Unfortunately, the wine did not live up to its hype. The wine started off in a crazy haze of madness and funk, with heavy astringency, aromas in funk, flavors going in all directions, and an overall mess. The wine did strat to come out of its haze, but in ethe end, it took some 12 or more hours to reach a state of what I can only call “B++”, but there is no way I can score this wine. The amount of time I was willing to wait for this wine to come around, is not reasonable, and in the end, the wine’s weird salt and astringency is not really scorable.

This bottle may well have been a bad one and I have zero interest in finding and tasting another one for now. What I would recommend, if you want to taste this wine, is to buy it from a reputable merchant, who knows you and is willing to accept the wine back if you find it our of whack as I did.

My “wine note” follows below:

2006 Gush Etzion Cabernet-Merlot – Score: (nice wine but flawed) N/A
This wine starts off VERY wrong with massive funk and things going in all directions, bad astringency, and nothing good. Things get better as the wine opens, and finally get really good at the end, but maybe this was a bad bottle or the wine is going – either way not a wine I can score well. My notes are really from the end flavors and aromas, but that is highly unreasonable for a person to wait as long as I did. I would make sure to buy the wine from a reputable merchant who will accept the return if the bottle is bad.

The nose on this vibrant purple colored wine has now calmed from its madness with rich blackberry, black cherry, blackcurrant, rich espresso, chocolate, light tobacco, anise, spice, oak, green notes, and pencil shavings. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and mouth coating with mouth coating tannin, along with what I can only define as a shot of sea salt, rich black fruit, and cedar all finally coming together to make a nice mouth. The finish is long and salty with blackberry, black currant showing strong with layers of rich tannin, cedar, and espresso coffee to finish it off.

This is a nice wine and a shame that it was incoherent to start – be careful and you may well be rewarded with a lovely wine.

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.

I was truly excited to taste these two Sauvignon Blanc wines side by side! There has been much talk of them on the wine forum, and I wanted to make my own decision. I truly enjoyed them both, the 2010 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc and the Covenant Red C Sauvignon Blanc. When we opened them in the evening, the clear winner was the O”Dwyers, it was far more expressive with tart fruit and crazy acidity, all balanced with nice mineral and a solid body. Still, the Covenant was lurking and when it finally got over its oak haze, it was the ultimate clear winner. Funny thing was that to me if you wanted a nice Sauvignon Blanc, you either went with a Ella Valley or an Hagafen, and maybe a Goose Bay, when young. Now, I would go with either of these any day of the week!

The ONLY con I can say about the Covenant Sauvignon Blanc is the packaging – or maybe the lack of one. It almost feels like they had no idea how to label it, so they threw on their Red C label and that was that. There is no mention of the varietal or winery on the front label, all you see is a big red C. The back label has

The third wine was a true and utter disaster. Sorry, I normally like Yarden wines, but this Gilgal, which is another name for the old Gamla series, before Royal claimed that label for themselves, in the US. The wine was far too sweet with over ripe fruit and in your face raisin and date. It had a nice body and rich fruit, but the lack of clean fruit meant it was way off balance for my taste.

The wine notes follow below:

2010 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc - Score: B++ to A-
The nose on this dark straw colored wine screams from the time you open till you finish it of ripe grapefruit, tart lemon, mowed grass, kiwi, and lychee. Still the grapefruit and the lemon are the clear stars in the show. On the palate of this medium bodied wine the lemon and grapefruit follows with crazy bracing acidity that is perfectly balanced with the kiwi and mowed grass. The grapefruit and lemon rise long and tartly on the finish to a point of feeling you just swallowed a chunk of citrus, along with a hint of mineral. After time the wine does develop a somewhat floral and honeyed flavor, but does not detract from the tart and ripe fruit. The wine’s power is its lovely acidity, perfect balance, sufficient body, and ripeness that you cannot help but put a smile on your face.

2010 Covenant Red C Sauvignon Blanc - Score: A-
The nose on this straw colored wine is slow to come out from behind the veil of oak, over time the wine shows its true colors of controlled rounding oak, straw, slate, grapefruit, lychee, and lemon. The mouth of this medium plus bodied wine starts off slow as well, but opens to reveal a lovely tartness from the lemon and grapefruit, followed by slate and spice. Spice, lemon zest, and grapefruit rise on the finish with a touch of the oak and straw. The overall wine sensation is not nearly as acidic as the O’Dwyers, but it is controlled beautifully with the rounding oak, bright fruit, and mineral, straw, and slate, that bring a focus to the wine that the O’Dwyers cannot match.

2007 Gilgal Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B to B+
This wine is a bit too overripe without the requisite body and stuffing for my taste. The nose on this dark purple colored is filled with sweet cedar, blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry, crushed herbs, graphite, high alcohol, and vanilla. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is still rich with nice tannin and balanced with enough acidity, sweet cedar, and herbs to keep your attention. The finish is long and spicy with graphite, alcohol, sweet cedar, black cherry, and blackberry rising at the end. This is a lovely wine but one that has very ripe fruit without the rest of the package to keep the wine balanced and not overly sweet and ripe.

Please note the change of scenery! The event this year will be in Los Angeles BABY!!! That is right you heard me correctly! You do not need to drive 50 minutes to and from your home; rather you can drink and eat to your heart’s content, and then crash at one of the many rooms in the lovely Hyatt Regency Century Plaza! Herzog is working out a deal with the Hyatt and will hopefully have great deals for staying there on the website soon.

The last four years that we have enjoyed attending this event it has been getting a bit more crowded each year. This year with all the room that the Hyatt has to offer, the hope is that there will be more than enough room to roam and taste the aromas of the world and the flavors of Todd Aaron’s world renowned Tierra Sur Restaurant. Please DO NOT worry, just because the event is at the Hyatt does NOT mean the Hyatt will be doing the catering, rather ALL food preparation will be handled by the incomparable staff of Tierra Sur Restaurant. The food will be prepared on the premises, just as if it was still in Oxnard!

Yes, Yes I left the best for last. Herzog is giving out a coupon out for 10% off the ticket price – use the coupon (on the page after you add the tickets to the cart) KOSHER.

Every year we go and every year we are so excited because it gives us a chance to taste the wines and to see what to buy for the upcoming holidays. So grab you mouse and start clicking and we look forward to seeing you all the 2012 Herzog International Food & Wine Festival.

This is a copy of the blog posting from Herzog’s web site:

Join Herzog Wine Cellars in celebrating fine wines and cuisine at the 2012 International Food & Wine Festival. Year after year, this massive event has highlighted choice wines and spirits brought in from around the globe. This year’s festival is coming to Los Angeles, CA for the first time, and is the perfect place to taste amazing, rare and hard to find wines and spirits. More than 100 labels will be poured from Royal Wine Corp’s diverse international portfolio, all in the sophisticated setting of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

Enjoy and may 2012 be even better! The wines are listed by score and then in alphabetical order from there.

