant, garrigue, and nice blackcurrant. The mouth on this full bodied wine is massive and it hits you with layers of concentrated black and red fruit, intense saline, olives, along with intense searing tannin that gives way to creme de cacao, blackberry, cassis, sweet herb, and highlighted by great fruit structure and spice. The finish is long and spicy with cloves, black pepper, leather, followed by mineral and graphite. Bravo!!

2013 Capcanes La Flor del Flor de Primavera, Old Vines Carignan – Score: A- to A
This is the first 100% Carignan wine from Capcanes that is kosher. It comes from vines that are 80 or more years old! They made a wine in 2012 and I blogged about it here, but in the end the bailed on it and dumped it into the Peraj Habib, which is why the 2012 PH was INSANE! The 2013 has followed that – but they saved some for a pure bottling as well.

2012 Hajdu Proprietary Red, Hossfeld Napa – Score: A- (and more)
This is the second year for this lovely wine, and it continues to impress. The 2011 was Howell mountain, this year is the impressive Hossfeld hills of Napa Valley. The percentages of the Bordeaux blend are not told, but the wine is impressive and who cares anyway! The nose on this lovely wine shows off red and black fruit, with great sweet herb and lovely coffee. The mouth on this full bodied wine is elegant and refined, but also aggressive and so Cali, with mad sweet dill, smoking tobacco, along with lovely layers upon layers of rich black and elegant fruit, blackberry, plum, currant, balanced perfectly with rich acid and lovely spice. The finish is long, green, and tart, with forest berry, foliage, crazy searing tannin, rich sweet oak, spice, green notes, chocolate and leather. Impressive!

2013 Shirah Aglianico – Score: A- to A
This wine needs a ton of time to open, it starts off very closed but with 10 hours it will be good. The nose on this wine is crazy with floral notes, ripe blue fruit, raspberry, and juicy strawberry with mad perfume of dirt and sweet spices. This is another Shirah monster wine, another wine from the Weiss brothers that live up to the heritage of crazy big, bold, aggressive Cali wines. SO AWESOME! The mouth on this full bodied wine is a purple/black colored wine with ripe blackberry, crazy acid, followed by mouth scarping tannin and mineral, with graphite followed by layers of juicy boysenberry, strawberry, with sweet tannin, sweet spices, apricots, and juicy fruit that does not stop. The finish is long and mineral with tannin that does not end, with graphite, nutmeg, sweet spices, and sweet basil. WOW What a wine, BRAVO guys!!!

Sorry for the pause in posts – but I was traveling to Israel and now that I am back I hope to keep the posting back to a regular weekly rate. I travelled to Israel for this year’s sommelier – a wine event held in Israel that is normally attended by many of the upcoming and established wineries in Israel and abroad. I also went all around the country to more than 10 wineries and it helped me to get a very good feel for where the kosher Israel wine industry is now and where it is moving to in the next few years – wine wise anyway.

Sommelier

The event was originally marketed towards smaller and mid-sized wineries and distributors for restaurants, wine shops, and hotels to come and see the wineries that are scattered all over Israel in one place! Over time the event has ebbed and flowed and is now more of an event for smaller wineries to really spend their marketing dollars to garner the biggest bang for their buck. My personal fear is that in the coming years, this will fade, and start to get segregated much like it is in the USA. There are already many city oriented wine events, like the Judean Hills wine event and the Binyamina and Tel Aviv events. Add to that the famous Jerusalem wine event for kosher wines before Passover and I fear that things the Sommelier event will start to move away from a fairly well set of distributed and independent wineries to either a set of wineries run under a few select distributors (like HaKerem, Shaked, The Scottish Company, HaGafen) or worse – to a place where only a couple reign supreme. This will all play out – I fear – to the tune of follow the money. Still, the hope is that the need for small players and some medium ones as well to keep a good and well-lit profile – may mean that the event will stay safely away from the vertical plays going on in the USA.

With all that said, I was very impressed by the event overall this year. It was not over the top and almost drunken like last year, when Tabor was doing Mixology with their beautiful wines! Sadly, the wines were not as impressive as the event was overall. This year the event managers were smart enough to NOT lay down a temporary flooring – THANK GOD! For the past few years that temporary flooring reeked of glue and plastic and made smelling wine an almost impossibility around the winery stalls. It forced me to go to open areas smell the wine and come back and forth and so on until I was done tasting that winery’s wines. This year the lack os such “extra” flooring was a true god send!

Further – the wine event this year saw more kosher wineries than ever and the addition of kosher international wineries to boot! Elvi Wines was showing wines imported by Shaal Rubin, under a large heading of The House of International Kosher Wines. Another great example was Eli Gauthier’s Chianti – which was brought in by Mersch Premium Wines. Also, Bokobsa had a stall showing off some solid QPR wines, with only the Champagne, a Merlot based rose, and the Gigondas scoring high. Overall, ignoring the imports for a second, which is a lot of wine, the majority of the wineries at the event were kosher. Actually, the majority of the wineries, again ignoring imports for a second, were micro small to boutique sized wineries, most of them staffed by the winemaker or owner, kosher, and very passionate and personable folks. Of course there were a few mammoth kosher wineries at the show, including Binyamina.

Finally, I must praise the efforts of many wineries in their stalls, Yatir Winery‘s booth looked beautiful as did Netofa’s.

On an aside, Vitkin went kosher in 2015, yes a Shmita year (more on that in a moment) – but the overall news is great!

So, while I believe this was the best executed and run Sommelier that I have gone to yet, the red wines continue to be a serious letdown for me personally. There was a new winery at the event that many thought was good, called Drimia Winery, which used to be called; Shokek Winery. It was established in 2007 in Sussya, which is in the southern Judean Hills. The wines were ok, they did not show serious flaws, but to me I did not see the real tug that people were seeing. In the end, Yatir and Gvaot, two of my favorite wineries did not have blow out years. Yatir was not showing well with its 2011 vintage and Gvaot had some issues with its 2014 Cabernet and blends showing really ripe in comparison to previous vintages. Overall, the wineries that showed the best overall at the event were Elvi and Netofa.

Finally, I must personally thank three wineries for keeping me sane throughout the tasting of all the kosher wines at Somm. Those would be; Bokobsa for the unending supply of Champagne Demoiselle which has impressive palate restorative powers! The next would be its next door neighbor the 2010 Yarden Rose Blanc Brut – OMG that was impressive and its restorative powers were equally up to the task if not better. Finally, Netofa Winery for its usage of 2014 Netofa white – the acid and mineral were also up to the task with restoring my palate!

Netofa showed beautifully in all their wines, with the 2014 whites and 2013 reds showing the best by far. The same can be said for Elvi – another great showing and lovely wines which will be available in most shops throughout Israel. After them, I would place the rest in this order:

Best kosher wineries at Sommelier: Netofa Winery and Elvi Winery. Their reds and whites continue to impress. Netofa did not make wines in 2015, while Elvi of course made wines in 2015 (as shmita is only an Israel restriction).  Hopefully we will start seeing the 2015 whites soon from Elvi!

The rest follow in no significant order:

1) Tura Winery for their; 2014 Chardonnay, 2013 Mountain Peak, and 2014 Pinot Noir
2) Kishor Winery for their; 2014 Kerem Kishor White, 2014 Savant Viognier, and 2014 Kishor GSM
3) Gvaot Winery – really all the wines were nice except for the overly sweet 12 Gofna Cabernet and the 13 Vineyard’s dance. Though the only wines I would have bought on the spot (if that were allowed) was the 2015 dry Gewurtz – that wine is lovely, but it is Shmita, and the 2014 Petit Verdot – that was lovely!
4) The Gush Etzion wines were quite nice, though some were either overly ripe or all over the place. Overall the whites at Gush continue to impress, add in the Pinot Noir (in its second vintage) and the Bordeaux red and you have the list. The 2014 Chard was funky – Semillon funky, but ok. The 2015 Sauvignon Blanc was impressive (shmita) with ripping acid and body. The 2013 Blessed Valley White was equally balanced and acidic. The 2011 Spring River Red (Bordeaux blend) was also nice showing very good balance. The 2013 Pinot Noir was captivating and it was a bottle I bought (at a store in Jeru) to take home. Finally the 2014 Gewurtz and the 2014 Spring River semi-dry wines were also quite nice. Put better, whites and Pinot Noir are showing well at Gush.
5) Bat Shlomo continues to impress with their whites. The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc was one of my favorites from last year and the newly released 2014 Chardonnay is another winner. The reds are not my cup of tea, showing real ripeness that are beyond my abilities to appreciate.
6) Ramot Naftaly is back! The winery has been one of the best purveyors of the lesser known and appreciated varietals – like Petit Verdot, Barbera, and Malbec. The 2013 Malbec is too ripe for me, the 2012 Petit Verdot is showing nicely, along with the 2013 Barbera.
7) Capsouto Whites and Rose. Well I finally got to taste the 2014 Rose and the white again. They are really impressive, unique and off the beaten path of most wineries. That said, the reds were ok, lacking complexity – but a very good first release from such young vineyards.
8) Galil Winery continues to create red wines that hit the LCD (Least Common Denominator) and while they seem to sell well, I cannot get what makes it so liked. That said, the whites were OK, but the 2014 Viognier was nice. The new 2015 Sauvignon Blanc was really ripe and impressive as well.
9) Yarden Winery – Well you know my feelings here in terms of the reds. I tried what was there, enough said. Still, the whites and bubbly continue to impress deeply. The new 2015 Pinot Grigio (shmita) is really nice! The new 2015 (shmita) Gewurtztraminer is almost dry and very lovely as well. Same goes for the new blend 2015 Gamla Viognier/Chardonnay – really nice, both solid A- wines. The 2014 Yarden Katzrin Chardonnay continues its impressive lineage of fruity, brioche driven wine that is rich and layered, lovely! But the star of the show – maybe the entire show was the 2010 Yarden Rose Brut – WOW!!! That was the ultimate palate cleanser and it was mind blowing wine. It is the best of the three vintages so far and will sell out really fast!
10) As stated – Yatir Winery seems to have gone a bit too far this past year in some of the 2010 (PV) and the 2011. I still believe this winery is one of the better ones in Israel, but 2011 was a tough year for me to appreciate across the board. The 2011 vintage of the blend – now called Mount Amasa was too ripe for me, same with the 2011 Syrah. Thankfully the 2011 Cabernet and Forest were lovely. The wine showing the best at the tasting was the newly released 2014 Viognier, as the 2011 Forest was not officially at the tasting – they were pouring some older wines. The new Viognier blew me away! 2014 is the year of the whites – more on that in a bit.
11) Bakobsa had a stand for the first time this year, and they were there pouring some of their lower priced wines. Still, the many roses they poured were all good enough, but two of them – the Club Noir and Perle de Gris Merlot were both very impressive. The best wine at the stand – for the first day was the Champagne Demoisille, very rich and lovely. The next day they had a bottle of a Gigondas, which was very old world, rich and mineral based – simply divine.
12) Recanati – They were not officially there, but Shaked had a stand and their wines were available to taste. The new 2015 Rose de Marselan (shmita) was nice, but not as good as the 2014. I did taste the 2015 Rose from Barbera and Merlot (also shmita) at the winery and that was really nice, the best plain Rose from Reca in a long time. I also tasted the now famous Recanati Marawi, and I liked it. It had the same body and stylings like a Chard but with the nice Semillon funk that I love. Nice.
13) Tzora Winery – if forced I could call them the best winery in Israel, from their sheer track record and impressive wines, though a few are on their tails. The 2014 Judean Hills white was lovely! The 2014 Judean Hills red was equally lovely, ripe, and well balanced.
14) Eyal Winery has once again created some very nice whites – including the 2013 Eyal Blanco a blend of 70% chardonnay and 30% Emerald Riesling. The wine is ripe and sweet with lovely tropical and fruity notes, but well-balanced. The 2014 Eyal Gewurtztraminer is as good as last year’s and maybe better.
15) At the event the Midbar whites did not show well. I had them at home again after the event and before at the winery and they were lovely and true to form. The Chenin Blanc, Viognier, and White 55 were the true winners, with the Southern Whites showing a bit less acid this time.
16) Honorary mentions – the 2015 (shmita) Alexander Winery Rose was quite lovely, ripping acid and lovely body and ripe fruit. The 2014 Ella Valley Chardonnay was also quite nice, nuanced, round, and brioche – excellent.

Israeli Reds continue to push the ripe factor

The wineries at Sommelier that were not to my taste – continue to push the grape – they continue to create red wines that are so unpalatable – that I feared for my taste buds when tasting them. The classic example is the winery that showed their wines at Sommelier for the first time this year – Metzudah. What can say, this is an insanely overripe and fruit forward wine. Some people will like these wines – not me. Still, they sell as do so many others that were at the event.

This is nothing new, I have complained about this from my original post of my Goodbye to such wines. Even now I wonder what it will take to move the needle a bit? Wineries like Recanati talk the talk and walk the walk, for the most part. Tabor Winery – though it makes some ripe wines, is also pushing the discussion in the correct direction. Netofa makes old world wines in a place like Israel, as does Tzora and Castel. Still, the majority of wineries are pushing it hard.

This year – at somm, the wineries were pouring mostly 2012 red wines and some 2013 as well. For the most part, they were painful. Still, I do want to differentiate what I call ripe and what many would call borderline. A perfect example is the 2011 Yatir Syrah. The wine is well balanced – it has lovely acid, and oak is not absurd, but I cannot handle that ripe/raisin wine smell and taste. Others who were at the event with me, AO and others who share my opinion in more balanced and less fruit forward wines had no issue with it. However, once he finished the glass – I asked him to smell the empty glass, with just a remnant of the wine left in it. Then he could smell those notes right away.

I guess, it is a perception issue for me now. Also, people are more and more trying to convince me and others that there are food wines and sipping wines. From a body wise, sure, a heavy wine with lots of alcohol is better enjoyed with food, but I would not drink those wines anyway. When you hear someone say that is a food wine, take notice! Hajdu and Weiss wines are not low on alcohol, but they are balanced wines that are truly enjoyable, and no I would not call them food wines. To me any well made and balanced wine, wines I like to drink, are both food wines and sipping wines. I bought a bottle of the Yatir PV 2009 for dinner and that was so over the top and out there that even with a lovely steak, I could taste those candied and sweet date notes.

Israel has made a conscious choice and only time will tell where it is going – I hope more wineries will follow Tabor, Recanati, Tzora, Netofa, Castel and others listed above and make wines that can be enjoyed before the meal, throughout the meal, and after as well!

Shmita 2015

Well after two world-class vintages in 2001 and 2008, 2015 was a huge letdown. The white and rose are for the most OK, and nice. The white and rose wines are not at the level of 2014 (more on that below), but they are very respectable. The 2015 reds on the other hand is an entirely different subject.

A few things going on here – first of all the weather was perfect through August – looking like yet another blockbuster Shmita vintage. Wet winter, tons of rain and no deep freezing, followed by very moderate spring (making for good bud formations). This was followed by temperate highs and nice cool evenings throughout the summer, except for a few spikes here and there, that was all until August! In August nature took a very dark view on Israel – starting with some of the worst highs in the history of Modern Israel, and power consumption that peaked for an entire week that broke record after record. August continued with crazy heat – but it was early September when all hell broke loose. September saw a return of the epic sand storm – but on biblical proportions in September. Just look at these satellite images – they are crazy!

Overall, the season was not what it was meant to be. The sand storms brought even higher temps, it all unravelled at the end. The funny thing is that – the wineries that pull early, AKA do not produce date juice, were affected far less – like Recanati and Tabor. The ones who pull later or pull from the Galilee – even if they are great wineries – were affected. In some ways it will mean that lower level wines at wineries will have normally better fruit. It will also mean that many wineries will have less of their flagship wines. Of course this is all from what wine makers and wineries have told me so far. Only time will tell to see what really comes out, but agriculturally, it was not a great year.

Clearly the number of vineyards growing grapes this past shmita have gone done, according to many that I spoke with. As the number of haredi jews in Israel continue to grow, along with their desire for better wines, the buying pool for wineries who made wines in 2015 starts to shrink. The hope is that Israeli exports – aside from America which will not import any Shmita wines – will grow to make up the difference. On all my visits I hear that the export, aside from the US, is growing which is great news. Also, the whites and rose sell mostly in Israel just fine – so those will not be a problem for most Israeli wineries. The reds will be interesting, and this will not really appear on their bottom line until a year or more. Time will tell in how wineries will handle this 2015 shmita vintage, but from the lower agricultural success and from the ever shrinking shmita observant wine buyers in Israel.

On a total aside, this shmita had some of the least fertilized and planted farms in the history of the modern state. The number of farmers who did not plant was rather high this past year – and maybe they were lucky. I do not know. Finally another interesting fact was that most wineries in Israel that did make wine in 2015 used heter mechira, which allowed me to taste through all of them this year – better thank you!!!

2013 Year of the reds in Israel

I have had the privilege to taste most of the red 2013 out there, and most of them are not a privilege. Still, of the wineries that I respect – the reds in 2013 are heads and shoulders above the 2012 and 2011 so far. The red wines from netofa in 2012 were impressive – but wait till you read my post of the 2013 reds – crazy! Same goes for Tzora, Castel is a toss up – with 2013 winning by a hair, Flam Winery‘s 2013 is also better. Gvaot and Tura are the exception, but I wonder if the Shomron fruit was not as good as the rest of Israel. Flam gets the best of its fruit from the Galilee, even if it is in the Judean Hills. Recanati 2013 was epic, with the Carignan showing better than the 2012, along with the Cab and Merlot reserves.

Overall, 2013 to me – for wineries I care about showed very well for red wines – with more complexity and fresher red fruit and lovely acid. The 2012 vintages – especially with Netofa and Flam showed more new world than old world. The 2013 wines were like 2011 with deep minerality, dirt, insane acid, while still showing very nice fruit.

