This past week I had the chance to taste through some more kosher wines – without any theme involved, sorry. The only real theme here would be the fact that I tasted through the three wines from Agua Dolce, and a few other wines as well. Of the wines I tasted almost all of them are available right now, except for a special wine I had from a person who makes wine for himself and his friends – called Mirvis Creek.

I am very sorry that I did not get pictures, but many of the wines I enjoyed were at friend home’s and over the Simchat Torah holiday, where I could not take pictures, of course.

The wine notes follow below:

2007 Mirvis Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, Cuvée Yitz, Rowe – Score: B+ to A-
The wine is a classic mineral bomb wine with the mineral sticking out a bit too much and never integrating well together. Maybe with time this wine will find its groove. The nose starts off a bit closed, but with time it opens to brooding black fruit, mounds of mineral, graphite, slate, and loamy dirt. The mouth on the medium to full bodied wine shows clear rich mouth coating tannin, along with raspberry, blackberry, cassis, and the barest of blueberry ribbons, along with nice oak, herb, and green notes. The finish is long and lasting with more mineral, quinine, coffee, chocolate, black pepper, and eucalyptus. This is a nice wine that is a younger brother to the 2005 Four Gates Napa Cabernet that was created from the same grapes.

2010 Agua Dulce Winery Syrah – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this purple black colored wine also starts off with overripe fruit, but that calms with time. The nose is rich with roasted meat, ripe blueberry, smoky notes, along with mounds of black pepper, licorice, and nice mineral. The mouth is round and filling with rich mouth coating tannins that cost and linger long, along with lovely concentrated blackberry, ripe strawberry, plum, and blue fruit, all coming together with the nice tannin and sweet oak. The finish is long and spicy with graphite, bell pepper, chocolate, more black pepper, spice, cloves, cinnamon, and dirt.

2006 Four Gates Merlot M.S.C. – Score: A- to A
The nose explodes with ripe raspberry, bright fruit, toasty notes, lavender, and dried fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine, rich layers of fruit, along with dark black cherry, plum, blackberry, along with dried fruit, crazy cedar, all rounded out nicely with rich mouth coating tannin. The finish is long and rich with great balance, the 24 months of oak show lovely cedar, but all of it is highly accentuated by the bright acidity that adds spice to the wine by making all the flavors pop, followed by chocolate, leather, dark fruit, and tobacco. What a great wine – bravo! Drink in the next two or so years.

2007 Carmel Vineyards Mediterranean – Score: A- (and a bit more)
This is a blend of 37% Carignan, 26% Shiraz , 20% Petit Verdot and 15% Petite Sirah and 2% Viogner. This is another one of those wines (like the 2005 Yatir Forest) that is more elegant than it is massive or powerful. The wines truly lives up to its name, as the varietals are not Bordeaux or Napa in nature. Rather they are Med grapes with a ripe, smoky, dark, and exotic silhouette.
The nose is lovely and accentuated by smoky fumes, roasted meat, wild blueberry compote, rich oak, raspberry, cranberry, blackberry, plum, cherry, and roasted herbs. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich with ripe red, black, and blue fruit, though not new world and balanced with great concentration and nice extraction, the tannins are losing grip and integrating nicely with the sweet cedar. The finish is long, with good acidity, and overall roundness, that comes from the soft mouth coating tannins that linger long, chocolate, lovely tobacco, more roasted meat, and black and blue lovely fruit.

2010 Agua Dulce Winery Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B++
The wine starts off a bit new world for me and sweet, but that calms over time and becomes more balanced with ripe fruit, but not cloyingly so. The nose on this dark purple colored wine is filled with candied fruit, nice oak, toast, chocolate, blackberry, rich black pepper, cassis, black plum, graphite, and tons of bell pepper. The mouth on this full bodied wine starts with large mouth coating tannin, lots of black fruit, lovely oak, along with a fair amount of green notes, that truly add complexity to this wine, along with nice extraction that comes together into a rich and lasting mouth. The finish is long and spicy with more lingering black fruit, chocolate, graphite, and more green notes.

2010 Agua Dulce Winery Zinfandel – Score: B to B+
The nose on this dark purple colored wine explodes with heat, rich root beer, boysenberry, nicely smoked meat, and great spice. In many ways the nose is the clear star of the wine. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine starts off so nicely with layers of dark and rich jammy fruit, blackberry, strawberry, sweet oak, and lovely mouth coating tannin, but the heat, and sweet date flavors fill in the mid palate and make it a wine that demands rich food, and even still the wine just tastes overripe. The finish is long with more spice, but it is overshadowed by the heat and date, along with hints of surprising green notes, olives, rich and freshly ground pepper, chocolate, and more spice.