Wines that scored an A or Almost A

2007 Binyamina Diamond, Avnei Hachoshen Ya’alom/Diamond (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah and 20% Petite Verdot) – Score: A

Wow what a blockbuster wine! Assaf Paz brought it to the tasting, and it was in very limited supply, as we said in the previous posting about the wine event.

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.

2007 Carmel Mediterranean (37% Carignan, 26% Shiraz , 20% Petit Verdot and 15% Petite Sirah and 2% Viogner) – Score: A
This is another one of those wines (like the 2005 Yatir Forest) that is more elegant than it is massive or powerful, yet it still has lovely oak, tannin, and some extraction, a nice balancing act indeed.

The nose on this light garnet colored wine is lovely and accentuated by Smoky fumes, rich oak, raspberry, cranberry, blackberry, plum, cherry, and roasted herbs. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich with ripe raspberry, blackberry, cherry, fig, and elegant tannin. The mid palate is rich with well handled oak, lovely tannin, and red fruit. The finish is long and elegant with rich, and ripe red fruit, smoky oak, roasted herbs, plum, and cherry.

2006 Castel Grand Vin – Score: A
I love this wine – it was one of the winners of the evening for sure, and one that all the people who were around me loved as well.

The nose on this massive dark garnet to black colored wine is packed and redolent with blackberry, roasted herbs, raspberry, spicy oak, plum, chocolate, and mineral. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is mouth coating and rich with layer upon layer of rich and dense extracted black fruit, cassis, blackberry, plum, and cherry. The mid palate is balanced with oak, extracted tannin, and rich chocolate. The finish is long, extracted, awesome, and layered with black fruit, chocolate, rich plum, and almost sweet oak.

2006 Dalton Matatia (80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A
The nose on this black colored wine starts off with cassis, raspberry, licorice, oak, nutmeg, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is inky and deep with rich plum, cassis, raspberry, coffee, and oak. The mid plate flows off the mouth nicely with acid, coffee, spice, and gripping tannin. The finish is long and expressive with plum, chocolate, coffee, and tannin.

2003 Four Gates Syrah (same as the last tasting) – Score: A
WOW! This is a killer wine. The first thing that hits you when you open this bottle of wine and peer into its purple-black stare is the ripe blueberry notes that come screaming out at you, along with blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco, chocolate, tar, and rick oak. The mouth on this full bodied, mouth filling, concentrated, and structured wine comes at you in layers with fruit that follows the nose, ripe blackberry, plum, blueberry, tar, and oak. The mid palate is balanced with acid, oak, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is super long, black, and spicy, with rich oak, chocolate, tobacco, tar, leather, and blackberry. This is a truly wonderful wine that is highly structured with lovely tannins and a wine that still has a few years left under its belt. The nose is killer with the lovely ripe blueberry and blackberry, along with the oak, tar, chocolate. It follows through with the mouth till its tantalizing finish. Quite a powerful that has its sea legs beneath it and bright horizon ahead.

2006 Herzog Generation VIII Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley,To-Kalon Vineyard) – Score: A
The nose on this black colored wine is screaming with rich oak, chocolate, black cherry, blackberry, cassis, and rich spice. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is rich, layered, and mouth coating with 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.

2001 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon El Rom (Israel, Galilee, Golan Heights) – Score: A
The notes on this wine have not changed drastically, the tannin is still kicking, the mouth equally as rich, and the heat has dissipated. This is one of the best wines I have tasted from Israel. The wine is still a bit closed, so an hour or two of air time would be of great help! 

The nose on this brilliant and deep garnet to black colored wine is filled with heavy layers of blackberry, cassis, raspberry, tobacco, and oak. The mouth on this wine was also a bit slow out of the bottle, but that changed quickly enough. The mouth was complex and multi layered. This is no simple wine, it hits you in waves. The mouth on this full bodied wine is still tannic though the tannins are breaking down and adding even more opulence to this rich and mouth coating wine filled with blackberry, cassis, rich sweet oak. eucalyptus, and almost jam like – but not in a chewy annoying way – more in a rich and cultured manner. The mid palate follows off the first set of layers and is where the structure comes in. The structure is built on tannin, acidity, and lush layers of vegetal flavors. The finish is crazy long and is filled with blackberry, cassis, chocolate, tobacco, rich dirt, slight vegetal notes, and sweet wood. This is really quite a fine wine and one that is not yet peaked at all, though quite enjoyable now as well.

2008 Yarden El Rom Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A
The nose on this purple to impenetrable black colored wine is crazy rich and redolent with blackberry, cassis, licorice, pencil shavings, ripe plum, vanilla, and oak. The mouth on this rich, layered, and highly focused full bodied wine is crazy rich and opulent, with rich sweet oak, blackberry, cassis, black plum, pencil, and massive tannin. This is a massive wine that is concentrated but equally refined with the tannin, oak, and fruit still early on in their integration. However, even now the wine shows beautifully and will be better to enjoy in a couple of years. The mid palate is rich with balancing acid, blackberry, sweet oak, more rich tannin, licorice, and chocolate. The finish is super long and concentrated with sweet oak, nice tannin, licorice, vanilla, chocolate, plum, and pencil shavings. This is right on the tail of the 2001 older brother, just way younger of course. In 8 years, you will all be begging for this wine – get it while you can!

2003 Yarden Katzrin (Red) Score: A
The nose on this deep purple colored wine is screaming with exuberant jam like aromas of black plum, cassis, blackberry, black fruit, oak, licorice, and chocolate. The mouth on this massive, tannic, and crazy jam packed wine is packed with crazy black fruit, black plum, blackberry, cassis, and raspberry. The mid palate is balanced with sweet oak, and yet more oak, and a nice dollop of tannin on the side. The finish is long with more oak, coffee, dark chocolate, and tannins that keep up nicely with the oak. A truly magnificent wine that shines through almost all other wines we tasted that night.

2004 Yarden Katzrin (Red) Score: A
The nose on this massive black colored wine is screaming with black fruit, dark rich blackberry, dark plum, black cherry, rich ripe fruit, cassis, chocolate, and rich oak. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is rich with ripe black fruit, cassis, black plum, blackberry, and cherry. The mid palate is balanced and flows from the mouth with acid, sweet oak, chocolate, and gripping tannin. The finish is long with rich oak, black fruit, cherry, chocolate, and tobacco.