Matar was no different – with the Matar reds in 2013 showing less in your face fruit (other than the PV) and more earth and mineral. So far for me the vintage is showing beautifully and when faced with a choice – I would choose 2013 over 2012 on the average. There will always be exceptions, like Tura and Gvaot – for some of its wines, but overall, 2013 is showing to be an exceptional year for reds in Israel.

2014 Year of the whites in Israel

In closing – while white 2015 (shmita) wines for the most part are nice, they do not approach the epic year that was the 2014 whites in Israel. Sadly, 2015 is Shmita and as such the wines will not be exported to the USA, except for Yarden.

The good news is that the USA has lots of the 2014 whites in the country and they are all tasting well. Remember that because 2015 is Shmita, the usual influx of 2015 whites and rose – will not happen. So, we will have to tide ourselves over this year with Israeli 2014, French 2014 and some 2015 later this year, along with Cali rose and whites and a smattering of Spanish and Chilean wines.

Still, to me 2014 was one of the best years for white wine anywhere in the world. It was a truly magical year for Israeli white wines. The vintage was perfect and the resulting wines are all well balanced with very nice acid and lovely minerality throughout. Netofa’s whites in 2013 were nice, but in 2014 they were off the wall, same goes for Tzora, Castel, Matar, Tabor, Gush and on and on and on. The truly amazing fact about 2014 is the balance – not as rich as 2015 (which is a fuller vintage), or 2013 which was far riper. The 2014 vintage is all about balance and impeccable fruit structure followed by acid galore (yes I am sure 90% of it was added) and lovely mineral.

On another side note – I am really interested in yet another concept that I find in SOME wines from Israel, and that is lemon juice. OK, all my friends will be laughing about now, because I crave it in white wine, well not exactly. What I crave is a balance of good acid to fruit, sadly the only way to get that on many wines from Israel is for it to taste like lemon juice. That though is what I am wondering about recently, sure Israel needs to add tartaric acid, the very same component that is derived from grapes themselves, as they are in such a hot climate. My real question is that does it stick out like a sore thumb? Is that the crazy lemon juice I tasted in the 2014 Ella Valley Sauvignon Blanc? That wine was like sucking on a lemon and is that good? It was clearly out of balance, and if you crave acid, maybe you let it slide, but I am seeing that there seems to be acid that registers to me on the finish and acid that I feel in the very front.

I think the more balanced whites I had were balanced throughout and then you felt the hit of acid at the end. The ones that were unbalanced were lemon juice throughout. I am not sure on this one yet, I will keep tasting and see where it takes me. Till then enjoy the 2014 vintage – it is all that we will have for another year (if you do not drink Shmita) and it is better than the Shmita wines I did taste so far.

Finally, the only real exception to the 2015 rule is the insane Gvaot dry-ish Gewurtz – that is a very impressive wine indeed!!

Closing Comments

Well there you have it – I hope you find the 2013 reds and 2014 whites as enjoyable as I did, and keep to my lists of epic whites, rose, and bubbly for 2014 and look for the new list of wines for passover 2016!

It has been a few weeks since I posted my wine notes. I have been posting other ideas, but this was a long time coming. The biggest take away for me was that the 2013 Terrenal Malbec was out, a new Terrenal kosher wine that can be bought at Trader Joe’s and it is mevushal. Sadly, I was not a fan. It is OK, but for me, I will look elsewhere. It is a shame as the non mevushal Terrenal wines from Spain continue to impress!

The other take away from these wines was that the new NV Freixenet Cava Excelencia Kosher Brut was no fun either. The final notes revolve around the return of Lewis Pasco and his wines! Mr. Pasco was the head wine maker at Recanati until 2006. After that he did wine in the US and other places and in 2012 he returned to Israel to work with Hillel Manne of Beit El Winery, and to make his own wines as well! The wines we tasted in early 2012 were nice, but the Pasco wine has really come around with oak and time. The insane Carignan wine of 2012, is not as good as we remembered it from the barrel in the winery, but it is still very nice a clear QPR.

Finally, as I stated when I was at the Tzora Winery, the 2012 Judean Hills is lovely and is a crazy QPR wine. That said, the notes have not changed but the wine needs serious time to open and when it does it shows its blue and black madness. The wine has really just arrived to the US and it seems to be in bottle shock, so either wait a month or two to enjoy, or open it now and decant for at least 2 to 3 hours ahead of time. If it is not black and blue, wait!!!!

So, I hope you enjoy the notes and have a great Shabbos! The notes follow below:

2012 Shirah Rosé – Score: A- (and then some)
WOW What a rose! This wine is 100% rose of Grenache. The nose is bright and tart with crunchy roasted herb, forest floor, garrigue, red fruit, and spice. The mouth is insane on this medium bodied wine, it starts with an attack of red currant, followed by blue fruit, herb, and crazy acid. The finish is long and attacking with mad acidic tart summer fruit, kiwi, candied strawberry, intense slate, mineral, and crazy tart zinberry that lingers forever, long after the wine is gone. The acid is so intense it is awesome and the fruit is ripe and expressive – BRAVO!!!

2012 Tzora Judean Hills – Score: A- (and more) (crazy good QPR)
When I was at the Tzora Winery, the 2012 Judean Hills was showing lovely and was a crazy QPR wine. That said, the notes have not changed but the wine needs serious time to open and when it does it shows its blue and black madness. The wine has really just arrived to the US and it seems to be in bottle shock, so either wait a month or two to enjoy, or open it now and decant for at least 2 to 3 hours ahead of time. If it is not black and blue, wait!!!!

This is a wine that is made of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petite Verdot, Syrah that was fermented and aged in oak, and named for the terroir and vineyard that the wine was sourced from. This was a barrel/tank sample but such a wonderful wine and one very close to bottling that I had to write about it. The nose on this deeply black colored wine is rich with crazy black fruit, along with ripe blueberry, blackberry, along with deep mineral notes, roasted animal, and nice floral notes with slate. The mouth on this lovely full bodied and elegant wine shows far more control than the 2011 vintage, with great control and style, with layers of concentrated black and blue fruit, rich graphite, bracing acid, coming together with mouth coating tannin, and spicy oak. The finish is long and mineral with lovely chocolate, bright fruit, and lovely sweet spices. BRAVO!

2013 Terrenal Malbec Kosher – Score: B
The 2012 vintage of this wine was a favorite of mine last year, till it turned into a flower bomb. This vintage is starting that way out of the chute. The noise on this purple colored wine starts off with nice blue and black notes, followed by floral notes that feels disjointed, along with plum, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows blackberry fruit, blackcurrant that spikes, along with nice tannin and blueberry/green notes. The finish is long and all over the place with green blue notes that cover over the nice root beer notes.

2012 Beit-El Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B+
This is a fine wine for the price for sure. The nose on this wine starts off with blackberry, spice, dark cherry, blueberry, and herb. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has controlled fruit, searing tannin, crazy black and blue fruit, with nice mouth coating tannin, spice, and sweet oak. The finish is long and spicy with tannin, blue fruit, plum, watermelon, and nutmeg lingering.

2012 LEWIS PASCO Pasco Project #1 (QPR) – Score: A-
A Bordeaux blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% merlot, along with 3% of Petite Sirah, for rounding and depth. The wine was aged for 9 months in new French barrels. The nose on this purple colored wine starts with Merlot barnyard funk, black fruit, spice, and herb. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and layered with concentrated fruit, lovely extraction, showing spicy oak, mouth coating spicy tannin, mounds of oriental spice, blackberry, and dark cherry. The finish is long and balanced with still searing tannin, acid, dark chocolate, with nutmeg, cinnamon, hints of blueberry, and fig lingering long – BRAVO!

2012 Beit-El Carignan (QPR) – Score: B+ to A-
I first tasted this wine at the winery from the barrel with Lewis Pasco and the Hillel Manne. Now the wine shows more earth and spice along with the insane blueberry and blackberry it showed in the barrel.
The nose on this wine starts with rich roasted meat, ripe blueberry, blackberry, heavy spice, and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows lovely mouth coating tannin with great fruit control, ripe blue and black fruit, along with spicy oak and red plum. The finish is long with lovely tart blue fruit, root beer, watermelon, licorice, and sweet spices, nutmeg, and sweet basil – BRAVO!!! Please be careful, the one bottle I opened was throwing sediment.

2013 Lueria Gewürztraminer Upper Galilee – Score: B+ to A-
This is the third version of this wine. I personally, LOVE the dry version that Gidi makes, but he sells that to a restaurant and is not available to the consumer. The nose on this off dry wine starts with deep notes of intense orange, melon, honeydew melon, along with rich floral notes, rose hips, and nectarine. The mouth on this medium to full bodied off dry wine is sweet, please be aware of this and be ready for the residual sugar, showing in a not quite oily texture (but close enough), honeysuckle, pineapple, kiwi, and guava, along with peach, good spice, great balancing acid and bitterness and good nectarine liquor. Lovely!!!

NV Freixenet Cava Excelencia Kosher Brut – Score: B
This wine was not for me, far too sweet, and with far too much sweet quince, fig, and massive toast – pass for me – still very nice structure and GREAT spice, yeast, and intense medium bubble mousse attack.

2012 Hagafen Don Ernesto Collage, White – Score: A-
Well, this wine is clearly asleep! I opened it and it was a dud, all oak and no joy. Two days later the remnants are rocking and rolling. The wine is a classic Rhone Rider blend of Roussanne and Marsanne. The nose on this dark straw colored wine, is candied with summer fruit, crunchy herb, and straw. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely, almost oily textured with great acid, green notes, herb, dried sweet quince, nectarine, green apple, grapefruit, and earth. The finish is long and herbal with loamy dirt, slate, and more herb.

2000 Château Labégorce-Zédé – Score: A- (and then some)
The wine was at its peak or over it, so the wine is in drink up mode, but was lovely still. The nose on this wine starts off with lovely barnyard notes, loose dirt, mushroom, and raspberry. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine, is layered and rich with concentrated red and black fruit, blackberry, along with spice, and mouth coating tannin that linger long. The finish is long with great acid, dark chocolate, leather, graphite, and more mineral lingering long. BRAVO!

2013 Dalton Pinot Gris – Score: B+
The wine is nice with a solid QPR given the low price, the good acid, and the biting bitterness that wraps up the wine well. Serve very well chilled.
The wine has a lovely nose of straw, hay, cut grass, mineral, stone fruit, and good spice. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine starts with green notes of apple leaves, along with spiced green apple, kiwi, floral notes, with intense spice, pepper notes, and spicy melon cider. The finish is long and mineral based with slate, intense bitterness, that masks the sweet grass and loamy dirt, with spice, peach, and fruit lingering.

2010 Weinstock Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Select (QPR) – Score: B+ to A-
I tasted this wine during my visit to the winery last year. The wine shows the effects of 2010, with green notes and not so quite ripe fruit, but still a lovely wine. The nose on this wine shows green notes, bell pepper, slight heat that blows off over time, with raspberry and plum. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine shows off sweet cedar and sweet milk chocolate, leafy tobacco, all wrapping sweet and tart cherry, black plum. The finish is long and tart with green and red fruit, with lovely oak influence, and sweet herb.

2005 Yatir Shiraz – Score: A- (and then some)
To be fair this wine is lovely, but I enjoyed it when I was drinking heavily on Purim. In the end, the wine shows lovely with deep black and red fruit, lovely extraction, and layers of concentrated fruit that mingles with tar, rich earth, and spice. Bravo!!

2010 Shirah Counter Punch Vogelzang Vineyard – Score: A- (and then some)
The wine is a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah, but from different vineyards than the 1-2 punch. The nose on this wine is really intoxicating and has now come together. The nose starts with white peach, apricot, kiwi, followed by pomegranate, ripe raspberry jam, crazy blue fruit, and earth. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is filled with nice watermelon, great spice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ripe blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and ripe with sweet mocha chocolate, leather, nice rich mouth coating tannin, root beer, black tea, black pepper, and licorice. This may not be the same animal, and to be fair was actually punched out by the 2008 1-2 punch. However, this wine has come together, and I am happy that I hung on to some bottles!

2010 Recanati Petit Sirah-Zinfandel Reserve – Score: B++
Initially the nose and body were far too sweet for my tastes with strong date and lacking in blue and roasted meat notes. With time, the nose opens to show rich roasted meat, earthy notes, tar, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is less full and spicy, with good mouth coating tannin that rise, along with blackberry, plum, and cherry. The finish is long and spicy with sweet tobacco, dirt, mineral, charcoal, cloves, black pepper, and coffee.

2011 Eagles Landing Cellars Merlot – Score: B to B+
The nose on this almost cherry colored wine starts off wine notes of coffee, toffee, toast, green notes, and dark cherry. The mouth on this light bodied wine is filled with sweet tobacco, sweet cedar, plum, and spice. The finish is long with nice sweet fruit and more spice. It is a fine quaff but beyond that it lacks the complexity or body to grab your attention. With time the wine opens to a nice tobacco, tart fruit, and sweet cedar wine.

2007 Four Gates Merlot Kosher – Score: A- (and then some)
While the last bottle I enjoyed was free of added sulfites, this wine had clear sulfites in it and what a difference sulfites make. The past wine was clearly at peak or beyond it, two years ago, throwing sediment. This wine is barely at peak, no sediment to be found and crazy sick tannins that were lacking in the sulfite free wine.

This wine is 100% Merlot, aged for 24 months in French Oak. Still dark purple in color, the nose shows lovely fruit, luscious blackberry, ripe black plum, ripe raspberry, along with lovely crushed herb, graphite, and mineral. The mouth on medium to full bodied wine, comes at you in layers, with concentrated dark and red fruit, followed by licorice, pencil lead, balancing acidity, mouth draping tannins that grip to your mouth, along with spicy oak. The finish is long and ripe with jammy fruit, lingering tannin, coffee, jam, and vanilla that keep going on and on and on. This a fantastic wine that is not yet at its peak, and a wine that will hold its own for at least another 5 years.

2009 Tabor Adama Kosher – Score: A-
The nose on this wine starts off with lovely barnyard notes, mushroom, red fruit, cherry, and green notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and layered with nice tart fruit, currant,blackberry, sweet bell pepper, mouth coating tannins that raise the body, and herb. The finish is long with great acid, spice, crazy sweet tobacco, chocolate, and sweet basil.

2007 Tabor Cabernet Sauvignon Special Edition 1/19000 – Score: B+ to A-
The feature of this wine was not the fruit or the mineral, but the lovely sweet mouth coating tannin! This is a wine that never made sense labeling wise, but is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the choicest of plots and vineyards, sadly and unfortunately it did not show well at all.
The nose on this wine starts with little to no fruit, followed by ripping mineral and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine followed the lead of the nose, with little to no fruit, but had lovely mouth draping tannin with good graphite, and hints of currant and blackberry, all wrapped up in sweet cedar and coffee. The finish is green and minty with bell pepper, eucalyptus, dirt, and vanilla, with hints of smokey notes.

Wine Mill wine shop in the center of Jerusalem

The Wine Mill wine shop

Last week I posted that I was in Israel for three weeks over the month of December, and in that first post I wrote about the wineries I saw in the Galilee wine region (the north of Israel). What I failed to talk about was Gabriel Geller and his wine shop in the middle of Jerusalem. I spoke about the Wine Mill wine shop in a previous post, it is located smack dab in the middle of Jerusalem, close to the city center, and to many hotels and restaurants. The address for the Wine Mill wine shop is 8, Ramban Street, 92422 Jerusalem, Israel, it is a shop that I can say is stocked with wines that I would be happy to enjoy and is the main wine shop that I use when in Israel. Why? Because Geller knows his wines, sells only wines he or his customers like, and knows the wines he sells. His shop is filled with wines that are often only sold at the winery itself, like Midbar Winery wines (see below) or Herzberg Winery wines (see below). His shop is also filled with small winery wines, like Weitzman Petite Verdot, or Gat Shomron Winery, and many others. Please do not think that this is a paid advertisement or something – LOL! I do not take money from people. I bring up Gabriel Geller and the Wine Mill, because during my three week stay in Israel, I was either in Geller’s store, with Geller himself, or calling Geller everyday, including Friday day and Saturdays (Saturday night of course)!

As I ended the previous posting – I wrote about my take on the Israeli wine scene, and I would like to add some more thoughts to the thread:

1. If I had to give a color or fruit that best describes the 2010 vintage in Israel – it would blueberry! YES blueberry! No, I am not talking about malbec or Syrah or Petite Verdot. What I am talking about is all of those and more shockingly, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! Try it out and see for yourself. When I asked the wine makers about it, they said that the growing conditions of 2010, hot and then cool led to the blue flavors.
2. 2010 and on can well be the year of the small wine maker. Wineries are coming and going – that is for sure, but it is also a fact that small production wineries, like Herzberg Winery and Gat Shomron winery are popping up and staying afloat – because they do not have that much wine to move. Time will tell.
3. Finally, more and more high level and high quality mevushal is occurring in Israel. Shiloh winery has been doing it for a few years now, as is Binyamina on its reserve series and cave, and others. It is not widespread or low quality. The process is being done at great cost and at great effort – bringing forth quality wine that happens to be mevushal, much like Herzog and Hagafen. While this is true of the few that I have listed above, Recanati has started doing it to some of their diamond label wines and the outcome is not that great. The 2010 Shiraz tasted cooked while the non-mevushal bottle in Israel did not have that taint – time will tell how these experiments will turn out.
4. If you must pick a single varietal that shines in the Shomron – it would be Merlot. All the Merlot wines we tasted from the Shomron (whether made from a winery in the Shomron or wineries that source their grapes from the Shomron – like Teperberg) – the winners were always the Merlot! If it is the cooler weather the higher acidity – who cares – it is great wine!
5. Wineries are getting the message – making more old-world wines with Israeli fruit. What that means to me is to make ripe and sweet wines that are controlled without the overripe date and raisin bombs that were so very prevalent some 5 years ago. In its place I find that Israeli wineries are producing wine with sweet and ripe fruit, while all the while showing clear control of both the sweetness of the fruit and the amount of oak used.
6. Israel residents are finally starting to understand that they live in a Mediterranean country (with one of their borders on the Med) with blazing hot summers and therefore need to start appreciating white wines! I know, Jews like to drink red wines, something to do with the whole kiddush and shabbos thing. Still, white wine is lovely and is a wine that can be done well in Israel. Take the Midbar winery as an example. A winery that was built on the premise of making GREAT white wines in Israel! It took a long time for the perfect storm to occur, the nexus point of Israeli residents wanting white wines and for wineries to excel at the production of good white wines. Maybe it was a chicken-egg thing between the wineries and the residents, or maybe it was the whole culture thing – but Israeli wineries are figuring it now. More and more every winery is making a Rose, a Chardonnay, and many are doing Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling wines, and many others. So keep a look out for very solid Israeli white wines – they may actually remove them from Israel’s endangered species list!
7. The main high end red wines being poured at wineries in Israel are shmitta wines, wines from the 2008 vintage. I say this simply as a warning and no more than that. If you care, than skip the wines. If you do not worry about it – than do what you wish. I simply state it here as an informational notice.

