On the weekend of October 28th, 2011 we were not feeling so well, a common ailment that happens to me after the Simchat Torah festivities. So we made a lovely chicken soup that was killer and one that really hit home. My wife whipped up a batch of Rosemary Lemon chicken that was great, and I ate some, but I was totally fixated on the chicken soup! We also had some lovely Brown Basmati rice and fresh green salad as usual. To pair with this meal we opened a lovely bottle of 2007 Galil Mountain Winery Yiron. Like the Recanati wine from last week, Galil is another of Israel’s leading kosher wineries with a very high QPR.

The wine note follows below:

2007 Galil Mountain Winery Yiron Kosher (Israel, Galilee) – Score: A-
The nose on this dark purple to black colored wine is hopping with an expressive and intoxicating smokey perfume of minted chocolate, licorice, spice, black pepper, black cherry, raspberry, blackberry, plum, crushed herbs, and oak. The nose is alcoholic at first but it calms down over time. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is truly explosive with still not integrated tannin, rich mouth feel and concentration of black cherry, blackberry, ripe plum, and raspberry. The mouth gives way to a balanced mid palate of ripe plum, oak, tannin, vanilla, and chocolate. The finish is long, spicy and expressive with minted chocolate, mounds of vanilla, loamy dirt, black cherry, plum, blackberry, oak, and crushed herbs. This is a wine that is fine now, but is really not ready to settle down with for a long evening. If drinking now, open this wine a few hours before enjoying it and watch it evolve in the glass.