2007 Yarden ROM (53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Syrah, 24% Merlot) – Score: Filthy or A
The nose on this black and impenetrable colored wine is super rich with blackberry, cherry, plum, cranberry, cassis, chocolate, cedar, and tobacco. The mouth on this rich, full bodied, and layered wine with massive extraction, and a rich mouth of blackberry, cassis, tobacco, cedar, rich layers of fruit, and plum. The mid palate is balanced with rich acid, cedar, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is long and spicy with a smokey finish, along with ripe plum, chocolate, blackberry, tobacco, and lingers long with chocolate and tobacco. This wine is filthy and lovely in ways I have not seen in sometime. What a true joy.

2005 Yatir Forest (77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petite Verdot, and 10% Merlot) – Score: A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is another massive and explosive success by the Yatir Winery. This wine does not have an oak abuse problem, instead it has a rather elegant nose with Blackberry, lovely oak, black plum, ripe fruit, and raspberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine is mouth coating with layers upon layers of blackberry, cranberry, cassis, and candied raspberry. The mid palate flows off the mouth with lovely tannin, oak, and bracing acid. The finish is long with rich black fruit, chocolate, licorice, anise, smoke, and tobacco.

Wines that scored an A- to A

2009 Adir Shiraz – Score: A- and a bit
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is lovely with rich roasted meat, fresh espresso, chocolate, blackberry, ripe plum, blackcurrant, and cedar. The mouth on this massive, extracted, and rich full bodied wine made me exclaim WOW!, followed by roasted meat, espresso, mouth coating tannin, rich blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry, and more rich cedar. The mid palate is part of the massive mouthfeel from clear oak influence, rich tannin, and ripe fruit, followed by nice acid, chocolate, roasted meat, and cedar. The finish is long, gamey, and spicy, with nice cedar, roasted meat, vanilla, tar, chocolate, and a pique of garrigue. This is a crazy lovely wine that some may hate, but I find unique.

2007 Alexander The Great Amarolo – Score: A- to A
I have tasted this wine three times now, and the first time was from a barrel, with the next two times being from a bottle. When I tasted the wine in 2008, it was just the Cabernet Sauvignon, now the wine is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Petite Verdot, Shiraz, Merlot, and Grenache. The bottle is beautiful with thick metal labels on a large Syrah style bottle – quite unique. The nose on this super rich and ripe purple to black colored wine is rich with raisins, prunes, candied cherries, blackberry, cassis, ripe plum, vanilla, sweet oak, date, rich tobacco, a really rich and aromatic nose. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine hits you with vanilla to start, along with candied fruit, blackberry, cassis, super ripe plum, lovely rich mouth coating tannin, with layers of rich candied and black fruit. The mid palate is balanced with rich acid, ripe plum, tobacco, rich tannin, and blackberry. The finish is super rich and spicy with nice leather, tobacco, ripe plum, vanilla, cassis, candied fruit, and date.

2006 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon Superieur (90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot) – Score A- to A
The nose on this purple to black colored wine was exploding with oak, cassis, raspberry, licorice, plum, black cherry, and vanilla. The mouth on this muscular and massive full bodied wine starts off with black fruit, oak, cassis, and gripping tannin. The mid palate is balanced with chocolate, coffee, oak, more massive tannin, and acid. The finish is long and extracted with chocolate, black fruit, and vanilla.

2009 Barkan Tzapit (Blend of Marselan, Caladoc, Carignan, and Pinotage) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark purple to dense black colored wine is screaming with nice banana, black pepper, ripe plum, blackberry, ripe dates, tar, slight roasted meat notes, vanilla, and chocolate. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine shows massive tannins that are still course, with a unique mouth that is a by product of the unique components, banana and black pepper are rich in the mouth with full mouth coating tannins, concentrated fruit, blackberry, plum, and roasted meats. The mid palate is balanced with rich acid, roasted meat, more massive tannin, chocolate, tar, dates, and nice cedar. The finish is long and super spicy with lovely cedar, vanilla, tannin, chocolate, tar, black pepper, and dates. The dates, vanilla, cedar, tar, and roasted meat notes linger long on the palate.

This is a wine that needs time and will show more classic black fruit, still, a wine that has nowhere but up to go.

2006 Binyamina Avnei Hachoshen Odem Syrah (blended with 2–3% of Viognier) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple to black colored wine explodes with rich mocha, tobacco, super ripe blackberry, plum, raspberry, creme de cocoa, and sweet oak. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is layered and concentrated with inky structure of tar, blackcurrant, heavy oak extraction from 18 months in oak, blackberry, dark plum, and oak. The mid palate is spicy and balanced with acid, chocolate, plum, and dates. The finish is long and spicy with oak, chocolate, blackcurrant, plum, leather, vanilla, and dates. The wine lingers with date, ripe plum, sweet oak, spicy notes, and ripe blackberry.

2008 B.R. Cohn Cabernet Sauvignon Kosher Trestle Glen Estate Vineyard – Score: A- to A
The nose on this wine starts off closed and not very enjoyable. After quite a few hours the wine becomes very enjoyable and “elegant”. This is not a sledge hammer wine, not an overly complex or layered wine, rather this is a wine that has enjoyable characteristics. The nose on this purple colored wine starts off closed and muted. Over time it opens to display light notes of sweet oak or cedar, raspberry, black plum, eucalyptus, cranberry, tobacco, chocolate, and a hint of vanilla. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is elegant in its attack, again, not one that relies on shock and awe, rather a wine that attacks with ripe raspberry, plum, cranberry, lovely tannins, and a mouth feel that is luscious and attention grabbing. The mid palate is balanced with acid, tobacco, chocolate, cedar, and eucalyptus. This finish is spicy and long with ripe plum and raspberry, tobacco leaves, dark chocolate, licorice, and vanilla.

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.

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

The nose on this massive wine is almost unapproachable out of the bottle. It is closed, with just hints of what is to come. After 30 minutes of sitting in the glass, the wine’s nose pulls the wool out from under its eyes and exposes a world of joy, starting with expressive oak, cedar, tobacco, concentrated dried red fruit, raspberry, and spice. The mouth on this currant colored wine is super concentrated, almost laser focused, and layered with dried cranberry, raspberry, and plum. The attack is what makes this wine; it is clean lined with heft and power, yet focused on delivering not a single but many blows of dried fruit and oak. The mid palate flows from the mouth with acidity to balance the beast, along with nice tannins, cedar oak, and tobacco. The finish is super long and concentrated with more oak, red dried fruit, tobacco, and spice. This is quite a wine and one that should be enjoyed first from the glass, and then with food.