My first day in Israel I actually was in Jerusalem and met Elchonon Hellinger (the monster that we created) and his nice chef friend; the Mendelnik (who rumor has is even crazier of a driver than the rest of Israeli drivers). We enjoyed a bunch of wines from David Edri’s Kinor David Winery – a winery based in Hebron and one that Elchonon has been raving about for months. We had the chance to taste some of the reds, which were not very good, as they were older wines. We got to taste his mythical ports and sherry wines! Those wines were in indeed crazy good and quite enjoyable, while some of his newer red wines were OK (we tasted them later in the second week).

Another fact that I need to repeat, Yossie Horwitz’s Israel winery mash-up map was a lifesaver when needing to lookup addresses and contact info for each and every winery that I visited!

Hamasrek Winery

On the Friday that I returned from my trip up north, I visited Geller and we tasted the 2009 Niakanor Merlot, Reserve and the 2011 Ruth Dessert wine, which we spoke about in a previous post here. On the following Saturday night Geller and I went to Hamasrek winery, after lighting the Hanukkah candles and it was nice meeting with the winemaker; Nachum Greengrass and tasting a bottle of the winery’s flagship wine; 2006 Hamasrek The King’s Blend, Limited Edition, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Zinfandel. The wine was nice, though it is not a wine that Royal imports anymore, so if you want some, it is available at the winery in Israel.

Tzuba Winery

On Sunday I spent most of my day scheduling the week of wine tastings and I was able to swing by the Tzuba Winery, though I came too late to spend time with Paul Dubb, the winemaker, like in the past, but I did spend time with Eiton Green, the General Manager of Tzuba and the nice Mashgiach who put up with my late timing and was willing to stay around and pour me some really nice wines. The 2011 Tzuba Chard is really nice, along with the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, but the Metzuda wines (the flagship labels of Tzuba) were the WOW wines for sure. The 2009 Tzuba Metzuda (70% Cab, 15% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc) was a very close WOW wine, and a wine that I liked more in New York last year than at the winery, but that may have been more about not letting the wine open up properly. The 2010 Tzuba Metzuda blend (44% Cab, 44% Merlot, and 12% Cabernet Franc) was a clear and present WOW Wine – very solid and well done wine with blue, green and black notes, big muscles, heavy spice, and great acid. Finally, the 2010 Tzuba Syrah Metzuda was the best wine there and one that is truly really nice and one that could be easily mistaken for a northern California Syrah – Bravo! Many thanks to the Tzuba winery, Paul, Eiton, and the Mashgiach, who put up with my late arrival and were still kind and happy to share their wonderful wines with me.

Ella Valley Winery

On Monday, I picked up Gabriel Geller and we started a very long day of wine tasting. The first winery we visited is Ella Valley Winery, where I had hoped we would meet Lin Gold, the new winemaker that took over for Doron Rav Hon, in 2011. I really wanted to meet her, but she was out of the country when we visited and we missed her by a few days – such is life. We did meet with Ilan Bezalel, VP of Ella Valley Vineyards, and we tasted through some of Gold’s new wines and some old wines from Doron. The 2011 Ella Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Rose are clear shift in Gold’s approach with sweeter and riper notes, gone is the lemon peel and herb. Instead the fruit is ripe, expressive, but fully controlled without overbearing ripe notes. It is a fine line to walk and one that will be harder to implement in the red wines. I look forward to trying Gold’s red wines to se if her approach is the same in red as it is in white and if it can be done with equal control. We enjoyed the 2011 Ella Valley Everred Rose’s salmon pink color and fruit. The 2007 Ella Valley Merlot was quite nice, but the star of the tasting was the 2009 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc. Yes, I like Cabernet Franc, get over it, but this wine was a solid A- to A wine and worthy of the WOW award! One of the saddest things I heard in Israel, was at Ella Valley Winery, when Ilan told me that there will be no more Pinot Noir after the 2008 vintage – I am not sure why – but that is what I was told. It is a real shame as the Ell Valley Pinot Noir was quite impressive. Many thanks to Ilan and I hope next time we visit we will have the opportunity to meet with Lin Gold.

Teperberg Winery

From there we went to one of the clear highlights of my trip – Teperberg Winery. The last time I wrote about Teperberg Winery was after a tasting at the 2012 Gotham Wine Extravaganza, where the Chief Winemaker Shiki Rauchberger of Teperberg Winery came to the tasting and poured many Teperberg wines, including a few barrel samples, and the still unreleased and unnamed premium label for the winery. At that time, I sad that the winery was on the correct course and was a winery that was clearly improving year over year. I was looking forward to visiting the Teperberg winery because I wanted to see if this path to improvement was continuing or not, and indeed the upper level labels have truly improved their trajectory towards being a top level wine producer. We arrived on time and were met by Olivier Fratty, Teperberg’s French oriented winemaker, who happens to also be Tunisian! The winery is massive to say the least, producing many not so interesting wines for the sugary drinking crowd and some very nice higher-end wines for the wine drinking crowd. They make 1 million bottles of wine a year and 35% of that is sold under the Teperberg label, and that percentage is slowly moving up. The winery is planting vineyards like they are going out of style. 120 dunam in the Galilee, and 1700 dunam in the Shomron, with 2500 dunam overall planted or being planted throughout Israel. After showing us around, Olivier took us to a trailer where we were blown away by the number of wines that littered a conference room sized table! Olivier told us that Teperberg was working on building a new visitor center and until than this was where he greeted and tasted wine with visitors and colleagues. When I entered all I could smell was fried chicken! I looked around and I asked – do you guys also make fried chicken? Olivier replied that the smell was wafting out of the box of fricassee sandwiches! Fricassee is a Tunisian sandwich, which is so Tunisian in so many ways! When I talk about Tunisian recipes, they start and end with oil – it is the framework for all Tunisian recipes – fried food covered with oil and tasting – OH so good! Well, these fricassee sandwiches are essentially stuffed doughnuts! The doughnuts are commonly stuffed with tuna fish, egg salad, and other such sandwich fare.

We enjoyed tasting some 17 wines at the winery and the take away I had was that many of the newer vintages were solid to very solid wines with a few WOW wines sprinkled in. The wine tasting started with a surprising pair of close to WOW and absolute WOW wines; the 2012 Teperberg Sauvignon Blanc, Terra and the 2011 Teperberg Viognier, Terra. There is a person on the Israeli and Kosher Wine forum who craves acid and all I can say is that the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc is as close as you can get to biting into a ripe raw lemon and truly enjoying it! The Sauvignon Blanc is a shocking and screaming citrus explosion with crazy ripe and beautiful fruit – BRAVO. The 2011 Viognier is crazy nice and is equal in nature to the old Dalton Viognier and the new 2012 Dalton Viognier. However, both of them are not quite up to Midbar’s Viognier (more on that below) – but they are two of the best kosher Viognier wines out there. Many of the wines we enjoyed at the tasting were either recently bottled or not yet bottled, so not only do I not have many pictures, many of these bottles will not be available immediately. The 2009 Teperberg Malbec is a lovely and medium bodied Malbec with big beautiful blue and black fruit. The 2010 Malbec is as good as the 2009 vintage – but the 2011 is CRAZY FILTHY and WOW (by now I hope you know that is a compliment – right?), quite a lovely wine. Rich, layered, and in your face, but controlled and ripe. The Merlot Terra wines were nice, the 2009 was OK in a classic green and red way, while the 2010 Terra Merlot was unique and more rich, with blueberry, boysenberry, green and black fruit and floral notes – nice! The 2009 and 2010 Terra Cabernet were OK, with the 2010 showing elegantly, but the shocking QPR 2010 stole the pairing by far! The 2010 Terra Cabernet is massive freight train with power, muscle, and fruit to spare, a highly extracted and expressive wine.

The next wines were the reserve wines and the differences between the tasting at Gotham (of these wines a year ago) and the wines now are quite interesting. The next wines were the 2009 and 2010 Merlot reserve wines from the Shomron. At the Gotham tasting the 2009 Merlot reserve was tight as a drum and showed little expression. WOW! What a year makes! This wine is a clear WOW wine and a fantastic example of what a Merlot can be. The 2009 is a filthy, expressive, green, black, and red monster with huge shoulders, rich body, and ample fruit to spare. The 2010 Merlot reserve is also nice and rich and a solid showing for this winery! The Shiraz reserve from 2009 is a wine we liked more at the tasting in Gotham than in Israel. I tasted its brother (the 2010 vintage), at the Terravino dinner and the 2009 vintage at the winery. The 2010 vintage seemed hollow or short while the 2009 was nice but did not blow me away. Still nice wines and maybe they will fill out in the future. The Cabernet reserve is a wine that is a blend of fruit from the Shomron, Galilee, and Judean Hills. From what I saw of Shomron Cabernet Sauvignon – this is a really good idea. The Shomron Cabs, that we tasted, showed greener and redder than this lovely black and balanced wine. The 2009 Cab Reserve is anotehr wine that showed tight and closed at the Gotham wine tasting that at the winery a year later was KILLER! The 2009 Cab reserve is a massive, extracted, and rich Cabernet – rich and expressive, black, red, and full of vigor. The 2010 vintage is well – blue! Like I said in my trends for 2010, Cabernet fruit from Israel in 2010 shows blue fruit! It is unique, not expected and quite lovely. It helps to round out the wine. The wine is not as extracted as its older brother but is equally spicy with good richness and mouth cover, both are solid A- wines. The 2009 Merlot reserve and Cabernet reserve did not show well at the Gotham wine event – no matter how hard Shiki tried with decanters and god knows what else! But waiting a year and letting god take care of the aging – the wines now show beautifully! Another great example for why age rather than technology is the way to enjoy a wine!

The final dry red wine was the 2010 Cabernet Franc – and yes – I LOVED IT! It is still a solid A- wine and tasting very much like at the Gotham wine event! What a green, red, and tobacco monster it is! Rich, layered, and elegant all at the same time. At this point we were hurrying to get out and go to the next winery, but Olivier was not going to let us go before we had a taste of his new bubbly sweet moscato wine, which was OK, and the Teperberg Nevel Port Style wine – which though I know will get me in trouble with Adam M, is still an OK port to me. At this point I was starving and I helped myself to a few of the wonderful fricassee, but man by the time we were done the platter was gone and someone, who will go unnamed, left with some of them stuffed in his pocket – LOL!!!! It was a truly enjoyable tasting and one that shows how much this winery is growing and learning about its fruit. Thanks so much to Shiki and Olivier.

Flam Winery

From here we drove to Flam Winery – where Golan Flam affirmed for me what many have been saying for years – that Flam Winery is a European powerhouse in the Judean Hills. The winery, while producing awesome wines for years, only recently turned kosher in 2010, and so the reserve 2010 wines are finally bottled and are being shown in the winery for those in the know and they were quite lovely! The winery’s decor is styled in a comfortable yet stylish European family setting. The table upon which we did the tasting looks like it was pulled from a Italian home in Tuscany. The china cabinet that faces the other wall looks like it came out of a French villa in the 1900s. The styling is very reminiscent of what the family ants to project – a family run European winery in the middle of Israel. The wines and the winery follow this theme to a tee and it was a real joy to be ion the winery again.

We arrived a bit late but Israel Flam, the patriarch of the family, was more than kind to sit down with us and allow us to taste through the wines that are currently available, along with a few wines that are not yet available. Flam Winery recently received high praises from Mark Squires of the Wine Advocate, when he gave 90 to the 2011 Flam Blanc. We were graciously accepted even though we were late, with Israel Flam sitting down with us to start the tasting. As, I previously explained in my past post about Flam Winery, Israel Flam is one of the superstars in the Israeli wine scene. Mr. Flam was originally head wine maker at Carmel winery and never imagined his kids would get into the business. However, after Golan went to wine school and Gilad went to business school – things looked like Golan would be in the wine business sooner or later. However, the real shocker was when Gilad spoke with his father and asked him if the wine business is a good idea? Israel replied, that if you want to make money quickly – than go start a start-up or go into banking. If you want to lose money quickly or maybe make money very slowly – go into the wine business. With that kind of resounding reply – Israel was surprised to hear soon after that Golan and Gilad were going into the family business and they did both ideas! They started a winery – the family owned and operated Flam Winery, and they started a wine and liquor start-up, involved in the import and export of alcohol throughout Israel and abroad. Proof positive that it is always a good idea to listen to your elders!

Soon enough, after we started tasting the 2011 Flam Blanc, which was a nice A- wine, Golan Flam was very kind to come and join us, not withstanding are out of control tardiness. After the Flam Blanc we tasted the 2010 Flam Classico, and it reaffirmed for me that I did not love it as much as I did the first time I tasted it last year. You see, last month we did a tasting of many kosher blends and the 2010 Flam Classico was one of them, and it did not go over well on the table, a B++ wine, rather than the A- wine I tasted a year ago at the winery. So, I was looking forward to seeing if it was the wine or my storage/transportation. In the end, it is a nice wine, but not the same A- wine I remembered, even after tasting it again at the winery. However, all of this is irrelevant in comparison to what we tasted next. It was the reserve wines that we have been waiting for an entire year to taste, that fully explains the mad cult following that Flam reserve wines have in Israel, even before they were kosher.

After we tasted the Classico, we were given the opportunity to taste the recently released 2010 Flam Syrah, reserve. This is a wine that is a pure WOW wine in every way, with blueberry, blackberry, power and finesse coursing through its veins. This is a bull/powerhouse of a wine that can easily do a pirouette in a china store on one foot – finesse and elegance all wrapped in a blue, black, licorice and espresso coffee body – BRAVO! The mind melting thing here was that this was just the start, the next two wines were equally mind melting, with perfect balance and control, the fruit is Israeli in every way, sweet, bright, and ripe, yet the wine is controlled and kept in its European style – quite a hard thing to implement, and Golan Flam has done it with aplomb. The great news here is that this wine is available now in Israel and will be available for tasting at the Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE) in NY and at the International Food and Wine Festival in LA, Golan told me he will be at both events!

The next wine was the 2010 Flam Merlot, reserve and it too was a WOW wine, deep and rich with a classic style, green notes, red and light black notes with many layers of deep extracted fruit, lovely tobacco and insane mouth coating tannin that is mineral based with graphite and loamy dirt. Quite a lovely wine that does not shy away from its searing tannin, concentrated fruit, and deep fruit extraction. Double WOW and BRAVO!

The final wine was the craziest wine of the bunch, the 2010 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve with you guessed it – blueberry fruit! The 2010 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve is crazy rich and layered with blue, black, and red fruit. The mouth is rich, layered, and insanely complex, with massive rich tannin, crazy black and blue fruit and deep rooted mineral. The finish is long, spicy, and luscious with crazy tannin, all while dressed in a long leather trench coat, holding a piping hot cup of espresso coffee, while taking a long pull on a fat stogie with a side of chocolate mocha java. Double WOW and BRAVO again!

The three reserve wines show the true potential of Israeli wines. Wines that are distinctly Israeli, with big ripe fruit, all while controlled with good mineral and dirt, nice cedar, and oak extraction. Anyone who has enjoyed these wines can see why Daniel Rogov continually gave them high scores and why Mark Squires also loves them a bunch. Thanks so much again to Israel Flam and Golan Flam for taking the time to met with us and to share their liquid gold with us as well – I am sure the wine will sell well whether we wrote about it or not – so again many thanks to everyone from the Flam Winery.

Herzberg Winery

Once we left the Flam Winery we made our way to Herzberg Winery a winery that is owned, run, and operated by a single man – Max Herzberg. It was pouring rain as we made our way to his lovely home – which doubles as his winery and vineyard. Yes, he reminds me of my good friend Benaymin Cantz (from four gates winery), another of those home bound Vignobles who live, breath, and eat winemaking in and around their very abode!

Max Herzberg is a world famous biotechnologist who has single-handedly created and sold more companies than many of us even know or can keep track of. Max immigrated to Israel from France and quickly became a world class biotechnologist and a leader in his field and in the corporate world!

Max Herzberg at his winery – Herzberg Winery

However, after getting his fill of running biotechnology departments at universities and running and starting companies, Max decided he would plant a vineyard. One day Max approached his clearly intelligent wife (who happens to be a Tunisian – so that helps a lot of course) and asked if she minded if he planted a few vines? His wife replied, you mean you want to plant the entire field – right? Sure enough, in 2005, by the time Max was done, the entire 3 acre field, right next to his home in Moshav Sitrya was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec. It is not clear if this particular location within the Judean Hills is well situated for Malbec, but as Max puts it – time will tell. Max also makes use of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from a neighboring vineyard. The first true year for the winery was in 2008, though there was some 300 bottles from the 2007 vintage.

