Tzora Vineyards Winery and the latest releases
Well, I have finished all the KFWE posts, and my past personal wine tastings posts, and now it is time to get back to posting about wineries I visited on my last trip. To remind you, I came to Israel for Sommelier 2017, then flew to Paris and back the next morning for the Bokobsa tasting. Upon my return to Israel, I drove north for a day, before coming back to the Jerusalem area, and then flying home. I have already posted all the wineries I visited in Israel’s North. I also visited wineries in the Jerusalem area, including one of my absolute favorite kosher wineries in the world – Tzora Vineyards Winery. Why? Because Tzora (and Domaine Netofa Winery as well) are wineries that prove you can make GREAT old-world style wines in the new world of Israel! All that you really need to make great balanced and beautifully made wines is to care, and Tzora winery cares!
If there is a winery that gets terroir in Israel it would be Tzora. I wrote about the late founder, Ronnie James, who sadly passed away in 2008. He saw the power of terroir in Israel. He understood what vines to plant where and why! It was his passion and belief that great wines could be made in Israel, that continues to fuel Eran Pick MW (Master Of Wine), the head winemaker and General Manager of Tzora Vineyards and the rest of the winery, forward. I have had the honor to meet with Mr. Pick many times at the winery now, and each time it is always a joy to see how the winery continues to grow leaps and bounds above the rest of Israel’s date juice producing masses. For the few that can understand the quality and beauty of Tzora’s wines, there is a treasure to be reaped for sure! Here is a winery that cares, and does not sell out to the million bottle siren and the date juice wines that it demands.
It had not been long since I was last at Tzora Winery, but there were new wines to taste, the new Misty Hills and the new red Shoresh, as well. Mr. Pick was very kind to do the tasting with us, and he even had the winery put out these incredibly fragile and lovely wine glasses, from Zalto – just to make sure we were on our toes and very careful! The glasses were the first surprise, but the second one was the insane wine we tasted at the end of the tasting. It was a wine that is yet to be bottled but one that has already been pulled from the barrel, the 2015 Misty Hills. I swear that if I was tasting blind, I could have guessed it was a 2012 Saint Emilion. It was bone dry, old-world in the absolute real sense, and did not taste ripe or Israeli in any manner. We also got a blind taste test and sadly this time, I did not get it. The blind tasted wine was a glass of pure Petit Verdot, it was very ripe and somewhat unidimensional, but its color, depth, and tannin were really impressive. Eran allowed us to taste components of the Judean Hills Blanc 2016 and some of the 2016 Shoresh blanc as well, they both showed beautifully, but till those wines are complete and put in a bottle, I will hold my notes.
The best news (for me anyway) is that Skurnik Wines, who has been importing Tzora wines for many years now, has all of these wines in NYC! However, the even better news is that they will also be on the west coast very soon! Yes, can you believe it, someone finally listened to me, and Skurnik will have a West coast distribution setup, and ready to go by May 2017! Finally!
The wines are available from Gary at Taste Co – email him at: info@tastewineco.com or call at (212) 461-1708. Some of them are also available at kosherwine.com and skyviewwine.com.
Lueria Winery and the latest releases
Well, I have finished all the KFWE posts, and my past personal wine tastings posts, and now it is time to get back to posting about wineries I visited on my last trip. To remind you, I came to Israel for Sommelier 2017, then flew to Paris and back the next morning for the Bokobsa tasting. Upon my return to Israel, I drove north for a day, before coming back to the Jerusalem area, and then flying home. I have already posted all the wineries I visited in Israel’s North, excepting for my visit with Gidi Sayada at the lovely new visitor tasting room of Lueria Winery. We tasted all the new releases and as always, it is a joy to sit down and taste wines with Gidi.
The wines that Gidi makes use the grapes that were planted by his father, Yosef Sayada some 22 years ago. The vines were planted on the hills surrounding Moshav Safsufa. Interestingly, Safsufa is an Aramaic word meaning – late ripening fruit. The burial place of the revered kabbalist Rav Yitzchak Luria, who was one of the foremost Kabbalist experts in his time, overlooks the vineyards. It is in his honor that the winery is called Lueria Winery.