2007 Capcanes Flor de Flor – Score: A- to A
This is a wine that only recently became kosher, a cuvee of the winery’s Cabrida wine. The wine is made entirely from old vine Grenache that are said to be 80 to 1110 years old. I have had this wine three times, and I did not like it before this tasting. The nose on this garnet colored wine is rich with dirt, smoke, plum, tobacco, raspberry, cranberry, bramble, roasted meat. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and layered with roasted meat, cheese notes, lovely mouth coating tannin, rich inky structure, tar, raspberry, plum, cranberry, and bramble. The mid palate is lovely with acid, oak, roasted meat, and tobacco. The finish is long and smokey with more cheese flavors, tar, tobacco, oak, fig, and tannin.

2007 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera – Score: A- to A
The nose on this garnet to black colored wine is screaming with blackberry, cassis, black plum, chocolate, mocha, smoke, and sweet oak – what a nose! The mouth on this full bodied wine is layered with nice tannin, blackberry, cassis, raspberry, and plum. The mid palate flows off the mouth and is balanced with spicy oak, chocolate, cocoa, and tannin. The finish is super long with rich black fruit, chocolate, tobacco, and plum – a lovely wine indeed!

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 oak, and blueberry. 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 tannin. The mid palate flows off the mouth with oak, more lovely tannin, and black plum. The finish is long and extracted with tannin, blackberry, cassis, and chocolate finish.

2003 Carmel Cabernet Sauvignon Kayoumi (Israel) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this expressive yet refined royal blue to purple colored wine is exploding with heaps of tobacco leaf, rich ripe black plum, blackberry, crushed herbs, smoked meat, and spicy oak. The mouth on this big and refined wine is layered, complex, and somewhat concentrated all at the same time. The mouth is coating and full with mostly integrated tannins that give the mouth a soft and refined feel while still having heft. Black plum and blackberry are all buoyed by core acidity and spicy oak that borders on cedar, black plum, spice, tobacco, smoked meats, and soft caressing tannins. The mid palate flows balanced and full from the mouth with more core acidity, cedar oak, and tobacco. The finish is super long, luscious, and fantastic, with black plum and blackberry fruit, along with oak, spice, tobacco, and smoked meats that linger long after the wine is gone.

2008 Carmel Single Vineyard Kayoumi Cabernet Sauvignon - Score: A- to A
This is a real Cabernet with no roasted meat or other stuff, rather it is purely tuned with rich black fruit, cedar, and tobacco. The nose on this purple to black colored wine is rich with clean cedar, blackberry, cassis, rich tobacco, lots of forest fruit, black plum, and vanilla. The mouth on this massive and full bodied wine is layered and concentrated with ripe blackberry, cassis, black pepper, rich and layered with more black fruit. This is a classic black colored wine, rich and black with rich mouth coating tannin, and lovely forest fruit. The mid palate is balanced with rich acid, cedar, blackberry, cassis, and vanilla. The finish is long, spicy, and lovely with vanilla, blackberry, cassis, cedar, spice, and tobacco. This is one sick wine!

2005 Carmel Special Edition (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Petit Verdot, 15% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc) – Score A- to A
The nose on this dark purple colored wine was intense and layered with black plum, raspberry, black currant, oak, licorice, and fig. The mouth on this broad shouldered and full bodied wine followed the nose with black plum, cassis, spicy oak, and not yet integrated tannin. The mid palate flows off the mouth with bracing acid, spicy oak, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is long with still present tannin, chocolate, spicy oak, black plum, and fig.

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, raspberry, loamy dirt, ripe plum, with clear oak impact, giving the mouth a rich and layered attack of ripe fruit. The mid palate is balanced with nice acid, oak, chocolate, and more nice tannin. The long and spicy finish is huge with nice tannin, chocolate, oak, plum, raspberry, and more nice dirt. This wine attacks and does not let up till well after the wine is gone.

2005 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere Grand Cru Pessac-Leognan – Score: A- to A
WOW what a killer wine. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is smoking with an almost smoke screen like aroma, serious spice, over a sea of intense dry and candied cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and fig. The mouth on this blockbuster full bodied wine is intense and concentrated with lovely tannin, cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and more intense flavors. The mid palate is balanced and flows off the intense mouth with oak, acid, and coffee. The finish is super long and concentrated with bright fruit, acid, fat cigar tobacco, and a long slug of mocha.

2007 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is screaming with sweet oak, blackberry, chocolate, mocha, fig, and raspberry. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is full in the mouth with mocha, raspberry, blackberry, cassis, and sweet oak. The mid palate is balanced with acid, spicy oak, and nice tannin. The finish is long and luscious with oak, tannin, chocolate, and dark fruit.

2008 Covenant Lavan Chardonnay, Napa Valley – Score: A- to A (exactly like in Oxnard)
The nose on this vibrant yellow colored wine is screaming with lychee, green apple, guava, peach, oak, and almonds. The mouth on this full bodied wine is creamy and hopping with butterscotch, apple, peach, and oak. The mid palate is balanced and structured with bracing acidity, spicy oak, oak tannins, and mineral. The finish is long and creamy, with more butterscotch, almonds, oak, peach, and lychee.

2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A- closer to A
Are you kidding me! This wine is as close to “filthy”as it gets without being covered in dirt and muck! This puppy is downright crazy, lovely, and insane! This wine was the clear winner of the evening, even against my clear, biased wines that I have a love affair with, the 1996 Four Gates Chardonnay and the 2001 Capcanes. Both were really nice, but in the end, fell a bit short, each for different reasons. This wine was the clear winner, and for bloody good reason! One other crazy thought, when this wine finally calmed down and lost some of its special characteristics, it was VERY close to the Capcanes. To the point where they were almost brothers, excepting for the color, where the Capcanes was clearly going brown and the Covenant being black as day.

The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is packed with rich ripe blackberry, tobacco, chocolate/mocha, crushed herbs, blackcurrant, vanilla, raspberry, plum, and sweet oak. The mouth on this blockbuster medium to full bodied wine is concentrated, layered and mouth coating with lovely and almost integrated tannins, blackberry, blackcurrant, raspberry, and ripe plum. The mid palate flows off the mouth with balancing acid, sweet oak, mocha, tobacco, and more nice tannins. The finish is long, spicy, and continuous and, while maybe being the best part of this wine, which is saying a lot, with sweet cedar in the fire box, a long puff from a fat stogie, a warm cup of mocha in your hand, while munching on blackberry, black currant, and vanilla. Tobacco, plum, blackberry, and sweet cedar linger long on the palate.

2008 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon (Larkmead Vineyard) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine explodes with rich chocolate, blackberry, raspberry, rich ripe plum, nice sweet oak, mineral, and licorice. The nose is truly rich and voluminous, a true joy. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and full in the mouth with ripe and rich blackberry, rich tannin, soft with still searing but lovely tannin, nice toasty oak, and black plum. The mid palate is balanced with acid, chocolate, sweet oak, tobacco, and vanilla. The finish is super long and almost smooth and spicy with massive black fruit, blackberry, rich ripe plum, leather, with massive oak, spicy vanilla, blackberry, and toasty oak linger long on the palate.

