After having a quiet set of days at my friend’s homes and at our house, without any guests, it was time to open the wine spigots and see what we could get going. It has been too long since we enjoyed some Shirah Wines – wines from the now famous Weiss Brothers. The winery is in Southern California, but the wines are now very easy to buy, as they are being sold in NY and Chicago, (distributed by River Wines – thanks Ami!!) The wines are also online at Kosherwine.com (where you can get some of the now sold-out 2010 Coalition), Gotham Wines, and SkyViewWine.com.

It almost seemed like Shirah Wine became famous after my original post about the Weiss brothers (all I did was give them their due and rightful respect – their wine did the rest!). They are two wine hell bent (in the right way) brothers who went out on a ledge, and almost went over it, to make great kosher wine and spirits! Throughout all the crazy tribulations they continued and believed in themselves, a truly rare and awesome trait – if I say so myself.  You have to have a very strong internal compass and self-belief to build a wine when all seems to be going against you. I really do have great respect for the two of them, but that does not bias my feelings about their wines – they just happen to make damn good wines!

The first time we tasted their wines, was indeed at the now famous Benyamin Cantz (Benyo of Four Gates Winery) and Rabbi Naftali Citron Shabbaton, where they shared with us the just bottled 1-2 punch and Syraph. Since then we re-tasted the 2008 Syraph again along with the 2009 Power to the People and it was truly a joy tasting them side by side the much heralded and hot Israeli Ortal Syrah from Yarden, which to me felt underwhelming in comparison!

The Weiss brothers, is not just a saying or moniker, they are actually brothers! They consist of Shimon Weiss (the hands and crazy good palate of the pair) and Gabriel Weiss (newly married with a family) is the winemaker. However, they really are the “brothers”, nothing gets done without the two of them. I recently visited the Agua Dolce Winery, where the Shirah Winery is currently stationed, on the way home from the 2013 IFWF, and Shimon was going to Israel in the next few days. To get ready for his departure, they had to get everything bottled and ready to go for the Passover sales. Why? Because the bottling line, labeling, and the entire complex minutia that goes into bottling a wine after the wine is made, was being handled by Shimon at that time. That included bottling the new 2011 Coalition and the new 2010 Single V. Thompson, Syrah/Mourvedre, both of which I tasted and blogged about at the 2013 Jewish Week City Winery tasting.

It all started in 2004 when Gabriel moved from the east coast to the other side of the country to work for Herzog Winery. He worked as a cellar rat (person who moves around wine, cleans out barrels and tanks, etc.) there for almost a year before the opportunity to make wine almost literally fell into his lap! The 2005 season was a bumper crop and in November, the vineyard, from where they sourced the grapes, still had grapes on the vines! The vineyard owner told Gabe to come on by and harvest all the Syrah grapes he wanted – free of charge! So, in 2005 Gabe made the first ever Shirah wine, a wine label that would go dormant for three years, but not forgotten! The wine was made with a bunch of friends in a garage! Now that is what I call Garagiste wine!

Shimon soon joined and worked on Herzog and Covenant Wine (when they were made in Oxnard till 2007) harvests. The 2005 wine was a trial run, fermented in a makeshift “winery”, with little in way of technology or methodology, but according to Gabe, it all worked out. I never tasted the wine, so I cannot say if the 2005 Shirah was great or not, but it was the seed that germinated and created the current day Shirah winery. The 2008 wines that we enjoyed at the famous Citron Shabbaton, were made with another Herzog cellar rat, Jack Levin, a person I always enjoy talking with at the IFWF every year. He along with Gosh Goodman, a cellar manager from the early days of Herzog Winery – are two great examples of wine lovers that show great pride with their work at Herzog Cellars, and rightfully so.

Truly, Gabe and Shimon’s relationship goes deeper than just brotherly ties. In 2008, when they made their first wine (since the small batch 2005 wine), the only premises they could find was a non-kosher crush facility. To get around the whole issue of kosher wine and non-Jews touching the wine, Shimon (cabinet-maker and wood magician) fashioned cabinets that were tamper proof, without an obvious breech. That way, they could get some (though in real life very little) shuteye, while the wines fermented in their makeshift tamper-proof, yet (VERY IMPORTANT here) carbon dioxide emitting containers! They compliment each other and handle the wine duties in such a great way, that it is truly a match made in heaven!