As usual, Geller knows everyone and him and Max hit it off really well. It helps that Geller speaks a perfect French (so jealous), the native tongue of the French born Max Herzberg. It was with this knowledge that we arrived at his home and he showed us around the winery – though by this time it was pitch dark and we were walking around very carefully. We soon made our way to the well lit tasting room, that is adjacent to the winery and that is where we tasted through the winery’s entire line. A few weeks after we visited, Max had a winery tasting at his winery to show off the new 2009/2010 red wines and from what I can see on his Facebook page – it was a smash! Max is one of those honest, down to earth, humble and talented wine makers that enjoy what he is doing and it shows in his wine and in his passion for his craft.

We started the tasting with the 2009 Herzberg malbec, the very wine that made Max and his winery famous. I was told by many that this was a must taste wine, and so I bought a bottle at the Wind Mill for Shabbos. The bottle I got was lacking in many ways, so I was hoping it was just a bad bottle and that I would be enjoying the true version of the malbec. Sure enough the 2009 Herzberg Malbec that we tasted was indeed quite lovely. The wine was not a OW wine, but to be fair I have yet to taste a WOW Malbec, with the possible exception of the 2009 Tishbi Malbec, but that is for another post. I would score the wine a B+ to A-. The malbec was not blue, but rather red and very spicy with a perfumed nose, a medium body with good tannin structure and good usage of oak. The 2009 Merlot is very much in the same ilk of the Malbec with plenty of red fruit, along with nice green notes, heaps of floral notes and a solid medium bodied structure. The mouth is well balanced with aggressive almost mouth drying tannin, near sweet cedar, and ripe red and black fruit. The finish is packed with mineral and charcoal – a unique and lovely Merlot. The next wine was the 2009 Reserve, a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 20% Malbec. The nose is unique with sugared and candied plum, mineral, green notes, and ripe fruit. The mouth is medium plus in weight with good tart fruit, more mouth drying tannin, and sweet cedar. The finish is long with more mineral and chocolate covered tobacco. The next wine was from the 2010 vintage – the 2010 Herzberg Asado Blend, which is a blend of 50% Malbec, and 25% each of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Asado was a dirtier more earthy wine than the 2009 wines, with deep rooted green notes, loamy dirt, mushroom, red and black fruit, more mouth drying tannin, good red and black fruit, and wonderful balance. The finish is long and spicy with green, vanilla, and crazy spices like cinnamon, cloves, and tobacco. The Asado name is a nod to Argentinians who have clearly made a name for themselves in the wine world with their version of the Malbec fruit.

Max was very kind to share with us his 2010 wines and those are a clear bump up from the 2009 crop. The 2010 Merlot and Reserve wines of course continue the 2010 theme with huge amounts of blue fruit, but they are also broader, deeper, and more concentrated wine with weight and fruit that can carry the strong handed use of oak. The fruit is dark, brooding, rich and truly complex – in a manner that makes you stop and take notice. Are they WOW wines? Not quite, but they are solid A- wines and ones that I would have bought if they were available.

The 2010 Herzberg Cab fruit is ripe and jammy, full, with crazy floral notes and blueberry, followed by black fruit, and currant. The mouth is medium to full bodied with tannin that goes forever, concentrated fruit, and deep layers of blackberry, cassis, sweet cedar, and mouth drying tannin. The 2010 Herzberg Reserve is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% each of Malbec and Merlot. Once again the nose is ripe with ribbons of blueberry, blackberry, violet, licorice, and controlled spice. The mouth is rich and full bodied with softening yet aggressive mouth drying tannin, sweet ripe fruit, and a concentrated mouth that is coming together nicely. The finish is long, balanced, and sweet and spicy at the same time with chocolate covered tobacco, with vanilla and spice.

We had a few other wines and stuff that is undocumented and it will stay that way – but the entire tasting was a true joy and one that gave me the chance to see a man who has nothing to prove in this world. A man that has made his mark on it and yet a man that decided he wants to strike out in a different direction, one that he loves and cares about and is willing to spend his retirement years doing! I say bravo to you sir and best wishes for another successful vintage! Thanks so much for making time for the two of us!

Well, when one is on a winery hunt – a few wineries a day is really not enough – it is kind of like castle hunting for folks who visit Scotland. For me, in Israel, it is all about winery hunting. So, it was a brisk Tuesday morning that I realized that I was late to pick up my nephew who was joining me for my mad adventure – half way across the world! I soon parked at Lod Airport, in the pouring rain and parked the car in short term parking.  There waiting for me was my nephew and the start of a whirlwind adventure for him – I think more than he knew he was getting himself into! The day was young and after stopping for some coffee, sandwich, and pastries, it was off to the first of two wineries; the Yaffo Winery and the Gush Etzion Winery. They are both right next to each other, some 10 kilometers or less away from each other, and the Yaffo Winery is literally right next door to the Ella Valley Winery, a winery we visited two days earlier (see above ).

Yaffo Winery

We rolled into the Yaffo Winery on time, but from the wrong direction and from a very soggy and wet dirt road. We took the wrong entrance and it was a miracle that we could get the car up the steep and short incline, but blessedly we succeeded and smartly decided not to try that on the way out!

As we rolled up to the winery, Moshe Celniker, the owner and original winemaker of Yaffo Winery, greeted us. Soon after his son Stephan the current winemaker at the winery joined us. The rain had passed and the crisp clean air and almost cloudless skies made for a quite picturesque setting in the winery surrounded by vineyards for as far as the eye could see.

Yaffo Winery sign from the street

Yaffo winery was started in 1998 by Moshe Celniker in his basement, when he made some 2000 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. From there, the winery has grown to 40,000 bottles in the most recent 2012 harvest. At the start Moshe was the winemaker, owner, and all around “guy” who ran the company. However, in time his son Stephan decided he wanted to join the family business and went to study agriculture at Hebrew University in Rechovot and then went on to study wine making in Bourgogne, France. He then worked in Bordeaux for a couple of years before rejoining his father and taking over wine making duties a few years ago.

Stephen Celniker (winemaker of Yaffo Winery) pouring a glass for the seated Moshe Celniker, owner of Yaffo Winery (from the winery’s Facebook page)

In 2007 the winery moved to its current location, at the edge of Ella Valley (Emek HaElla), not far at all from the Ella Valley Winery. It is also very close to the winery’s 40 dunam of grapes. The vineyards surround the winery and they are comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, along with a bit of Mourvedre, and Carignan. The winery takes in 40 tons of fruit and uses it to make 6 labels; Rose from Cabernet, a varietal Carignan, Chardonnay, Merlot/Syrah blend, varietal Cabernet, and their flagship Bordeaux blend called Heritage.

As we sat in the lovely winery, I could not help but wonder about this and the other small wineries I have visited, and smile at how far the industry has come here in Israel. Here was another small family run winery that worked hard to create solid wines in an appealing and old world style, while still letting the Israeli fruit shine through.

The tasting did not include the Chardonnay or Rose as they were sold out of both of them, but we did taste the other red wines and while the first two were not WOW wines, they were very solid B+ and B++ wines. The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon was a solid wine with good old world characteristics in the nose, showing herb, red and black fruit. The mouth was medium weight with good balance, unique butter characteristics, sweet cedar, and dark fruit, all supported by nice mouth coating tannin and vanilla, with green notes, tobacco, and tannin lingering. The 2010 Syrah/Merlot blend is a 50/50 blend of the two grapes and showed lovely roasted animal notes, blueberry, mounds of black fruit, earth, and rich tilled dirt. The mouth is medium in weight but showing concentrated blue and black fruit, along with wonderful control of the sweetness along with good tannin structure that supports the wine through its long and spicy and mineral based finish. The wine was another solid B++ to maybe A- wine. The Heritage is as close to a WOW wine that you can come without being on. The 2009 Heritage is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 15% Syrah. The nose is big, rich, and perfumed with black and red fruit, all covered over by a lovely canopy of green foliage with a side of toffee and graphite. The mouth on this massive and full bodied wine is layered with concentrated black and red fruit, sweet cedar, and a mouth coating tannin structure that lingers long. The finish is classically balanced and so Israeli with tobacco, chocolate, mineral, graphite, along with unique butter coated tobacco, herb, and mineral. They also sell a Carignan and we did not have time to taste it so they were very nice to give me a bottle and I will taste it in the near future and write it up in a future blog posting.

After we drove off, I missed the chance to get a picture of the sign for the Yaffo Winery that is on the road. It is a small sign that points to a road that looks like you need a 4×4 to get through. But actually, the dirt road is very solid, even after raining for a few days straight and was easy to navigate, as long as you knew where to enter. We entered through the back way and we were very happy to make our way back to the main road, using the correct and easy entrance point. When visiting – keep your eye out for the small and hard to see sign – it points to a lovely winery and one that is on the road to solid growth.

Gush Etzion Winery

The next destination on our winery hunt was the Gush Etzion Winery, a short distance from the Yaffo Winery, once you join up on route 60. We have written before about the Gush Etzion Winery in this post, and one that we really like in many ways. The winery has been around for quite some time, some 18 years actually! The building we visited was built in 2005 and the restaurant where we enjoyed a few cups of coffee was built in 2007, along with the massive tasting room anchored by an S&P 500 corporate sized table in the middle of it! For more on the winery and its background please look at our in depth posting of the winery from last year.

The funny thing was that I did the write-up last year before I had ever visited the winery (I did note that in the posting). It was great to actually walk into the winery and take in the ambiance and see the cool steel decking that wraps around the massive tank room.

Once we had walked through the winery and waited for a large group to lave the tasting room, we were shown our way to the tasting bar which at the back of the tasting room. It was here where we started our assault on a long list of wines, 10 to be exact. There were more but many of the red wines are from the 2008 vintage, a shmitta year and I do not drink shmitta wines in Israel – not for this post.

The first thing you will realize is that Gush Etzion is one of those new up and coming wineries that is more than happy and proud to make solid to very solid white wines in Israel! Of the 10 wines we tasted, six of them were white wines. That is not to say that Gush Etzion does not have many red wines, it only means that the current crop of red wines at wineries today is the 2008 vintage – which causes me some consternation, but such is life. The nice man who was pouring for us, did go out of his way to go get us 2009 vintages for a couple of wines, so many thanks for that and many thanks to the entire Gush Etzion winery people for making us feel at home and showing us a great time!

The white wines were all B+ to B++ wines with the blessed white being a solid B+ to A- wine, along with special mentions to the Gewurztraminer and white Riesling, for their rich and good varietal flavors. The remaining red wines were really quite lovely, including the 2007 Nahal Hapirim (A-) a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 9% Petite Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, and the 2007 Blessed Red Valley (A-) a blend of 77% Merlot and 23% Cabernet Franc. The WOW superstar wines in the tasting were the 2009 Gush Etzion Syrah, Lone Oak and the 2009 Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc, Reserve. The real adjective for the Cabernet Franc is filthy, in all the right ways, with the Syrah being WOW! The Cabernet Franc is one of those wines that is so true to its varietal roots that if you do not see it is a Cabernet Franc, just give up and walk away! The nose explodes with floral notes, rich and perfumed red fruit notes, all under a canopy of herb and green notes, with a hint of date. The mouth is wow, with massive, yet controlled mouth coating tannin, layers of ripe and concentrated black and red fruit all presented in an elegant box of cedar planks and integrated tannin. The finish is long, and mineral in its core with graphite, leather, crazy spice, and good oak influence- BRAVO!

The 2009 Gush Etzion Syrah, Lone Oak is another of those Northern California Syrah wines that happen to be popping up all over Israel. The wine is big, bold, Spicy, blue, red, and black all over – just the way a proper Syrah should be built (in my opinion). This was another Bravo wine for sure.

Visiting Yaffo and Gush Etzion winery was a great way to break in my nephew for the what faced him in the coming days, taking the winery hunt to a whole new torturous level!

Psagot Winery

The next day we started out early and were headed into the Shomron wine region of Israel. The Teperberg Winery sources much to most of its grapes from this region, and it is essentially defined as anything north of Jerusalem, meaning many of the wineries that I stated as being Judean Hills wineries, like Tanya Winery and Psagot Winery are actually Shomron wineries.

One of the clear things we saw at Teperberg and a theme that continued through the third week – was that Merlot rains supreme in the Shomron. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz/Syrah works as well, but the best grape in the Shomron has shown to be the Merlot grape, after many tastings. The wineries we visited on Wednesday were only Shomron wineries, but we did visit more in the third week with Geller. I picked up my other nephew who was studying in Jerusalem and made our way to Psagot Winery. We have posted here a few times about the wonderful Psagot Winery in the lands of Binyamin, how it continues to improve its product and how I continue to find out how much I really appreciate the wine they make. We have posted a few times already about the Psagot Winery, so check here for more information on the winery. Josh once again was so very kind to share his wines with us, and we had the opportunity to taste through the entire line of 2010 wines along with a surprise 2011 glass of wine as well.

The winery has some 40 dunam of grapes, consisting of; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, (from Mata), Chardonnay, and Petite Verdot. The winery started in 2003 with 4000 bottles and in 2012 they made 200,000 bottles, so it has been quite a ride – to say the least! The grapes are sourced from Judean Hills, a bit from Ben Zimra vineyards, and the majority from the Shomron area. After Josh Hexter (the wine maker of Psagot Winery) showed us around the winery and then sat us down upstairs and brought over a plate of lovely cheeses and crackers and lineup of 7 wines to taste, the current lineup that is available in Israel and in the USA.

The 2011 Psagot Chardonnay was a nice B+ to A- wine with lovely tropical fruit, butterscotch, and slight burnt wood. The 2010 Cabernet Franc continues Josh’s success with this varietal! The A- wine showed great varietal characteristics, with dark red fruit, green notes, and a perfumed nose. The mouth is medium in body with red and black fruit, soft and caressing mouth coating tannins that meld together beautifully. The finish is long and tobacco based with lovely mineral and graphite influence, with a hint of leather and nice spice. The 2010 Merlot was not quite the hit that the 2009 was, with slight oxidation that blows off or slides to the back with ripe candied fruit, graphite, and green notes. The mouth and finish show black fruit soft caressing tannin, sweet cedar, with good acid, vanilla, chocolate, and butter. The 2010 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon is a lovely perfumed wine big black fruit, with green notes, and light date. The mouth is ripe, rich, and mouth coating with big black concentrated fruit, with sweet fruit. The mineral based finish is long and leathery with hints of chocolate and flint (A-). From here, the next wines were all WOW or very close to them, starting with the 2010 Psagot Edom, a blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petite Verdot, and 12% Merlot. This is a wow mouth wine with great sweet but controlled wine, rich, concentrated, layered and dark with black and red fruit, sweet cedar, and rich mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and spicy with green notes and good oak influence, with crazy tobacco, and burnished toast notes.

The next big winner was the 2010 Psagot Shiraz, though it showed light oxidation it also was lovely with big black and blue fruit, crazy spice, and lovely licorice. The mouth is rich and in your face, ripe and powerful, with big black, blue, and red fruit, that are supported by mouth coating tannin, that is surrounded by a candied fruit orchard with nice cedar layered, rich, and concentrated. The finish is long and crazy with rich mineral, spiced fruit finish, that lingers with sweet fruit, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and white pepper, with hard core black licorice and butter finish.

The final crazy winner was the 2010 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon, Single vineyard wine. It is a big and aggressive wine with massive broad shoulders, with tons of dense fruit, layers of concentrated flavors and aromas, while holding back on date and raisin notes – BRAVO! This is a beast of a wine that will be appreciated by hardcore fans and a wine that I absolutely rave about – WOW and Bravo!

I asked Josh if her could share the 2011 Cabernet Franc with us and he was very kind to grab some of it from a barrel and let us taste it. The wine is a bit sweeter and shows more strawberry than the 2010 raspberry. The wine also shows lovely notes of cut green grass, currant, and green foliage. The wine is green and red and lovely all over. A clear A- wine that will evolve a bit more in oak and be ready for the bottle soon.

Thanks so much to Josh Hexter and the entire Psagot Winery for making time for us and making our trip a true joy.

Beit El Winery and the Lewis Pasco Winery

The next winery on the hunt was the Beit El Winery, in Beit El, a 20 minute drive from Psagot. I have had the chance and opportunity to taste Beit El wines in the past, and I was not so impressed. However, with the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, a very solid B++ wine, I was intrigued to see more about the man. I met Hillel Manne in the bay area, of all places, when he came to see his mother! This is a man who grew up in my backyard and though the meeting was short, it planted another seed that made me think I need to get more information about this winery and the man behind it. However, if that was not enough, Lewis Pasco, the head winemaker of Recanati Winery through the 2006 vintage, contacted me and told me that he was making wine again in Israel at Beit El winery! That was it – I had to see Hillel Manne and Lewis Pasco side by side (enough said)!

Beit El winery was started by Hillel Manne in 1998 in his house and has grown bit by bit. It started by Hillel selling the grapes he grew in his vineyards and then slowly moving from a vineyard manager and grower to a winemaker. His vineyard that is right next to his newly created winery is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Hillel recently planted a new vineyard of Carignan – that is built on a rocky mountain slope and one that is breath taking given its surroundings, and one that made crazy good wine in 2012!

In 2010 the winery produced some 10,000 bottles and with more of the Carignan coming on line and getting better, expect that or a bit more going forward. We met Hillel and his wife Nina at their house, where Lewis Pasco hangs out when he is in Israel, and after a lovely lunch, they drove us to the winery.