2005 Ella Valley Vineyards Choice Chardonnay – Score: A- to A
The nose on this light gold colored wine is rich and very expressive with light oxidation, creme brulee, peach, toast, grapefruit, and guava. The mouth on this rich and mouth filling full bodied wine is has fruit that follows the nose with guava, grapefruit, and kiwi. The mid palate flows off the mouth with nice balancing acid, creme brulee, toast, and butter. The finish is long, creamy and buttery, with oak, creme brulee, grapefruit, and fig. This is truly one of those lovey creamy wines that carries itself well with bright fruit.

2007 Ella Valley Chardonnay – Score: A- to A
The nose on this light gold colored wine is filled with honey, kiwi, grapefruit, peach, brioche, flinty mineral, and oak. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is bright and rich with honey, kiwi, grapefruit, apricot, and peach. The mid palate is balanced with acid, oak, toast, and light creme brulee. The finish is long and lovely with toast, brioche, creme brulee, bright grapefruit, kiwi, and mineral, with the creme brulee and grapefruit lingering long.

2005 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc (Israel, Judean Hills, Ella Valley) – Score: Almost A
The nose on this purple colored wine is hopping with blackberry, cranberry, raspberry, plum, sweet oak, tobacco, chocolate, meaty notes, vanilla, and nice mint. The mouth on this medium bodied wine filled out as it got more air. The mouth on this medium bodied is layered with rich oak, cranberry, blackberry, plum, and tannins that calm down as the wine sits in the glass. The mid palate is balanced with a rich mouth, just enough acidity, and not yet integrated tannins. The finish is long and luxurious with a playful amount of spice, tobacco, chocolate, and vanilla that is joined in by rich fruit. This was the winner of our Cabernet Franc lineup once again – unfortunately I do not have any more. This is a wine that still has another year or two under its belt and another winner for this wonderful winery.

2007 Ella Valley Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this lovely purple to black colored wine is screaming with oak, tar, blackberry, mint, eucalyptus, plum, bramble, and chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied and viscous wine is layered with blackberry, bramble, mint, plum, tar, chocolate, blackcurrant, and raspberry. The mid palate is balanced with acid, chocolate, nice tannin, and oak. The finish is long with pepper, blackberry, oak, chocolate, tar, plum, and blackcurrant. The mouth lingers with blackcurrant, blackberry, tar, chocolate, and oak.

2006 Four Gates Frere Robaire – Score: A- to A
This wine is still young and needs time, but one worth the effort. To start the wine has black notes of blackberry, dark plum, rich oak, chocolate, with hints of orange and vanilla. The nose is subtle yet rich. The mouth of this full bodied wine is a tight wine to start with dark plum, not yet integrated tannins, oak, and cherry. The mid palate is bracing with acid, oak, and chocolate. The finish is super long and lingering with tannin, chocolate, cherry, and plum. After more time the wine wakes up and explodes with heavy tannin and more bright red fruit, over time the wine returns to its roots with a super rich mouth feel, chocolate, and ripe red and black fruit.

2004 Four Gates Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this deep to brooding purple to black colored wine is screaming with inky black ripe fruit, cassis, blackberry, raspberry, plum, chocolate, tar, black pepper, and oak. The mouth on this full bodied and velvety wine is inky and dense, along with waves of cassis, blackberry, and plum. The mid palate of this wonderfully complex wine has integrating tannin, oak, acid, and tar. The finish is long with tar, oak, chocolate, cassis, plum, and black pepper.

2004 Galil Mountain Winery Syrah Yiron Kosher – (Israel, Galilee) – Score: A- to A
To start I opened this bottle because I was told it was drink now time, personally, this beast is going nowhere fast in my opinion. The nose on this purple to black colored wine is exploding with rich and concentrated aromas, rich cedar, baking chocolate, leafy tobacco, hints of tar, heaps of black pepper, smoky notes, coffee, raspberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, crushed herbs, and eucalyptus. The mouth on this super rich and concentrated wine hits you in layers upon layers of still not integrated tannin, licorice, black pepper, blackberry, plum, chocolate, and cedar. The mid palate is balanced with sweet cedar, nice acidity, more nice tannin, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is super long and spicy with crazy rich cedar, blackberry, crushed herbs, plum, tobacco, chocolate, figs, a hint of tar, with a dollop of vanilla. Black pepper, crushed herbs, chocolate, tobacco, plum, and vanilla linger super long. This wine is in no hurry to be drunk, but is lovely now.

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 tannin, raspberry, blackberry, plum, and more spicy oak. The mid palate is rich and balanced with nice acid, spicy oak, tobacco, chocolate, and crazy tannin. The finish is 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.

2009 Reacanati Carignan Reserve, Kerem Ba’al - Score: A- to A
The grapes for this wine come from bush like vines (wild vines) that are dry farmed – which makes for more concentrated flavors. This is the first year for Recanati (along with Binyamina) that is releasing a Carignan varietal from low yield vineyards. The nose on this dark purple to black colored wine is rich almost overripe with rich blackberry, date, raspberry, ripe plum, rich spice, black pepper, and chocolate. The mouth on this rich, layered, and intense yet accessible and lovely with inky wine structure, date, ripe plum, crazy ripe blackberry, blackcurrant, and massive rich and mouth coating tannin that are slowly integrating. The mid palate is rich with good acid, spice, still massive tannin, chocolate, and oak. The finish is long and ripe with plum, blackberry, raspberry, chocolate, tobacco, and spice.

This is quite a lovely wine that some may think is a bit overripe, but just on the edge for me.

2005 Recanati Special Reserve - Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is screaming with cassis, blackberry, raspberry, black cherry, oak, and mocha. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and opulent with concentrated layers of chocolate, cassis, raspberry, black cherry, and blackberry. The mid palate was balanced with acid, massive tannin, and chocolate. The finish is long with black and red fruit, oak, chocolate, and tobacco.

2006 Shiloh Mosaic (60% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich with oak, raspberry, plum, cranberry, heavy dirt, acid, light chocolate, and dark cherry, rich and lovely red fruit nose. The mouth on this rich and full bodied wine is heady with massive tannin, raspberry, cranberry, cherry, with layers of fruit attack and not yet integrated tannin. The mid palate rich with more tannin, oak, acid, and chocolate. The finish is lovely and long with more tannin, chocolate, oak, plum, raspberry, and spice. This is a wine that is not really ready to come out and party – give this a few more months and then it will shine for quite a few years.

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.