While the 2008 wines did not have the Shirah label, they had the same Shirah passion and flavors – crazy red, white, and blue fruit that I think is the hallmark of Shirah Wines. Shirah Wines to me are radical, out there, and truly pushing the boundaries of a human’s ability to capture all of the wine’s nuances in a sensory manner. I may think that Gabe and Shimon’s wines display fruit normally associated with white wines or red wines, I may even describe the fruits I sense, however, I am always left feeling inadequate with the notes I write about the entire sensory experience. In my opinion, this is exactly what Gabe and Shimon attempt to bottle into each and every one of their wines; “sensory overload”. With some of their wines they hit crazy home runs, some are more of a double, but they never cease to give me a unique and wondrous experience – each and every time. That takes skill, chutzpah, and a large pair of brass balls, if I may say so. In many ways, the Weiss brothers and Jonathan Hajdu (of Brobdingnagian Wines) are cut from the same cloth, with Jonathan’s wines showing more finesse and control, maybe stemming from the time he spent studying viticulture at Australia’s Swinburne University. Either way, they both take fruit and push it to the limits of human comprehension. I really need to do a proper write-up on Brobdingnagian wines – which I hope to get to very soon.

With the 2008 vintage, the boys had set their stamp on the kosher wine scene, and with Brobdingnagian wines, they were both changing the landscape of the kosher wine-buying world. That may be a real leap of faith, but trust me – things are truly afoot in the kosher wine world – for the positive, and I think California wines are one of the real drivers. As you will see, California is almost an oxymoron to the revolution, but that is so 80s! The issue I am dancing around here has many names; overripe, new-world, fruit forward, candied style, raisin flavors, etc. I was a huge buyer of Yarden Wines for the longest time, for their longevity and their solid value. However, Israel had missed the boat on vineyard management and were letting the fruit get out ahead of the wines, thereby creating bigger and bigger wines, that tasted more and more like date and raisin soup. More and more, people are telling me that they do not like the New-World Israeli wines, wines that lack fruit control. However you describe it, Israel’s hot climate makes for vineyards that are hard to manage – unless one works at it and make it their number one goal. Great examples of wineries who control their fruit are Tzora Winery, Ella Valley Winery, Netofa Winery, and others. They make vineyard management – and the grapes they produce, as important, or even more important than the wonderful wines they make with them.

As stated earlier, in the past California had this problem, in in many ways – it still does, but just as California is working worked out the kinks, and I am sure that Israel will as well, but for now – I find California kosher wines to be more enjoyable than many Israeli wines – for this very reason, lack of overripe fruit. It is a mystical and magical feeling when you get to taste wines that are so juicy, so fresh, and so exploding with flavors, but with no cooked or prune flavors! More and more I am seeing Israel wineries catching up, which is great for all of us, but to me, the prototypical kosher wine experience, at this point in time, is California wines; ripe, juicy, fresh, and sensory wines that are controlled and delicious.

The 2008 vintage was done in a non-kosher facility, and the all hands-on-deck mentality was felt by all three of the participants; the Weiss Brothers and Jack. The subsequent vintage was far harder, as while Jack was in the rotation of workers in 2008, in 2009 Jack went his own way to devote time to his new family, and the boys were once again – the Weiss Brothers. Shirah Winery was reborn and with it a procession of kosher California wines that continue on with the sensory overload mantra of the Weiss Brothers. The 2009 vintage saw the creation of the now famous Power to the People! Before we continue, starting in 2005 and in then since 2008, the first thing anyone sees when holding a bottle of Weiss Brothers wine – is the insanely captivating and intelligently crafted labels. These handcrafted works of art, are the effort of the brother’s sister; Yael Miller of Miller Creative, a creative superstar and one whose creations always bring up active conversations on my table and amongst friends. The Power to the people label is felt-like paper! Go ahead and try to create a readable felt-like paper label! Talk about chutzpah and creativity at once! Just sheer genius! The Coalition and 1-2 Punch labels are equally awesome!

