Thursday night finds me at a tasting of kosher mevushal wines, which were brought over by the Royal Wine Company.  It was a nice meeting of friends around a bunch of bottles of wine, all the while getting a chance to taste some interesting wines.  Most of them were wines I have tasted before.  However, some of them were wines that I did not know existed.  Most of them were underwhelming, but some of them were exciting and they are all listed below.

I want to thank Royal Wines and my friends for the chance to taste this interesting array of wines.  The tasting notes follow below:

Barkan Merlot Classic 2005 – Score: B
The nose on this ruby colored wine is filled with blackberry, raspberry, and spice.  The mouth on this soft medium bodied wine shows flavors of raspberry and blackberry.  The mid palate is soft with integrated tannin and sage.  The finish is medium long with spice.

Weinstock Merlot 2007 – Score: B
The nose on this ruby colored wine is filled with currants, cherry, and raspberry.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows flavors of currants, perfume, and earth.  The finish is short with more perfume.

Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon Classic 2005 – Score: B-
The nose on this garnet colored wine is filled with cassis, blackberry, and asparagus.  The mouth on this soft medium bodied wine shows flavors of cassis and blackberry.  The mid palate is soft with acidity that is way off balance.  The acid almost screams to the front and throws the wine off.  The finish is long with spice.

Baron Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 – Score: B
The nose on this garnet colored wine is filled with cassis, blackberry, raspberry, and earth.  The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine shows flavors of cassis and blackberry.  The mid palate is structured well with the right amount of tannins.  The finish is medium long with oak, tannin, and anise.

Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve, Alexander Valley 2005 – Score: A-
The nose on this deep garnet colored wine is filled with blackberry, raspberry, oak, and allspice.  The mouth on this soft full bodied wine is complex with layers of blackberry and raspberry that flow nicely into a mid palate of integrated tannins and a surprisingly nice amount of acid – given its softness.  The softness is clearly not a sign of weakness and the acidity will allow this to age for a couple more years at least.  The finish is long with sweet oak and spice.  As usual, the Herzog Cabernet SR is a wine you can count on when left with many unknown options.  This is yet another wonderful installation in the long and successful Alexander Valley Cabernet history.

Barons Edmund & Benjamin de Rothschild 2005 – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is filled with blackberry, raspberry, cassis, and oak.  The mouth on this full bodied wine is filled with cassis and blackberry.  The mid palate has slight hints of oak and integrated tannins.  The finish is long and tannic with spice and leather.  This is a wine that is showing better than usual.  I have had it a few times before and was never impressed, this was a nice showing.

Teal Lake Shiraz 2005 – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is filled with blackberry, raspberry, oak, and earth.  The mouth on this full bodied wine is filled with blackberry, raspberry, and earth.  The mid palate is tannic with nice acidity and oak.  The finish is long and tannic with leather and acidity.  I have always liked the Teal Lake Shiraz, and this was not one to let me down.

Barkan Pinot Noir Classic 2007 – Score: B+
The wine is not a bottled in a classic Burgundy shape, but rather in a classical Merlot styled bottle.  The nose on this ruby colored wine is filled with cherry, raspberry, asparagus, and light earth.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine is filled with cherry and raspberry, and earth.  The mid palate shows off nicely integrated tannins, along with spice, and acidity.  The finish is medium long and has more than enough acidity to make it quite nice.  The bottle shape and lower label may throw you, but this is a wine worth trying.

Goose Bay Pinot Noir 2007 – Score: B+
The nose on this dark ruby colored wine is filled with earth, cherry, raspberry, and oak.  The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is almost velvety with cherry and raspberry flavors.  The mid palate has integrated tannins, earth, and nice acidity.  The finish is long with more acidity and earth.  Yet another nice wine by Goose Bay Winery.  The wine has a surprising mouth feel and overall structure.  This is a keeper for sure.

Barkan Segal Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2003 – Score: A-
No question the sleeper in the wine tasting.  I did not know that Segal made mevushal wines, and I did not know that this would be so tasty!  The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is filled with cassis, blackberry, raspberry, currants, and oak.  The mouth on this full bodied wine fills your mouth with cassis, blackberry and flows into a mid palate of integrated tannins and nice acidity.  The wine’s balance and fruitiness make it stand out from the crowd.  The finish is long with more acidity, light oak, and tannin.