2005 Yarden Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine – Score: A- and a bit
The nose on this lights straw colored wine, which laid on lees/yeast for five years before being disgorged is rich with yeast, toast, bright lemon, grapefruit, apple, creme, peach, and fig. The mouth on this medium bodied sparkler is attacks with a crazy and lovely mossue of small bubbles, lemon, rich toast, creme, and grapefruit. The mid palate is bracing with tart acid, toasty notes, creme, and almonds. The finish is bright and long with tart lemon, toast, fig, yeast, grapefruit, creme, and peach. A lovely and bright sparkler that lacks some of the Champagne charm but has its own to make up the difference.

2006 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon (Israel, Galilee, Golan Heights) – Score: Almost A
This wine is not going to sneak up on you – it is more like a combination of a sledge hammer and a two-by-four hitting you right between your eyes. The nose on this massive, complex, and sledge hammer styled wine explodes with super ripe blackberry, raspberry, chocolate, herbs, rich oak, licorice, plum, tobacco, and sweet cedar. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is now showing softly integrating tannins that give the wine a super lovely mouth feel. Please do not let the lovely mouth feel fool your perception of this wine, it is massive, aggressive, and heavily layered wine with rich ripe blackberry, plum, cassis, and dates. The mid palate is inky black fruit, massive sweet oak, dates, and balancing acid. The finish is super long and spicy, with nice spice, cassis, date, oak, chocolate, tobacco, and still gripping tannins.

2008 Yarden Kela Vineyard Merlot – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is rich with crushed herbs, black cherry, relaxed fruit, cedar, blackberry, espresso, and cassis. The mouth on this full bodied, massive, layered, concentrated, yet finesse style wine with inky structure, spicy, with crazy rich mouth coating tannin that is slowly integrating. The mid palate starts off with nice balance and acid, cedar, espresso, and inky structure. The finish is long and super spicy, inky, with tar, blackberry, with rich espresso lingering along with vanilla.

2004 Yarden Ortal Vineyard Merlot – Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple colored win is rich and alive with rich cedar, tobacco, blackberry, raspberry, ripe plum, dark cherry, and smoke. The mouth on this full bodied wine is mouth coating and plush with rich blackberry, raspberry, plum, and nice now integrating tannin, which makes for a lovely mouth coating mouthfeel. The mid palate is popping with balancing acid, chocolate, tobacco, cedar, and nice tannin. The finish is long with more black fruit, chocolate, tobacco, cedar, plum, blackberry, and nice tannin. The mouth is rich and the finish is even more lovely with nice integrating components.

2006 Yarden Tel Phares Vineyard Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine is exploding with rich plum, raspberry, black cherry, sweet oak, white pepper, and smoke. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is accentuated with smoke, tannin, raspberry, plum, cassis, and mouth coating tannin. The mid palate flows off the mouth with acid, tannin, and lovely coffee. The finish is long and fun with pepper, ripe plum, raspberry, oak, chocolate, and coffee. This is one fun bottle of Syrah that is not going anywhere in the near or distant future.

2008 Yarden Tel Phares Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is crazy rich and expressive with tar, date, super ripe cassis, plum, crushed herbs, cedar, spice, black olives, and chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied wine hits you up front with another WOW! rich and massive tannin that has yet to integrate but gives the mouth a very rich and coating mouth feel, along with cassis, blackberry, plum, crushed herbs, and chocolate. The mid palate is rich with acid, cedar, black olives, tar, and chocolate. The finish is long and spicy with rich cedar, tar, inky mouth and finish, cassis, black pepper, spice, chocolate, and vanilla. This is a super rich Syrah, with a bit more control on the chunkiness of the tannin than the Adir Shiraz, but both are quite lovely.

2007 Yarden Yonatan Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this brilliant purple to black colored wine is crazy rich with crushed herbs, smoked meat, tar, blackberry, ripe plum, cassis, raspberry, light oak, and vanilla. The mouth on this super rich and concentrated full bodied wine shows clear influence of the oak it lied in, along with loamy dirt, rich and mouth coating tannin, tar, ripe plum, blackberry, cassis, and chocolate. The mid palate flows off the rich and layered wine with more tar, oak, rich and not yet integrated tannin, and more chocolate. The finish is long and lovely with tar, vanilla, ripe plum, smoked meat, oak, loamy dirt, mineral, and nice tannin.

2006 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon (85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petite Verdot) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is massive and broad shouldered with red and black fruit, blackberry, cassis, raspberry, cranberry, sweet oak, chocolate, and sweet fig. The mouth on this massive wine is super extracted and full bodied with rich raspberry, blackberry, and candied cranberry. The mid palate flows off the mouth with more extraction, rich tannin, and oak. The finish is long and lovely with tannin, oak, blackberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Another blockbuster Cabernet from the Yatir Winery.

2008 Yatir Shiraz - Score: Close to Filthy, A- to A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is crazy rich with roasted meat, blackberry, ripe plum, black pepper, vanilla, and tar. The mouth on this super rich and mouth coating full bodied wine, starts with rich tannin, roasted meat, blackberry, ripe plum, and black pepper. The mid palate is richly acid with roasted meat, cedar, vanilla, and black pepper. The finish is long, super spicy, and smokey with blackberry, black plum, black pepper, vanilla, tar, and a hint of espresso.

Wines that scored an A-

2008 Binyamina Avnei HaChoshen Ya’alom/Diamond (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Syrah and 10% Petit Verdot) – Score: A-
The nose on the electric blue colored wine is rich in redolent in date, blackberry, raspberry, roasted meat, tar, tobacco, cassis, black cherry, inky aroma, cedar, and black pepper. This is a crazy rich, layered, and concentrated wine with inky structure, blackcurrant, roasted meat, black cherry, lovely and mouth coating tannin, cassis, and cedar. The mid palate is rich and balanced with acid, cassis, cedar, black pepper, tannin, date, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is long and spicy, with nice acid, date, tobacco, roasted meat, raspberry, chocolate, cedar, and vanilla. Vanilla, lovely tannin, lingers with blackberry, cassis, date, roasted meat, tobacco, and chocolate. Nice wine that should stand on its feet till 2017 or so. This is nice but not with the same depth as the 2007, but placing here for comparison.

2009 Binyamina Carignan Reserve – Score: A-
This is the first varietal Carignan released in the winery’s Reserve series and a result that made me take notice. The nose on this psychedelic electric purple colored wine has rich roasted meat, black cherry, blackberry, cassis, cedar, vanilla, and rich espresso coffee. The mouth on this rich full bodied wine has clear impact from oak with rich extraction, roasted meat, blackberry, black cherry, cassis, espresso, and nice mouth coating tannin. The mid palate is rich with acid, roasted meat, espresso, vanilla, chocolate, and more mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and rich with mouth coating tannin, blackberry, cassis, roasted meats, espresso, vanilla, cedar, and tobacco. Roasted meats, vanilla, cedar, tobacco, and chocolate linger – quite impressive!