Lueria Winery has been growing slowly but surely, going from a few thousand bottles in 2006 to more than 100K bottles in 2016. Most people would not think that Lueria Winery is pumping out that much wine, but since Gidi started making wine, after learning winemaking in Israel, and cutting his teeth with Tal Pelter of Pelter Winery (not kosher) and Matar Winery, it is clear to see that he has found his own way now. With the abundance of his father’s grapes to choose from, some 45 acres, comprising many classic varietals, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, along with some more Mediterranean varietals, like Syrah, Sangiovese, Barbera, and Roussanne.
This winery, like many throughout Israel, is not afraid to make half of their wines – white wines. Why? Because contrary to the USA palate, Israelis have finally found the love for all things white and rose! Sadly, this year, Gidi did not make a rose. In its place, he started a new label, the 2016 Roussanne! Also, gone is the pure dry Gewurztraminer that we had a few years here and there. Now, he is making some dry Gewurztraminer and placing it into the lovely, Lueria White wine. The white varietals used in the winery are Gewurztraminer, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Roussanne. There are very few wineries in Israel making Pinot Grigio, the ones I know of are Dalton (a five-minute drive from Lueria Winery), Lueria Winery, and Yarden Winery. Each wine is stylistically different from each other. The Dalton PG is all about acid and fruit and is light on the mineral. Shockingly, the Yarden PG is less about fruit and more a balance between the fruit and mineral. Finally, the Lueria Winery PG is smoky and mineral rich, with nice fruit as well. Get them all and then taste them in a blind tasting!
The red wine labels have been cleaned up, in both appearance and names. Now it is just two blends Rosso and Terrace at the first level, followed by two single varietal dominated wines, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon. With the Grand Vital being the flagship wine of the winery, which is a blend of the best barrels from each vintage. Its parts change each year but it’s mostly dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, along with some Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Sometimes Syrah is added as well, but in the past many years that has not been the case. I think the streamlining and simplification of the labels, along with cleaning them up a bit as well, really makes for a lovely lineup of wines.
2016 O’dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc and 2014 Shirah Aglianico
This past Shabbat I enjoyed some ribs with the Aglianico and the O’dwyers Sauvignon Blanc with lunch. Friday night the Aglianico tasted like straight-up date juice, but with time, that flavor profile receded. It is still a wine that is pushed, but one that can and should be enjoyed within the next 14 months or so.
The 2013 Aglianico showed in a very different manner, not as pushed and one that is built for aging. This wine is rich, layered, and extracted, but it is so pushed – ripe fruit wise – that it cannot last for long, IMHO.
The 2015 O’dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc was a tropical juice nightmare that really did not work for me at all. The 2016 vintage, on the other hand, is dry, with far drier fruit, showing more lemongrass and citrus. The wine is truly mouth puckering with insane acidity. This may well be the best 2016 white so far, in terms of straight-up acid.
The wine notes follow below:
2016 O’dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc – Score: A- (mevushal) (QPR)
Wow! What a fun, bright, not crazy tropical redolent nose, with lime, Meyer lemon, lovely grass, straw, cat pee, with lemongrass, and herb. The mouth is a crazy, mouth puckering joy, showing insane acid, with a good fruit focus, nice floral notes, lemon blossom, with great gooseberry, hints of honeysuckle, ripe grapefruit, lovely citrus, and nice mineral. The finish is long and tart, good acid, pith, with crazy lime, saline, and tart tropical in the background. Nice!! Drink by the end of 2017.
2014 Shirah Aglianico – Score: A-
This wine needs time to open, it starts off very sweet, almost date-like, but with time, it mellows and becomes very nice. This wine is ripe, almost pushed, but it comes around with time.
Wow! what a nose, this wine is young and needs time, with candied cherry, blackberry, dried and roasted herb, rich heady spices, mocha madness, and fig jam. The mouth on this full-bodied wine starts off very ripe, almost date-like, but with time it calms down, still showing very ripe, new-world, clearly still warm weather fruit, blueberry, raspberry, lovely mineral, graphite galore, and chocolate. The finish is long and soft with a plush mouthfeel, layered with charcoal, nice leather, rich with warm baking spices, and good pith on the long finish. The wine’s very ripe structure will not hold long, I would drink it very soon! Drink 2017 – early 2019.