A perfect example of this ingenuity and the out of the box thinking would be the 1-2 Punch and the bottle’s two labels. The wine label design is styled after vintage letterpress concert posters. The neck of the bottle has another label reminiscent of vintage fight tickets – very cool! The 1-2 punch label pits the Santa Barbara Grenache against the San Luis Obispo Syrah – highly ingenious!

The 2009 Power to the People (PttP), features a blend of Syrah from two of the most critically-acclaimed vineyards in Santa Barbara County – Thompson Vineyard in Alisos Canyon and McGinley Vineyard in Happy Canyon, each with yields ranging from 1.5-2.5 tons per acre. The grapes were co-fermented with 2% Viognier, which comes through when you open the bottle with lovely peach, apricot, and violets. The Shirah Winery also released the 2009 Shirah Syrah Thompson Vineyard and the 2009 Shirah Syrah McGinley, single vineyard wines that were used to make up the PttP blend (sans the Viognier of course).

With these three wines, Shirah placed itself on the map, while all the while bottling and storing its wines in non-kosher facility, far from Los Angeles, where they lived and far from Jewish society. It was during this time that they hit a low point, when their car broke down doing a run down to the crush facility, in Santa Maria. We were coming to see them and taste their wines as we were driving up to the 2010 IFWF. The posting on the entire event, including picking tem up, being pulled over by police, and the subsequent notes on the IFWF, is somewhat coy, but it was the Weiss Brothers. Though we were not good friends at that time, they and Benyo were tight and I could not help but truly feel sorry for them. But they stayed with it, they held their heads up high and a few months later things started coming together for them. The two of them showed the kind of perseverance and moxie that I couldn’t help but admire and respect.

Sure enough, a few months removed from that unfortunate incident, came a coalescence of effort and good luck, a job at Agua Dulce Winery and a place to hang their Shirah Winery hat that was closer to home. Some Jewish businessmen bought the Agua Dulce Winery and they wanted to make it kosher. So, in 2010, the Weiss Brothers were hired to make the 2010 vintage kosher, and to be the kosher cellar rats and supervisors for the winery. This allowed the boys to move their wine barrels from the crush facility they were using to a now kosher facility that was not only close to home, but one that paid them some money to boot! Much of this was because of the work of Craig Winchell (of the Gan Eden Winery of old), a friend of Benyo, myself, and the boys, and a first-rate wine maker himself, who was brought on by the investors to be the winemaker of Agua Dulce. The 2009 vintage showed the kosher wine world that the 2008 wines were not a fluke, and that blends were going to be a large part of the focus for Shirah Wines, not just a sideshow. A further proof came from the early release of the 2010 Coalition, another tour-de-force of both the Weiss Brothers and their sister, along with a silent but talented partner; Menachem Luchins. Between Shimon Weiss and Menachem Luchins, they came up with the words that grace the captivating Coalition label. According to Miller, the label is a take on late 1700′s printed material (think: Paul Revere). Shimon and Menachem’s copy is influenced by the style of early American English. The wine itself is a blend of 45% Touriga Nacional, 30% Syrah, and 25% Petite Verdot. The wine is pure chutzpah and pure genius all at once. The blend is crazy and the aromatics from this blend are equally insane. When we tasted it in 2011, most of us thought the wine’s finish was lacking and was not a wine to buy or stock-up on. Luckily I ignored my concerns and bought enough of them to satisfy my now insatiable craving for this aromatic masterpiece. In the world of kosher wine, this is truly unique and one-of-a-kind, from its tantalized aromatics and its mouth coating and juicy fruit that keep you wanting to fill up your cup for more. By the way, kosherwine.com has a case or two of this wine – so grab it while you can, the Weiss Brothers have been long sold out on this one.