2005 Borgo Reale Brunello di Montalcino - Score: A-
The nose on this black colored wine is rich with prunes, raisins, candied cherry, oak, smoke, dirt, bramble, and tar. This is a lovely and unique nose. The mouth on this full bodied wine is massive and smokey with a rich smokey mouth, nice integrated tannin, heavy dirt, raspberry, raisins, and candied cherry. The mid palate is balanced with nice acid, tobacco, oak, smoke, bramble and dirt, chocolate, and tar. The finish is long and oak rich with nice tannin, bramble, dirt, smoke, tobacco, chocolate, and nice tar. Another unique wine with unique flavors and mouth feel.

2003 Chateau Pontet Canet, Pauillac – Score: A-
The nose on this vibrant dark garnet colored wine is packed with dirty mineral aromas, oak, smoky notes, fig, spice, anise, and red fruit. The mouth on this full bodied wine is full in the mouth with lovely tannin, layers of fruit, crazy extraction, and oak. The mid palate flows off the mouth with oak, crazy nice tannin, lovely extraction, and chocolate. The finish is crazy long with mounds of chocolate, layers of red fruit, and more crazy nice tannin.

2009 Dalton Petite Sirah - Score: A-
This is Dalton’s first release of this varietal, and they hit it on the nose, with a wine that smells and tastes like a PS. Interesting side note, there are many wineries releasing new and unique wines in 2009 vintage. The nose on this black colored wine is lovely with black pepper, cedar, chocolate, blackberry, cassis, vanilla, tar, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich with a lovely inky structure and huge mouthfeel that comes from a rich, focused, and concentrated wine of tar, blackberry, cassis, and rich tannin. The mid palate is balanced with acid, chocolate, tar, cassis, and cedar. The finish is long and inky with chocolate, tobacco, black pepper, cedar, ripe plum, nice tannin, and vanilla.

2007/2008 N.V. Four Gates Pinot Noir Kosher – Score: A-
This wine has turned blacker since the last time I tasted it and I love it! The wine is showing far more black fruit characteristics than earlier along with coffee and more dirt. The nose on this light purple colored wine is bursting with Chicken Cherry Cola, raspberry, black plum, black fruit, coffee, dirt, and mint. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is a concentrated attack of fruit, with blackcurrant, raspberry, chicken cherry cola, and black plum. The mid palate is bracing with acidity, along with not yet integrating tannins that play nicely with the wine and the bright fruit, and coffee. The finish is super long with oak, nice acid, black plum, dirt, coffee, and kirsch cherry. This is not an over oaked wine in any way, and that is clear from my notes, still the oak is present in places and works well when it does peek out from under the fruit haze.

N.V. Four Gates Soirée – Score: A-
This is another wine from Four Gates that needs abundant amounts of air to see its true potential come out to play. This wine starts off with, a Four Gates and Santa Cruz flavor, chicken cherry cola, raspberry, sweet oak, prune/plum, herbaceous, mint, and vanilla. With time, this wine comes out to play with a more expressive nose with deep floral and mineral notes. The mouth of this medium to full bodied wine has spicy and rich oak, chicken cherry cola, plum, raspberry, layered and structured with red fruit dominating. The mid palate is acid packed with more playful tannins. The finish is super long and layered with oak, coffee, plum, and vanilla. With more time the mouth fills out as the tannins calm down and round out the mouth, along with rich oak, black cherry, raspberry, plum, dates, and herbs. The finish is super long with more plum, spice, rich oak, and coffee. This wine starts off quiet and builds with time, until it hits its stride with ripe red fruit, structure, mouth feel, lovely tannins, and bracing acid that keeps the wine balanced yet striking. This is a wine that needs time. Open it and taste, then let it sit for two hours and taste again, and then try it another three hours later and see what you get.

2009 Gat Shomron Ice Wine (Viognier Based) – Score: A-
We tasted many of these wines, and I hope to get the full lineup written up on the blog soon, till then this will have to do. The nose on this light gold Viognier based ice wine hits you like a ton of bricks with rich and lovely intense floral notes, rich sweetness, guava, super rich honey, lemon, and oil. The mouth on this full bodied wine is crazy rich yet balanced with lovely sweetness and rich acidity, nice honey, oily mouth, rich with guava, lemon, and mineral. The mid palate is well balanced with rich acidity to handle the rich honey and guava sweetness. The finish is long and spicy with more honey, guava, mineral, rich floral, and nice sweetness. This is a unique ice wine and one I would happily serve and enjoy with my best of friends.

2008 Yarden 2T (50% Tinta Cão and 50% Touriga Nacional) – Score: A-
The two grapes used in this wine are commonly used in both dry and Port wines in the Douro region of Portugal, the names both start with T – hence the 2T moniker. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich and aromatic with espresso, black cherry, tar, cedar, and spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is rich and soft, yet layered and concentrated with black cherry, tar, rich tannin, and more rich espresso. The mid palate is in your face with espresso, massive tannin, a hint of vegetal notes, and cedar. The finish is long and spicy with rich espresso, black cherry, cedar, tar, and vanilla. Tar, espresso, cedar, black cherry, and raspberry linger long on the palate – a unique wine for sure.

2006 Yarden Tel Phares Syrah – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is rich with ripe blackberry, cassis, tar, bramble, chocolate, cherry, smoke, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super rich and ripe in the mouth with lovely mouth coating tannin, plum, blackberry, tar, and super spice. The mid palate is rich with spice, acid, chocolate, and tar. The finish is super long and spicy with blackberry, cassis, ripe cherry, tar, super spice, and black berry.

2006 Yatir Forest (82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich with blackberry, more red fruit than the 2005 vintage, raspberry, cherry, and sweet oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine is filled with candied raspberry, ripe raspberry, and cherry. The mid palate is balanced with oak, lovely and coating tannin, and acid. The finish is long and luxurious with chocolate and smoke.

2008 Yatir Petite Verdot (85% Petite Verdot, 15% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to deep black colored wine is rich with roasted meat, blackberry, cassis, rich espresso, oak, blackcurrant, raspberry, tar, crushed herbs, and tobacco. The mouth on this rich and mouth coating wine starts off with heavy not yet integrated tannin, espresso coffee, roasted meat, blackberry, blackcurrant, and raspberry. The mid palate is balanced with tar, acid, tobacco, roasted meat, vanilla, and cedar. The finish is long, luscious, and spicy with more roasted meat, vanilla, cedar, tobacco, and tar. This is a very interesting wine that shows its animal and espresso flavors along with rich black fruit that will turn your head.

We enjoyed some lovely still and sparkling wines, along with some very not so great wines as well. The wine notes are iffy, as I was not taking serious notes, except for one wine that was the clear winner of the evening.