2015 St. Urbans-Hof Nik Weis Selection Riesling, Wiltinger, Gefen Hashalom
Sadly, when I tasted through the horizontal of the Rieslings last week, I had yet to receive the new 2015 Nik Weis Riesling. This Riesling is not the same as the 2014 Nik Weis Riesling. The 2014 Riesling was a SAARFEILSER, which comes from a St. Urbans-Hof vineyard at the Mosel tributary Saar. This vineyard is one of the closest vineyards to the river itself. The SAARFEILSER vineyard has a southern exposure, that allows for the sunlight to reflect off the water, which makes it one of the warmer vineyards in Nik Weis’s portfolio. Last year’s Saarfeilser
Last year’s Saarfeilser wine was made pretty dry, and considerably drier than this year’s Wiltinger style wine. The Wiltinger wines are made sweeter, and more fruit forward, though they have a lower alcohol content. Why? Well, the higher the ABV (alcohol content) the lower the residual sugar. This wine comes in at 9.5% ABV, while last year’s Saarfeilser came in at 12% ABV.
Once again, the world of kosher German wines is very small indeed. Also, I have only had these two, and from what all my friends who know German Rieslings, these wines are what we are meant to hold all other wines to, not the other way around. Sadly, my palate desires drier wines, and as such, the 2015 vintage is not a wine I go gaga for.
As I noted in the notes, this wine is still a year away from being ready, if you must enjoy it now, open it two or three hours before drinking time. Also, I would not drink this wine at cellar temp, I would go more with room temperature, as the colder it gets, the more muted is its nose. Truly, if there is one con to this wine, it is its muted and stifled nose. The mouth is well balanced and truly clean. The wine I compare it to, the 2015 Hagafen Riesling with 2% residual sugar, is far more tropical than this wine which is clean and old-style in nature. Still, The Hagafen is richer and more acidic to handle its rich sweetness. The Wiltinger is acidic, no question (once you allow the wine to air out, otherwise from opening it tasted flat), but while it has racy acid, I would crave a drop more.
I bought my bottles from Gary at Taste Co – email him at: info@tastewineco.com or call at (212) 461-1708.
The 2015 vintage is meant to be one of the best in a long time in Mosel and Saar areas (Saar is a sub-region of Mosel). I am thinking of putting a few of these aside along with the 2015 Hagafen 2% and watch them age alongside each other.
My wine note follows below:
2015 St. Urbans-Hof Nik Weis Selection Riesling, Wiltinger, Gefen Hashalom – Score: A- (QPR)
WARNING! This wine needs time, LOTS of it, please do NOT jump to any conclusion about this wine before you have had it open for at least 6 hours and not overly chilled either., the cold mutes the already non-redolent nose.
When you first open this wine, this wine is a complete letdown, but as stated let this puppy open! Still, to a dry wine freak like me, it is a letdown from the 2014 vintage. So, where is it actually? It is sweet, no way around that, but it is very balanced and well integrated. The 2015 Hagafen 2% Riesling is also sweet, but the acid is more in your face and balanced, but it is also far more tropical, while this wine is not tropical in any way.
What is shocking is that this wine has a 9.5% ABV! While the wine has lots of RS, its profile shows clean and lean, which makes for an interesting wine, just not sure how interesting it will really be long term. Right now, I would prefer the Hagafen, but this wine has lots of potential, and its lean markings can make for a fun wine a few years from now.
The nose on this wine is dry, it is in NO way tropical like the Hagafen and other sweet Rieslings, which is very different than its mouth, the aromas are not redolent, like the 2014 vintage, it shows yellow apple, stone fruit, with flint, honeysuckle flowers, and other floral notes. The mouth takes time to open, but with time it does come around, it shows like a wine with 2% RS or more, showing nice integrated acidity, with crazy honeyed fruit, impressive citrus blossom, with sweet-tart lemon, almost like a limoncello, with peach, apricot, nice mineral, slate, with a viscous mouthfeel from the abundant residual sugar, but a wine that is clean, and really focused.
Now, will this wine appeal to many? I think so. The wine freaks who crave the dry 2014 vintage, will like that better. The people who like sweeter wines will find this wine well balanced and all-around a very enjoyable wine to taste and drink, with a plethora of food combinations, from fish, cheese, Asian and spicy dishes, and roasted fowl or fish. Nice!
Kosher Beaujolais wines
Beaujolais Nouveau, if you have never heard of this wine, that is because you do not live in France and because we have not had a kosher one for two years or so. It is a wine made from the Gamay fruit and one that is quick to be released.
