Well 2011 has come and gone and I am finally getting the chance to write up the 2011 International Food and Wine Festival (IFWF) that was held at the Herzog winery in Oxnard. In some ways it was the best ever and in some ways it was not. To start, 2011 was the fourth incarnation of this event and each time it has been well worth the trip. This past year’s event, in many ways, was the best. The food, as usual, was fantastic! The food is catered by Chef Todd Aarons, the head chef of the Tierra Sur, the world-class restaurant that is in the Herzog Winery. As usual, the food that Mr. Aarons and his staff prepare the event is bite size or a bit larger format, food that easily fits on a small plate. Essentially, think of them as normal or slightly large tapas, depending upon the food in question. As usual, the tapas were just divine, and as usual I always get the scarps. I say that because, I want to finish tasting the wines before I eat the awesome food, which would seriously inhibit my ability to write coherent wine notes. Of coarse, there is never a lack of good wines to taste, so essentially, I always eat whatever is left over as they are winding up the food and wine service. It is a mad rush to get some pictures and eat some food – truly sad, and totally my fault!

This past year’s event was even larger than its predecessors. As usual, the Herzog winery was fully decked out and expanded in the back by adding on a few heated tents. Normally, the French and Israeli wines were poured from the back room and the tent, behind the back room, which itself abuts to the parking lot behind it. This past year, they expanded further by pouring only Israeli wines from the entire back areas, moving Capcanes to the Spanish and Italian section, and moving all the French wines to its own room – the Herzog Situation or Conference room, which is off to the right from the entrance, essentially on the other side of the building. Some may look at that and say they relegated the French wines to the “basement”, but the way I see it, Royal has SO MANY wines to show off from its portfolio, and only so much room in the winery that they chose the best holistic group they could that would not look too small or take up too much room, in the conference room, and that fell to the French wines.

This was the first of the, not so good points, and that was the lack of communication around this change of venue for the French wines! I totally understand the complexity of it, and there was signage. However, given the drastic change that was in affect, a bit more information for some would have been good. I found myself telling many people about the new location for French wines, that they thought were AWOL for 2011. That said, I think this will not be an issue in 2012, as the event will be moving from Oxnard and the Herzog Winery to LA at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Century Plaza!

Of coarse, with all the room taken up by wines and wonderful food, there still needs to be place for the humans and this was issue number two, which again will be fixed in 2012. That being, there was very little room to move about as the evening moved on. I found myself having to find a corner to just write notes, let alone not to feel claustrophobic, which is a problem I do not normally exhibit. That said, I hope that the new venue will allow the event to stretch its wings and soar to higher heights with more space and more opportunities to showcase its wonderful food and wines.

I truly believe that 2011, was the first year where the wines totally out shone the food, excepting for 2008, when the French wines were truly off the hizzy. This is not in anyway a slight to Aaron’s food, rather it is a compliment to Royal wine portfolio, that has now reached world class, and something I am sure they are extremely proud of. I do not need to repeat the story of Herzog, which can be found in the middle of last year’s post, as that would be just repeating myself. I just hope you read this and it grabs you enough to buy some tickets that are going really fast for the 2012 version of the International Food and Wine Festival which will be happening in LA this year – enjoy the notes. I need to add my personal thank you to the entire Royal and Herzog staff for putting together such a great show, and much luck on your new 2012 event!

The wine notes follow below, in the order they were tasted:

2007 Domaine l’OrDeLine Chateauneuf du Pape – Score: B+ to A-
Would love to know how Herzog pulled this one off, and who is the negotiant for this wine.  I found a lovely write-up about the winery and the name, anyway, on to the note.
The nose on this light gold colored wine is hopping with kiwi, grapefruit, lemon, gooseberry, mineral, apple, and white peach.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with white fruit, tropical fruit, and mineral.  The mid palate is round and balanced, with nice spice and mineral.  The finish is long with clean yet round flavors of of fruit, spice, mineral, and bramble. The wine is so classic in its minerality and clean lines yet ripe and luscious.

2009 Pascal Bouchard Chablis – Score: B+
The nose on this straw colored wine has peach, apricot, nice mineral, and grapefruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is bright with bracing acidity and nice dirt and mineral background that adds a bit of complexity. The finish is long and tart and lingers nicely on the palate, with the dirt and grapefruit/peach showing well on the finish.

2009 Chateau Maime Cotes de Provence – Score: B++
The nose on this light rose colored wine with a tint of orange is rich and slightly sweet with quince, peach, kiwi, fig, strawberry, and light mineral and spice. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine is lightly sweet and unique with a rich and zesty mouthfeel. The wine is balanced and tart with nice spice. The finish is long and spicy with tart quince, strawberry, and mineral lingering long.

2009 Domaine Lafond Tavel – Score: B++
The nose on this pink/rose/cherry colored wine is a lovely rose with a bit more punch than your average rose colored wine! The nose starts with peach, strawberry, currant, raspberry, tart and bright dark cherry, along with rich dirt and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine again channels its nose with a more rich bodied wine than your average Rose, with bright and rich fruit, while being nicely balanced with light tannin, bright fruit, and mineral. The finish is long, spicy and bright, with rich red fruit and nice mineral. This is a unique Rose and one that is quite lovely.

2004 Chateau Puligny Montrachet – Score: C
The nose on this light gold colored wine is showing obvious signs of reduction, stink and oxidized nose, quince, green apple, peach, apricot, light oak, and grapefruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine again shows oxidized reduction, with still nice acid and loamy dirt. The finish is long and spicy with peach, tart green apple, and green tea. Sadly this wine, and a few other bottles that I also tasted is almost not score-able, really just cooking wine.

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 Baron Herzog Pinot Grigio – Score: B+
The nose on this straw colored wine is nice with green tea, lemon, green apple, and kiwi. The mouth on this light bodied wine is nice with a tart and rich mouth of fruit and nice balanced acid. The finish is long and nice with ripe grapefruit, green tea, and tart fruit. This is a nice quaffer that would go well with light fish dishes and salads.

2009 Covenant Lavan Chardonnay – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this straw to light gold colored wine is rich and toasty, with lemon citrus, fig, creme brulee, rich toast, melon, honeysuckle, peach, apricot, and brioche. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and mouth coating with white fruit, toasty oak, and nice balanced citrus. The finish is long and spicy with rich toasty oak, fig, ripe melon, lemon citrus, brioche, and creme brulee.

2009 Binyamina Chardonnay Reserve Unoaked Galilee (Israel, Judean Hills) – Score: A-
The nose on this straw to light gold colored wine has stayed fairly consistent between the two times I have tasted this wine, some 6 months apart. The nose explodes with rich ripe and tart summer/tropical fruit, pear, kiwi, lychee, honey, grapefruit, ripe lemon, apple, and floral notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is super rich with explosive fruit that follows the nose, peach, lemon, apple, kiwi, lychee, and grapefruit. The mid palate flows off the mouth with super rich and tart lemon, honey, apple, and mineral almost yeasty. The honeyed and spicy finish is super long with crazy tart fruit, lychee, grapefruit, kiwi, lemon, floral notes, and mineral. The wine is super enjoyable with more than enough attention getting fruit, minerality, and floral notes. The lack of oak is a benefit with this fruit and makes one wonder whether oaking this wine is such a good idea!

2009 Binyamina Chardonnay Reserve Galilee (Israel, Judean Hills) – Score: B++
The nose on this light gold colored wine started off muted and not nearly as bright as its unoaked brother. The nose opened to a rich and deep honeyed nose, oak, smoky toast, floral notes, grapefruit, lemon, yellow apple, and mounds of caramel and butterscotch. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with honey, oak, pear, kiwi, grapefruit, lemon, and apple, all rounded with a tad of oak which seems to dull the fruit. The mid palate is oaky with toast, cut grass, and butterscotch. The finish is long and richly honeyed with butterscotch, oak, kiwi, lemon, melon, and grapefruit. Honey coated butterscotch candy along with ripe grapefruit, lemon, and melon linger.

2009 Binyamina Sauvignon Blanc Reserve (Israel, Galilee) – Score: B+
The nose on this straw to light gold colored wine is ripe with kiwi, grapefruit, peach, green apple, mineral, light cat’s pee, and bright lemon. The mouth on this nice and medium bodied wine is rich and tart with bright citrus and tropical fruit, and balanced with nice acidity. The finish is long and tart with bright citrus, kiwi, and tempered with mineral.

2007 Domaine du Castel ‘C’ Chardonnay – Score: B++
This is the second or third time we have tasted this wine and it is now starting to show its age and its losing its bright fruit and showing more and more burnt oak and less fruit. The nose on this light gold colored wine smells burnt with mounds of toasty oak, peach, green apple, almond, and apricot. The mouth on this full bodied wine is mouth coating while still astringent with bright acidity, light and dying fruit, and crazy heady burnt oak. The finish is long and spicy with lemon, green apple, and crazy burnt oak. Drink up!

2008 Elvi Wines Ness Blanco (Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, Ribera del Júcar) – Score: B+ to A-
This wine is a 50/50 Muscatel and Sauvignon Blanc blend, one that is not very common to me. When we tasted this a year ago the wine was showing nicely with Sauvignon Blanc more than Moscato. The nose on this light gold colored wine is screaming with rich honey, guava, wet grass, kiwi, and lovely grapefruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is off dry to semi-sweet with nice rich tropical fruit, honey, and balanced acidity, along with wet grass and spice. The finish is rich and tart fruit with nice honey, spice, more grass, and lemon. This is a nice tart wine with good wet grass yet rich all at the same time. This was a fun wine that has now turned more honeyed and round.

2009 Yatir Sauvignon Blanc – Score: B++
The nose on this straw with light gold halo colored wine started off with a butter or malo funk that was a bit off, along with nice kiwi, lemon, green apple, spice, and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine was nice with rich brightness that is tempered slightly and rounded nicely by the oak influence. The wine is balanced nicely and the finish is long and spicy with rich tart fruit, rounded oak, and spice. A nice Sauvignon Blanc but one that just does not have enough complexity to bring the entire package together.

2009 Yatir Viognier – Score: A-
The nose on this straw colored wine is rich and heavy with bright lemon, kiwi, fresh green grass, melon, honey, and guava. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and mouth coating yet balanced perfectly with lovely honey tones, fresh grass, and guava. The finish is long and spicy with tons of tart fruit, kiwi, and nice honeyed fruit that rounds out a finish on a grassy knoll. This is a lovely Viognier that is not as classic with rich perfume and all, but one that makes its own very enjoyable path.

2009 Elvi Wines Mati, Rioja – Score: B++ to A-
This is a lovely and extracted Tempranillo wine that sat in oak for five months and shows the oak influence by lovely coffee and light oak attributes. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine was rich with nice loamy dirt, dark plum, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, mushroom, light oak, and espresso coffee. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and mouth coating with more loamy dirt balanced nicely with rich tannin and acid. The finish is long and zesty with black and red fruit, nice tannin, and dirt.

2008 Elvi Wines Herenza, Rioja, Crianza – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is rich and oaky with chocolate, dark cherry, bright mineral, rich earthy loam, dark plum, cedar, raspberry, cranberry, and rich espresso coffee. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, expressive, mouth coating, and lightly extracted with rich dirt, mineral, and nice fruit. The wine is balanced nicely with acid, coffee, chocolate, and vanilla. The finish is super long, spicy, and rich with dark cherry, spice, vanilla, rich espresso coffee, and chocolate. The wine is rich with a mouth of chocolate, espresso coffee, dark cherry, and black cherry linger long after this wine is gone, which is quite quick!

2007 Elvi Wines Makor (85% Bobal and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich with ripe plum, rich earth, raspberry, date, and black cherry. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with light hints of oak, influenced from 20% of the wine being in oak for 10 months. The structure of the mouth is rich and inky, textured with nice earth notes and dark fruit, almost concentrated and rich. The wine is nicely balanced with rich and zesty acid and nice mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and tart with nice earth, rich still gripping tannin, and nice ripe and rich fruit. The oak does not show strongly in the mouth but it’s influence is felt nicely.

2007 Elvi Wines Vina Encina (33% Bobal, 26% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Tempranillo) – Score: B++
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich and screaming with candied fruit of cherry, raspberry, currant, garrigue, bramble, light oak, and tobacco. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and spicy with candied red fruit and nice earth and bramble tones that is nicely integrating and coming together to highlight light oak influence and integrated tannin. The wine is nicely balanced with spicy notes, rich red and candied fruit, rounding oak, nice tannin, and spice.

2007 Elvi Wines Adar (25% Bobal, 25% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Tempranillo, 5% Petite Verdot) – Score: A-
The Adar has many similarities to the Vina Encina as it shares some common components, however, it differs clearly in its blacker fruit, richer dirt, and coffee. The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is rich with candied fruit of black cherry, raspberry, dark plum, blackberry, deep earthiness, cassis, and coffee. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich with nice candied red and black fruit, balancing acid, mineral, mouth coating tannin, and spice. The wine is not so oak forward as much as it is oak influenced and rounded by sleeping in a 300L oak barrel, where the impact is not as pronounced as a smaller barrel. The finish is long and spicy with nice coffee, black fruit, integrated tannin, dirt, and oak.

2008 Elvi Wines Matiz, Rioja – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet, 100% Tempranillo wine, starts right out of the bottle with a powerful nose of chocolate and tobacco. As the wine opens up, the chocolate and tobacco give way to cherry and raspberry notes. The mouth on this full bodied wine is smooth and concentrated, with cherry and raspberry fruit that follow the nose. The mid palate is bright enough to balance out the wine while sharing space with a hint of tannins that are integrating nicely. The finish is long with a return of the cherry fruit, acidity, on a bed tobacco leaves and chocolate candy.

2005 Elvi Wines EL 26 (40% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is highly extracted with rich and ripe blackberry, black plum, toasty oak, raspberry, loamy dirt, bramble, chocolate, and tobacco. The mouth on this rich and super extracted mouth is complex and layered with massive and mouth coating tannin, rich and toasty oak, ripe and black fruit all coming together to make a wine that is very rich and spicy with ripe black fruit with all the components coming together nicely. The wine is balanced and the finish is toasty long and super extracted with even more mouth coating, ripe black fruit, plum, rich chocolate, and tobacco leaves.

2007 Binyamina Shiraz Reserve – Score: A-
The nose on this purple colored wine is rich with roasted meat, ripe blackberry, black cherry, black pepper, spice, ripe plum, raspberry, tobacco, and cedar. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is mouth coating and rich with nice black fruit, tannin and cedar play nicely on the palate and flow into a long and spicy finish with more mouth coating tannin, tobacco, black pepper, spice, blackberry, chocolate, and vanilla. The wine is a lovely example of a smooth ripe Shiraz without overripe or sweet overtones while being spicy and complex enough to get your attention.

2007 Binyamina Zinfandel Reserve – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine starts off way to hot, however over time it calms down to expose chocolate, tobacco, cedar, raspberry, plum, blackcurrant, black cherry, crushed herbs, dirt, and mound of black pepper. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is starting to show its age with excessive date flavors that taste oxidized, plush mouth feel from nice tannin, rich loamy dirt, and fruit. The finish is long and spicy with heaps of black pepper, cedar, vanilla, and chocolate linger.