The next year’s wines continued the blend theme with 4 wines; all of them wine blends in varying proportions. First there was the return of the 1-2 punch blend, this time played in loving and self-deprecating humor; 2010 Shirah Counter Punch! It sees the return of the vintage letterpress concert poster label – pitting once again Grenache grapes against Syrah grapes, a 50/50 blend. The grapes were sourced from different locations, but the wine style was very much akin to the Weiss/Levin 1-2 punch. The vintage also saw the return of Thompson Vineyard grapes, with a blend called; 2010 Shirah Syrah Mourvèdre Thompson Vineyard. It is a 75/25 blend of Syrah and Mourvedre from the famed Thompson vineyard from where the successful PttP grapes hailed. Next, there was the first ever Weiss brothers release of Bordeaux varietals, wrapped in another insanely tongue-and-cheek label called Bro Deux (Two Brothers in French)! Here again Miller shines in taking a boring and stodgy subject and making it warm and approachable, drawing you in with the name, text, and the blue-hued styling. Turns out that this label was a shared project between Miller and Anna Ropalo, a highly talented artist from the Northwest. Her work on Bro Deux is awesome and while she deservedly gives credit to Miller, please check out Anna’s step-by-step process from stencil to the label – so cool and awesome! Another cool tidbit is the lack of vintage on the Bro Deux label! Turns out that they blended in the 10% of Syrah from the 2009 vintage. Because of obscure wine label, TTB driven rules, the Weiss Brothers or the beloved TTB label approval board, decided that it would be best to drop a vintage from this label! You have to love wine label politics and rules! The final wine was another early released 2011 Coalition, and while this one lacks the blue of the 2010 vintage, rising from the 2011’s change in varietals. The 2011 is a blend of 60% Zinfandel, 12% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Touriga Nacional. The smaller amount of Nacional still comes across with fruit normally found in white wines, while the Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc bring red and black fruits as well.

I have had the chance to taste the 2011 and 2012 vintages and each of them continues the Weiss Brother’s mantra of fruit that is ripe, extracted, and pushed to the sensory limit, including a lovely Viognier and a Merlot that is so tannic it is almost extreme! Time will tell where these lovely wines go.

Many thanks to the Weiss brothers for answering my questions, and giving me the chance to barrel taste through all of their wines at Agua Dolce. The wine notes follow below:

2008 One – Two Punch – Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine is a blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah. This wine is one that when I opened it, I could not help myself – AHH how I adore you! This wine is so unique in its nose and wine notes – that it is heresy to write them down! LOL! The other crazy thing is that hours and days after it was opened the wine stayed perfectly consistent and drinkable – it is a crazy wine that is ready to go now and continues to pay dividends to those that believed.

The nose on this purple-black colored wine is truly unique and very hard to pin down. Where before the wine was not consistent in its style and notes, this wine is now showing consistent perfume and redolence that is not normal. The wine starts off with lovely roasted animal, perfume, lovely floral notes, roasted dark cherry, candied fruit, tart fruit, and bramble. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine forced me to write this acronym down for a second time in days – AYFKM (Are You Freaking Kidding Me)!! OMG and silence. The mouth is tart and rich with tart fruit, crazy watermelon, mango, tropical fruit, followed by massive spice, ripe plum, coffee machine innards and grinds, blackcurrant, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, other baker spices, and rich mouth coating tannin that linger long. The finish is long and luscious with sweet cedar, tobacco, crazy blue fruit that appears after sometime, and ripe raspberry tea and jam that lingers long. BRAVO!!

2010 Shirah Counter Punch Vogelzang Vineyard – Score: B+ to A-
Where the 1-2 punch was insane and needed time to come around the counterpunch has always been ready to go, but indeed with more air the wine showed more depth and length and complexity. The wine is a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah, but from different vineyards than the 1-2 punch.

The nose on this wine is really intoxicating and non sequitur, but truly lovely. The nose starts with white fruit, peach, apricot, kiwi, followed by pomegranate, ripe raspberry jam, crazy blue fruit, and earth. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is filled with nice watermelon, great spice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ripe blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and ripe with sweet mocha chocolate, leather, nice rich mouth coating tannin, black tea, black pepper, and licorice. This may not be the same animal, and to be fair was actually punched out by the 1-2 punch. However, this is still a lovely wine and a true joy to share with friends and family and a kick to taste side by side with the 1-2 punch.

2010 Shirah Coalition – Score: A- (and a bit more)
This wine is a perfect example of the saying – good things come to those that wait – and man did I wait – and WOW! WHAT A WINE! This puppy used to have ZERO finish, I mean almost nothing! Now, it does not stop talking!! This wine is a blend of 45% Touriga Nacional, 30% Syrah, and 25% Petite Verdot.