In 2012, Hillel Manne reached out to Lewis Pasco and asked him to help him, in a hands on manner, with Beit El’s 2012 vintage. The 2012 wines we tasted were a clear evolution from the 2010 wine we tasted to a classic Lewis Pasco wine – big, broad, aggressive, but maybe a bit more tempered than the old Lewis Pasco. Who knows, maybe experience or maybe the environment created these 2012 wines that almost perfectly mimic the Lewis Pasco of old, but with a bit more herb and control on the insane fruit forward wines of the past. In no way, am I in any way criticizing Lewis Pasco – I have no right, knowledge, or ability to do so! It is more what I sense from the wines he made in the past to the wines he has created in 2012 – they are lovely and with Hillel Manne’s fruit and fruit that Lewis has gathered from the Har Bracha area – they are lovely!

We had the chance to taste through the 2012 barrels and I do not score barrels as they evolve and though I can clearly get a sense for where the wine is and where it is going, I cannot score them like Rogov has done in the past. That said, the two wines that Lewis made for his winery; 2012 Lewis Pasco Merlot from Har Bracha, follows the my strong belief that the Shomron and especially Har Bracha’s merlot is some of the finest Merlot in all of Israel. This particular wine is the perfect combination of Lewis Pasco and Har Bracha Merlot, great acid, fantastic fruit, and sure a hint of date and prune in the background, from sweeter fruit. Still, the wine is full bodied, controlled, broad, sweet, and deep with concentrated fruit and bracing acid – so prevalent in Har Bracha fruit. Time will tell where this wine will go, with leather and more fruit showing over time, and butter, marzipan going to the background.

The next wine is a blend 64% Cabernet Sauvignon from Gvaot, 31% Merlot from Har Bracha, and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon from Shiloh – clearly Shomron grapes, and it shows in the mouth with less black and dirty fruit and more clean and dark red fruit. The wine is huge and unctuous and deep and ready to brawl, but also controlled with ripe fruit and good balance.

The next wine was the 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon, but before we could taste it, Hillel had to take off masser and terumah, tithing of fruit from Israel produce. Once that process was complete we enjoyed two wines that Lewis was part of making with Hillel, the 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2012 Beit El Carignan. The 2012 Beit El Cabernet Sauvignon showed from Lewis Pasco’s touch. Where the 2010 was very old world and herb driven, the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon is new world with dark red and black sweet and candied fruit, along with some nice green notes, but all supported by nice body lines, acid, and great structure. The wine shows long and spicy finish with her, rosemary, and spice showing. As this wine gets oak age on it (not in oak yet), it will round out and show with nice chocolate, quite nice!

Still, the killer wine of the tasting was the 2012 Beit El Carignan! WOW! What a crazy and insane wine! We had the chance to taste the 2011 Beit El Carignan and the 2012 Carignan. Sure the 2011 vintage was VERY different than the 2012 vintage, but you could still see the new 2012 Lewis Pasco all over this wine. It was sweet, ripe, but controlled and WOW, did I say WOW yet? This wine was dense, rich, layered, blue/black/red and crazy all over. This wine is a MUST buy when it comes out. If I could buy the wine now I would! It tastes awesome now, and I am sure it will only get better with a year of oak – BRAVO!!! The wine is filled with blueberry, boysenberry, and blackberry, along with crazy root beer, dried sweet ginger, and lovely dead animal doing a backstroke in my glass! The mouth is full bodied with deep unctuous crazy mouth coating tannin, huge body and great fruit. The finish is filled with cloves, cinnamon, heavy spice, and ripe balanced fruit – BRAVO!

We left the winery and went to see the beautiful Carignan rocky vineyard with Lewis Pasco, Hillel Manne, and his wife Nina Manne. Hillel planted this vineyard by hand on the slope of a lovely and rocky hillside. Hillel being an agriculturalist by profession pointed out many lovely plants that were popping up in rock walls and on the path, all over the place. MANY thanks to Hillel and his lovely wife for taking us in and sharing their story and wines and food with us, it was a joy and treat! Also many thanks to Lewis Pasco for being back in the game – the wine world missed you man- we need good wine makers to continue to push the envelope in Israel and evolve the country to the next level – thanks again.

Tanya Winery

Once we jumped back into our cars we went on the road to the last Shomron winery for the day- Tanya Winery. We have spoken about Tanya winery twice on this blog here and here as well. What can I say; Yoram Cohen is one unique individual winemaker, to say the least! He makes some great wines, wines that are richly oaked, with crazy mouth drying tannins, but one that has more lore about him than he even lets people know about. As I have written about before, Yoram is always the life of the party, and he is also makes some awesome wines. So we were super happy to hear that though Yoram would not be there to greet us, his nephew would be there to show us the visitor’s center and let us taste some of the wines.

I was really happy that we got the chance to do this because it has been a year since we have tasted through some of the Tanya’s wines and we were very interested in seeing what the winery was doing with the 2010 and 2011 vintages. We met Yoram’s nephew, who is the winery’s mashgiach, at the winery and from there we made our way to the visitor’s center. When we got there we were graciously served many wines, and at the very end of the tasting – we had a surprise visit from Yoram and as usual it was a true treat.

Tanya winery has been around since 2001 by Yoram Cohen as a family owned and run winery. In 2007 one of Chaim Feder’s friends tasted Yoram’s wines and was sure that Yoram was the next big thing in wine. Chaim and his partners met Yoram and the rest is history. They upgraded the winery’s future productivity by purchasing new equipment, plantings new vineyards, and leasing more space for the winery. The Winery is named after Yoram’s daughter Tanya, and the labels are named after his other children. The winery currently has 60 dunam of vineyards in and around Ofra, the city where Tanya winery has its winery.

Once we came to the visitors center, we seated ourselves in the tasting room and we started to enjoy a bunch of wines. The first wine we tasted was a barrel sample of the 2010 Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was clearly out of the barrel for sometime, but the wine as still quite lovely.

We had a chance to re-taste the 2009 Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve, Halel, the sad thing is that we did not like the wine as much as we did the last time we had it, but it is still a solid red and black wine, dropping to a B+ to A- with rich tannin and obvious oak influence. The next wine was a new label for the winery, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Shiraz, Reserve, Ivri, a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 15% Shiraz. The wine is unique and lovely, though it is a bit lower level than the Halel, it is still a very solid wine. The wine is filled with dried and candied red and black fruit, kirsch cherry, mouth coating tannin, lovely acid and great balance with leather, cinnamon, and insane spice bringing up the end on the rise.

Indeed the labels for Tanya are now, Ivri, Halel, Eliya, and Enosh. The next wine was the 2009 Tanya Shiraz, Reserve, Eliya. The wine is crazy good, blue, red, black, and animal all over. It is a classic Shiraz with blue and black fruit, with great spice and licorice. The Mouth is full and aggressive, with blue and black fruit, blackcurrant, earth, and dead animal, with cedar, and mouth coating tannin that is concentrated and attacking. The finish is long and with light hints of bitterness, chocolate, leather, tobacco, and licorice. A lovely wine but not a WOW wine.

The final wine is not a wine as much as it is a dessert port style wine that I thought was OK, but the real joy of this part of the tasting was the sighting of Yoram Cohen who joined us at the end of the tasting. It was great seeing the man who continues to seem to produce solid to great wines and to get a chance to better understand what makes the man tick and how he integrates his two passions into a single quest – his family and his wine.

Let me say thanks to Mr. Feder and his family and to Yoram and his family for letting us come so late in the day, during his Hanukkah vacation. The visit and tasting were a true kick as usual.

Well that wrapped up Wednesday but I cannot close this day off without reminding people about the mad drivers that hog the roads in Israel and make driving feel like a game of bumper cars or far worse. On our way back from the wineries we were literally forced off the road and into oncoming traffic by non other than an EGGED BUS! The public transportation company that takes Israeli from here to there. Well in this case they took us from here to the other side of oncoming traffic and did not even blink an eye. I have never been so horrified while driving in my life and was another example of how many times I was freaked out for my life while driving the roads of Israel. Of course this was one crazed driver and in no way am I trying to throw the entire Egged bus driver union under a bus (sorry I could not help myself – Doron you are rubbing off). Thank God I survived this and many other harrowing experiences that really should never had occurred, but who am I to dictate how people drive in Israel. This is more of a warning to Americans when driving in Israel, keep your distance and ignore the madness because it is something you cannot control. With that PSA completed, we now return to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
The next and final day on this week, started off as a simple idea, go to two wineries and head back home, but it turned into a lot more than that rather quickly. The day started off pretty innocently, with me telling my nephew about this wonderful place on earth called Ein Gedi and the dead sea, which really had nothing to do with my agenda – again that being wineries and wine and more wineries. However, as I am oft to do, I fell for the – we can do it slogan, and we tried to slam a quick trek to the main water fall of Ein Gedi into our travels to the most southern section of the Jerusalem Hills – called Arad. We have often spoken about the sensational winery called Yatir! I do not normally drink their wines given their price and all, however, as we spoke at the winery with the head wine maker of Yatir, Eran Goldwasser, Yatir is one of those wineries whose kosher product can stand on its own in the worldwide wine community, without the needing to bow to conventional wisdom and limit themselves to solely selling to the kosher community. More on that in a moment. Anyway, as is the case often, man plans and god laughs, I was hoping to get in and out and sure enough we got in – but it took forever to get OUT!!! I blame my nephew 100% on this one! First of all, it was not on the plans. Second of all, we went the wrong way! Yeah the walk actually has a direction to manage the human foot flow! Either way, we were doomed the second we stepped out of the car. With the number of humans going through there at the same time – it was inevitable that we would run into a Pkak Tnu’a in the middle of a national park – bad idea!!

Once the detour was completed and we returned to the car we knew we were going to be late no matter how fast we drove. Of course, I forgot that the last 10 miles of this drive were up and down a mountain side, from negative sea level (the dead sea is one of the lowest places on earth) to thousands of feet above sea water and than back to sea level – yeay!!! By the time we arrived at our first destination we had to be a good 20+ minutes late and that meant we skipped wines later on – more on that soon.

Midbar Winery

So, I have teased about this winery long enough, and because it was way too long I posted it in a separate thread on all things Midbar Winery and Yaacov Oryah. Of course I cannot help but state that the entire time we spent there I was in awe of the man and his abilities. Still, I hope my wine notes are unbiased as much as possible. Also, I have too great a picture of my nephew in front of the Midbar Winery to not post it! Also, the fact that there are no red wines in the post is not a reflection in any way on Yaacov, but rather a reflection of our tardiness – hint, hint? Enough said?

My many thanks to Yaacov and to the Midbar winery for taking his time to share his knowledge with us and sharing his hard work with us as well.

Yatir Winery

From there we drove the 3 kilometers that separate the Midbar Winery (in the outskirts of Arad) from Yatir Winery (in Tel Arad). You can find out more about our Yatir antics in my other posting here. They truly are one of the most consistent wineries in Israel and one whose product does not ail from the lack of high-end product. All their wines are solid and impressive and can match up well against non-kosher wineries – the world around. Proof was the collection of guy-trip wine lovers from Finland! They love Yatir wines and had to visit the winery. We felt so honored to have the entire tour and then the full tasting of the current Yatir line of wines with the winery’s head winemaker Eran Goldwasser. He was the consummate gentleman and such a humble man – what a breath of fresh air, when compared to some other egomaniac winemakers that incorrectly think they are close to his equal.

It was a grand time and many thanks to Eti, Eran Goldwasser, and Adam Montefiore.

It was at this point that my phone rings – I am not lying, which was constant in Israel, either it rang or buzzed (text message). Gabriel Geller was calling to tell me that there was a wine event in Ashdod! Hey! That is along the way home, unless we wanted to go to Livni, which was not an option, as he was not in the country at that time. So, Ashdod it was! We had a heck of a time finding the event hall, which was actually the gymnasium of a college – there in Ashdod. However, once we found the place we were hooked! There was nothing but kosher wines and it was lovely! I really cannot go through all the wines I had there – that would be another 1000 or more words, as if this is not long enough already! The highlights were:

• 2009 Assemblage wines – the 2009 Orange rind riddled Tzafit was indeed nice, but its 2009 brethren, the Eitan and Reichan we so-so.
• 2011 Recanati Rose – I felt tannin, toast, and animal on this wine. Gil Shatsberg (the head winemaker at Recanati) was shocked and said it was a bad bottle. Personally, I liked it that way and more complex and real Rose – wonder what others have thought of this wine?
• 2004 Ben Haim Merlot, Heritage – best Ben Haim I have ever had, A- score, and really the only real drinkable wine I have ever tasted from this winery. Maybe I have tasted over the hill vintages or bad bottles, but this old vintage was perfect, alive, and lovely. Very tannic, but losing steam in the fruit category – so drink now!!
• The Ugav wines and the Nikanor reserve wines from Jerusalem Gold Winery. All of these are VERY SOLID B+ or B+ to A- wines that all rate for both QPR and quality – Bravo! A small winery showing that good wine can be made at a reasonable price. These are not Yatir wines, but they do not cost that much either. Solid wines for a great price!
• Kinor David wines – this requires a more involved posting. David Edri is one unique individual! His 8 year port (really sweet wine not a port) was lovely! The dry red wines were OK.

There you have it! My second week in Israel – whew! I will expand on some of these wineries in follow up posts with more tasting notes (that is not a threat do not worry).

Well, I am back, landing the day before the Shabbat preceding Shavuot. I was there for my Nephew’s wedding and we stopped off in Paris for two days – that post can be read/seen here. From there we jumped on an EasyJet plane and we were in Israel, but those kind of things do not just happen. In hindsight I would use EasyJet again – simply because there really were few other options. The direct flights were these (listed in cost order); Transavia (I wonder if the count sleeps in luggage), EasyJet, Arkia (Israel’s second largest airline), El Al, and Air France. I tried to use miles on AF – but they were crazy high. So, in the end, EasyJet it was.

EasyJet is one of those airlines that will nickel and dime you all the way to and in the plane. But the best plan (since I had no checked luggage), is to pay for seat assignment and then you get a roll on and backpack. I was stressing about my rollon, it was a bit heavy, and I was worried they would nickle me to death. In the end, the dude at the counter was very nice and they took the rollon – asking to check it, which was fine with me. The trip was fine, as there is a lounge in the CDG terminal, and what we really wanted was just a place to be normal in a land of madness.

Once we got to the gate they were boarding us only to leave us in the gateway for a good 25 minutes – no idea why. Once we boarded, I was asleep, which was a blessing. I had lots to watch – but sleep was what I craved. Once I awoke we pretty much landed, with maybe 20 minutes or so before landing anyway. Once we landed we disembarked quickly, and then well – no one was there at security check. There were loads of people backing into the anteroom. It would be another 20+ minutes before folks actually arrived and started to cut through the backlog.

Once we got through our bags were there already and we were off to get our car – or try! Look I like Budget in Israel, they normally treat me well, but this trip was horrible! They made us wait 1 hour or more and then they treated us in classic Israeli style and gave us a car that was smaller than what we ordered/paid for and then told us to leave them alone! Love people like that!

Anyway, we were off and really that is what I cared about – I wanted to be home! After that, I can say that the trip was really about tasting late 2014 released wines and 2015 wines. Before, I get into that – let’s recap the state of 2015. As stated here, this is what happened in 2015 and after tasting some 40+ wines from 2015 – nothing has changed my opinion.

Well after two world-class vintages in 2001 and 2008, 2015 was a huge letdown. The white and rose are for the most OK, and nice. The white and rose wines are not at the level of 2014 (more on that below), but they are very respectable. The 2015 reds on the other hand is an entirely different subject.

Shmita 2015

A few things going on here – first of all the weather was perfect through August – looking like yet another blockbuster Shmita vintage. Wet winter, tons of rain and no deep freezing, followed by very moderate spring (making for good bud formations). This was followed by temperate highs and nice cool evenings throughout the summer, except for a few spikes here and there, that was all until August! In August nature took a very dark view on Israel – starting with some of the worst highs in the history of Modern Israel, and power consumption that peaked for an entire week that broke record after record. August continued with crazy heat – but it was early September when all hell broke loose. September saw a return of the epic sandstorm – but this time it reached almost biblical proportions in September. Just look at these satellite images – they are crazy!

Overall, the season was not what it was meant to be. The sand storms brought even higher temps, it all unravelled at the end. The funny thing is that – the wineries that pull early, AKA do not produce date juice, were affected far less – like Recanati and Tabor. The ones who pull later or pull from the Galilee – even if they are great wineries – were affected. In some ways it will mean that lower level wines at wineries will have normally better fruit. It will also mean that many wineries will have less of their flagship wines. Of course this is all from what winemakers and wineries have told me so far. Only time will tell to see what really comes out, but agriculturally, it was not a great year.

Clearly the number of vineyards growing grapes this past shmita have gone down, according to many that I spoke with. As the number of haredi jews in Israel continue to grow, along with their desire for better wines, the buying pool for wineries who made wines in 2015 starts to shrink. The hope is that Israeli exports – aside from America which will not import any Shmita wines – will grow to make up the difference. On all my visits I hear that the export, aside from the US, is growing which is great news. Also, the whites and rose sell mostly in Israel just fine – so those will not be a problem for most Israeli wineries. The reds will be interesting, and this will not really appear on their bottom line until a year or more. Time will tell in how wineries will handle this 2015 shmita vintage, but from the lower agricultural success and from the ever shrinking shmita observant wine buyers in Israel.

On a total aside, this shmita had some of the least fertilized and planted farms in the history of the modern state. The number of farmers who did not plant was rather high this past year – and maybe they were lucky. I do not know.

Finally another interesting fact was that most wineries in Israel that did make wine in 2015 used heter mechira, which allowed me to taste through all of them this year – thank you!!! The only one that I know of that used Otzar Beit Din was Yarden which I drink anyway on Shmita years. So be careful not to spit Yarden 2015 wines! The rest of the shmita 2015 wines I have seen are all Heter mechira, but again ALWAYS double check!!!