2005 Carmel Kayoumi Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is super rich with, now classic Israeli Cabernet aromas and flavors, blackberry, tobacco, cassis, rich cedar, and some nice earthiness. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and mouth coating, the mouth coating tannins have melded nicely with the rich cedar to create a nicely balanced wine whose parts are all coming together nicely, though the tannins are still a bit austere. The finish is long and concentrated with tobacco, spice, nice chocolate, and still not integrated tannins coming together to linger nicely.

2008 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet to black colored wine is screaming with blackberry, cassis, black plum, chocolate, mocha, rich toasty cedar, and spice – what a nose! The mouth on this full bodied wine is layered with black fruit, nice mouth coating tannin, toasty cedar, that comes together in a lovely and spicy manner. The wine is nice and balanced, but still coming together in all its parts. The finish is super long and spicy, with more nice cedar, chocolate, black fruit, and tannin. The toasty cedar, plum, blackberry, and chocolate linger nicely.

2005 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera (Magnum) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this black colored wine is exploding with rich black plum, cassis, blackberry, chocolate, sweet cedar, blueberry, and rich tobacco. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is exploding with lovely rich and concentrated fruit, blueberry, layers of blackberry, cassis, and extracted oak flavors, and nice mouth coating tannin. The wine is nicely balanced with rich and expressive tannin, cedar, and tobacco. The finish is long and extracted with nice tannin, blackberry, cassis, tobacco, and chocolate finish.

2007 Yatir Forest (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% petite Verdot, 7% malbec, 7% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark purple colored wine explodes with rich and concentrated plum, blackberry, toasty oak, crushed herbs, and dirt. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with massive mouth coating tannin, rich toasty oak, and rich black fruit, and nice core acid all coming together into a nice and velvety mouth feel. The finish is long and spicy with nice black plum, rich chocolate, nice crushed herb, lovely green bell pepper, chocolate, coffee, and nice dirt. This is a rich and layered wine with big tannin that needs time to settle down, along with earthy and green goodness.

2007 Capcanes Flor de Flor (100% Grenache from 105 year old vines) – Score: B++
This wine was all the rage for a year already from a winery that has been producing world-class wines that happen to be kosher. When we had the first chance to taste this bottle in Oxnard, I was not impressed as impressed as others were. The wine starts off with a nose of light oak, earthy and mushroom, raspberry, currant, loamy dirt, and some floral hints. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has integrated tannin, chocolate, tobacco, with oak that is coming together quite nicely. The wine is OK but nothing on it grabbed me with either complexity, focus, or concentration that would make me stand up and take notice.

To be fair, we tasted this wine again in NY and it showed far better – here is the note for that tasting.

2007 Segal Cabernet Sauvignon Unfiltered – Score: A-
The nose on this dark purple colored wine starts off with rich earthiness, dates, rich and ripe blackberry, cedar, tobacco, and creme de cocoa. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich, layered, and concentrated with massive mouth coating tannin, that is married in a lovely way with rich cedar, and ripe black fruit. The mouth is focused in way that accentuates the ripe black fruit along with the oak extraction that makes for a lovely wine. The wine is rich but it is also balanced with good acidity. The finish is long and rich with cedar, date, chocolate, tobacco, and rich black fruit. This is a lovely wine that is ready now, but could use a year and will be fine till 2017 or 2018.

2007 Barkan Superieur Pinotage – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich and filled with cedar, tobacco, raspberry, plum, currant, nice smoked meat, herbaceous notes, tobacco, and rich spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and concentrated with massive mouth coating tannin, rich cedar, nice red fruit, and heady tobacco that is coming together quite nicely. The wine is well balanced and the finish is long, massive, and super spicy, with a fat stogie, black pepper, cedar box, ripe red fruit, and a spice box that ties the entire package up perfectly. This is by far the best Pinotage I have ever tasted, but to fair, that has not been very many.

2006 Barkan Superieur Shiraz – Score: A-
The nose on this deep purple colored wine is super rich and extracted with rich black pepper, tar, earth, bramble, ripe black plum, blackberry, raspberry, coffee, mint, and rich cedar. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and massive with an inky structure, full on spice attack, along with a concentration and focus that comes from the rich tannin, cedar, and black fruit, and inky structure all coming together nicely. The finish is long and spicy with cedar, chocolate, tar, black pepper, and plum all lingering nicely on the palate.

2007 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Petite Verdot) – Score: A-
The nose on this purple colored wine is rich with toasty oak, blackberry, plum, earthiness, crushed herbs, and raspberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is massive and richly extracted with massive mouth coating tannin, rich black fruit, rich toasty oak, and rich earth notes, all coming together in a very harmonious manner. The finish is long and rich with still massive tannin, rich fruit, chocolate, coffee, mint, and garrigue.

2006 Binyamina Cave (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 2% Petite Verdot) – Score: A-
This wine has been around for many years and this is the first vintage that I really liked. In part that had to do with the fact that Binyamina, who bought and now owns the boutique winery, was flash pasteurizing the wine (Mevushal), for the US export business. Now, the wine is being left alone and it is improving greatly. The 2006 vintage was a fantastic vintage for Israel, and this bottle is no less wonderful. The nose on this garnet colored wine is super rich with nice cedar, rich candied fruit, raspberry, black cherry, chocolate, blackberry, and mint. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is hits you with a rich concentration of black fruit, rich cedar wood, nice tannin that comes together nicely. The finish is long with cedar, rich chocolate, cedar, and nice tannin that last long on the palate with a hint of mint and herb.

2007 Binyamina Diamond, Avnei Hachoshen Ya’alom (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah and 20% Petite Verdot) – Score: A
We tasted this wine last year at the event in Oxnard when Assaf brought in a bottle or two of this wonder on the slide. The wine we tasted this year was an almost identical wine that we tasted last year – rich and wonderful.

The nose on this garnet to black colored wine explodes with sweet oak, rich and ripe blackberry, licorice, raspberry, chocolate, rich plum, along with a bit of prune. The mouth on this broad shouldered and massive wine is packed and layered with layer upon layers of rich and ripe black fruit, blackberry, and raspberry. The mid palate is balanced and flows off the mouth with rich sweet oak, acid, chocolate, and coffee. The finish is massive and long with a huge mouth coating structure, along with prune, oak, blackberry, and chocolate. This is a massive and structured wine that is unique and one that truly shows the power of Israel’s potential.

2006 Binyamina Ruby, Avnei Hachoshen, Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is packed with super sweet and ripe blackberry, cassis, tobacco, ripe black plum, raspberry, creme de cocoa, and sweet oak. This full bodied wine has a crazy complex and layered mouth with an inky structure, rich extraction, integrating tannin, and sweet oak, all coming together nicely now. The finish is long, spicy, and complex with nicely integrated tannins, date, sweet oak, ripe plum, and chocolate. This wine is rich and layered, though the wine is coming up on its end life – another year or so.

2006 Binyamina Sapphire, Avnei Hachoshen Sapir (45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Syrah and 25% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine hits you first with some alcohol, dark plum, blackberry, raspberry, coffee, mineral, and cedar. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with nice mouth coating tannin and sweet cedar that are coming together nicely. The wine is balanced with a long and spicy finish of blackberry, coffee, rich tobacco, and cedar. A lovely and rich wine with solid focus and complexity.

2007 Binyamina Aquamarine, Avnei Hachoshen Tarshish (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich and expressive with rich coffee, oak, blackberry, cassis, plum, raspberry, crushed herbs, and pencil shavings. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with spicy oak, red fruit, nice tannin and date. The finish is long and spicy with spicy oak, coffee, nice tannin, and herbs.

2009 Goose Bay Pinot Noir Reserve (not mevishal) – Score: B++ to A-
This is a non-mevushal version of the usual Goose Bay Pinot Noir. The slap that the Goose Bay wines get are that they live for a year or two and no more. Many think it is because of the mevushal process, but this one is not mevushal and so it is a great wine to either be confirm or be a rebuttal to the lack of longevity of the Goose Bay wines. This is a small batch wine, only 250 cases were produced. The nose on this bright ruby colored wine is rich and bright with tart cherry, a rich and loamy dirt that is actually perfumed, rich coffee, raspberry, strawberry, and currant. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with still integrating mouth coating tannin, rich candied and tart red fruit, nice earthiness, and oak, from being in new French barrels for 11 months. The parts are still coming together, with the tannic structure needed time to settle in. The finish is long and tannic with nice tart red fruit, coffee, and kirshce cherry. Look for a bit of leather in a year and the wine to be coming together as well.

2009 Goose Bay Pinot Noir – Score: B+
When tasting this wine at the event the wine was not showing well at all. We later drank this wine and it showed far better. The nose on this ruby colored wine has strawberry, light cherry, bramble, rich earth, espresso coffee, and rich oak. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and almost dense with spicy oak, nice tannin, rich red fruit, and mounds of dirt, with kisrche cherry making a solo appearance on the finish.

2003 Chateau de la Tour Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru – Score: B++
AHH!!! This wine is infuriating! One bottle is rich and extracted and crazy cool, the next time I taste it from a different bottle it is DOA. The thing I do with the French wines is taste them a few times along the evening, as they tend to be hit and miss. If I find a wine that is consistent across bottles, we are good. At this tasting it was OK. This is the third time we are tasting this wine, and it is still as I remember it, powerful tannins, rich mouth feel, and oak extraction that is just now getting under control. That said, please stay with my previous advice, buy from a reputable merchant who will be happy to take the wine back if the bottle is DOA. This is an expensive wine, so be sure to have that assurance.

The mouth dark garnet colored wine is rich with spicy raspberry, cherry, plum, coffee, rich earthy loam, mushroom, oak, and crushed herbs. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with still massive tannin that is melding now lovely with the rich oak and bright and intense red fruit. The wine is perfectly balanced and the tart and intense fruit rise on the finish with more tannin, oak, rich coffee, and lovely dirt. This is a great wine if the bottle is right.

2009 Domaine Netofa, Latour Netofa (70% Syrah and 30% Mourvedre) – Score: A-
The nose on this classic Rhone styled wine is super rich and bright with ripe plum, blackberry, crushed herb, rich tar, cherry, and nice mineral. The nose is super rich and expressive and makes you stand up and take notice with rich earth and fruit. The wine also has a controlled approach to oak, though the oak influence is noted in the perfumed nose and rich rounded mouth, but not a star, more of an accent that really makes the wine seem Rhone like and less American Rhone-rider like. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is super rich and inky in structure, along with nice bright and ripe fruit, and mouth coating tannin that makes for a lovely wine that is rich yet controlled with nice fruit. The finish is long, spicy, and balanced with nice acid, rich fruit, tar, coffee, and mineral. One of the best kosher Rhone styled wines.

2009 Chateau de Parsac, Montagne-St-Emilion (mevushal) – Score: B++
The nose on this deep garnet colored wine is screaming with earth, loamy dirt, mushroom, rich raspberry, currants, anise, and oak. The wine is a Bordeaux blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. This medium to full bodied wine starts with a rich caressing mouth coating tannin, that is supported by more earth, raspberry, and currants, along with nice oak and coffee. The finish is long and spicy with rich coffee, more nice mouth coating tannin, rich earth, plum, and ripe currant. Quite a nice mevushal bottle!

2009 Flechas de Los Andes Gran Malbec – Score: B++
The nose on this garnet colored wine is super rich with heavy extraction with rich toasty oak, blackberry, crushed herb, rich tobacco, plum, raisin, chocolate, and cherry. The mouth on this insanely full bodied wine is rich and toasty with mouth coating tannin, rich toasty oak, tobacco, and rich fruit all come together to create a mouth that shows its influence from oak encasement. The finish is long and spicy with massive tannin, raisin, chocolate, and tobacco. This wine is super rich and focused but the complexity is what is missing to make this a superior wine.

2003 Chateau Leoville Poyferre Saint Julien (62% Cab, 28% Merlot, 8% Petite Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this garnet to black colored wine has a huge and crazy nose of chocolate, oak, date, raspberry, black plum, bramble and loamy dirt. The mouth on this rich, concentrated, and extracted full bodied wine shows still gripping tannin, loamy dirt, rich fruit, along with clear oak impact, giving the mouth a rich and layered attack of ripe fruit and massive mouth coating tannin that is still coming together. The mid palate is balanced with rich and bright fruit, along with a long and spicy finish, nice tannin, chocolate, oak, red fruit, and more nice dirt. This wine attacks and does not let up till well after the wine is gone.

2005 Chateau Leoville Poyferre Saint Julien (62% Cab, 28% Merlot, 8% Petite Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet to black colored wine has a huge and crazy nose of chocolate, oak, raspberry, blackberry, cassis, mint, creme de cocoa, tobacco, and mineral. The mouth on this rich, concentrated, and extracted full bodied wine shows a massive and complex mouth with rising tannin, rich oak, and chocolate that is truly unique. The wine is classically French with balancing acid. The finish is super long and lovely with tobacco, rich oak, mint, mineral, and chocolate. This is wine is truly lovely and very enjoyable tasting it side by side with its slightly better and older 2003 sibling.

2004 Pontet Canet – Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple to black colored wine has a massive nose of rich and ripe blackberry, plum, raspberry, chocolate, tobacco, smoke, and loamy dirt. This nose is rich but not overripe to the point of a Napa Cabernet, definitely more refined and lovely. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and concentrated and lovely with true gripping mouth coating tannin, ripe red and black fruit, spicy oak that brings the entire rich wine together. The wine is balanced, super long and spicy with more crazy and rich tannin, blackberry, chocolate, date, tobacco, dirt, and mushroom. The wine is killer and a bit better than the 2003 vintage. This wine has many more years ahead of it.

2004 Chateau Labegorce Margaux – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich and expressive with lovely mint, crushed herb, eucalyptus, blackberry, raspberry, plum, oak, and coffee. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is nice and round with lovely mouth coating tannin, rich and ripe fruit, nice oak, and coffee. The finish is long, with rich tannin, raspberry, chocolate, oak, and mint. The mouth is showing well but I would not hold this for a long time, maybe a year or two at most – drink up!

2005 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere Grand Cru Pessac-Leognan – Score: A-
WOW what a rich and smoky wine. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is smoking with an almost smoke screen like aroma, over a sea of intense dry and candied raspberry, ripe blackberry, rich currant, mint, plum, and rich chocolate. The mouth on this blockbuster full bodied wine is intense, structured, and concentrated with lovely and massive tannin, rich fruit, and smokey oak. The finish is super long and concentrated with bright fruit, acid, fat cigar tobacco, nice oak, mint, and a long slug of mocha. This is a rich and layered wine that is well worth seeking out and one that will reward your perseverance for another 6 or 7 years at least!

2008 Herzog Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich with nice raspberry, blackberry, plum, chocolate, cedar, cassis, and pencil shavings. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine starts off with a strong hit of spicy oak, ripe fruit, and massive tannin that has not yet even started to come together, this wine will hopefully be there soon, but for now open early or decant. The finish on this wine is long and spicy with rich spicy oak, ripe black and red fruit, and a fair amount of chocolate. This is a wine that needs time and as it ages look for some leather and richer fruit to appear.