The Touriga’s unique qualities come screaming in the nose with another crazy Shirah special blend. Once again, the red, white and blue nose of Shirah wines comes from this unique and crazy blend! The label’s unique styling, styled after the constitution – is perfect for a wine whose essence is red, white, and blue! The nose starts off with ripe and screaming blueberry, boysenberry, followed by loamy earth, herb, dirt, peach, apricot, pomegranate, litchi, and citrus fruit. The mouth on this medium+ bodied wine is layered with extracted red, white, black, and blue fruit, black cherry, plum, raspberry, peach, ripe apricot jam, rich tannin, boysenberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, and lovely oak. The finish is balanced and rich with great acid, more tannins on the rise, more white and red fruit, chocolate, insane and crazy spices, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, and so much more that it could fill a spice cabinet, finishing off with fresh baked raspberry jam pie. WOW BRAVO!!!

2011 Shirah Coalition – Score: A-
The 2010 blend was dominated by the Touriga, while in this blend it plays more of a mop up roll, with the Zinfandel taking center stage. The zinfandel adds more insane spice that is the hallmark of the Coalition blend, but also adds more heft. The wine loses the blue fruit (from the lack of Syrah), but the white fruits show up from the small but still important role that the Touriga plays! The wine is more ripe and richer than the 2010, making for a fuller body and a more extracted madness.

I tasted this wine a few weeks back in NY and now I had more than 1 minute to savor it and enjoy it and document it, so the notes are slightly different. This wine is a blend of 60% Zinfandel, 12% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Touriga Nacional. The wine is a unique blend, just like its older 2010 vintage. The nose explodes with crazy wine aromas – the kind of attack that only the Weiss brothers can bring you, heavy notes of blackberry, date, watermelon, and spice. The mouth on this crazy full-bodied wine is ripe, concentrated, extracted, and layered with control and style, black cherry, black plum, cranberry, dates that almost create a platform upon which the other fruits stand, ripe zesty raspberry, apricot, white peach, mounds of tannin, and sweet cedar. The finish is long and spicy with cloves, black pepper, insane mouth coating tannins that linger long, nice chocolate, a wine with a ripe and full body, great acid and balance, citrus fruit, zesty strawberry, candied currant, fig, tobacco, and mineral. This is a wine that is teetering on the edge of madness and sweetness, but only the Weiss brothers can pull this off – BRAVO!!!

2010 Shirah Bro Deux – Score: A- to A
This was as close as the winner of the show as you can get other than the crazy City Winery Cabernet – BRAVO GUYS! The wine is a blend of 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc, 18% Malbec, 18% Petite Verdot, and 10% Syrah – Hey they never promised a Bordeaux blend – just a good name! The nose on this wine is nice and balanced with tobacco, mineral, herb, along with cherry, and green notes. The mouth on this medium+ bodied wine is classical Bordeaux (not withstanding the Syrah), with lovely green bell pepper, blackberry, tobacco, along with great layers of concentrated, extracted fruit sweet and ripe fruit, nice acid, almost mouth searing tannin, and good sweet cedar. The finish is long and spicy with nice chocolate, mineral, rich mouthfeel, hints of date, and charcoal on the long lingering and rich finish – BRAVO!!!

2010 Shirah Syrah/Mourvedre Blend, Thompson Vineyard – Score: A-
This is a wine that is a bit of a funk right now, a wine that needs time and deserves it given where this wine can clearly be heading. The wine is a clear buy wine, but one that needs time to come into itself. The nose starts off with a crazy and out of control nose of liquored and drunk blackberry, candied grapefruit (yes grapefruit!), candied cherry, and insane spice. Well the mouth is close to indescribable – but I will try. The mouth on this layered and rich full-bodied wine is out of control with layers of concentrated and ripe fruit, yet somehow controlled for the most part, with blackberry, black plum, zesty strawberry, ripe black cherry, that again is inches away from the over the top cliff, but once again the Weiss brothers steer clear with good sweet cedar and enough tannin to burn a hole in your mouth. The finish is long with a sensation of overripe characteristics coming into focus with cardamom, oriental spice, cloves, chocolate, boysenberry, along with a massive and assaulting attack of tar, green notes, and tobacco. Please wait on this to come together and BRAVO Weiss brothers!