Now there is another wine from the same region, Beaujolais. The Nouveau style wine uses Carbonic Maceration that makes the wine feel sloppy, but gives you really fruity notes, along with weird notes and flavors of fermentation and an incomplete wine. Having made wine myself, with the help of Josh Rynderman, allowed me to watch the entire process of wine making, and it showed me the must/fermentation notes that I am seeing in the Nouveau. Having watched the wine process from end-to-end, I can say that it took time for the wine to leave its pure fruit and must/fermentation state. My Pinot was still smelling like that into December. This Nouveau is bottled 6-8 weeks after harvest!
Now the manner that the Nouveau is produced should normally allow for early release, using a technique called Carbonic Maceration. Carbonic maceration ferments most of the juice while it is still inside the grape. The result is a wine with lighter tannins and fruity wine.
Tasting the two wines was interesting. I will say that it is great that kosherwine.com went out and created a kosher Beaujolais Nouveau! Sadly, it is not a wine for my tastes. The other Beaujolais was very nice, but the 2012 vintage is already starting to fall apart, so drink that up now! There is a new 2013 vintage that I hope to taste soon.
My tasting notes are below:
2016 Duc De Pagny Beaujolais Nouveau – Score: B to B+
Yes, this is a simple wine, like Beaujolais is supposed to be, but it is not my style of wine. The nose is tart with raspberry, esters of grape and fermentation, and overall simple aromas. The mouth is tart and has just enough fruit and tannin to make it work, with strawberry notes, banana, and sour cherry. The acid plays with red fruit, a bit of earth, nice spice, and more fermentation notes.
2012 Beaujolais Cotes de Brouilly – Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
Sadly, this wine is falling apart quickly. Do not open and let rest, this is a wine that is fragile now, so open and drink it within the hour.
Nice earthy nose with good spice, cherry, with dried raspberry, tobacco, and loam. Nice medium body with a simple body but firm attack, still showing great acid, though there is a slight hollow that is growing now with the wine falling off, but showing nice fruit that gives way to nice extraction, boysenberry, graphite, mineral, and great spice. The finish is nice with cloves, smoke, and earth that mingles well with great acid and cherry fruit, dark plum, and more spice. Drink UP!
Kosher Riesling Horizontal Tasting
It was time to taste all the Rieslings that I had been gathering up for some time. The problem was that I had no time to do it, given all the events I was traveling to, along with some personal needs as well. So, I finally found a day that would work, a week ago Thursday night and we gathered to taste them all.
So let me start with why Riesling and what is Riesling? First, this grape has many names, White Riesling, Riesling, Johannisberg Riesling, and others are real names of the Noble grape, while Emerald Riesling or Welsch Riesling – not so much!
Riesling Grape
Riesling is old, like ancient, it is documented to exist in Mosel dating back to the early 1400s! It is one of the Noble Six grapes that define wine history, but that is all marketing hooey IMHO. In terms of kosher wines, this variety did not really become special until recently, with Hagafen and Carmel doing wonderful jobs with the grape.
Riesling wines can be made in so many ways. The most common are sweet wines, like the impressive Hagafen Rieslings, that Ernie Weir makes every year, or the less impressive Giersberger Riesling, or the even less impressive Gilgal Riesling. These wines all have some amount of RS (Residual Sugar), whether they are called off-dry, semi-sweet, or sweet, they all need a very important component to make them work – ACID! They desperately need acid to balance the sweet notes. Hagafen is the only off-dry Riesling I have ever liked, that I remember anyway.
It is sad, but while Jews do not seem to enjoy white wines, they do drink sweeter wines, and if there was a bit more acid to balance it out, I think they would show better. That said, I brought this subject up to many a winemaker, and the response was all the same. People like it simpler to drink, so spiking the wine with acid would not sell as well, IE, customers like sweet alcoholic water. Acid tends to discourage gulping or whatever to these people do. Truly sad.
I am finding that Riesling is quickly becoming my favorite white wines. The dry wines from Hagafen, Nik, and Carmel bring a smile to my face. They are rich, layered, oily and balanced, with good acid that makes them enjoyable during almost any part of the meal. That is what makes acid work so well. Food dishes, wine, even dessert, all need some amount of acid to balance out the palate.