2006 Herzog Generation VIII Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley,To-Kalon Vineyard) – Score: A
This is the third or fourth time I have tasted this wine, and every time I taste it I am impressed and in true awe. The nose on this black colored wine is screaming with rich toasty oak, creme de cocoa, black cherry, blackberry, cassis, and rich spice. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is rich, layered, huge, and concentrated, with mouth coating tight tannins, chocolate, oak, blackberry, and cassis. The fruit on the mouth is rich and ripe while not being overly ripe to the point of tasting cooked. The mid palate is balanced and flows from the mouth with still bracing tannins, nice acidity, oak, and chocolate. The finish is crazy long with chocolate, rich oak, blackberry, and rich ripe fruit. This is a crazy winner that will be around for at least another 8 years. I hope to have the opportunity to taste it again and again in the coming years at the Herzog Wine Festival.

Most would not associate wine and blackberry juice, but for Rosenberg it was a great gateway beverage to acquire the yearning for something a bit more real. With time, Rosenberg realized that wine was his real future and he started tinkering with it in his basement – a classic garagiste! During that time his ultimate dream was growing, of building a winery that would prove the words of the Patriarch Jacob, who prophesied to his son Yehuda some 3000 years ago: “Binding unto the vine, his foal, and unto the choice vine, the colt of his ass; he will launder his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall sparkle with wine, and his teeth white with milk” (Bereishit 49:11-12). Commenting on these verses, Rashi states, “[Yaakov] prophesied regarding the land of Yehudah, that it would produce wine like a fountain.”

As his tinkering continued friends told him how much they loved his wines and one thing led to another – with Rosenberg officially leaving his managerial position at senior citizen’s home to become a farmer and winemaker! In 1995, with the decision already made, he started to look around for enough grapes to make his dream a reality. To do this he reached out to growers in the area and he quickly found out that if he wanted to make this happen, he would need to plant his own vineyard and augment it in the time being with what he could find in the area. With total control on his vineyard, Rosenberg could manage the vines to make the kind of wine that he sees as world-class, rather than the yield and size that the growers wanted.

As the winery started to grow so did their output. In 1998 the Rosenbergs released their first vintage from their newly minted winery, in the basement of their house in Efrat. They initial vintage consisted of 7000 bottles, which is quite large if you are doing all the work in your basement! The varietals for the first year were all from the Noble grapes; Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc. Since then both the varietals and bottles have increased. By 2009 mass planted had expanded the winery’s vineyards to about 120 acres. Among the varieties planted include; Chardonnay, Organic Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, White Riesling, Shiraz, Merlot, Organic Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Gewurztraminer and Viognier.

The varietals that the winery is now using are becoming more and more common around Israel. Organic vineyards are now common place, with Tishbi, Bashan, Yarden, Or Haganuz, and others using organic techniques to manage their vineyards. It is good for the environment, it is good for the workers of the vineyards, and it is good for all of us that enjoy the wines. Other than the organic farming, Viognier is a hard grape to grow and to sell, and it is no surprise that Gush Etzion does not make a single varietal wine from this grape. The Gewurztraminer, Petite Verdot, and White Riesling are getting far more play now a days as well, and ones that do well in the Israeli heat. We really enjoyed the White Riesling but were surprised by the lack of the classic oily texture. We enjoyed a bottle of Carmel White Riesling at Sommelier and that one was a bit more complex because of the oily texture. We did not get to taste the Gewurztraminer on that day, and the Petite Verdot is currently used solely for blending.

Other than its initial vintage the winery hit its next big growth spurt in 2005 when the winery’s current building was ready to play. The winery itself was finished in September 2004, and has a capacity to produce 50,000 bottles a year. The winery currently produces some 40,000 bottles and caps it at that number to continue to keep its boutique styling and processes. The winery was established in partnership with investors from the United States and Tishbi Winery who buys the rest of the grapes from Gush Eztion’s vineyards.

The new building did more than just expand the winery’s production ability, it added two very important features that more and more wineries are doing or dreaming about doing. Those being adding a restaurant, which serves only local fare, and creating a viewing booth or platform for visitors to be able to watch wine making, bottling, or any other wine process that occurs within the winery itself. The visitor center was designed so visitors can watch the entire production process while staying safely out of the way of the staff. The visitor center in Gush Etzion consists of a steel bridge that is suspended above the inner workings of the winery, allowing guests to view the bottling line, the production area, and the steel vats. You can view the barrel room through a transparent glass window. Attached to the winery is the Mehadrin Kosher milk restaurant/cafe that is open late into the night.

The combination of being to allow guests to essentially do a self-guided tour along with a place to taste the wines and have a meal is a theme that is being replicated all over the world, and particularly well, in Israel. Carmel, Tishbi, and Binyamnia to name a few have implemented this wonderful idea, and in 2005, so did Gush Etzion. The idea is not a new one, but it is new for many of the kosher wineries around the world. A few weeks ago we went to the famous Tierra Sur restaurant that is located within the Herzog Winery, and enjoyed a lovely dinner, along with a very nice tasting. We could have done the self-guiding tour there as well, but we had done it a few years ago, when they were bottling wines. The viewing platform at Herzog is two floors above the winery’s work floor, and viewable by a walkway that is wall-to-wall large pane glass windows that give every single guest a bird’s eye view of the winery’s inner workings.

Though we did not actually meet the Rosenberg’s at the winery, we have heard many first hand accounts of the winery and how lovely the food is at the cafe. Friends of ours went to the winery a year or so ago, and it took me a long time to figure out they were talking about Gush Etzion. For the longest time I thought they were talking about Ella Valley Winery, which is a mere 6 kilometers from Gush Etzion, but Ella Valley does not have a cafe, though they have a large and lovely tasting room.

Instead we met the Rosenbergs at the 2011 Sommelier, like we met Chaim and Yoram from Tanya, and like we met many other wineries as well. During our conversations with Shraga and the rest of the winery staff, we never did talk much about the winery, and that is our loss for sure. Hopefully, the next time we are in Israel we will get a chance to see the winery first hand and experience its lovely ambiance and cafe.

Until then, we are so happy that we had the chance to taste some of the current wines from the winery and hopefully you will also get a chance to taste some of the lovely wines that this old yet up and coming winery has to offer. Most of these wines are now locally available here in the USA and many are worth the time to search them out. The wines are now imported into the USA by a new wine importer – The River. They also import Har Bracha (Mount Blessing) and Kadesh Barnea, two other wineries that we also tasted at Sommelier a few months ago. Look for upcoming posting on these wineries and more.

My many thanks to the entire staff of the Gush Etzion Winery, especially to Shraga for taking the time to talk with us. The wine notes follow in the order they were tasted:

2009 Gush Etzion, Sauvignon Blanc, Alon Haboded – Score: B++
The nose on this light straw colored wine is rich with spice, quince, yellow apple, kiwi, mineral slate, stone fruit, and herbs. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine is refreshing with tart acidity and spice that help to highlight the fruit and give slight focus to the wine. The finish is long and spicy with more apple and stone fruit. The ripe fruit help to balance the wine’s lemon tartness. A nice enough Sauvignon Blanc but missing the complexity to take it to the next level. Drink in the next year or so.

2010 Gush Etzion, Unoaked Chardonnay, Alon Haboded- Score: B++
The wine is another example of winemakers stepping away from the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) epidemic by loosening up on the oak and letting the fruit do all the talking. The nose on this light straw colored wine is rich with yellow apple, grapefruit, kiwi, stone fruit, lemon rind, almond shell, and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine does all the talking without having to play footsie with oak. The fruit shines through with enough weight to catch your attention while also being balanced and bright. The mineral and lemon rind helps to highlight the stone and tropical fruit, while adding some complexity as well. Drink in the next year or so.

2009 Gush Etzion, White Riesling, Alon Haboded – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this light straw colored wine is screaming with rich and sweet honey, dates, lovely flowers, mineral, pit, fig, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium+ bodied wine is dry but feels sweet from the ripe fruit, honey attack, and fig though balanced nicely with tart acidity, and mineral. The mouth feel on the wine is almost coating from the ripe fruit and would go well with spicy dishes. The finish is long and spicy itself with vanilla, flowers and honey balanced by the acid, mineral, and fig. This is a wine that should last a year or so, but is drinking lovely right now.

2007 Gush Etzion Nahal Hapirim (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, and 14% Petite Verdot) – Score: B++
The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine is rich with crushed herbs, prunes, date, vanilla, sweet cedar, blackberry, ripe plum, cassis, chocolate, and tobacco. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine shows the influence of sitting for 12 months in French oak, with sweet cedar and tannins that have melded quite nicely together. The flavors flow from the nose and balance nicely with acid, but also show the ripe fruit with slightly raisin overbite. The finish is long and spicy with sweet cedar and chocolate coming together on the finish. Drink this year.

2008 Gush Etzion, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alon Haboded- Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is screaming from 20 months of oak with rick oak, crushed herbs, dark cherry, blackberry, raspberry, plum, chocolate, tobacco, smoky notes, rich mineral, loamy dirt, and vanilla. The mouth on this crazy rich and expressive wine is medium to full bodied with massive tannins that have yet to integrate with the rich oak influence and spice. The mid palate is toasty and balanced with leather being nicely exposed. The finish is long and spicy with the tannins showing some respite along with nice chocolate, leather, and tobacco. This is a powerhouse of a wine that needs a year for the oak and tannins to settle down, and then should be OK for two to three more years.

2008 Gush Etzion, Cabernet Franc, Alon Haboded- Score: A-
The nose on this dark purple colored wine starts off with crazy nice eucalyptus, herbaceous notes, floral hints, black cherry, plum, rich oak, raspberry, toasty espresso, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and toasty and again shows clear influence of oak but in a nice and almost integrated manner, that makes for a rich and creamy mouth feel, while the mid palate is balanced nicely. The finish is long, spicy, and lovely with eucalyptus, herbaceous notes, floral hints, raspberry, and vanilla stealing the show. This is a truly lovely Cabernet Franc that shows much of the varietals best features.

2008 Gush Etzion, Shiraz, Alon Haboded - Score: A-
The nose on this black colored wine leaps out and smacks you upside the head with rich black pepper, roasted meat, cassis, oak, rich loamy dirt, mineral, crushed herb, inky nose, garrigue, massive ripe plum, raisin, and tobacco. The mouth on this super rich and layered wine hits you with massive tannin to start that is not yet integrated, along with a lovely inky structure. The mid palate is balanced and flows into a super rich and spicy finish with classic Shiraz flavors showing well; ripe plum, cassis, blackberry, while finishing with nice leather, tobacco, oak, and vanilla. This is clearly a powerhouse wine that has yet to settle down its components and needs a year, and then drink for two or so years after that.

2007 Gush Etzion, Merlot, Emek Bracha (85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine shows clear oak influence with rich oak, ripe plum, rich and expressive tobacco, raspberry, cassis, and vanilla. The mouth on this rich and mouth coating wine starts off with massive tannin that has yet to integrate, along with rich oak and vanilla. The mouth feel on this wine is so oak and tannin rich and expressive that it takes time for the fruit to come out and take a bow, still the wait is worth the final product. The finish is long and rich with leather, tobacco, and vanilla taking a backstage to the ripe plum, raspberry, and cassis. This is a wine that needs a year or so to integrate and then enjoy for two or so years.

Many in Israel know Yoram not because of his unique personality or artistic passion, but rather because he was on Israel’s Big Brother 3! Yes, you heard me correct Yoram Cohen was on the Big Brother of Israel, but I guess he should stick to what he does exceptionally well, as he was the second housemate to be tossed out. I hope it helped to put focus on his personality and winery, because they are both quite unique and wonderful treasures that we get to enjoy!

In the middle of the first day for me at the 2011 edition of Sommelier, I got to the Tanya Winery booth! Just a few reminders about Tanya Winery, in case you are too lazy to click the link to my other posts . In 2002 Yoram started to make wine out of his house. 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’s current production is about 30,000 bottles annually. Most wineries were displaying their wines from 2008 at the event, which by now you all know is a problem for many, being that it was a Shmitta year. In case this is your first roll through my blog, check out my Kosher 101 posting about Shmitta and more. Tanya however did not produce any wines in 2008, which all I can say is WOW! Takes a certain spirit and belief system to not make wine for a year! The winery has three labels; Enosh, Halel, and Eliya Reserve, all named after his kids, which are shown on the booth and on the website (though at a younger age). Enosh is the winery’s top Bordeaux blend, Halel is the main wine line, while Eliya is the lower label that has recently been upgraded, as is visible in the Shiraz below.

As I tasted these wines, I did not know that one of them was also part of my original wine tasting in 2008! The 2007 Pinot Noir, which we tasted from the barrel, has clearly changed with more red fruit showing and lovely oak extraction as well. However, the body and structure look the same from those many years earlier!

Tanya Winery is not one of those winery’s that buy their grapes or schlep them from the Galilee all the way down to the Judean Hills. Actually, the winery and its grapes are located in the heart of the Judean Hills, in and around the city called Ofra. The Winery’s vineyards are planted in the central area of the gentle slope of a mountain proximate to Ofra in chalky rocky ground at an elevation of 900 meters above sea level. The winery has 8 acres of vineyards that grow the following varietals; Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay.

As we were drinking through the wines there was one very distinct attribute of these wines that were almost quite shocking! Normally tannin makes for either a puckering experience, a gnarly experience, or a lovely mouth coating experience. This was none of the above! The tannins here were clearly mouth drying almost assailing the mouth with tannin that seemed to be trying to get your attention. I correctly guessed that this must be oak tannin, though I think it is also tied to the rich toast that Yoram must have used on these staves or a heavy char on the barrel itself.

It was a real joy to see Yoram and Chaim all over again. We had called Chaim in advance and he assured us that not only was he going to be there, but also Yoram and the wine mashgiach (kosher certification supervisor). It was a real joy to taste through the current crop of wines, though we did not get a chance to taste all the Eliya wines for 2009. Currently, the wines imported into the US are still of older vintages, but I am sure many of these will make their way to our shores soon.

Many thanks to Yoram, Chaim, and the mashgiach (missed his name) for making our tasting the joy it always is, the wine notes follow below in the order they were tasted.

2007 Tanya Halel Pinot Noir Reserve – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine exudes a rich and expressive nose with crushed herbs, raspberry, black cherry, nice plum, vanilla, crème de cocoa, and rich espresso coffee that makes you think you walked into a Starbuck shop. The mouth is rich and medium to full bodied with what can only be explained as crazy charred toast, rich and extracted oak tannin that literally dries your entire mouth, and almost takes the focus away from the lovely crushed herbs, cocoa, and raspberry. A sense of espresso, and charred meat arrives with mouth drying tannin continuing. More charred and spice rise on the finish with roasted meat and fresh ground espresso, raspberry, and black cherry.