The wine notes follow below:

NV Yarden Brut – Score: B+ to B++
The first interesting thing to note about this sparkler is that it was produced in 2001 and not produced again, so we are talking about a 10 to 11 year old wine made from equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The nose on this straw to pink colored wine is rich with citrus notes, peach, tart green apples, fresh flowers, and brioche. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is effervescent with a lovely mousse of many small bubbles, creamy and delicate attack of tart green apple, citrus, and acid backbone that is definitely not dead in any way.  The finish is long, creamy, and moussy with brioche, toast, tart apples and lemony goodness. Fun stuff that works great with sushi.

2007 Segal Rechasim Dishon Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A–
The nose on this black colored wine is super rich with rich cedar, tobacco, cassis, rich ripe plum, licorice, raspberry, and chocolate. The mouth on this rich and medium bodied wine is mouth coating with lovely tannin, raspberry, rich ripe plum, cassis, integrated tannin, and cedar. The mid palate is rich and lovely with good acid, tobacco, cassis, chocolate, tobacco, and cedar. The finish is long and rich with sweet cedar, tobacco, cassis, ripe plum, chocolate, and tobacco. This is a rich and concentrated wine that has just enough to grab your attention but is also a bit played out with its not so unique flavor profile. Still a fun and rich wine that has two or so years left in its legs.

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.

The soup is simple to make, and I follow her recipe to the tee, short of adding in a wee bit more wine than her recipe calls for. Personally, that is the ultimate compliment, using someone’s exact recipe, with little or no change, because it is perfect as it is.

We then cooked up meat lasagna. I have modified the lasagna many times, as I am constantly looking for the perfect lasagna that is not too dry or too runny. I think I have finally done that! This past week the lasagna was killer, very tasty, and it was solid without being the least bit dry. The recipe is a change from another cookbook I use, but I have modified this one to not worry about sharing it. Also, I wrote a lot about the process, so the recipe looks long, but I am just adding in my years of struggle with these recipes to make sure you do not. Overall a pretty easy recipe:

Meat Lasagna Recipe: (Makes two pans of lasagna)
2 Tbsp. Oil
2 chopped onions
5 garlic cloves smashed (or just use the frozen garlic)
2 lb. of ground meat
1 sliced green pepper
1 sliced orange or yellow pepper
3 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
2 15 oz. cans of tomato sauce
12 oz. of red wine (more acid and tannin the better)
4 to 5 Tbsp. parsley
2 tsp. sugar
3 tsp. of basil
salt and pepper to taste

16 oz. (18 pieces) of dry lasagna noodle (normal pasta that needs to be cooked)
1 LARGE eggplant sliced 1/2 inch thick

In a large Dutch oven or tall walled pan, heat up the oil until shimmering and then throw in the chopped onions and cook them till they are close to being browned. Then throw in the crushed garlic and as soon as it starts to smell garlicky, throw in the ground meat. Be careful never to burn the garlic, as that is nasty! Move around the meat and make sure it nice and browned. Now throw in the sliced peppers and lets cook until tender. Then throw in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, red wine, herbs, salt and pepper. Now mix the pot around a fair amount until the wine color disappears and the tomato color is bright. Keep cooking the sauce until it reduces by 20% or until the sauce looks nice and thick. This step is VERY important, so do not skimp on this, it takes time but you will be generously rewarded.

At this point, bring a very large pot of water to boil and then place the lasagna noodles and cook them 1 to 2 minutes before al dente. We do this because we want them to finish in the oven. NEVER TRY the already cooked or NOT cooked pasta – it does not work. Cook the pasta and you will get the lovely texture that is not available any other way. Once cooked, pour out all the water, and put in some cold water in the pot to keep the pasta from drying up.

Now line up two 9×13 pans on both sides of the fully cooked pasta sauce. Scoop out some of the sauce and lay it down as a thin layer on each of the 9×13 pans. Next lay three cooked noodles in each pan, and then lay down some of the sliced eggplant, making sure to cover each pan with a layer of eggplant. Now scoop some sauce making sure to cover the eggplant in each pan. Next place another three cooked noodles over the sauce. Again, place more eggplant and then more sauce to cover the eggplant in each pan. Finally, lay another three lasagna noodles on top of the sauce and then a bit more of the sauce on top of the noodles to keep them moist through the cooking process

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the lasagna pans covered for 45 minutes. Then take them out and uncover the pans and let them cool before refrigerating. I cannot stress how much better the lasagna tastes warmed up the next day, rather than hot, or lightly cooled, out of the oven. I state this because the lasagna needs time to meld together and get happy, and then warm it up the next day at 200 degrees until happy. We warm the lasagna up on Friday for 2 hours at 200 degrees, and it works well for us. Do NOT speed this up by jacking up the heat on the oven that will only dry out of burn the lasagna.

We paired this awesome lasagna with and a pan of lightly charred vegetable kugel, and some fresh green salad. Of course it was still Hanukkah, so we bought a bag of latkes and served them as well. Yeah yeah, go ahead and laugh, but we were very busy and that hit the spot. Finally, we had some left over sliced eggplant, so we threw that into a pan and coated it with oil and garlic and roasted them along with the frozen latkes.

For wine, I was excited to try some wines that we were very interested in enjoying for sometime, but never had the chance to do it. We started with a glass of 2008 Elvi Wines Ness Blanco, a very controversial wine that does not really toe the line and what makes me very happy. I love the oily texture, the deep floral notes, and the ripe fruit and honey flavors – quite lovely.

That was followed by an exciting new wine that Royal Wines helped bring to the kosher market: Drappier Champagne. This is an NV vintage, which is fine for the first release, however after that you are always left wondering if the bottle you buy is an old vintage left on the store shelf or a new fresh bottle. The best way to fix that is to buy it from a store that moves its product well, thereby alleviating the concern. The Champagne was fresh and vibrant with a nice small bubble mousse, and tart green apple flavor. The acidity was bright and poignant, but balanced with lovely white chocolate and toast. The wine was as regal as the woman we toasted may she have a long and healthy life.

That was followed by 2008 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, also a highly controversial wine, I and other like it, and some do not. This wine tastes a bit duller than the last time we had some 9 months ago.

Terra di Seta is the ONLY totally kosher winery in Tuscany! The winery is located in the Chianti Classico wine region of Tuscany. Chianti Classico is one of the 47 DOCG wine regions in Italy. Daniele Della Seta and his wife Maria Pellegrini founded the winery in 2001. According to their website, Terra means both soil, land and earth in Italian, and Seta means silk, while it is also part of the family name. This brand represents therefore the core of the Della Seta-Pellegrini family’s philosophy ad goal, which is to obtain traditional, excellent, and refined products from their unique land property.

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.