So with what I read and learned about 2015, I was not expecting too much in terms of good wine. Sure, those that picked in August may have come away ok, but still those wineries wines did not shine in two large blind tastings that we had in Jeru. I do not know why, clearly the vintage to me tasted flat, lacking the balance and acid of 2014. Yeah Yeah, I know, Israel adds acid, of course, but what I am saying is that even with the added acid, it was lacking. All I can say was that I was not impressed overall – which was a 180 degree difference from 2014, where you had to work HARD to screw up a white or rose wine.

The 2015 vintage was more than just flat it also felt jumbled and disjointed. The fruit was not always there and when it was, it was not harmonious with the wine’s other characteristics. To me they felt rushed, almost like a last minute science experiment – that was not fully fleshed out.

In the end, I will let the notes and scores talk for themselves, many I did not even score. Some I forced myself to taste the wine, even though I knew I was going to gag when I tasted them. Such is life! A few clear winners made me happy. The first and clearly the best overall winery of the many that we tasted was Yarden – they continue to impress even in 2015. Next was Vitkin, its first kosher vintage – was Shmita and they did it well. There were a couple of duds, but overall very nice. Next was Gvaot – yeah the Chenin Blanc that was lovely at Sommelier fell apart, the dry-ish Gvaot Gewurztraminer was really impressive – really! Then there was the 2015 Yatir Rose and the 2014 Yatir Viognier – the two best wines of the tastings – white and rose – which is saying a lot! There were a few shockers, including – YES REALLY – a drinkable Ramat Negev Kadesh Barnea wine! In this case it was the 2015 Rose made from 100% Cabernet Franc (different from the Flam this year). Of course – the Flam 2015 white and rose were both lovely – professional to the hilt! Clean, almost methodically so, with impressive precision, and truly enjoyable wines. Same with Tzora – the newly released 2015 Judean Hills white were nice, but not blow me away Tzora kind. The 2015 Shoresh white was really impressive. Also, Bat Shlomo showed well. Castel new white blend was nice, but for the price I would go with other ideas – but worth at least trying once!

Sadly, many others were either just OK, and some were downright undrinkable. None were worth the money – except for the previously mentioned wines above.

I did not get to taste the new 2015 Midbar or Matar wines (other than the 2015 Matar Rose). Along with a few others here and there, like the new 2015 Catsel C Chardonnay, and the new 2015 Tabor Adama II Riesling, and the new Psagot 2015 wines. Hopefully, I will get to taste them on my next trip to israel, whenever that is.

Finally, as described before, 2015 Shmita

Trip Notes

While on the trip – we were in Jeru for the crazy Yom Yerushalayim. WOW! They were making noise in Gan Soccer till 3AM! I was wasted the next day and I had nothing to drink that day! What madness. I hope no one had to go to work the next day on Monday!

Aluma Restaurant

Also, a new restaurant opened right before we arrived – the noise was impressive about this restaurant. The place is called Aluma and it is in the Crowne Hotel in Jerusalem. It is under the supervision of one of the most strict kosher Rabbis – Rabbi Rubin and what can I say the streak continues – Glatt kosher restaurants in Jerusalem SUCK! This was one of the worse one I have been to – really bad!! If you need Glatt kosher in Jerusalem – then stick with Lechem and Baasar (in the old train station in Jerusalem), and/or Gabriels (which JUST reopened after extensive renovations – I have yet to revisit it after them).

Au Deli’s

I was staying in Rechavia and I really enjoyed going to Au Deli’s (HaKeren HaKayemet Le-Israel St 22, Jerusalem, Israel). The food was great and the prices can not be beat! It is simple, great, and service is quick – most of the time

Flam Winery

When I was on this trip I did not know that Flam Winery had released their newer wines. I have written about Flam Winery a few times, and they deserve more press than they get from me or anyone else. They are truly one of a handful of wineries in Israel that make great kosher red wines. This was no exception, though I must say the 2012 Flam Noble is a bit too pushed for me. The entire current Flam lineup was rocking, as usual, including the 2015 blanc and rose – two great wines for Israelis to enjoy today, though the prices are a bit high.

Let’s talk about prices for a second, I posted on my twitter account this awesome link to a CorkScrew Report on Flam Winery. The conversation they have is very candid and very honest. The high cost of kosher wine overall (in the kosher wine industry) is a fact I rail on constantly, yet as said on my Facebook post, there are a few kosher wineries that can get away with it. Flam is clearly one of them, as is Tzora Winery (see below), Castel Winery (new post coming soon), Matar Winery (to some extent – though Pelter Winery is a more clear choice – even if it is not kosher) and Netofa Winery (though Netofa wines are priced lower than all the others).

The higher prices are acceptable by the vaunted wineries because their wines can be sold side by side their non-kosher counterparts and sell well! I loved a line in the article (though not original to Gilad); I don’t know any Kosher country —is this a new country. I first heard that line from Richard Shaffer in this Forward article. Mr. Shaffer runs Israeli Wine Direct, a company that ships Israeli wines directly to consumers. It was started in 2007 by Mr. Shaffer, and in 2008 he shipped his first wines. The wines he shipped were and are still some of the better wines of Israel, kosher or not. In the non-kosher variety; they were importing Flam until Flam went kosher in 2010. They import Pelter wines, the bigger brother of Pelter’s kosher arm; Matar Winery. They also import other non-kosher blockbuster winery; Margalit Winery, and another winery I have heard good things; Shvo Winery. Sadly, I never tasted these wines, but from what I read of Daniel Rogov reviews – they are wines that can stand side by side other non-kosher wines.

To me, the fact that Israeli wineries are good enough to stand on their own (kosher or not) is GREAT news and I hope we see more quality out of Israel, kosher or not!

By the way no matter if Eran Pick is a Master of Wine or Golan Flam has been making wine for 18 years or more, both Tzora and Flam use a consulting winemaker that have served classic French properties for many years. Flam used Christian Le Sommer, former winemaker for Bordeaux first-growth Château Latour and now consulting enologist for many years. Sadly he recently retired and they now are starting up a new relationship with Vincent Dupuch. He has his own chateau in Fronsac, and is working today with the great chateaux in Pomerol; Petrus, Lafleur, L’eglise Clinet, etc. Tzora has been using Jean-Claude Berrouet, of Chateau Petrus, as a consultant. According to the web site, Berrouet says, “My idea is that together with Tzora Vineyards we wish to develop a wine that tells a sincere, authentic story of the local soil and climate through people who share their passion, ability and experience.”

Flam is currently making 120K to 130K bottles, growing slowly with care as they bring more of their Judean Hills vineyards online.
Returning to the wines we tasted; the 2015 Flam Blanc and rose were the first two wines we tasted – ripping acid and great fruit, with incredible precision, clean wines, that are professional and truly refreshing. Those were followed by the 2014 Merlot, then the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by the 2014 Syrah and the 2012 Noble.

The notes will say more than I can say here, but to me the 2013 Cabernet is epic – really great. I keep saying 2013 is the year of red, 2014 reds are pushed all over Israel, nothing new. Even Flam, Tzora, and Castel. With that said, the 2014 Merlot is really impressive, one of the best 2014 reds in Israel that I have tasted so far, though I really love the 2014 Kishors as well! The 2014 Syrah is nice but not the same as the insane 2014 Merlot. Finally, the 2012 Noble is a bit out there for me. It is the first year that Golan threw Syrah into the Noble blend, and I wonder if that varietal is not making it feel a bit wobbly.

My many thanks to Gilad for taking time out of his busy day to meet with me, OM, and AO. Thanks to AO for driving as well!!

Tzora Winery

The other winery we visited – on a different day than Flam was Tzora Winery. I have also posted many times on Tzora Winery, and this time the winery was also releasing new wines, so we thought it would be a good time to go. AO drove again – thanks man, OM and JK came along as well!

If there is a con to Tzora Winery, and this is a stretch, it is the refet (cow farm) next door! OMG, the stench can be nauseating. Thankfully inside it was cool, fresh, and stench free! They did have a whole thing set up outdoors, but with the 100 degree heat and the insane stench – I have no idea what they were thinking about.

The event revolved the release of three new wines, the 2015 Tzora Judean Hills white, a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The next wine was the 2015 Tzora Shoresh White, a 100% Sauvignon Blanc wine. Finally it was the release of the new 2014 Tzora Or, a dessert wine made from iced Gewurztraminer grapes. In between I tasted the 2014 Tzora Judean Hills red, the 2014 Tzora Shoresh red, and the 2013 Tzora Misty Hills.

As stated above, I think Tzora Winery is one of those very rare kosher Israeli wines that can sell side by side their non-kosher counterparts. Their wines are priced a bit high, but the quality is epic and is why I love going to Tzora Winery to taste the wines and see the progress they continue to make.

My many thanks to Eran Pick – MW (Master Of Wine) and Winemaker and General Manager of Tzora, for letting us all come by and taste through the wines. Truly lovely event and many thanks.

Vitkin Winery

Sadly, I did not have the time to visit Vitkin Winery on this trip. However, knowing that I wanted to taste the new whites and rose from Vitkin that were now kosher, I asked Asaf to help me! He was so kind to have the wines hand shipped to AO’s house.

Vitkin has three main lines of wines; Israeli Journey, Vitkin, and Shorashim (the elite wines), and some dessert wines as well. The kosher line started in 2015 and so only the whites and rose are available so far. The rose is in the Israeli Journey line, along with the white Israeli Journey. The other three whites; Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Grenache Blanc are all in the Vitkin line.

What can I say, the wine notes below will say more than I can write here, but all the wines were solid to great! Saying that for a horrible year, at least wine wise anyway – I can call that a huge win for their first kosher vintage!

The clear winners were the Grenache Blanc and the Rose. The other three were a solid B+, but lacked the finesse we saw in the other two.

I hope to write more about the winery when the reds come out. For now, I hope you enjoy the notes below and really – get some Rose and Grenache Blanc they are priced better than most, and really great wines! The Riesling may well need time, but I am not going to trust 2015 wines to hold for a long time. The Israeli Journey and Gewurztraminer (which is pretty dry) are wines that are solid efforts, but not at the level of the first two.

The only other kosher Grenache Blanc I have had was the lovely Hajdu/Makom Grenache Blanc that Hajdu makes every year. The new 2015 is also quite impressive! That said, the Grenache Blanc that Hajdu makes is very different than the Vitkin GB! The Vitkin GB is drier and more lees based. Still, they are both great and it would be great to taste them both side by side blind. Bravo to Vitkin!!! The lees influence comes from having 50% of the fruit sit in 500L French oak barrels.

We tasted the Gewurztraminer along with many other Gewurztraminer wines on the first blind tasting, and while the Gvaot was the best, this was the first time I ever had the opportunity to taste two pretty dry Gewurztraminer in one tasting. I highly recommend getting both and taste them both blind! You will truly enjoy the experience.

My many thanks to Assaf and all the folks at Vitkin for my many phone calls and help with coordinating the delivery!

Final Thoughts

In the end – the 2015 Roses are not really that great, except for the few exceptions. Sauvignon Blanc from 2015 is hit and miss. White blends have shown better but they too are all over the place. If forced to buy a bottle blind and the only choice I had was the color – I would clearly take 2015 white ahead of rose. Other than that – there really is no clear answer. For this reason I will post notes that are not so – shall we say complimentary – but I guess that is what we get when the vintage is really harsh.

My other take away is that these wines are not built to last – NOT EVEN CLOSE! Many that I loved at Sommelier have faded hard and wines we had open – faded at the tasting itself or later that evening. Of course, Rose and light whites are not meant for holding anyway – but please be cognisant of this and buy for drinking that week. If you like buy more for drinking that week as well, and so on. Keeping the wines for long is not on the todo for 2015 whites or rose!

Also, 2013 continues to itself as the year of the red, and of course the 2014 whites are crazy. Nothing I have tasted derails that fact, though there are the few exceptions, like Flam’s 2014 Merlot and Kishor’s 2014 reds.

So, in the end, nothing about my opinion of the 2015 vintage has changed. Also – VERY IMPORTANT is that the 2014 roses from Israel and even France are starting to taper out – so PLEASE drink UP and do not buy more! It does not matter if you have no other choice. Water is better than many of what people are selling as rose wines here in the USA, because of the shmita problem.

The white 2014 are still alive, so stick to the 2014 options I listed here. For Rose in the USA PLEASE stick with 2015 ONLY!! Here is a good list of options of 2015 roses from outside of Israel – there are many and try to enjoy!!

Finally, if I were asked the best Israeli whites from 2014 – the answer would be these beauties:

1. 2014 Carmel Riesling (just released)
2. 2014 Matar Special Edition (released last year)
3. 2014 Castel C (may be their best and released last year)
4. 2014 Yatir Viognier (released early this year and clearly their best as well)
5. 2014 Tzora Shoresh White (was probably the best Israeli white till Carmel released the Riesling)
6. and the 2014 Netofa Latour White.

The wine notes follow below – my many thanks to lots of wineries that helped to get me wines for the tastings. Including Dalton Winery, Vitkin Winery, Covenant Winery, and Bat Shlomo.

Notes from the first blind tasting – in the order they were tasted:

We had a fair number of Gewurztraminer wines in this tasting – with the dry Gewurtz from Gvaot being the winner of the night. Overall the tasting was far more impressive than the next tasting overall.

2015 Vitkin Gewurztraminer – Score: B+ (shmita wine)
Nice sweet and tropical nose with guava, and mango, and almost banana with rose hips, rose notes, very tropical. Nice round but balanced with nice floral notes, peach, kiwi, more banana, and ripe summer fruit, with good acid (wish it had more). Long and spicy finish with cloves, and tart summer fruit.

2013 Carmel Riesling, Single Vineyard, Kayoumi – Score: A- (and more)
This may well could have been the best riesling out of Israel, until I tasted its younger brother the 2014 (see below). The nose on this lovely wine is crazy, with petrol, rich notes of honeysuckle, dried green tea, and fresh cut straw, but now also showing banana. The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is ripping with intense acid, lovely pink grapefruit, lemon, tart green apple, sweet melon, candied pear, that flows into crazy mineral, spice, green notes, and garrigue. The finish is long and spicy with tart fruit, slate, and hints of bitter almonds.

2015 Yatir Rose – Score: A- (and more) (shmita wine)
WOW best rose so far, insane! The nose is incredible, intoxicating and redolent with crazy slate, rock, intense cherry, strawberry, and dried citrus. Wow, what a mouth, really great dried quince, dry cherry, it tastes more of Provence than I could have dreamed, wow! The mouth is rich and layered with concentration and dried fruit. Long and layered finish, both refreshing and elegant, with gooseberry, dried fruit, grapefruit, and citrus zest – BRAVO!!!

NV Les Favieres – Score: A-
This wine started off horribly, really bad, smelled off, tasted off, was a disaster. But with a fair amount of time, the wine is actually quite nice. Not sure why a rose needs that much time to come around, but very nice. The nose on this salmon colored wine is redolent with nice flint, peach, intense funk, followed by lees and mushroom notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is richly acidic and balanced with lovely grapefruit, dried quince, dried apricot, all wrapped in more funk and intense flint. You will either like a wine like this or HATE it deeply. This wine remind me of the 2013 Montaud Gris – which was a polarizing wine as well.

2015 Gvaot Chenin Blanc – Score: B to B+ (shmita wine)
This wine was one of the white wine winners at the 2016 Sommelier, sadly since then it has taken a nosedive like many of the 2015 whites and roses. Nice nose of petrol, and dried fruit with hay and straw. Nice spicy and acidic mouth, it spikes in the middle with mineral, saline, and great spice, but the front and end are flat which is a shame. I hoped for more.

2015 Gvaot Gewurztraminer – Score: A- (and a bit more) (shmita wine)
This is as close as I have tasted to a really dry Gewurztraminer! Really lovely floral nose – WOW!! Lots of honeysuckle, honey, peach, crazy floral nose, even a bit of rose, with rich honeyed notes of fruit and kiwi. Wow what a mouth, rich and layered, with great spice, saline, earth, mineral, with dried apple, dried quince, with layers of floral notes, more nice saline, pith and lemon zest lingering long. BRAVO!!!

2015 Domaine du Castel La Vie – Score: A- (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, with a bit of Gewurztraminer, Viognier, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The nose on this wine is by far the best far – truly intoxicating and redolent, with crazy notes of pink grapefruit, litchi, lemon curd and sweet spices. Wow what a mouth with bracing acid and crazy spice, showing ripe tart lemon, gooseberry, and cut grass with cats piss, along with a fruity attack of pith, nectarines, and lovely tart fruit followed by honeysuckle and rose hip. Really nice wine!

2015 Yarden Gewurztraminer – Score: B+ to A- (shmita wine – Otzar Beit Din)
This was the last wine and thank goodness because it was the sweetest of the bunch, though not semi-dry. The nose is classic, showing nice petrol notes with crazy tropical notes, mango, guava, banana, and more nice tropical notes. Not as dry as I had hoped, with nice depth and weight from the slight residual sugar, with great mineral, yellow grapefruit, pineapple, floral notes of rose hips, and dry notes lingering long, showing saline, mineral, on this semi sweet wine.

Notes from second blind tasting – in the order they were tasted:

This tasting was overall a complete disaster, with one SHOCKING revelation – see below and one of the best wines of both tastings – the 2014 Carmel Riesling. There were two sets of tasting in the second tasting, as there were a total of 26 wines to taste. The first set was the best overall, though the second set had the surprise and the best of the night. THough overall the best wines of the night were mostly from the first set. There are so many duds in this tasting that most felt it a complete failure, but to me finding the surprise and finally getting to taste the 2014 Carmel Riesling made the tasting very good. There were also strong showings from Yarden, Bat Shlomo, Carmel, Vitkin (most of the Vitkin wines we tasted were in the second round), Lueria, and for the best priced wine of the night (that was a good enough quaff) – Teperberg.