2009 Tanya Halel Cabernet Franc Reserve – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine exudes a rich and expressive nose with raspberry, crushed herbs, rich floral notes, lovely green notes, charred oak, and plum. The mouth is rich and medium to full bodied with more crazy mouth drying tannin, rich charred oak, nice raspberry, more floral, along with espresso, and green notes that seem to heighten the experience. A sense of floral notes continues with more dry tannin, and charred oak. Espresso, charred oak, shows as floral notes and crushed herbs rise on the finish with a hint of chocolate cherry, and vanilla.

2010 Tanya Halel Blend Reserve (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Shiraz) – Score: B+ to A-
This wine put a smile on my face, as it is a wine that actually embodies the moniker on the label! The nose on the electric garnet wine continues with this new Tanya charred style, with toast, rich espresso, raspberry, plum, cassis, crushed herbs, cocoa, and pencil. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and mouth coating with espresso, raspberry, ripe plum, crushed herbs, cocoa, pencil, bone dry tannin that will settle down in a year or so, and some black fruit. The mid palate is balanced but the lack of concentration is what is missing. Cocoa, raspberry, crushed herbs, and cassis rise on the spicy finish that fades into a vanilla chocolate float with black cherry and pencil topping.

2009 Tanya Halel Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – Score: A-
The nose on the electric dark garnet colored wine is a rich and black wine with echoes of a French wine while deeply ensconced in a Mediterranean style. The nose on this electric purple colored wine evokes deep black cassis and blackberry, while balanced with raspberry, ripe plum, and chocolate, with a touch of pencil and mineral. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is mouth coating while also mouth drying with rich tannin, cassis, blackberry, ripe plum, balanced nicely with crushed herbs, and licorice. The wine is balanced nicely with more than the average acid, sweet oak all part of a spicy finish with chocolate, blackberry, cassis, in harmony with crushed herbs, mineral, licorice, and pencil shavings. A nice lively and rich black fruit Cabernet that may be a bit over the top in char but balanced nicely. This will show far better in a year or so.

2009 Tanya Halel Blend Reserve (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this electric purple colored wine is redolent, rich, and ripe with blackberry, cassis, raspberry, ripe plum, cocoa, chocolate, crushed herbs, and sweet oak. The mouth on this rich, full bodied, and mouth coating wine is quite lovely and concentrated with rich plum, blackberry, raspberry, rich espresso, and crazy mouth coating tannin. The wine is balanced nicely with rich espresso, date, and chocolate. The finish is long and spicy with espresso, vanilla, raspberry, chocolate, nice crazy tannin, ripe plum, pencil shavings, and sweet oak. The mouth on this wine is lovely, concentrated, and rich with black fruit, espresso, and rich oak extraction, balanced with herbs, and pencil shavings.

2009 Tanya Eliya Shiraz Reserve – Score: A- close to A
The nose on this electric purple colored wine is super rich and true to its varietal, with rich black pepper, tar, blackcurrant, raspberry, espresso, roasted meat, rich and opulent sweet oak, ripe plum, spice, and crushed herbs. The mouth on this rich, ripe, and full bodied wine is so Syrah like, with concentration and layers that hit you wave after wave of ripe plum, blackcurrant, blackberry, rich spice, black pepper, all in front of a backdrop of rich oak, mouth coating tannin, and crushed herbs. The wine is nicely balanced with tar, sweet oak, oak extraction, more spice, and crushed herbs. The finish is long and extracted, with spice, sweet oak, rich tannin, roasted meat, blackberry, tar, and vanilla. This is a super rich and extracted Shiraz that is lovely with still mouth drying tannin that need to die down a bit.

As we entered the winery we were greeted by the nice lady at the front desk, as we made our way to the restaurant we passed the Herzog Tasting Bar.

Traffic getting to the winery was so crazy busy that we barely made our appointed time. We entered the lovely restaurant and were seated immediately, and were given the current menu. The menu changes often, as the restaurant is proud of its local sourcing and its rich and bountiful flavors. According to the website: Tierra Sur continually strives to bring the best produce and ingredients to its customers by buying from local, small family farms. We are proud to participate in the Growers Collaborative Program under Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). CAFF is a statewide non-profit organization that works to build a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice.

Given the complexity of building a menu around what is available locally, even in California, Tomatoes are pretty much over now, as are zucchini, and fresh bell peppers. So the menu is filled with fresh winter salads, chard, and beets, all lovely tasting winter California bounty, with tomatoes and other Summer Solstice vegetables used as adornments. For starters we chose the Chorizo lamb sausage and black olive piadina flat bread with watercress, cherry tomato salad and zahtar dressing. The small pie was lovingly adorned by rich and spicy lamb sausage, along with black olives and a couple of tomatoes on top. For entrees, my wife chose the braised brisket and I chose the duck. After makes our choices, we made our way to the tasting bar and we sampled four of the red wines that were available.

I started with the 2008 Baron Herzog Zinfandel, which is a fine enough wine, but one that does not stand me up on my ear and make me take notice. For 10 bucks or so a bottle, at most local shops, it is the best of the baseline Baron Herzog wines. We than had a taste of the 2009 Herzog GPS (Grenache Petite Sirah) blend. According to the back label Joe Hurliman, the head winemaker at Herzog, has been wanting to make a wine from the Grenache grape and personally, he has made a wonderful wine that emotes whimsical and light white chocolate, flowers, and rich fruit. We followed that with a testing of the 2010 Weinstock Alicante Bouschet. Do not worry, I never heard of this one either before my friend told me about it when he received it in his Herzog Wine Club delivery. For some quick history and viticulture the Alicante Bouschet, it is an intensely red grape with a somewhat dark and infamous past. It was the number one grape used during the prohibition, and widely planted in California during the prohibition, because its color and thick skin allowed for the long trip to the east coast and to be diluted without discoloring the wine too greatly! The grape makes for intensely dark wines, with somewhat high alcohol, and average quality wine.

When standing around and tasting the Alicante Bouschet, I asked the folks around what they thought about it. They answered (though some pleaded the 5th), to a man/lady, that the Alicante Bouschet was OK, but had no finish, and that it was far to young. When I smelled it the first thing that hit me was the intense floral, cherry, raspberry, and chocolate. The mouth was OK, and in my opinion the finish was fine, but the wine overall did not have enough to grab me, but it is truly unique.

Finally, we tasted the Herzog Petite Sirah, Second Edition, which we greatly enjoyed the last time we tasted it. The notes were almost exactly the same – excepting for the fact that the wine opens much faster, with rich tar, chocolate, oak, and nice rich black fruit.

Here are the notes for the wines that we tasted:

2008 Baron Herzog Zinfandel – Score: B to B+
The nose on this black colored wine is rich with chocolate, dark cherry, ripe mixed forest berry, blackcurrant, bramble, and boysenberry. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with forest berry, boysenberry, black cherry, blackcurrant, and oak. The mid palate is chocolaty with rich acid, oak, and berry. The finish is long and spicy with berry, acid, oak, chocolate, searing tannin, and bramble.

2009 Herzog GPS (Grenache Petite Sirah) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this vibrant purple colored wine is super rich and redolent with light fluffy white chocolate, blueberry, ripe raspberry, blackberry, black cherry, and rich oak. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is fun and ethereal is dominated with lovely white chocolate, black cherry, blackcurrant, oak, and blueberry. The mid palate is balanced with acid, more oak, white chocolate, lovely soft tannin that contributes to a fun rich mouth. The finish is long with more white chocolate, oak, blackcurrant, raspberry, black cherry, blueberry, and vanilla. This is a lovely wine that has about two years left in its sea legs.

2010 Weinstock Alicante Bouschet – Score: B+
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is heady and addictive nose of dark cherry, floral notes, raspberry, spice, blackcurrant, and lovely minted chocolate. The mouth on this medium bodied wine, disappointments in comparison to the nose, with a rich mouth of dark cherry, raspberry, floral notes, blackcurrant. The mid palate is spicy with balancing acid, rich spice, tar, and chocolate. The finish is long and super spicy with chocolate, tar, raspberry, black cherry, bramble, floral notes, and heady spice. Like I stated before, this is a truly unique wine and one that you should try and decide for yourself if this is a wine that grabs you.

Herzog Petite Sirah, Second Edition – Score: A-
The nose on this tar infused purple to black colored wine screams tar, blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry, chocolate, oak, spice, rich black pepper, bramble, and loamy dirt. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich with tar, oak, blackcurrant, blackberry, raspberry, and freshly ground spice. The mid palate is rich and layered with nice acidity, and more fresh spice, tar, and chocolate. The finish is long and super spicy with rich chocolate, tar, raspberry, blackcurrant, bramble, black pepper, and spice. This is truly a powerhouse PS and one that has 4 or 5 years left in its legs.

We finished the tasting in perfect timing, as our waiter summoned us back to our table. We paid for the tasting and two bottles of GPS and we made our way to the restaurant. The chorizo was rich and spicy and a food that would go well with either the PS2 or a rich sweet Zinfandel late harvest. We noshed on some of lovely bread and garlic infused oil until our main courses arrived. I finished my duck that was laid on top of beets and pillows stuffed with duck pate. My wife’s course was massive with two large hunks of brisket on top of a bed of torn pasta adorned with a rich and savory sauce. We could not finish all the brisket or the chorizo, so we took that home to go. We had a rich chocolate hat with creamy rich chocolate mousse inside. I had a French press of fantastic coffee and we were all set.

The entire experience is not cheap, but one that you can savor and remember as an evening well spent with your loved ones and with people who care deeply about their craft and product. My many thanks to the entire Herzog staff for such a lovely and wonderful evening.

Around that very same time, Ben Ami Bravdo was inaugurated with his now synonymous professor title from Hebrew University. Though even before his official title, he was already teaching students for 16 years on the intricacies of agriculture and viticulture. It is not hard to see how this man is a truly influential figure in the Israeli wine industry, if you do a bit of digging. For some 35 years Professor Bravdo trained hundreds or even thousands of aspiring agriculturalists, including many of Israel’s leading winemakers. Of the four or more existing universities in Israel focusing on agriculture, Hebrew University is the oldest and the most famous.

When people call a person by their old or past title, such as Senator or Congressman, I always laugh because sure they worked to get that title and rise to the fame that it bestows upon its holder. Still, once they are out of office or power, the title does not fit the holder. With Professor Bravdo, nothing could be further from the truth. For some 40 years, from 1962 till 2001, he trained and studied the effects of viticulture in regards to both the final product; wine, and in regards to the ecology and environment. Bravdo was one of the many scientists who early on spearheaded the usage of drip irrigation in both Israel and abroad for a multitude of applications, including many New World wineries. In 2001 he left the University and was bestowed the Professor Emeritus title, one very befitting his time at the University, and still in the industry.

It was during his tenure at Hebrew University that he met and later advised, his now wine laboratory partner, Oded Shoseyov. It was Shoseyov’s PhD thesis that fascinated Bravdo, the biochemistry of grape and wine flavor evolution. Together they quenched the thirst of the starving minds that passed through their lecture halls, the very same minds that lead wineries and agricultural powerhouses the world around. Shortly after Shoseyov’s PhD they collaborated on improving and developing viticulture methods for optimizing the grape aromas, as well as experimenting with the chemical properties of the wine must and wine to improve wine and aroma qualities.

In 1998, the two professors decided to take their game out of the comparatively cramped halls of the University into the sprawling 50 acre winery and vineyard that grace the foothills of the Judean Hills wine region. The Shoseyov family, with 120 years of grape-growing expertise, planted the sprawling vineyard some 55 years ago, right outside Moshav Karmei Yosef. The winery is located smack dab in the middle and totally surrounded by the 50 acre vineyard. The estate specializes in using exceptional techniques for producing a high-quality wine, including water stress, along with managing sunlight exposure to their grapes, and their proprietary aroma enhancing techniques. They released their first vintage in 2001 with production of around 3,000 bottles. The winery became kosher in 2007 when they released some 20,000 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and Chardonnay. Since then they have increased the production to 45,000 bottles, and have released their first blend, which is fantastic, and made from one of my favorite grapes, more on that soon.

With that as the background, my friend was super kind to drive me to the Bravdo winery on a beautiful Friday morning day. As an added bonus we were blessed with the opportunity to meet one again with Zvi and his wife from the Rogov forum. As I ponder back to the drive down to the winery, from Jerusalem, I remember with vivid fear and wonder if the car was going to die in the middle of nowhere, and if we were going to have to huff it on foot the rest of the way. My friend’s car is fine, but the road to the winery is a bit challenging. The vineyards surround the winery, and the vineyards start off the main road, and access to the winery after that is only via the dirt and rock path. As you are driving the 1.4 kilometers of dirt and rock road, please take it slow, and have no fear you will be there soon, as long as you follow the lovely signposts that point you to an oenophile oasis in the middle of a 50 acre tapestry that looks touched by the hand of God.

As I was doing research for this post I was shocked at the lack of material on this fantastic winery. Rogov bestowed four stars (out of five) on this winery, which is large praise. Further, Rogov scored many of the wines 90 or higher, including all the reds from the 2009 vintage. So why no love? Where is the coverage for such a strong player? I believe in part it has to do with the remoteness of the winery, though that is easily rectified a 4×4 or calm nerves. Also, the winery is small, producing some 45, 000 bottles this past year. Further, the winery is steeped in technology and research that can make the average human weak in his/her knees. When the question of technology was brought up on the forum, based upon a blog posting, Rogov was quick to retort with “Important to remember that while technology, even technology at the cutting-edge, is important, no less critical to the success of wines is the training, experience, “touch”, intuition and “gut-knowledge” of the winemaker.” Clearly technology is wonderful, but it cannot take the place of world-class winemaker, which is a two piece suit that Professor Bravdo fits into perfectly. Finally, the winery’s two-part name may be unclear to those unfamiliar with the Israeli wine industry, or those who have yet to read this article. The concepts that are used at the winery may be complex, but the camaraderie and product are clearly wonderful.

A final note, when I was in Israel a February, I called Hadar (Professor Bravdo’s daughter and manager at the winery) and asked if I could visit the winery. She wisely recommended that we try to meet somewhere else, as Mother Nature had been dumping her wrath upon us for a week already, and that the winery would be inaccessible. At that time I was wondering – how bad could it really be? A few months later, when we finally had the chance to enjoy Hadar and her family’s company and wine, I could see clearly that she is not only a talented and wonderful person, but a very intelligent one as well!

As we pulled up to the vineyard, on this gorgeous early winter morning day, with the sun was dominating the clear blue sky above, all we could do was to stop and take in the fantastic view. Sure, we saw the vineyards as we drove by them, but now with the car parked we could really stop for a moment and take in the view. We were truly surrounded by perfectly manicured yet wild and unpruned vines, for as far as the eye could see – awesome! As we approach the winery, the first thing we could notice were the two large vats of grape pulp, that are presumably left over from the recent harvest and pressing. As we come closer, we notice the many varied olive trees that surround the winery grounds. As we get closer, two things come into perfect focus, the winery building and a massive pergola covering, what looked to be, a 25 foot or longer table that would be the centerpiece to our tasting.