Tasted some time ago:

2009 Shirah Syrah, McGinley Vineyard – Score: A-
The wine strikes you with a beautiful nose of violet, ripe candied fruit, sour cherry, very sweet blueberry, cloves, and mounds of spice. The mouth is round and spicy, full-bodied with inky structure with still integrating tannin, blackcurrant, along with cloves and cinnamon on the first attack, then followed by blue and black fruit, and nice oak that is still not balanced. Finish is long with nice spiced plum punch, a dollop of chocolate, along with a sweet and spiced mouth that flows into a vanilla end. This is a wine that is more controlled than the bolder Thompson brother, but one that is quite lovely all the same!

2009 Shirah Syrah, Thompson Vineyard – Score: A-
The nose is stunning with sweet and beautiful ripe blueberry, sweet basil, expressive blue and black fruit, blackberry, cassis, purple fruit, and nice graphite. The mouth is very full bodied almost Brobdingnagian in style, with layers of massive and concentrated fruit but without the insane mouth searing tannins, nice blackcurrant, ripe plum, blue fruit, and oak. The mouth does leave you a bit black and blue, as it still needs time to come together. The finish is long and spicy with nice green notes, tobacco, graphite, sour cherry, spice, chocolate, and vanilla. This wine is the bolder of the two and the one that needs the most time till all – other than the ultimate wine thrill seekers, can enjoy it.

2009 Shirah Power to the People – Score: A-
This is the 2009 edition of the Weiss brother’s micro boutique winery production. Each year, since 2008, the Weiss brothers have produced wine that was generally available to the public. This is the inaugural release for their officially named winery – Shirah (now we can stop using the term Weiss brothers). It is a blend of McGinley Vineyard grapes and Thompson Vineyard grapes, both in Santa Barbara County and both cool weather vineyards. The wine is a blend of the two vineyard’s Syrah grapes and 2% Viognier grape.

The nose on this electric purple colored wine starts off with a unique attack of peach, apricot, and lovely violets and other floral hints. These stemming from the 2% Viognier, making one wonder how 2% of any fruit can impact a wine so. It will be great to see how these aromas and flavors show in years to come. As the wine opens more, the peach and apricot leave and the floral notes stand in their stead, both from the Viognier and from the Syrah. The wines from Shirah and the Weiss brothers never cease to amaze me with their sweet and ripe fruit that is also NOT overripe, hot, or overly new-world in style. The nose on this purple colored wine starts with the unique Viognier nose and then moves on to redolent notes of blueberry, black cherry, and blackberry. The mouth on this is rich, layered, and inky with pure and focused fruit, cedar backing, and lovely spice that highlights the wine and comes together with mouth coating integrated tannins. The finish is long and spicy with animal notes, graphite, tobacco, and leather all coming together with blueberry, watermelon, and cinnamon lingering nicely.

2008 Syraph (85% Syrah and 15% Grenache) – Score A- to A
This is another masterpiece and the original beast that first brought the deserving acclaim to the Weiss brothers. This is an older and bigger brother to the Power to the People in more ways than one, it is fleshier than its younger sibling, and it feels more muscled while also being supple at the same time. The fruit for this wine came from another cool weather vineyard – the Laetita Vineyard on the California Coast, and is a blend of 85% Syrah and 15% Grenache. The wine went through 45 days of maceration, allowing for more extraction of color and tannin, which gives the wine its heavy and coating mouth-feel.

The nose explodes with ripe and luscious blueberry, blackberry, plum, light cedar, chocolate, and fig. The mouth is full bodied, rich, concentrated, and mouth filling with sweet focused fruit, nice extraction, cedar, herbs, spice, that comes together into a lovely mouthfeel. The finish is long and spicy with chocolate goodness, a big fat stogie, animal notes, mounds of black pepper, cloves, all spice, and leather. This wine shamelessly wraps smoked meat, black pepper, tobacco, spice, chocolate, and leather around a core of sweet and ripe blue-black fruit.