2015 Vitkin Israeli Journey Pink, Rose – Score: A- (and more) (shmita wine)
As explained in my previous post – some rose can be Saignee and some can be fruit just for rose. This wine was not Saignee, the fruit was pulled early from dry farmed bush vines of 85% Grenache Blanc and 15% old vines Carignan. The color on this wine is salmon colored. The nose on this wine shows lovely pink grapefruit, floral, with cherry, strawberry, and litchi. Lovely medium bodied wine with a hint of sweet notes, shocking that I loved a sweeter rose, but the acid is insane, with lovely flint, slate, and lovely weight from the sweetness, but the power is balanced well with the pink and yellow citrus, acid, and lovely raspberry. The finish is long and spicy, with rock, and lovely candied lemon and grapefruit. Long and refreshing finish, lovely BRAVO!

2015 Vitkin Israeli Journey White – Score: B+ (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of 30% Old Vine Colombard, 20% Grenache Blanc, 20% Roussanne, 20% Viognier, and 10% Gewurztraminer. This wine is too sweet for me, with residual sugar, pineapple, mango, tropical notes, with a bit of heavy nose of fruit. Lovely acid mouth, with good attack, but the residual sugar is a bit annoying because it lacks other things that would make it complex, it has rich acidity, yellow grapefruit, with peach, very floral, with nice backbone, medium weight, honeysuckle, honeyed notes, with rich acidity that lingers long with nice rich spice, white pepper, cloves. Nice.

2015 Vitkin Grenache Blanc – Score: A- (and more) (shmita wine)
This wine is 90% Grenache Blanc and 10% Roussanne, the fruit was fermented 50% in stainless steel and 50% in large French oak barrels. This is far drier in nature than the only other kosher Grenache Blanc from Hajdu. WOW this is more riesling than Grenache Blanc to me but wow! The nose starts off with great and redolent petrol notes, followed by good funk, dry nose, with tart summer fruit, and spice. Wow! What a great mouth, balanced with great structure, green apple, dried quince, great acid, dried lemon fraiche, intense litchi, dried grapefruit, with great mineral as well. Long and spicy finish with orangella, nectarines, and great body and spice. Cloves, mineral, slate, and crazy acidity that lingers long – BRAVO! Rich elegance and less fruit than which you can imagine from israeli whites.

2015 Dalton Alma Rose – Score: B+ to A- (shmita wine)
The wine is a blend of Grenache and Barbera. Lovely crazy nose, with mad pink grapefruit, rich minerality, saline, and mad citrus abounds. The mouth starts off great, but right after it falls off a bit, still showing good acid and citrus, but brings less with it than I hoped for. Nicely acidic with citrus galore and slate and not much more. Nice!

2015 Recanati Special Edition – Score: A- (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of  80% Viognier and 20% Chardonnay. Very elegant nose, with peach, followed by funk madness, honeyed notes, and rich mineral. Wow, this is nice, not simple, with complexity, but the fruit is not in your face at the start, closed with nice weight and viscosity, interesting. With time the peach, apricot, honey notes, and summer fruit come out and take center stage. The finish fills out with more air, with good acid and nice mineral. Nice!!

2014 Carmel Riesling, Kayoumi – Score: A- to A BRAVO!
This wine screams Alsace – CRAZY!! The nose is crazy, pure funk, petrol, flint, mineral, WOW! Cannot find much fruit on the nose to start but with time peach shows, but who cares! The mouth on this full bodied wine is insane! Layered and complex with rich acidity, dried fruit, dried apple, litchi, floral notes abound, with rich elegance, followed by nectarines, orange, orange zest, bravo! The finish goes on forever, and I mean not stopping with crazy petrol and floral notes lasting all along – WOW!!! One of the best 6 whites in Israel for 2014!

2015 Covenant Israel Rose – Score: B (shmita wine)
This wine held so much promise for me when I had it at Sommelier in Israel. Sadly, by the time I had it, after filtering and time, it showed fruit but not as focused and sure the saline was there but sadly not much else. The nose starts with crazy Bubblegum and alcohol, and cotton candy. The mouth seems all over the place, lots of fruit, saline, but not enough balance to pull it all together.

2015 Vitkin Riesling – Score: B+ (shmita wine)
To be fair, Asaf warned me this wine is not ready, but I am not sure if time will fix this wine, it may, but given the track record of most of the 2015 wines, I would not buy one to hold. Nice enough nose, too much sugar, floral notes, rose, jasmine, honey. Nice enough wine, hints of petrol, with grapefruit, nice rich acid at the start, with saline, and mineral, and good spice. The finish is long with orange and sweet with notes of rose hip and sweet notes and acid lingers long.

2014 Avidan White Tag – Score: B+
This wine is a blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Viognier. Nice funky, smoked, toasty notes, with green apple, creme brulee, butterscotch, and brioche. A nice full bodied wine which is interesting, really dry, not creamy as much as it is spicy and rich, with lots of mineral, and tons of spicy oak, quince, green apple, and spiced pear. Nice and spicy finish with crazy spice and mad toast that is far too spicy, and not balanced well, really nice but too much oak IMHO.

2015 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: A- (shmita wine)
Once again – Bat Shlomo created a solid rose wine, though the price is really high. The nose is closed to start with a bit of mineral, and a bit of red fruit, with time it opens to show rich strawberry, and saline and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is fruity, with pink grapefruit, really nice attack of spice, acid, layers of saline, candied citrus, with crazy pith and spice, cherry, litchi and spiced melon. The finish is long and salty, with mineral, spice, slate, and orange zest – BRAVO!

2015 Bat Shlomo Sauvignon Blanc – Score: B++ (shmita wine)
Bat Shlomo goes 2 for 2 in the rose and white department, solid wines from them indeed for a very hard year. Nice nose that starts off a bit oaky – but really it is the intense spice and smoke that throws me, with great spice, intense, very unique, with cloves, and sharp fruit focus. Sadly, the mouth is not as complex as I had hoped, smoky, spicy, with saline, great attack at the start with cloves, and rich acidity, yellow grapefruit, acid, flint, smoke, and spice. Green apple, dried straw, dragon fruit. Nice balance.

2015 Dalton Rose – Score: B (shmita wine)
What can I say this is a wine that is a bit too sweet for me. It shows too much cotton candy, bubblegum, but also has a bit of peach and strawberry. But in the end the wine is too sweet for me.

2015 Gvaot Rose – Score: B to B+ (shmita wine)
It is another wine that I had at Sommelier that has let me down. It seemed a bit too simple for me. The nose seemed simple with dried strawberry. The mouth was good enough with acid and structure, showing quince, dried gooseberry and grapefruit. OK

—- slight break to reveal the first set of wines and then on to the second set —-

2015 Tabor Chardonnay, Adama – Score: B++ (QPR) (shmita wine)
This is not a blow away wine, but a nice quaff with good acid and structure and a great price. The nose shows nice green notes, with green apple, and summer fruit. Nice simple structure with good quality and nice acid and balance with nice peach, quince, and candied pear. Nice and balanced finish – nice for the price for sure!

2015 Matar Rose – Score: B to B+ (shmita wine)
What can I say, this was blind and that is why I love blind tastings. No way I would have thought a Matar wine could be so plain and empty, so it is. Green apple and not much more. No flaw just not great as well.

2015 Recanati Rose – Score: B++ to A– (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of Barbera and Merlot. This is something I have said before, the Recanati plain rose is better than the Marselan rose in 2015. This is the driest I have ever had the plain Recanati rose and it is enjoyable. The nose is lovely and spicy with strawberry and peach, quite refreshing, showing herb and nice body with raspberry and lovely with attack of ripe tart gooseberry and grapefruit and mad citrus with great spice. The wine is very fruity and a bit of sugar – nice.

2015 Ramat Negev Kadesh Barnea Rose – Score: A- (shmita wine)
This wine was tasted blind, and I will admit it, if I had seen it I would have walked on – right by it. But tasting wine blind is so fun, and you have no idea what is poured and tasting it blind, I thought it was quite nice. The wine is made of 100% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is smelly and stinky, funk, a bit sweet, with a bit of melon and lemon. This is a very unique mouth, not a normal one, with a bit of sugar that helps, but is really well balanced with herb, pith, great acid, focused with grapefruit, candied peach, dragon fruit, strawberry, and spice. Very original finish with funk, and dried quince, nice, with great pith and nectarine! BRAVO!!

2015 Kishor Rose – Score: NA (shmita wine)
Really surprised again, this wine at Sommelier was awesome, but at the tasting it was pure funk and not much else. The mouth was sweet and all over the place – so sad.

2015 Ella Valley Blanc – Score: B+ to A- (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of 41 Sauvignon Blanc, 34% Chardonnay, and 25% Viognier. The wine was interesting when tasted blind, it was not clear what the wine was, and some guessed a blend, while some guessed viognier, simply because the honey and floral notes were too much to miss. The nose starts off very unique to Viognier, with honeyed notes, honeysuckle, peach, then switches to gooseberry, and a bit of residual sugar. The mouth is balanced with crazy rich acid, grapefruit, nice structure, but good attack with good lemon curd and nice spice. Nice finish with tart fruit and refreshing.

2015 Castel Rose – Score: B+ (shmita wine)
This rose is nothing like the the 14, sad, nice enough, with good fruit, gooseberry, strawberry, and spice. Nice enough structure but nothing great with good mineral, spice, searing acid, with a hit of sweetness that gets in the way, nice structure, pink grapefruit, and searing acid. Long and spicy finish – sadly there is not much else.

2015 Lueria Pinot Gris – Score: A- (shmita wine)
tasting this blind as we did, we thought it was a Sauvignon Blanc. The nose starts off with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc nose, with gooseberry, flint, nice grapefruit, cat’s pee, very classic with dry straw. The mouth lacks a bit of the attack and acid, more elegant than aggressive, but still well balanced, with great spice, cloves, pepper, and crazy acid, yellow grapefruit, with nice pith and smoke. Nice!

2014 Ariel Rose – Score: NA
Sorry I could not find much good here to talk about.

2015 Avidan Rose – Score: NA (shmita wine)
Once again, there was really nothing here that I could write positively.

2015 Teperberg Vision dry white – Score: B+ (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, and French Colombard. The nose is nice and stinky with funk, cats pee, simple notes overall but nice. Nice simple mouth with good acid and basic structure.

2015 Tabor Rose, Adama – Score: A- (QPR) (shmita wine)
Sadly, this wine is starting to lose its steam – start drinking up! This wine is made from 100% Barbera. The nose on this lovely salmon colored wine starts with lovely gooseberry, kiwi, sour cherry, raspberry , intense grapefruit, and great floral notes. The medium bodied wine shows a lovely mouth with good saline, a lovely intensity that comes out with time, balanced well with lovely acid, great flint, nice quince and peach with stone fruit and nice pith. The finish is long and spicy with green olives, earth, with nice dried apple, pith, and great cloves and spice.

2015 Yarden Pinot Grigio – Score: B++ to A- (shmita wine – Otzar Beit Din)

This is another wine that is showing less than what it did at Sommelier. It is not quite as good, but still nice. The nose does show that classic flint and smoke that I get from Leuria PG and others, along with the lovely gooseberry, and peach. The mouth on this wine is bracing and refreshing, but not much else, showing nice pink grapefruit, lime, and more mineral. Very nice – remember this is Otzar Beit Din wine!

Tzora Winery Visit

2015 Tzora Judean Hills White – Score: B+ to A- (shmita wine)
Lovely nose of peach and green apple with great yeasty notes and a bit of grapefruit. Nice medium weight with great acid and attack showing good citrus, pear, mango, and kiwi but balanced and controlled with good structure and spice. Pure citrus focus on the finish with nice pith and elegance. Spices and lemon linger long.

2015 Tzora Shoresh White – Score: A- (and more) (shmita wine)
Pure sauvignon blanc. Wow what a nose, classic sb nose with cat piss, grapefruit, gooseberry, citrus, grass, straw, wow!! Lovely medium bodied mouth that comes at you in layers, intense but refined and controlled with great saline, green apple, citrus, nectarines, lovely structure with great pith and mineral, slate and kiwi lingering long. Bravo!

2014 Tzora Shoresh Red – Score: A- (and much more)
Lovely nose of ripe fruit with great mineral and earth, rich spices, green notes, and red and black fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine is beautiful, with great control and far less heat than other 2014 reds from Israel, showing great complexity and extraction, with great blackberry, plum, raspberry, lovely foliage,  with great graphite, sweet notes, really rich extraction and lovely hints of blueberry and roasted meat and toast. The finish is long and green and red with great spices, cloves, nutmeg, and herb with rich coffee, great acid, and lovely mineral, bravo!!

2014 Tzora Judean Hills Red – Score: A- (and a bit)
This wine is a blend of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, 20% Petit Verdot, and 15% Merlot. The nose on this wine shows dark and red fruit, with earth and elegance. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is round and balanced with good blackcurrant, cherry, and red fruit with mineral, hints of blue fruit, dirt, along with searing acid, graphite and lovely spice, with a plush body, great fruit structure, and tannin that comes together nicely with great acid and spice. The finish is concentrated but controlled, with chocolate, crushed herb, basil, and tarragon. Nice!!

2013 Tzora Misty Hills – Score: A- to A
The wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Syrah. Lovely elegant nose with mushroom, dirt, mineral and herb. Wow what a body bravo, with crazy layers of concentrated spice and green notes, foliage with tobacco, mint, mineral and graphite followed by scraping acid and mineral, with blackberry, cassis, and tar, all balanced with mouth coating tannin and loamy dirt, impressive. The finish is focused and rich with black fruit jam, intense focus, with more dirt, tobacco and loam. BRAVO!

2014 Tzora Or – Score: A- (and more)
Pure gewurztraminer, picked late and then frozen in lab. Lovely floral and sweet nose with great tart fruit, sweet mango, pineapple, with very sweet candied melon, candied peach, litchi, and citrus notes. Full bodied and layers with concentrated fruit, ripe honeysuckle, honeydew melon with rich sweetness from ripe candied summer fruit and great structure that lingers long. Great balance of sweet and acid with not too much heat but still has a lovely sweet fruit and body attack. BRAVO!

Flam Winery Visit

2015 Flam Blanc – Score: A- (shmita wine)
This wine is a blend of 64% Sauvignon Blanc and 36% Chardonnay. This wine is showing its deep SB roots with a lovely nose of gooseberry, grapefruit, floral notes, with crazy spice, fresh cut grass, rich herb, and nice lemon and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely and focused, with a refreshing and tart approach, very polished and professional, showing litchi, mango, with great acid. A lovely crisp wine with great bite and tart pineapple, yellow/green plum with nice citrus and nectarines. Long and crisp finish with tart fruit and nice pith. NICE!!

2015 Flam Rose – Score: A- (shmita wine)
This is the first year where the rose is not made from Cabernet Franc alone, this year the wine is a blend of 52% Cabernet Franc and 48% Syrah. The nose starts of with lovely juicy strawberry, raspberry, with peach and guava. The mouth is tart and shows currant and blue fruit (from the newly added Syrah) with lovely tart gooseberry and pink citrus. Lovely slate and pith with crazy classic rock, saline, and slate and mineral. Very impressive with raspberry juice and tart cranberry lingering. A really nice effort, especially given the how horribly most of the 2015 rose wines have been.

2014 Flam Classico – Score: A- (and more) (QPR) (TASTED on a previous visit)
This wine is a lovely blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc, 16% Merlot, 13% Petit Verdot, and 7% Syrah.
Crazy ripe but controlled with great raspberry and blackberry, cranberry, with rich dirt and earth and spice. Lively ripe and mouth coating with great balance and structure with juicy black and red fruit with earth and mouth coating tannin that is mineral based and great acid. Lovely and juicy finish, with nice butterscotch, graphite showing great jammy fruit balanced well with nice acid, spice, and chocolate. Nice!!

2014 Flam Merlot, Reserve – Score: A- (and so much more)
Sadly, this will be the last year the Merlot Reserve will be from the Galilee (at least for now anyway) as the vineyards were ripped up and next year they will be using grapes rom the Judean Hills. The nose on this wine is old world in all the right ways, with a twist of Israel. The nose starts off green with hot notes, warm notes with sweet dill and tobacco, with green and black fruit. Nice full body, that with time calms down, to show ripe but controlled fruit, with raspberry, dark plum, great saline, olives, nice green notes, showing blackberry and great spice, rich and controlled and impressive, layered and concentrated, with cloves and rich elegance. Long and spicy with great coffee and foliage and mushroom, with spice galore. Old world with new world fruit. Bravo!!

2013 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve – Score: A- (and so much more)
What a beautiful and redolent nose this wine has, showing black fruit perfume, tobacco, tar, plum, reminds me of the Yarden wines of old. The mouth is another old world wine in new world clothing, full bodied and extracted with rich attack, impressive with layers of dark fruit and rich saline, olives, with great spice, great control with mouth coating tannins that give way to blackberry, hints of blueberry, and plum with great roasted herb. Lovely rich extracted finish with dark chocolate, lovely mineral, graphite, dirt, with great balancing acid, cloves and basil with almond pith on the long finish. BRAVO!!

2014 Flam Syrah, Reserve – Score: A- (and some)
Lovely nose of blueberry, and roasted animal with lots of white and black pepper, great spice, showing green notes as well. A rich and impressively layered wine, richly extracted, ripe and spices galore, followed by roasted herbs, followed by saline, blackberry and dark blackcurrant, with impressive mouth drying tannin, followed by sweet oak and rich spices. Long tar and rich earth finish, with dark chocolate and rich elegance, with rich fruit and spice coming together to prove Israel has the goods to be both new and old world in a bottle. Bravo!

2012 Flam Noble – Score: A-
I asked how the Noble comes to be and was explained that each plot in vinified separately, and then scored blindly and then ranked based on those scores and historical scores for those plots as well. Then the blending trials begin and out comes the reserves and then Noble. This Noble is new in a way because it now includes Syrah, which for me I think detracted from the purer Bordeaux fruit. This wine is a blend of 67% Ben Zimra Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Syrah, 11% Merlot, and 11% Petit Verdot. Vinified 20 months in mostly new French oak and some older french barrels as well. They were all vinified separately and then blended and then bottle aged for a year or more.