On one side of the pergola, there were tens of clean gleaming glasses, next to open bottles of Bravdo wines, in a combination of ice and water, plain ice water, and stand alone on the table. As we learned later, Hadar explained that some of their red wines present themselves at the truly recommended temperature of 54 or so degrees Fahrenheit, while others are fine at the day temperature of 65 or so, while the Chardonnay requires ice and water at a chillier 50 or so degrees.

As we approached Professor Bravdo, his wife, and Hadar greeted us. We were then given a glass and took our seat. We were one of the first guests that day, but as the morning progressed people were clearly not intimidated by the access road as they were coming and going quite rapidly and the table was continuously full. The tasting was led by Professor Bravdo in Hebrew, which I was proud to say, that I followed pretty well. I did ask for a word here and there, and he was very kind to explain it to me in English. The tasting started with the 2010 Chardonnay, and then continued with the entire 2009 red line, Merlot, Cabernet, Shiraz, and then the Coupage. The 2009 Coupage blend is a mélange of 40% Cabernet Franc, 33% Shiraz, and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon.

As we tasted the wines I had the luck to sit across from Zvi and his lovely wife Rachel. The tasting was a blast, and throughout I could not help but take a peek over my back and across the table to the surrounding vines and olive trees, and the happy and talkative crowds that poured in. Israelis really do love their Fridays, and they cherish them like Americans do their Sundays, so when I see so many happy and effervescent people surrounding a table setting with fine wine in their hands I cannot help but wonder about the magic of this place. Clearly the wine is world class, and obviously just because the Internet is not hopping with recognition to this oasis, it does not mean that people are as equally ignorant. The winery has a charming boutique setting and camaraderie among its fans that would make Plato and Aristotle blush. Still, after being at many planned and large tastings, the atmosphere was akin more to a foodie convention (there was tons of cheese and bread enjoyed by all) than to a wine tasting. Though through it all the winery’s roots shown through. At times there were as many as three groups of people, and all of them being given the same warm and friendly treatment so common in Israeli culture, but also they were poured a healthy but controlled dosage of Bravdo wine and Winery.

No matter the size of the group or the time that they arrived, each was served a healthy pour of wine, food, and message. Each group was privy to a talk by the professor about wine chemistry, the make up of each of his wines, and the flavors that we were all enjoying. For each of the wines we savored, two things came out loud and clear, the aromas were truly concentrated and redolent, and the wines were not overpowered by oak. Professor Bravdo kept repeating that he is very focused on not over oaking his wines and also concentrating to minimize the bitterness that may arise from the maceration process. What was fascinating to me was that even as the Professor was holding court and throwing out concepts like phenolic, tannin, color, stems, and wine body, I looked around and there were no blank stares or folks ignoring him. Rather his ability to explain the concepts, and the impact of them on the wines, to the uninitiated was mind blowing! It once again solidified to me the idea that his abilities in the lab and on the stage are one the same, to bring quality Israeli wine to the masses, no matter the medium or place.

Rogov, commenting on the Bravdo Winery, made the following statement: “the major reason for buying the wines of boutique wineries is that they should reflect both the philosophy and signature of the winery. The Bravdo wines most certainly do that!” As we were sitting tasting the wines and taking in the surroundings and group energy, I could not help but totally agree that Professor Bravdo has succeeded in transporting the academic qualities of wine research and knowledge transfer and channeling them into quality Israeli wine and winery.

Like I stated in my previous two postings on the 2009 Bravdo Coupage, the wine is a unique blend. Recently, we were doing blending trials at a different winery, and we tried to put together some of these non sequitur blends and they did not work out. The wines by themselves were lovely but a complex blend was non palatable because there were not enough commonalities between the varietals to make up for the subtleties that were hoped to be captured. In the end a blend like Coupage is no easy feat and one that proves that the Bravdo winery is not just about smoke and mirrors, or mere must aroma delight, but rather a winery who takes the best that Israel has to offer and makes it better with a combination of research and technology along with equally deep winemaking knowledge and experience.

My many thanks to Zvi and his wife for helping us get to the tasting and for the usage of some of their pictures. Many thousands of thanks to the entire Bravdo family for hosting us at their wine oasis, and the rest of the staff for making the entire experience one to remember. The wine notes follow below, in the order that they were tasted:

2010 Bravdo, Karmei Yosef, Chardonnay – Score: B++ to A-
The wine was aged 50% in oak and 50% in steel, the part in oak was aged in barrels for 3 months. The nose on this light gold colored wine is rich with mineral, fig, toasty oak, peach, apricot, brioche, vanilla, creme brulee, ripe grapefruit, spice, and yellow apple. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and coating with nice brioche, peach, apricot, yellow apple, ripe grapefruit, and creme brulee. The mid palate is balanced with lovely acid, toasty oak, rich spice, mineral, and a nice rich body. The finish is long and spicy, with spice, peach, apricot, mineral, creme brulee, and vanilla. A lovely rich Chardonnay that has a few more years left in its sea legs. Drink now and enjoy.

2009 Bravdo, Karmei Yosef, Merlot – Score A-
This is a brilliant wine that has strong varietal characteristics, and may well be my favorite varietal Israeli Merlot. The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine is super rich with forest berries, sweet cedar, rich blackberry, ripe plum, black cherry, nice mineral, bramble, loamy dirt and rock, rich chocolate, light tar, and tobacco. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is truly rich and mouth coating with nice mouth coating tannin, plum, black cherry, blackberry, and cedar. The mid palate is balanced with nice acid, chocolate, cedar, plum, vanilla, tobacco, and more nice tannin. The finish is long and rich with more mouth coating tannin, plum, tobacco, sweet cedar, vanilla, and malted chocolate. Quite a rich wine that still needs to settle down. Enjoy this puppy in a year.

2009 Bravdo, Karmei Yosef, Cabernet Sauvignon – Score A-
The nose on this dark purple to black colored wine is rich with tar, garrigue, blackberry, rich date, cassis, heavy chocolate, tobacco, and nice cedar. The mouth on the rich, heavy, layered, and super extracted full bodied wine is filled with tar, blackberry, cassis, date, heavy tannin that coat your mouth, and garrigue. The mid palate is balanced with lovely acid, tar, cedar, tobacco, vanilla, and rich blackberry. The finish is long and rich with tar, vanilla, blackberry, cassis, rich tannin, chocolate, nice cedar, and a hint of black olives. Quite a rich wine that still needs to settle down. Enjoy this puppy in a year.

2009 Bravdo, Karmei Yosef, Shiraz – Score A- to A
The nose on this black colored wine is rich and redolent with heavy tar, date, blackberry, rich chocolate, super rich cedar, tobacco, crushed herbs and garrigue. The mouth on this full bodied powerhouse of a wine is rich and lovely with mouth coating tannin, blackberry, currant, and garrigue. The mid palate is balanced with more attack of blackberry, tar, cedar, tobacco, and vanilla. The finish is super long, extracted, and spicy with tar, more mouth coating tannin, tobacco, cedar, garrigue, and vanilla. Quite a rich wine that still needs to settle down. Enjoy this puppy in a year or maybe a bit more. Also, do not let the shape of the bottle scare you, this is a real doozy of a Shiraz, even if in a Bordeaux style bottle.

2009 Bravdo, Karmei Yosef, Coupage – Score A- to A
This melange is a truly unique blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 27% Shiraz. A few comments on this wine, it shows its blend and components quite well throughout. You can always pick out the flavors that are derived from the different grapes, but overtime the particular characteristics give way to other characteristics, all the while still being true to their origins – a very unique wine.

The nose on this impenetrable black colored wine, to start, is floral, with herb, mineral, black cherry, and raspberry from the Franc. Heavy date, tar of the Shiraz, and rich ripe plum, blackberry from Cabernet, along with alcohol, more tar and chocolate. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is super layered and concentrated with multiple attack vectors, mint, floral, plum, raspberry, date, rich and aggressive mouth coating tannin, and hint of blackberry. The mid palate is balanced with acid, chocolate, mint, raspberry, date, vanilla, cedar, and rich tannin. The finish is long and rich, with cedar, tar, raspberry, plum, heavy tannin, tobacco, chocolate, blackberry, and lovely vanilla.

Overtime the wine turns blacker flavored with more tar, chocolate, crushed herb, blackberry, date, and oak making a presence. The mouth softens and becomes plusher with integrated tannin, ripe date, blackberry, tar, plum, and a richer and plush mouthfeel. The mid palate is rich and layered with acid, chocolate, oak, and blackberry. The finish is long and lovely with black olive, date, blackberry, vanilla, nice oak, chocolate, and bit of leather and tobacco.

This wine needs time, lots of time, in a year or two this will be really ready to enjoy. If you do as I did and open one before that, please taste a bit by pouring a glass once you open the bottle, and place that to the side. Then decant the rest of the bottle, and leave it rest for an hour or so, and then try the glass versus the decanted wine, and I hope you will see the elegance growing from glass to decanter.

In a previous post concerning Ella Valley Winery, I have already discussed what I believe to be the definition of a boutique winery. In a sentence or more, it means a crazy (in a good way) level of oversight from the mundane to the essential. Of course, my take leaves a large enough space to drive a semi-trailer through, as exemplified in these retorts to my post. With that said, to me Flam Winery exemplifies many of the aspects of what I look for when talking about a boutique winery. Yes, they are smallish, at some 120 thousand bottles a year, along with very tight oversight of their vineyards. Flam leases five vineyards throughout the country, three in the Judean hills area and two in the upper Galilee. The vineyards are leased so that Golan Flam, the head winemaker, can work hand in hand with the vineyard manager, and know that they will both get what they want. The vineyard knows it will be paid on a consistent manner, per acre. While, Golan knows that the vineyard will be managed with quality as the benchmark and not quantity. Also, Golan has the opportunity to work hand on with the vineyard manager to maximize the potential of the grapes, in the direction that he thinks is most beneficial to the vineyard and the winery.

There are a few famous family owned wineries, including Castel Winery in the Judean Hills, and Tulip Winery in the Galilee. Flam Winery, of course is also on the short list of quality family run wineries. Flam Winery, which was started in 1998, is a personification of Golan’s dream to create an Israeli wine estate, focused on premium quality wines. The dream was hatched after graduating from Hebrew University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, on a trip through Tuscany, Italy in 1996. While on a fascinating tour amongst the splendid wineries of this enchanting region, Gilad & Golan decided to build a boutique winery in the Land of Israel, which should be surrounded by superb vineyards, and would be the source of the best possible Israeli wines. Golan returned to Italy to get his Master’s degree in Enology, and worked at Carpineto Winery in Tuscany, and in Australia as well. In 1998 Golan returned to Israel to be the wine maker of Flam, and joined forces with his brother Gilad, a successful lawyer and businessman, who runs marketing and Business Development. They recruited their mother, Kami, a successful businesswoman to be the winery’s CFO, and they leaned heavily in the beginning on their father, who was then the head wine maker for Carmel Winery.

The Israeli Wine Industry renaissance can truly not be told without a large time spent on one of its biggest protagonist’s Israel Flam, Golan and Gilad’s father. For starters, Israel Flam was the first head winemaker in Israel to be UC Davis trained, the then clear choice for those wishing an advanced degree in the field of Enology. No, not in 1990 or 1980, we are talking about 1969! This is before Tishbi, the Golan Heights Winery, or any other of the nouveau boutique wineries of Israel’s wild 80s. In many ways, Golan and Gilad were born into the Israeli wine renaissance without even knowing it, at the time. Wine was everywhere in their early days, in 69 Israel took the kids to California to study at UC Davis. He returned to Israel in 1971 to eventually become a winemaker at Carmel winery for some 35 years, including 15 years with the word chief augmented to the beginning of his title. Israel Flam joined the winery in 2005, and I must say, we had the rare opportunity to luck into spending a joyous and truly enlightening 30 minutes with the man, who has left an indelible mark on the now sumptuous tapestry, that is the Israeli Wine Industry! He also left his mark on his children, according to Golan, “I grew up with wine always around me,” he continued. “While we (my brother, sister and myself) were children, we used to spend a lot of time in the winery during harvest time – that was our summer vacation and we all have great memories from this period.”

In 1998, and for sure now a days, starting a winery is no small feat. To hedge their bets, they started another business, Hagefen, a liqueur importing and distribution business, importing Italian and European wines. Personally, if I was starting a new venture, the last thing I would do is start a second business to hedge the first business, both would fail for sure! Israel Flam was truly worried about the dual venture, “In 1998 there were only four to five boutique wineries in the whole country. He was afraid we were going to lose all our money,” Gilad says. In hindsight it was pure genius! Israel was turning a corner and creating a strong and vibrant middle class with more bourgeoisie tendencies. Hagefen turned into the cash cow creating the cash flow to bankroll the cash flow black hole that is a winery. Where do you get the capital to buy the new crop of grapes, the barrels to age the new crop in, or the funds to pay for the staff, while your Messiah is aging in the cellar? If you do not either have deep pockets or a hotline to your local area bank, the next best idea is to have a hotline to your brother who is running a distribution business, that if run correctly can actually be quite cash positive, and in the sure hands of Gilad that is exactly what they have.

As you know we only drink kosher wines, but I wonder at times if that limits our vision of the Israeli Wine Industry, to our own detriment. Of course, we have no interest in non-kosher wine, but spending 30 minutes with Israel Flam taught me one very important lesson, kosher is a moniker for food not knowledge! In 2010, the Flam Winery decided that it would turn kosher, and it created quite a stir, as it was not the only winery to do so at that moment! Actually, three wineries decided to go kosher in 2010, Tulip Winery, Saslove, and Flam Winery.

When we called Liatte, an ex-Oakland native, to setup a visit to this wonderful winery, we did so because the winery had just made available two of their 2010 lineup, and it was close to where I was staying for Shabbat. We arrived on a lovely Friday afternoon, earlier than we had agreed, and Israel was leading a large group tasting of the Flam wines. Liatte was very kind and she agreed to meet with me an hour earlier than expected, which was awesome, because it gave me time to talk with Israel at the end of the visit, but I am getting ahead of myself here. The drive up to the winery is truly lovely, and the seating outside, where Liatte set up, is equally lovely, surrounded by lush green foliage. The winery is a stone throw away from Catsel Winery and Tzuba Winery, just a short ride off the winding roads of the Judean Hills. The winery is very reminiscent of a Tuscan building, with its warm cream and yellow tones, wrought-iron decorative grilles, and the surrounding olive trees. Still, if the all the winery claim to fame was only skin deep, they would never have garnered such worldwide acclaim, from the likes of Daniel Rogov and Robert Parker.

The passion that the Flam family shows to its craft, starts in the hours that Golan spends in the vineyards and carries its way all the through to the art inspired labels, that are handcrafted by an artisan in Italy. Golan and the family have found a way to bring together the best of both worlds. The old world or European style wine, fused together with a clear nod to the grapes and climate of Israel. The wines may show European but they are still the embodiment of an Israeli nurtured environment.

As I am sitting sipping some nicely chilled 2010 Flam Blanc, some guests join the informal seating outside, and it was then that I made an obvious observation, in regards to Israeli wines. We all know the line about how horrible kosher wine used to be, we hear it from the press Ad nauseam. Still, while sitting back at the Flam Winery, I realized that Israelis really do love their wine, and the reason they love it is wine’s romantic and transportational characteristics. As we sat there, I had a chance to chat up the other guests, and invariably the conversation returns to which varietal or wine they love so much. How they met their date or significant other at a wine tasting, or how they had just tasted this exact wine at their friend’s wedding reception. We have spoken about this particular power in the past, but it is still special when you see it come to life in front of you. It is clear, the wine drinking is growing in Israel, what is also clear is that it is not just the upper crust that desires quality wines, but the proletariat do as well.

The winery’s portfolio is a unique combination of Chutzpah and European styling. The Flam Blanc, is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, and never with oak. This is a fantastic continuation of what we realized on our previous trip to Israel, which is that winemakers are now embracing elegance and control when it comes to their white wines. However, that very thought is NOT a new thought to Flam Winery, but rather an ethos upon which they built the winery and one that shows lovingly in their wines. The next wine in the lineup is a Rose, made out of Cabernet Franc of all grapes! What a lovely crisp and refreshing wine that has enough complexity to keep your attention, while also keeping to their core belief of clean and mineral wines that show well in the Rose as well. The next wine in the portfolio, and the first red wine, is the Flam Classico, a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet and Merlot. The next wines are the Flam Superiore Syrah, Flam Merlot Reserve, and Flam Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. The final three wines live anywhere from 6+ months in old oak for the Syrah to 16 or 18 months in a mix of new and old oak for the two Reserve wines.

As we were sipping the next wine, the 2010 Flam Rose, I could not help myself and blurt how much I truly love Cabernet Franc. Of course, I have never tasted a Rose made from Cabernet Franc, so it was a doubly cool experience for me. Finally, Liatte opened a bottle of the yet unlabeled or released Flam Classico, and it was another example of the fusion of European restraint and elegance combined with Israel’s hot and ripe flavors. The black fruit was not under ripe or green; rather the fruit was perfect, not overcooked or overripe, while also not a sledgehammer of oak or ripeness. Instead, a healthy balance of ripe black fruit, clearly stating this is an Israeli born wine, while also showing clean and elegant lines. The white wine were also quite a joy for the same reasons; the Blanc had flint to slate flavors, with clean and bright lychee and grapefruit flavors. No question that the bright and ripe Israeli fruit has as well taken residence in the Blanc, however, the balance and restraint is clear with the lack of oak or malo. Ditto for the Rose, with its clean and bright lined coat draped on top of a ripe red and white body.

While I was taking in the a fore mentioned surroundings and the lovely wines, I could not help but ask the obvious question at hand, of why kosher and why now? Liatte has probably heard this question a thousand times by now, and she showed extreme professional and human restraint in not reaching over the table and strangling the life out of me, as she answered; it was a business decision. When you’re not kosher, you’re not working in the free market, and are limited in your easy export opportunities. Of course, there is a fair amount of competition now in the Israeli kosher boutique winery business, even with Royal importing your wines. Still, I asked, is this a Flam family decision? It was then that she said, that Israel Flam, who is the winemaker’s father, and a world-class winemaker in his own right may be available to answer my question. It was then that I lucked into stealing 30 minutes from a legend in the Israeli wine industry, and a gentleman in his own right as well. Our discussion ranged in topics from Daniel Rogov’s unfortunate passing and his forum, to the subject of kosher wine, Royal, and worldwide competition. Time passed way too fast, in an almost blur like fashion. Unfortunately, it was Friday afternoon, and the Sabbath was fast approaching, so, I bid my adieu, picked up a bottle of Rose, and thanked them both profusely for the hospitality, wine, time, and lovely company.

We tasted the three kosher wines that were available at the time. The Syrah will be released in mid to end of 2012, with the Merlot and Cab reserves being released in late 2013.

My many thanks to the Israel Flam, Liatte, and the rest of the Flam winery staff for taking the time to make me feel 100% at home, even with my early arrival, and my unwillingness to leave. The wine notes follow below in the order they were tasted:

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.

2010 Flam Rose (100% Cabernet Franc) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this salmon colored rose is rich and floral with lovely violet notes, nice mineral, strawberry, mint, ripe raspberry, rich brightness, citrus fruit, and orange blossom. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is bright and rich with more floral and violet notes, ripe raspberry, strawberry, lemon fraiche, and lovely tart acidity. The mid palate is bright with nice acid, lemon, zesty raspberry, and orange blossom. The finish is super long and bright with more acid, mineral, strawberry, ripe raspberry, lemon fraiche, and strawberry sherbert. This is a perfect wine for a hot summer day or as a lovely aperitif.

2010 Flam Classico (50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine starts off with a super rich mineral nose, rich and ripe black cherry, ripe blackberry, loamy dirt, restrained chocolate covered mints, restrained toasty oak, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is lovely with mouth coating tannin, rich toast, ripe black cherry, ripe blackberry, and nice black olives. The mid palate is nice and balanced with good acid, blackberry, chocolate, toasty oak, black olives, and more dirt. The finish is long with toasty oak, tannin, chocolate, vanilla, mineral, and blackberry. Black cherry, blackberry, toasty oak, and espresso coffee linger long on the palate.

In 1998, Naama and Yaakov Berg planted the winery’s first vineyard, 18 dunam of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. In the first year, the Bergs sold their grapes to Binyamina. In the following year, 2002, they decided to make a go of it, thereby establishing the Psagot Winery, named for the settlement upon which the vineyards, and winery are located. Soon thereafter, in 2005, the winery added on another 22 dunam of vineyards, with a varied group of varietals, along with the normal mainstays. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay are the usual suspect, with Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, and Shiraz adding to the mix.

While the settlement was laying a road near the vineyard, Berg says, “we found a little hole in the ground. If was full of mud and rocks and stones. … So we dug for more than a month by hand and we found a lot of things, including a lot of coins, and at end we found a wine-press from the time of the Second Temple.” Today, this cave serves as a large wine barrel cellar next to impressive stainless steel tanks and other winemaking equipment. The cave’s cooling system rarely needs to be activated, as the naturally cool conditions preserve the constant temperature, which during the winter does not go below 54 degrees, and during the summer does not rise above 64 degrees. The natural humidity stands at 90%.

The winery’s vineyards are all planted on rocky limestone, Terra Rosa soil. The vine’s yields are kept low, to about 600 kilos per dunam. The vines are terraced upon the mountainside, but the close proximity to the winery makes up for the difficulty of harvesting. The vineyard’s 900 meter altitude allows the vines to cool down significantly in the evening, thereby concentrating the sugar flavors that are created in a far slower manner than if they were in the valley. The entire harvest is very reminiscent of how Ella Valley Winery does its harvesting, by picking during the early morning, and being close to its winery, thereby assuring the highest quality product from the grapes they source.

With that backdrop, we return to the present day, a lovely morning in the early spring of this year, as we follow Josh Hexter, the wine maker of Psagot to the winery. The winery is situated over the proverbial “green line”, so to get there we went through a large checkpoint. Josh was very kind to navigate us to the winery, we joined up with him in Jerusalem, and we followed him through the checkpoint, and to the lovely winery overlooking the Edomite Mountains.

As we drove up the hill to the winery, we were able to stop for a second and take-in the view. The mountains loomed all around, while we stood on a pedestal in the soaring mountains of Binyamina. Craggy hillsides and soaring peaks surrounded us, perfect green grass beneath our feet, and a gorgeous Nachalat Binyamin visitor center straight ahead of us. The visitor center has recently been completed, and the center can be rented out for a myriad of social events; Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, and weddings, to name a few. As we entered the center, we wanted to stop to take in the sumptuous surroundings. However, there was an event going on at the same time, so we slinked downstairs to the Psagot Winery event and multimedia room. More on that in a moment. The winery, which lies below, was completed in 2009, and the winery moved in shortly thereafter. All of this was completed with investments, into the winery, from silent investors working in combination with the interests of Nachalat Binyamin, who wanted a showcase building for their constituents.

However, straight ahead lied the Psagot Winery tasting bar and wine store. The wine bar and store is the perfect example of the famous line; “win-win” situation. While the guests are all enjoying the lovely and spacious event center and their meal, the bar has the ability to serve up as much Psagot wine as the patrons yearn for. Further, once the event is over, they can buy some of the great Psagot wines to go. The close and intimate proximity of the event hall and winery is a lovely symbiotic relationship that I hope continues to bring great success to both organizations.

As we walked down the stairs, a picture depicting Binyamin’s agriculture abilities, along with an image of a Judean coin, loom large overhead. The very same coin that graces the bottles of Psagot Edom, which is the same coin that they found as they were excavating the fore mentioned cave, which is now the winery’s barrel room. As an aside, the caves that were found as part of the road construction were a series of interlocking caves, which according to archeologists, is a part of an ancient network dating back to the Second Temple. The cave contained artifacts from an ancient wine and olive press as well as coins from the period. The coin on the bottle is one of the coins found in the cave and dates back to the Great Revolt, the first true Jewish – Roman war. The unfortunate outcome of that war was the destruction of the second Temple, circa 70 C.E.

At the bottom of the stairs, we entered The Wine Veranda of Nachalat Binyamin and the Psagot Winery. The room is a multimedia spectacle. The center of the room is taken up by a massive, all wooden, long conference table that can easily sit some 30 or so folks. At one side of the room, is a massive wall of glass that overlooks, almost acting like an overhang over the cave below, the winery’s barrel and steel tank room. On the other side of the table, you have a multimedia display that shows many different videos, or can show the video of your own choice. It was here that Josh fired up a 6 or so minute video about the agriculture and history of the Binyamina Regional Council. You can see a very short version of that video here.

After the video, Josh talked to us about the winery, its history, and his affiliation with it. In 2002, the inaugural year of the winery, the Bergs made some 3500 bottles, since then it has grown to 100,000 bottles. As the new vineyard has taken root, and its bounty improving year by year, the winery is producing higher quality wines, and more and more varietals, as well. We had the chance to taste some seven wines, and they we all very good to exceptional. The winery is clearly embracing the growing trend of Israeli wineries, to keep off the oak in white wines, and to create red wines with more character and elegance, than just the sledge hammer wines of old. The winery is clearly on a upward trajectory, and with the improvements to the winery, the vineyard, and the experiences of the entire staff, we are sure we will all be enjoying the fruits of their labor for many years to come.

My many thanks to the Psagot Winery, Josh in particular, and the Nachalat Binyamin, for the beautiful edifice in which we tasted the many lovely wines of that the winery has to offer. The wine notes follow below, in the order that they were tasted:

2008 Psagot Edom (80% Cabernet, 11% Petite Verdot, 4% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 13 months in 50/50 oak) – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine, is rich and smoky with plum, blackberry, cassis, chocolate, raisin, rich cedar, vanilla, and leafy tobacco. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is concentrated and layered with plum, cassis, blackberry, mouth coating tannin, along with an inky attack of rich cedar and black fruit. The mid palate flows from the mouth, with chocolate, acid, rich cedar, nice tannin, and tobacco. The finish is long and luscious, with still gripping tannin, rich dark chocolate, tobacco, cedar, and lovely crushed mint and herbs rise on the finish.

2007 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon (13 months in new oak) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this garnet to purple colored wine has smoky notes, crushed herbs, plum, cassis, oak, vanilla, raisin, tobacco, and chocolate. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine has plum, cassis, currant, nice tannin, chocolate, and raisin. The mid palate is balanced with acid, chocolate, oak, raisin, and tobacco. The finish is super long and spicy, with rich raisin, nice tannin, chocolate, oak, tobacco, and vanilla. Raisin, nice tannin, and tobacco linger long on the palate.

2008 Psagot Cabernet Franc (13 months in 30/70 oak) – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine is crazy rich with floral notes, green notes, mint, raspberry, currant, dark cherry, oak, and light chocolate. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with super ripe raspberry, fresh green herbs, plum, cherry, and floral notes. The mid palate is balanced with nice acid, chocolate, and still gripping tannin. The finish is long and spicy with chocolate, nice tannin, and lingers with vanilla, raspberry, and hints of smoke and tobacco. This is a wine that lives up to its varietal type, and makes it unique and enjoyable.

2008 Psagot Shiraz (12 months in 60/40 oak) – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is super rich and extracted with raisin, plum, blackberry, cassis, rich espresso coffee, tar, pencil, loamy dirt and bramble. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, layered, concentrated, and inky, with tar, blackberry, cassis, and cheese flavors. The mid palate is rich with acid, chocolate, more gripping tannin, tar, and raisin. The finish is long and super spicy, with chocolate, tar, blackberry, and lingers with tar, raisin, and vanilla. This is a super rich and spicy Shiraz, with rich layers and oak extraction.

2010 Psagot Chardonnay (5 months in new oak) – Score: B+
The nose on this light gold colored wine is a bright and round with kiwi, guava, melon, grapefruit, aromatic white peach, hint of oak, vanilla, and orange peel. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with guava, melon, white peach, kiwi, and grapefruit. The mid palate is balanced with bright acid, orange peel, and oak. The finish is long and tart with white summer fruit, kiwi, melon, and oak. The wine lingers long with grapefruit, kiwi, with a hint of orange peel, tart and bright fruit.

2009 Psagot Edom (61% Cabernet, 17% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot and 7% Petite Verdot) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is aromatic with crushed herbs, bramble, blackberry, cassis, plum, oak, asphalt tar, and light chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and layered with rich asphalt tar, crushed herbs, raspberry, currant, blackberry, and gripping tannin. The mid palate is balanced with acid, asphalt/rocks, chocolate, raspberry, and more nice tannin. The finish is super long with raisin, raspberry, chocolate, rich spice, tar, oak, currant, and vanilla.

2009 Psagot Cabernet Franc - Score: A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine is rich with crushed herbs, floral notes, violet, rose, raspberry, cherry, red plum, light chocolate, coffee, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is layered with rich violet petals, rich black cherry, ripe raspberry, plum, and nice mouth coating tannin. The mid palate is bright with acid, black cherry, nice tannin, floral notes, and bramble. The finish is long and rich with nice tannin, rose, oak, black cherry, coffee, and chocolate.

While researching this article I spent a good few hours, heck days, searching the real meaning of the word terroir. I almost felt like Indiana Jones on the search for the Ark of the Covenant. No matter how hard I searched, no matter the words I typed into the oracle of the web, all I got were old and stale answers. Finally, I fell upon the father of wine tasting, Eric Asimov’s, blog posting on the fore mentioned article, and I screamed Eureka (yeah my wife was not impressed)! On an aside, Harold McGee is my generation’s original scientific foodie, his books are the bible to many of our nowadays chef demi-gods gastronomical feats. It comes as no shock to me that he would be my knight in shining armor, remember wine may well be romantic in verse and scripture, but it is a chemical at its most base, in other words, dead center in Mr. McGee’s wheelhouse!