The nose is ripe and intoxicating, with crazy black notes, rich extracted tar, syrah helps a bit with the blackcurrant making a big presence, along with roasted herb, butterscotch, with tart and elegant fruit. The mouth on the wine is ripe and slightly pushed with elegance, richly extracted, but the ripe black fruit is center stage with sweet and spicy oak, along with some green notes as well, tea, with ripe blackberry, tobacco and basil. Long and green finish with great dill notes, followed by rich ripe fruit, dark chocolate, tar, and more ripe than either the 10 or the 11. It is very new world and a bit too much for me.

This post is an update to my previous article on the kosher rose wines of 2017. Sadly, not much has changed, yes a few more options have been released, but shockingly some are still not here, even as the official summer season has begun! Come on, guys! The good news is that we have a new winner for 2017, though it falls apart very quickly, so open it and drink it all up ASAP! As I have stated below, I have yet to find a single rose from the 2016 vintage, that I could think would last through the summer months.

Also, there are still another seven Rose wines I would love to taste, but some are not here and some are actually here, but not yet being released. Those are the 2016 Jezreel Rose (Finally in the SA, but not yet available at kosherwine.com, the online store I buy almost all my wines now because of free shipping). Along with the Galil Rose (It is here in the USA – but need to get my hands on it – but it is available at kosherwine.com), The 2016 Elvi Wines Rose, the Terra de Seta Rose, the 2016 Matar Rose, the 2016 Gvaot Rose, and the 2016 Kadesh Barnea Rose.

I thought about repeating the text from my previous post on Rose wine, but I decided against it. So, please read that before continuing on here. I will be reposting all of the wine notes, here along with the five new wines roses that I tasted as well.

However, what I did want to talk about here, beyond the five new Rose wines, is rose wine styles, and examples of each from the wine notes below.

Rose Wine Styles

When I think Rose or Sauvignon Blanc, I think classic Provence and New Zealand. I think lithe, ethereal, but packed with acid, mineral, fruit, and lovely terroir. That is what I like in Rose, but there is another style, it is the fuller bodied rose, NO not those disastrous red wines that want to be a rose, those are just horrible – Beaujolais want-to-be.

No, this is more like the 2016 Psagot Rose, that wine is a full bodied acid core wine, but it is not the classic Provence style rose. That is is no way an affront to this wonderful wine, when the bottle is good, no it is more a description of what the wine is like.

If you are looking for a wine that you can enjoy with a steak or a burger than you would be a wine like the Psagot, though to me the best rose out right now of that style is the newly released 2016 Shirah Rose. It reminds me so much of the 2013 Rose, which was a true joy.

So, here are my recommendations based upon the wines I have tasted:

1. 2016 Ramon Cardova Rose, is the best rose so far, but it is not a Provence style wine, it is more of a tweener.
2. The 2016 Chateau Dubois is the best French rose I have tasted so far, but it is a clear non-Provence style rose.
3. 2016 Chateau Roubine la Vie, is the best French classic Provence style rose.
4. 2016 Ramon Cardova Rose is the best Spanish rose (that I have had the chance to taste so far, sadly I have yet to taste the new 2016 Elvi Rose)
5. The 2016 Shirah Rose is the best USA rose. It is not a Provence style wine, it is a massive wine but a really fun one.
6. The 2016 Netofa Rose is the best rose from Israel, it is as close to a Provence style wine I have found so far in Israel.
7. The 2016 Psagot Rose (when it is on) is the best full bodied rose wine from Israel.

Rose winemaking approaches

If you read the previous article, you would have read that there are classically three ways to make Rose; Maceration, Saignée, and blend.

The interesting thing we are seeing is a slight variation to the rose making – that is after they make the rose, using any of the aforementioned approaches, they are adding in some white wine! This is straight up genius! Why? Because as explained in the previous post, red grape juice has very few phenolics in it! The real phenolic powerhouse – for red wines, are the skins! White wine does not need skins to give it their phenolics, they have it innately from the juice alone. So, when you take red grapes and essentially crush them and bottle them, with minimal grape contact, what you get is a fun wine, that has very few phenolics in it. So, you have a few options, either let the liquid sit longer on the grape skins, thereby improving the phenolics, but that takes away from the classic rose look, as skin contact turns the juice darker. So, if you want more phenolics and less grape skin contact to keep the classic rose color, you can add in white wine!

The Ramon Cardova is a perfect example of this. As is the Elvi Rose (a wine I have not tasted), and the Jezreel Rose, another wine I have yet to taste. These three wines all added in different white wines, and it is a clear bump in the correct direction, but to the purists, it is not cool! I cannot speak to the purist’s issues, and yes, I can see that the Cardova is not a classic Provence wine, but it is a very enjoyable summer wine, and in the end, that is what rose to me, is all about!

Enjoy

Make sure you find what you like, the style that suits you, and then please enjoy lots of Rose this summer!

The wine notes of the wines I enjoyed can be found below:

2010 Yarden Rose, Brut – Score: A- to A
I have just stated above that rose wine should never be aged, but this is different, this is sparkling wine and it ages beautifully. This wine is still very young with an impressively aggressive mouth and mousse, it needs time to calm down and integrate, maybe best in a year or two. The nose on this lovely dark salmon colored wine is lovely and restrained with flint, dirt, smoke, and ripe quince. The mouth is intoxicating and demands your attention, the mousse attack is crazy, the small bubbles are lovely and well balanced with intense searing acid, that flows into cherry, raspberry, lovely gooseberry, pink grapefruit, and lovely spice. The finish is long with brioche, yeast, with more mousse attack, mineral, and sweet spices lingering long. BRAVO! Best from 2018 to 2024.

Psagot Rose so far this year – I have tasted it three times and I have had bottle variation. This is not only my opinion, others have seen it as well – I am not sure what is going on here.

2016 Psagot Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
Lovely nose with a great focus of spice and good raspberry, strawberry, and lovely grapefruit. Wow mouth, really impressive, super focused with crazy acid and spice, classy with orange and nectarines in the background, with good currant and white pepper in the foreground, with great focus and lovely cloves with tart fruit, pith, and red tea.

2016 Psagot Rose – Score: B to B+
We tasted this blind and when we saw what it was – we were shocked, as we had tasted this wine a few weeks earlier and it was lovely (note is above), clearly there is some bottle variation going on. The nose on this wine is nice with strawberry and mineral and not much else. The mouth is more focused, with a good pop, nice acid, good enough body to match, but lacking a balance, crazy manufactured rose, with so much acid and not much else. With raspberry and strawberry coulis.

2016 Tabor Rose Adama – Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
I need to stress something about this wine, it is NOT a wine that will have a long life. This wine dropped out after a few hours of being open, which we did when tasting it blind. This wine is super fragile, and I doubt it will last the summer.
The nose on this wine is a cotton candy madness, with a very fruity madness, lots of candied fruit, bubble gum, with mint, nectarine, and sugar-coated candied raspberry. The mouth is rich, layered, and really focused, showing good acid, intense fruit attack with lovely grapefruit, guava, lychee, candied kiwi, and intense mineral, slate, spice, crazy saline, and lovely long finish.

2016 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: B to B+
The nose is really muted, not really alive, with some red fruit, and apples. The mouth is round and juicy, with nice tart fruit, really acidic and focused but with little to no fruit, with a bit of kiwi, and grapefruit. The finish is long and tart. The wine lacks complexity, the mouth is almost hollow, with bombastic acid, it is all acid and not much more.

2016 Dalton Rose – Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
This is their driest and best rose Dalton has released so far. The nose on this wine is a nice slightly sweet nose, with raspberry coulis, strawberry, and cream, with nice spice, cinnamon, earth, and floral. The mouth is nice and round, good acid, good red licorice, with great grapefruit, yellow citrus, cloves, crazy acid focus, well balanced, fun, easy drinking, with pith, spice, mineral, saline, tart red fruit lingering long.

2016 Chateau L’Oasis Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: B to B+
Lovely green, earth, mineral nose, with great saline, lime, lemongrass, and citrus city. The mouth is lovely, medium body, but lacks the pop that I crave, it has basic acid, but not enough focus. The finish is long with pith, and mineral lingering long.

2016 Chateau Roubine Rose – Score: B+ to A-
OK, before the hate mail starts coming, this is a nice rose, but it pales in comparison to the 2015 vintage. Actually, having tasted most of the kosher rose out there this year, the 2015 Chateau Roubine has yet to be eclipsed this year. So, does that make this a bad wine, no? It simply makes it a wine that I will buy again, but one that is not as good as last year.

The nose starts off with all the right things, sick mineral, saline, saline, lovely gooseberry and great strawberry. The mouth is where things go astray, the wine is nice, but it lacks that focused acid, it has more weight than in 2015, showing more like an Israeli rose than a Provence rose, with good peach and pink grapefruit, good orange pith and nice spice. The finish is long and spicy with more mineral, tart strawberry, pith, and cloves lingering long.

2016 Covenant Red C Rose – Score: B+ to A-
Sadly, this time the RS (residual sugar) really bugged me, and it did not score as well. The nose on this wine is filled with strawberry heaven, with bright fruit, ripe grapefruit, heady lemongrass, and rich cloves. The mouth is lovely with good acid, but RS that bugs me too much this time, with great spice, rich lemon, and great citrus, giving way to ripe red fruit, life saver raspberry, with sweet notes of honeysuckle that is balanced by good acid and spice. Long, spicy, and tart finish with crazy tart citrus, nice citrus pith, sweet notes abound and lack that balance I had a month or two ago.

2016 Chateau Bellerives Dubois Rose – Score: A- (Crazy QPR) (mevushal)
This nose is very nice, with pure gooseberry and kiwi heaven, guava, strawberry, and crazy fruit, with lovely mineral, and herb. The mouth is awesome, truly rich, layered, and controlled, with layers of dirt, saline, acid, and good fruit, like a sauvignon blanc but in a rose format. Awesome finish wit a crazy acid lingering, with good mineral, slate, and great tart fruit lingering long. Nice!

2016 Chateau Laurier Rothschild Rose: Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
Very interesting nose, crazy Flint, tobacco, crazy smoke/charcoal, with hints of red berry, and lots of green notes, and herb. Wow, what a mouth, crazy acid, insane mineral, saline, nice flint, with rich grapefruit, currant, almost tannin like, dark cherry, almost like someone dropped a bit of red wine into this wine, with lovely balance, bracing acid, gripping, and enjoyable. Lovely pith lingers, with solid mineral, and some fruit.

2016 Ramon Cardova Rose: Score: A- (GREAT QPR)
Another reserved nose, but nice, with white pepper, floral notes, mounds of marzipan, showing flint, mineral, candied fruit, life saver, very nice. Good mouth, really nice, acid bound, not crazy, but very respectable, with perfect balance, lovely citrus, grapefruit, pineapple, nectarine, with good guava, tangerine, really nice, with good mineral, earth, good charcoal, flint, and currant, with pith lingering long.

2016 Borgo Reale Rose: Score: B+ (mevushal)
The nose is interesting, showing hand lemon soap, with candied lemon pie. The mouth on this wine is rich, layered, with lots of body, no huge pop of acid, but balanced, with good fruit focus, of strawberry, dirt, floral notes, good drinking and enjoyable wine, with nice grapefruit, candied red berry, with good fruit pith, gooseberry, and vanilla. The finish is long and tart, sweet, but balanced.

2016 Twin Suns Rose – Score: B (mevushal)
This is a red wine that is watered down, that is the best I can say. The mouth on this wine is manufactured, sorry, not for me. The acid is so over the top, with no balance to the fruit.

2016 Kos Yeshuos Rose: A- (Not publically available)
This vintage is very nice, but not akin to the epic 2015 vintage. Lovely nose, really ripe fruit, marzipan, flint, mineral, good earth, currant, and dried peach. Bravo! The mouth is balanced, nice, earthy, controlled, richer bodied, and nice ripping acid, with pineapple, lovely dried currant, intense fruit pith, drenched in tart cherry, with more lovely tart summer fruit. The finish is long and mineral-bound, saline, and lovely tart fruit lingering.

2016 Domaine du Castel Rose: Score: A-
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 20% Cabernet Franc. The nose is
lovely with lychee, guava, gooseberry, mounds of floral notes, with dirt, mineral city, slate. The mouth on this wine is layered, controlled, with good focus, not over the top, but really good acid that is popping, easy drinking, and it can go with lots of food from its fruit structure, lots of sauvignon blanc stylings, with vanilla, and strawberry, followed by earth, and mounds of pith. Bravo!! Fruit pith and acid lingering long.

2016 Dalton Alma Rose, Coral: Score: B
Lovely nose, sweet dill, lots of oak (not fun on rose), with mounds of vanilla, and good earth. The mouth is nice, but the oak overpowers, with good acid, with some fruit. People may like this, but not me. Unbalanced.

2016 Vitkin Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine is a blend of Grenache Noir and Carignan. The nose on this wine is lovely,
very flinty, earthy, rich with strawberry, floral notes galore, peach, and lychee. The mouth is lovely, with crazy mineral, slate, saline, lovely acid, rich earthy, lovely tart gooseberry, with ripe fruit, but perfect control, lovely, showing peach, currant, nice rich slate, rock, with good flint and lovely kiwi, gooseberry, and grapefruit. Bravo!!! An elegant wine.

2016 Flam Rose – Score: B+
This wine is a blend of mostly Cabernet Franc with some Syrah. The nose on this wine starts with lovely strawberry, ripe raspberry, with gooseberry, and nice spice. The mouth on this wine is round, with good spice, but it lacks the needed acid to make the wine work, along with candied currant, dried quince, and peach. The finish is long and spicy with herb, orange pith, and Orangina.

2016 Gilgal Rose – Score: NA
This wine tastes like a red wine that was cooked, with acid added and then watered down. Not fun

2016 Yatir Rose – Score: B+
This wine is a blend of 67% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, and 3% Viognier. The nose is really nice, old world in style, with strawberry, raspberry, creme, lovely grapefruit, with a lovely feminine and perfumed scent. Wow, what a letdown, the nose was intoxicating and then it went downhill really fast, showing not enough acid, almost hollow, with good saline, and mineral, and red berries and not much else.

2016 Chateau Roubine La Vie (QPR) – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine comes in a beautiful Provence-styled bottle, a winning bottle in terms of its bottle and its content, at least so far in 2017. At the start, the bottle is pure pineapple and peach. With time, the wine changes and becomes one of the better and maybe top two roses on the market. With time the Rose opens to show mineral, pineapple, nectarines, kiwi, honeysuckle, and floral notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine needs time to open, but when it does, it shows rich peach, creme, with lovely saline, mineral, earth, followed by grapefruit, white plum, backed by searing acid, and rich structure that handles lots of food, followed by earth, and fruit pith. The finish is super long, backed by green tea, lovely sweet yet tart balanced fruit, all centered with fun summer fruit. Bravo!

2016 Sainte Beatrice, Cotes de Provence – Score: B to B+
The nose is very nice with classic Rose notes or strawberry and creme, raspberry, citrus, with peach, and lovely floral notes, rose hip. Where the nose was lovely, the mouth fails, with lovely pith and red fruit, but the mouth is too round and lack the piercing acidity I need to make me happy. The finish is long with more pith, mineral, and some slate. Bummer.

2016 Shirah Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine needs to be aerated to open up its nose and to remove some of the lingering chemical notes, but do not let this deter you from enjoying this lovely wine! This wine reminds me so much of the 2013 rose, epic and screaming acid based. The nose on this wine is classic Cali rose, with ripe strawberry, raspberry, with rich peach, and lovely floral notes. The mouth on this wine has a lovely body, with a great acid punch, with rich fruit red berry focus, followed by lovely citrus, grapefruit, and nectarines. The finish is long and red berry, with more acid, lovely fruit pith that lingers long, followed by light tannin, sweet hints of pineapple, and lovely acid lingering long. BRAVO!! This is a top 3 non-Provence style rose for 2017.

2016 Hajdu Grenache Rose – Score: B to B+
Sad, I had so much hope for this wine, but it shows blue notes, sweet pineapple, sweet vanilla, and a few floral notes. The mouth is nice and round, but too flat for me, with sweet raspberry, strawberry, pineapple, and nectarines. The finish is long and spicy, with sweet fruit notes, and nice mineral.

Available only in Israel

2016 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: B+ to A-
Lovely rose hips, orange blossom, really nice with great tart fruit and gooseberry and grapefruit. Nice medium wine, but lacking the bracing acid, with good spice and lemon, with pepper and tart spicy notes, passion fruit and guava. Nice long finish with good acid and slate galore.

2016 Domaine Netofa Rose – Score: A- (Great QPR)
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 20% Mourvedre. Yes, this is the new Grenache that came online this year, and I really hope it helps the Rose last longer.
The nose on this lovely Gris wine, s redolent with strawberry, crazy raspberry, peach, apricot, showing crazy bright notes, lovely floral notes, spice, with lavender, smoke, rose and flint. Wow, what a joy of a mouth, the medium bodied wine is popping with acid, with rich dried aromas, lovely currants, tart summer fruits, showing dried lychee, gooseberry that goes on and on, with pink grapefruit, and lovely tart juicy fruit. The finish is long and crazy tart, with rich flint and chalk. Lovely fruit pith. Bravo!!!

2016 Domaine Herzberg Rose, Coteaux de Sitrya – Score: B+ to A-
This is a fun wine that shows a unique nose with great spice, strawberry, with hints of blueberry, and cloves. The mouth on this lovely medium body has very nice acid and solid fruit focus, showing a nice effort, with dark currant, showing a good balance, though not a classic Provence wine in any way, showing a more rich mouthfeel. Nice grapfruit, citrus on the finish with cloves and nutmeg. Nice.