So, after reading more and more on this subject, it became even clearer to me, that the word may well be derived from the Latin meaning “earth”, but that is just the beginning of its true essence. Flash forward to a lovely early spring day in the Judean Hills, where my friend and I walk into the newly appointed Tzora Winery, sited on Kibbutz Tzora, and surrounded by sumptuous foliage and landscaping. Tzora Winery is the handiwork of one of Israel’s original and unique winemakers, who truly understood terroir, and saw Israel’s and the Judean Hill’s potential to become a world class wine region. In 1978, there was no Yarden winery, there was just a single Carmel Cabernet success, and Israel was just in its infancy, in terms of wine making, but to the visionary viticulturist Ronnie James, it was a path as clear as day. Mr. James was the Messiah to your average vintner. In his 30 years of service to the vine, Mr. James, will always remain the pioneer, not only at Tzora but also on the Israeli wine scene. Among Mr. James contributions were his enormous respect and passion for terroir and his insistence that his wines reflect that passion. James, known as “Dr. Terroir,” was the first to make wine from his own grapes and the first to introduce the vineyard name on a label. He recognized that the character of a wine comes from the site rather than the grape.

The lovely surroundings are as new as the winery, but in 1993, when James founded the winery, it was far from what you see today. When you read the words of the late Daniel Rogov, about his first meeting to taste the 1993 vintage, it is laced with true emotion and fondness for the late Mr. James, who passed away in April 2008. He reminisces his first encounter with James, inside a semi-cooled trailer alongside a building on the Kibbutz, tasting the first vintage of his now famous Gewurztraminer. Wine has that power; it has the power to taste so very different whether it is enjoyed on a hillside overlooking a majestic winery, or while having dinner with a bunch of your buddies. It can pull at your heart strings; it acts like a conduit, a true trans-portal, to the deeper feelings in one’s heart. It is this passion, this very deep sense of self, which Mr. James evoked from people. The passion was clear in his wines, though the scores and flavors were not to the level that he would have wished. To rectify what was missing, or maybe to truly channel the purity of his passion, in 2006 he brought on, the now head wine maker of Tzora, Erran Pick. Soon, after his passing, in May 2008 the winery was purchased by a silent investor, in combination with Kibbutz Tzora, who owns half of the winery, and its vineyards. Soon after the purchase, the winery brought in the new CEO of Tzora, Uri Ran.

It was on that lovely spring day, that we came to the winery for a meeting with Uri. This was not long after I had replied to a question regarding Israeli terroir driven wines, and reading the response, of the now late, Daniel Rogov; Tzora, Tzora, Tzora. So of course, I could not help myself, but start the conversation with – what does terroir mean to Tzora now, after Mr. James passing? Well that is an easy answer, says Ran, it is a combinatorial triangle of the land, vine, and person. This triangle is depicted on every bottle on the now beautifully re-branded Misty Hills label, with Ronnie James tending to the vine with its terroir visible below. On another aside, I cannot honestly think of another Israeli winery that has truly re-branded its image so well, in the past few years. The clean lines, the simple white background, it screams simplicity, with the color being a bit off white, grabbing at you, as if to show the very elegance that lies below. The brand is truly triumphant, it is a theme that runs from the web site, to the label, ensconced in it ethos and elegantly displayed in its wine. The minimalistic view on the vine, the wine, and the man, truly a joy for the senses and the palate. Again, kudos to the team, as a techie, I always look for great websites, and the Tzora Winery’s website is truly lovely.

This was not our first visit to the winery, a month before the passing of Mr. James, we chanced upon the winery. As I state in our posting of that visit in 2008, please make it your business to call ahead of time, when visiting a winery in Israel. Many wineries have a full time staff and a tasting room, but if you want the more royal treatment, I would advise upon a call in advance. During that visit we got to see first hand how wonderful this winery really is, and the awesome potential it has to show its deep terroir roots. Many of the wines that had been imported to America were not their best, at that time, and they were a poor showing for the winery, some 6 or so years ago. If that was not bad enough, the wine was not moving, and it stayed stale in wine stores scattered around the country. Without the correct focus that this winery deserved, many of the lots died on the shelves, further exasperating the unfortunate situation. Fortunately, with the appearance of Mr. Ran, things have been righted in the correct direction. The labels tell a story, and the new announced importer does as well; Michael Skurnik Wines. Michael Skurnik wines is a plum find for Tzora Winery and personally, I would add; visa versa. The Skurnik brothers taste, select, represent and sell to the wholesale trade – quality wines, mostly from small artisanal wine-making families. According to their website, the goal of Michael Skurnik Wines is to search the globe and assemble the finest portfolio of estate-bottled wines available at all price points. Wines selected to be included in the Michael Skurnik Wines portfolio must represent the highest quality and meet our exacting standards as regards character and wine making. All they had to add was the magic word; terroir, and they could have saved a bunch of space, by pointing to Tzora’s website! I have been in recent communication with the Skurnik brothers, and I hope to report back once I get more information about their long term goals with Tzora.

Mr. Ran’s view of things for the Tzora Winery, is to continue to channel Mr. James, with equal and intense focus on the product of the vines and the final product that they produce. The vines continue to be under the ever watching eye and tutelage of the master vine manager, Dor James. Yes, that name better be familiar by now, that very same, Dor, is the son of Mr. Ronnie James. His nickname is James the second! However, for sometime it was a short lived relationship, when Dor the son of the terroir doctrine of Israel, and the heir-apparent to the Tzora Winery, chose another path. He left to engross himself into an academic career in the life sciences. However, in 2004, Ronnie called him back, as he was getting sick, and asked him to come back to the vineyards, and Dor, who wanted to be closer to him during his illness at the time, returned home for the final stage of his apprenticeship. The bond of the vines runs deep now in Dor’s veins, a passing of the reins if you may, but one that is concentrated in the fields, where the very essence of the wine takes root.

Mr. Ran explains that terroir is defined by the viticulture instead of the environment. The environment changes constantly, hot or cold summers, dry winters or wet summers.  These are all examples of what the viticulture and viticulturist must withstand in their quest for the perfect grape, vine, and wine. When I ask him what is the goal of Tzora Winery? He states simply, and poignantly, to grow the best varietal for the given location. It is NOT about the specific variety of interest, it is about the fruit that grows best in the given locale, a vine that fits. To Tzora Winery, locale is the grape that grows best in the location. It may sound obvious and almost pointless, but it is that fact that drives the winery, and the very same fact that many miss. If I need to thin the vines every few weeks, then that is not the correct varietal for the location, states Ran. Tzora Winery has a singular mission, and that is to preserve the vine and wine, and to love the grape, not the critic. It reminds me of what the late Steve Jobs would often say, “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Inc. Magazine.

Giv’at Hachalukim was the first vineyard that Ronnie James and Kibbutz Tzora planted, in the late 80s. From there they planted vineyards in Neve Ilan, in 1996, and Shoresh, in 2002, both at a higher altitude than Giv’at Hachalukim, from 600 to 800 meters. The vineyards total, currently, to some 74 acres, of which they use the best of the best, and sell the rest. The winery is producing some 80,000 bottles a year, and hope to slowly increase it as exports grow. Currently, the winery is producing some 7 labels, each with the vineyard it is sourced from, the winery name, and the grape used clearly denoted on the label. If the wine is a blend, then the blend is clearly displayed on the back label. In a way, the winery is channeling its labels from the source of the word terroir, without is failings. France is famous for its AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée), the wine regions and their inane rules and regulations. The major failing of this is sourced from its very roots, its very raison d’etre. The AOC rules are based upon the location in which the winery is based, if you are in Pouilly-Fuissé, then of course you must know that the wine can ONLY use Chardonnay, so why bother writing that on the label! However, there lies the rub, very few Americans know this and as such, many Americans pass over perfectly fine Chardonnay from France, and choose ones from elsewhere in the world. The Tzora labels right this wrong, while still keeping to the edict of the grape, vine, and wine.

After our lovely talk, we had a chance to taste two of Tzora’s wines, and I hope to be sampling more of Tzora’s wines soon, and posting about them at that time. Many thanks to Mr. Ran, and the lovely and helpful staff at the Tzora Winery. This is a winery that has clearly righted the ship and one with a bright and terroir focused future ahead of it.

2009 Tzora Neve Ilan (50% oak, 50% Steel) Chardonnay – Score: A-
The nose on this light gold colored wine is redolent with peach, apricot, guava, mineral/stone, toasty oak, orange peel, grapefruit, and pear.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and bright yet round with clean and rich grapefruit, peach, pear, and guava. The mid palate is balanced with acid, toasty oak, light crushed herbs, almond, and grapefruit. The finish is long and bright, with nice oak, guava, grapefruit, and a hint of orange rind.

2007 Tzora Shoresh (50% new oak for 18 months) 85% Cab and 15% Syrah – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is super rich with ripe blackberry, ripe plum, oak, raspberry, currant, rich chocolate, prunes, and smoky tobacco. The mouth on this massive and full bodied wine is super concentrated with a massive but ripe and structured attack of blackberry, and tar up front, ripe plum, oak, nice tannin, and inky structure. The mid palate flows from the mouth with balance of acid, oak, chocolate, tobacco, and lovely tannin. The finish is long and rich, with vanilla, ripe plum, blackberry, chocolate, and tobacco. The mouth on this wine is massive, but ripe, structured, and concentrated, with soft yet still gripping tannins, all wrapped in an inky structure of dark black fruit, chocolate, and tobacco. This one has a three to four more years left in the tank.

As we drive up to the winery, which is to the left, after you enter the Kibbutz gate, the winery is straight ahead, and Paul Dubb was there to greet us. Paul is the wine maker for the Tzuba Winery and has been growing grapes for the Castel Winery, and some other 10 wineries, since 1996.

Actually, Tzuba is a winery whose history and very existence is intrinsically intertwined with Castel Winery, and many of the other big boys of Judean Hills. How you ask? Well, it all started in 1996 when Kibbutz Tzuba made a highly fortuitous and almost prophetic decision to plant some 110 acres of grape vines! That was only a year after Castel’s maiden release of its Grand Vin, and only a few years after Ronnie James started Tzora Winery, also in the Judean Hills. The crazy thing is that the Kibbutz decided on doing this even before they had actual contracts to sell these grapes. Further, they planted more than just the classic noble grapes. Of course they planted Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Shiraz, but they also planted Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Nebiolo! The winery has three sets of labels for its wines (levels if you may): the top-of-the-line Metzuda that is produced only in selected years; Tel Tzuba of varietal and blended wines, and the popularly priced Hamaayan.

Yes, that is the setup, but how is Tzuba Winery intertwined with Castel and other Judean Hill wineries? Simple, where did these wineries get their grapes? Who had vines back in 1999? Tzuba! Who was the vineyard manager in 1996? Paul Dobb. Who was the vineyard manager for Castel in 2000 till 2004? Yes, Paul again. What is Castel named after, the old Belmont Castel fortress that Eli Ben Zaken named his winery after! The very same castle/fortress that over looks the Tzuba Winery! The very same fortress that the Metzuda (the fortress) wine label is named after. The same fortress that the Belmont wine label uses. In so many ways the Catsel winery is deeply intertwined with the Tzuba Winery. In a way, you could say that Kibbutz Tzuba and the Tzuba Winery are the grape capitalists of the Judean Hills.

With all that said, this is NOT to say that Tzuba is Castel’s second label, rather Tzuba is many ways is the purveyor of Castel’s very blood, its grapes. Further, Tzuba’s approach is actually 100% counter to Castel’s approach. Mr. Ben Zaken will be happy to tell you that his desire is to recreate Bordeaux, without its terroir flaws (climate and temperature). In many ways Ben Zaken has been successful in his desired transportational affect, but that is not what Mr. Dobbs is looking for. Actually, Mr. Dobbs is looking for Mediterranean styling in his wines. He desires the very fruit, mineral, and rich herbs that drench the hillsides of the Judean Hills to be transported into the very body and nose of Tzuba’s wines.

In 2000 Moti Zamir decided that being a wine purveyor was nice, but he wanted to see what the kibbutz could do for themselves, that is when he created the Tzuba Winery. The 2005 vintage was the winery’s first vintage where they produced some 30,000 bottles. In the following years they have ramped up to some 50,000 or so bottles. They hope to expand production to the tune of 10 to 15 percent every year. In other words, slow and consistent growth. The winery currently has some 150 acres of grapes, of which they sell off some 70% of them to ten or so different wineries. They currently are releasing wines from the following varietal: Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Shiraz, and Petit Verdot. They have some 14 different grapes in the vineyards, but some are not quite ready for prime time. Such as, Malbec, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Nebiolo. The winery also produces a red and white dessert wine. The winery’s grapes all come from the kibbutz’s own vineyards, and are all single vineyard wines. The vineyard was planted in a highly dense manner; 660 vines per dunam and with very low yields, around a ton of grapes per dunam. The local topography of the Tzuba hillside vineyard, which is at an altitude of 700 m, and climate, provide ideal conditions for the dedicated kibbutz staff to cultivate the vineyards and produce a variety of prize-winning boutique wines. The cool evening air helps the vines to not overheat, and allows the grapes to mature at a rate that maximizes the sugars and acids, to create lovely and sophisticated wines without massive alcohol levels.

This was our third visit to Tzuba Winery, and every time it seems the winery is adding new stuff. Like Paul said the last time we met, they were going to build a lovely porch overlooking the old wine press, and sure enough they did! The weather was not so co-operative, so we had our lovely tasting inside.

Mr. Dobb has been around grapes since a youngster – where he grew grapes with his parents and grew a love for grapes and wine. Paul’s work is evident in the Castel wines – but is also visible in his own wines. The wines are fruit forward but in a balanced manner. This he says comes from the way he tends to his vines. He makes sure that the vines have sun, while keeping them shaded, to minimize over exposure of sun, which tends to show overripe flavors and too much acid in the wine. The wines are all aged in either American or French oak and according to Paul – do not tend towards Bordeaux flavors. The winery is built to bring value wines in the Boutique winery market – something that Paul stressed is one of the selling points about Tzuba. Finally, the winery is owned in partnership with Kibbutz Tzuba – a partnership that should help the winery to compete in the ever-competitive Kosher Israeli wine market.

The wines we tasted we partially from the 2008 vintage, the shmitta year that will not see the light of day in America, and some from before and after the 2008 vintage. The 2007 and 2009 wines have and will soon be available in America, while, as stated before, the 2008 vintages are available on in Israel, as Royal Wines (the US distributor for Tzuba) does not import Shmitta wines. We have spoken about shmitta and other such kosher issues in my Kosher 101 blog posting. In addition to the new porch, Tzuba also built a new wine bar and point of sales, down near the porch, where Paul says, they sell some 30% of the wine that they produce. Twenty percent is shipped abroad, and the other 50% is sold in Israel.

Many are now seeing the obvious potential of the Judean Hills, but it was Kibbutz Tuba’s vision to become the purveyor of all of the Judean Hill’s fledgling wineries. Sure, Castel now has its own vineyards, as does Teperberg, and others. However, they would never have plunked down 10 million dollars into a vineyard (like Teperberg just did), without first having had success, using Tzuba’s grapes! Along the way, Tzuba realized that they too could be a world class winery! Just look at our scores, and the scores of the late Daniel Rogov, the winery has been clearly and steadily improving. Not just on its elusive Metzuda vintages, but also on its baseline Tel Tzuba and Hamayan wines. If that was not enough, we are so excited by Mr. Dobb’s vision for the winery’s varietals! Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, are wines that excite me equally, if not more, than the lovely Cabernet and Merlot wines. Finally, when you take a quick look at Tzuba’s wines and scores, you start to see a pattern that is very reminiscent of another well accepted winery, Galil Winery! I hope the prices in America will be able to be as rational and reasonable as Galil Mountain Winery. That way far more people can get a chance to taste the true flavors of the Judean Hills.

Tzuba is a winery that definitely deserves more love for the wines they are producing, and for the consistent improvement in quality. But maybe even more, they deserve huge credit for being the grape purveyors and the winery incubators of the Judean Hills.

My thanks to Paul, Moti and the Tzuba Winery for hosting us and showing us around their winery.  Following are the tasting notes for the wines we sampled at the winery. They are listed in the order they were enjoyed:

2009 Tzuba Chardonnay - Score: B++
This wine was aged 50% in oak and 50% in steel. The nose on this straw to light gold-colored wine is rich with oak, kiwi, grapefruit, guava, green apple, and brioche. The mouth on medium bodied wine is rich with kiwi, grapefruit, apple, and guava. The mid palate is balanced with acid, toast, oak, tart apples, and brioche. The finish is super long and bright with bright fruit, toast, kiwi, guava, grapefruit, and oak. Green apple, kiwi, grapefruit linger long. A nice wine that shows acid and wood balance.

2008 Tzuba Pinot Noir – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine is mineral based with black cherry, strawberry, light chocolate, eucalyptus, toast, and currant. The mouth on this medium to full bodied is rich, and mouth coating with a concentrated red fruit attack, lovely spice, more tart fruit, currant, black cherry, and strawberry. The mid palate flows from the mouth and is balanced with acid, toast, chocolate, and more spice. The finish is super long with smoked meat, spicy oak, black cherry, and chocolate. This is a lovely oak infused wine that used no new oak, but one that has clear oak impact, but balanced well and tasteful with black cherry, currant, and strawberry. A wine that will be here for at least 4 to 5 more years.

2010 Tzuba Cabernet Franc (Barrel Tasting) – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is heavy with toast, roasted meat, nice floral hints, eucalyptus, black cherry, raspberry, currant, chocolate, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and mouth coating with massive tannin, blackberry, currant, raspberry, and cherry. The mid palate is balanced with acid, oak, rich tannin, and chocolate. The finish is super long with rich oak, acid, blackberry, black cherry, tobacco, chocolate, and leather.

2007 Tzuba Metsuda/Metzuda (80% Cabernet, 15% Franc, 5% Malbec) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this rich and opulent black colored wine is layered with rich blackberry, chocolate, currant, raspberry, eucalyptus, fig, mint, oak, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, layered, and concentrated with mouth coating tannin, blackberry, raspberry, and currant. The mid palate is rich and balanced with nice oak, still rich mouth coating tannin, and chocolate. The finish is super long and spicy with rich chocolate, blackberry, raspberry, tobacco, fig, and more nice tannin. The blackberry, tobacco, chocolate, and tannins linger long. A wine that is almost ready and will be around for 4 to 5 years.

2008 Tzuba Metsuda/Metzuda (60% Cabernet, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this rich and opulent black colored wine is layered with rich blackberry, tobacco, eucalyptus, roasted meat, raspberry, currant, oak, and fig.. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, layered, and concentrated with massive mouth coating tannin, rich and ripe blackberry, raspberry, currant, and spice. The mid palate is rich and balanced with nice oak, still rich mouth coating tannin, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is super long and spicy with lovely tobacco, rich chocolate, oak, blackberry, toast, and leather. The blackberry, tobacco, chocolate, and tannins linger long. A wine that is not yet ready and will be around for 5 to 6 years.

This final tasting is a wine that Paul is playing with, a wine that he calls Vintner’s blend. Not for commercial or consumer sale – but a look at what the Judean Hills can produce – it turns out that this may not have been kosher.
2009 Tzuba Vintner’s Blend (20% Cabernet, 30% Merlot, 15% Shiraz, 35% Sangiovese) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is rich with chocolate, blackberry, tobacco, raspberry, strawberry, red apple, mint, and light oak. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is almost soft and plush with almost mouth coating integrated tannin, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, and eucalyptus. The mid palate is balanced with nice acid, tobacco, raspberry, and oak. The finish is long with more tobacco, an almost toasty/roasted finish, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, and nice leather. The roasted notes, linger well with tobacco, leather, and red fruit. A lovely wine that is unique and one that can be enjoyed for a few years from release.

However, we need to go back in time to get a real appreciation for the story of Mr. Ben Zaken and the Domaine Du Castel. The story starts early in the life of Mr. Zaken, he was born in Alexandria Egypt to a Moroccan Father and Italian mother, and then moved about Europe between England, Switzerland, and Italy. It was in his movements around Europe that he gained a love for agriculture, culinary culture, and wine. Like many Jews Ben Zaken felt the pull to move to Israel, and he made it a reality after the Six Day War of 1967. Soon upon arrival he got to work in what he knew well – agriculture. After some time he built a house in Ramat Raziel and followed his initial love and roots in 1980, when he opened the first real Italian Restaurant in Jerusalem; Mama Mia. Upon opening the winery he went out looking for some locally made wine to serve to his customers and he did not really love what he found.

At the time that Ben Zaken planted his first vineyard in 1988 next to his home, he would have no idea that this small vineyard would become the first in so many ways. Initially the vineyard was made up of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but over time they would add some more Bordeaux varietals and Chardonnay. Ben Zaken had no formal wine training and yet he had no problem pressing his grapes in his barn! Four years later he harvested his first crop, and three years after that in 1995, he produced 600 bottles in his first vintage.  The wine was initially produced for himself, friends, and family. However, as the wine got around to friends of his friends, they all loved the product and he starting to think that he may have some good stuff on his hands. However, it was not until luck and serendipity found their way into his life at the same time, when one of the bottles fell into the hands of British expert Serena Sutcliffe, Master of Wine at Sotheby’s in London, who described it as “absolutely terrific … a real tour de force, brilliantly made.” Ben Zaken recalls with pride; “I had tears in my eyes, over the next few days, I went everywhere with that fax in my pocket.”

Since then Domaine du Castel has been pulling in some of the highest scores and praises from the world’s experts, France’s prestigious Bettane & Desseauve guide counts the winery as one of the 365 worlds best vintages. Daniel Rogov recently commented “Since its inception, Castel has been one of the very best wineries in the country..”, and Mark Squires of The Wine Advocate consistently gives their wines a 90 or higher. Not only is the winery doing extremely well but so is the wine region. The very same wine region that Baron de Rothschild reportedly thought was not conducive to making great wine, was the same region that originally grew the grapes for the Temple, some 2000 or more years ago. It is also the very same region that now makes some of the very best wines in Israel, with some of the biggest names in Israeli wine business sourcing their grapes from the Judean Hills. On top of all that Mr. Ben Zaken original vineyard was the first of its kind in the region for some 2000 years!

It takes a visionary to see the potential in a land that others ignored, to put down roots in a rocky soil without any training to lean on. Maybe more than all that it takes true courage to walk away from a successful and burgeoning restaurant to start a venture you know little about! Still the wines he produces have been garnering praise from their incubation and have never looked back. It was not until the 2003 vintage the wines were kosher, but that does not detract from their quality in any way. The styling of Ben Zaken’s wines is very much in line with the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. His two red wines; the Petite Castel and Grand Vin are both reminiscent of fine Bordeaux wines, where the oak does not dominate. These are wines that are more old world rather than new world. The Petite Castel is a blend of mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest, in order of importance is Merlot, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The wine is aged for 16 months in French oak barrels. The Grand Vin is Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest, in order of importance is Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The wine is aged in 100% new French oak for 20 to 24 months. The Castel ‘C’ Chardonnay is equally Burgundian in style, though I think recent vintages have been pouring on the oak, more new world in style, but the fruit and acid are very clear, so maybe it is a hybrid between the old and new world wine. In 2009 Domaine du Castel added a fourth wine to its portfolio; a Rose, made entirely of Merlot grapes and produced using the saignée method (i.e., making a wine from red grapes and allowing the free-run juice to run off with minimal skin contact).

The super cool aspect of the Domaine du Castel is that they have been around for 19 years! Sure, there are a few other Israeli wineries with that kind of longevity, Carmel, Yarden, Tishbi, etc. Still, they are the oldest winery in the Judean Hills and that is what separates them from the rest of the pack. Besides distinguishing itself by age, the winery has climbed the wall of worry by receiving the largest number of accolades from outside of Israel. Israel wines have been slow to receive the awards that they truly deserve, but Domaine du Castel is doing its part to reverse that course, and to bring the spotlight down on the country’s wines.

While the wines follow the French Old World style the vines and terroir have little in common with its French counterpart. France’s issues are nowhere to be found in the Mediterranean styled terroir of Israel. The hot and dry summer days are capped with Mediterranean breeze as the day progresses to allow the vines and grapes to cool and slowly progress to its ultimate end goal of ripeness at the end of the summer. France has the cooler days brought by the summer rains that often do not allow the grapes to reach their ultimate goal of full ripeness by the end of summer. Israel of course has rain, but only in the spring and winter months, thereby giving wineries the ultimate control to only irrigate the vines when needed.

Since the beginning Mr. Ben Zaken wanted his kids to be part of the family business! As stated on the web site: It is not by chance that all my family is involved with Domaine du Castel. Without the initial interests shown by my sons Ariel, Eytan, and my son-in-law Arnon, I would not have invested time and energy into starting a new venture whose successes will only be truly enjoyed by the future generations. After Mr. Ben Zaken started the winery, he handed the Mama Mia restaurant over to Eytan Ben Zaken and then when the restaurant closed down, he transitioned over to being the winery’s COO. Ariel Ben Zaken recently took over as the winery’s CEO, after a stint in France with Michel Picard at Domaine Emile Voarick and studying winemaking in Beaune. Ilana Ben-Zaken, Mr. Ben Zaken’s daughter works as the winery’s export manager.

As you approach the building there are a few things that immediately grab your eye. The first is the pair of massive solar arrays that grace the two buildings low pitched roofs. We did not get a chance to see how many actual panels they have in the arrays, but there were at least 50 or so panels, if not more. Once you get past the initial shock of how green the winery is turning, the second thing that catches your eye are the pair of round windows that grace the front of the building’s gables. Each window is sumptuously adorned with the winery’s emblem; has three stars overlooking a castle, with a lion perched on top between its two turrets. This very emblem adorns every wine bottle that the winery produces, in one way or the other from the early 2000s. Prior to that, the image of Mr. Ben Zaken’s old vineyard and home graced the winery’s bottles. The three stars represent Mr. Ben Zaken’s children; Eytan Ben Zaken, Ariel Ben Zaken, Ilana Ben-Zaken. The Castle represents the crusader fortress (Castel), which was uncovered under an abandoned Arab village in the vicinity. The lion represents the emblem of the Judea tribe, upon whose Biblical assigned land, the winery is built upon.

So there you go, that is the background of the Domaine du Castel, and with that backdrop, we found ourselves waiting outside the winery for the ever effervescent and striking Ruth Amir, who we have had the pleasure to meet a few times, over the years. Being that my friends had not visited the winery before, Ruth was very kind to walk us around. It happened to be that while we were visiting, the winery was in the middle of bottling the 2009 Petite Castel. It was very cool to get to see the bottling machine and line in action, with the pump and the long hoses exuding from the massive tanks, it was almost like we were crashing on an otherwise intimate affair. Ruth then glided us through the vat room and then down to cellar and past the library wines (older wines that have been put into hiding by a winery for later use), through the white wine barrel room, and then on to the STUNNING red wine barrel room, which is reminiscent of the barrel room of Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac. Upon completion of our tour we sat down to a tasting of some wonderful wines. The first wine; the 2009 Domain du Castel ‘C’ Chardonnay, is one that is shrouded in a cloud of controversy regarding its current state of drink-ability. We all found it quite lovely, but many who have tasted it recently, have found it reductive and undrinkable and not recommendable, but some think it may come out of this funk. When we tasted the wine, it had no smell of cabbage or rubber, but did have a fair amount of burnt or toasty oak, but that is common to many of the C vintages, and was no different between this bottle and other vintages, as stated above.

While I was fully concentrated on the wines, my friends were all over the cheese and crackers that Ruth was so kind to serve and place in the center of the table. The goat cheeses were supplied by the famous Barkanit Cheese, and they looked and smelled fantastic! The next wine was the 2008 versions of both the Petit Castel and Grand Vin. The Petit Castel wine is always a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, which is then aged in French oak for 16 months, a Bordeaux-styled wine that could come only from the Mediterranean sunshine. The Grand Vin is a moving target, for its blend components, but the 2008 was a blend of, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec (60%, 20%, 10%, 6% and 4% respectively). I did not taste either, as they are shmitta wines, and as I described in my Kosher 101 post, I only drink Otzar Beit Din Shmitta wines. Soon after, Eytan walked into the room with a bottle of the newly minted 2009 Petit Castel! What a treat, we were the QA (Quality Assurance) for the winery, for that day! Of course, the wine was super young and just bottled, but it was a lovely wine and well worthy of the Castel name.

As we were walking out we turned to see two paintings on the wall; the first being a painting of the vineyard and house of old, the second one being a painting of the man himself, Mr. Ben Zaken, standing in front of his, a fore mentioned, original vineyard and home. These are fitting pictures to the God Father of the Judean Hills. A man who through the passion of family and agriculture, single handily put the original and still massive star on the Judean Hills wine region. A man, who with his family, continues to drive the family run winery forward from strength to strength!

So there you have it, my wine experience at the Castel Winery, always a joy and always a real treat, both for the palate and the mind. Many thanks to the entire Ben Zaken family, to Ruth of course for taking us around, and the winery staff for putting up with us during a bottling run! The wine notes follow below:

2009 Castel, “C”, Chardonnay Blanc - Score: B+
The nose on this light gold colored wine is rich with toast, peach, pear, white apple, guava, and grapefruit. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich with peach, grapefruit, apple, toast, a wine firm in the mouth with soft oak tannin and rich mouth feel. The mid palate is balanced with acid, toast, grapefruit, and bright acidity. The finish is long, bright, and mouth coating, with acid, rich toast, bright fruit, and oak. This bottle did not show reduction, but who knows if it was a lucky bottle, or something else…

2009 Petit Castel (60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon) – Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine (from a newly bottled bottle) is rich with chocolate, oak, blackberry, mint or eucalyptus, ripe plum, and currant. The mouth on this semi mouth coating wine is rich with blackberry, raspberry, currant, ripe plum, oak, chocolate, and nice soft tannin. The mid palate flows off the mouth with more nice tannin, chocolate, ripe plum, and oak. The finish is long and spicy with more chocolate, tobacco, mint, eucalyptus, raspberry, blackberry, and a hint of leather.