There are many other white wines out there for sure, look at my list of whites from 2015. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Riesling are all noble grapes, and they are all lovely when done correctly. Still, Riesling has something going for it, that none of the other white varietals have, funk!
When the wine is done correctly, and then aged for even a year, the wine starts to display notes of petrol and oil. Some may find that offensive, but to me, it is yet another aspect of how I love mineral based wines. The great thing is that these wines come from all around the world! You can find kosher Riesling from California, France, Germany, and Israel!
KFWE LA 2017 – the star of the show continues to grow
Well, it was another great series of KFWE shows. Sadly, I missed the one in Israel, which many say was the best one so far! I had never missed one of those yet, but such is life. Thankfully, I made Paris, NYC, and LA. What I can say, is that not much has changed, the star of the shows is still LA, and this year it got even better.
As always, the event happens in two parts, like in NYC, the trade and then the public. Public again, had the VIP session, which LA started in 2015, and what has been copied all over the KFWE family since then, and the General admission.
Overall Impressions
Of course, the event stayed in the beautiful Petersen Museum, sadly there is construction on its metal side (for a tram), but it is still gorgeous. So, I will cut to the chase – this was the best KFWE hands down – congratulations to Herzog and Royal, really impressive.
Now, why do I say that – well that will take a little longer to explain than a single sentence! First of all, the setting was killer, that is not new, it is really an LA destination kind of party, and it is exactly what we should expect from an LA-based event.
Second, they fixed all the issues from last year. Last year, the food was poorly placed in the general admission floors, that was fixed, and the food this year was better as well. The lack of full wine selection from NYC was fixed, for the most part. NYC had the new Vitkin Winery wines while LA did not. Also, LA did not have the two California wineries, Covenant and Hagafen, which makes sense as Royal does not distribute those wines in LA, the wineries take care of west coast operations themselves. There were also one or two other no-shows, but they were wineries I would not waste virtual ink over, so no loss, all good!
This means that they had every French, Herzog, Spanish, New Zealand, and topline Israeli wines at this event. Finally, LA has been removed from the wine doghouse, that has plagued previous KFWE LA events. This is huge! I stress this because, outside of very few wines, LA had it all. Weather, wine, food, ambiance, setting, everything! There really was nothing lacking from the 2017 KFWE LA, I was really impressed.
Finally, the booths were far better laid out this year, they made use of all three floors, and the wineries and food had ample room and space to ply their products to the happy customers. Overall, the execution this year was 100% spot on!
Picture perfect Weather
Photo by David Zaitz from Wikipedia
Once again, God looked kindly down on the KFWE this year in LA as well. While the KFWE in NYC was sandwiched between an ugly snowstorm and another system after it, it was cold but clear skies on Monday. The same could be said for LA’s event. The weather was brilliant, and it too was sandwiched between two large rain systems that came and went, leaving LA’s sky clean of smog.
The weather was perfect at 70 degrees, more on the logistics of that below, but it gave KFWE LA the ability to truly showcase its colors in terms of what a KFWE in LA can really be! When u think of LA, you think weather, beaches, and well Hollywood. Hollywood was the showcase of the first post-Hyatt event, the event that birthed the VIP session. That I am sure was probably too much Hollywood for Royal, so they looked elsewhere, what else screams California while being posh, elegant, and well California? The Petersen is that place! During the day, it is California, with a rooftop capable of hosting hundreds of trades people. When the sun sets, it magically turns into Hollywood, which is a 15-minute drive away (preferably in the batmobile or the Lighting McQueen car).
Trade tasting
During the trade tasting, when the wines were set up in a non-optimal manner, the team moved quickly, before trade actually started and made sure that wineries were not placed in direct sunlight. Sadly, Matar was left out in the sun, but they kept all their wines on ice, and it was fine. The weather was almost spring-like, 70 degrees and clear skies. While that is great beach weather, it is not so much great wine weather. Since the trade is held on the rooftop, while the other floors setup for the public tasting, this can make for Doctor Seuss-like logistical nightmares. The team fixed it quickly and that was learned from last year. Read the rest of this entry
The KFWE LA 2017 cheat sheet
KFWE Miami in 2016, Paris, London, Israel, and NYC are now done. What is left is the 2017 KFWE LA returning for the second time to the beautiful Petersen Automotive Museum today, Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 at 1PM for the trade portion and then again at 6PM for the Public portion. The VIP is sold out already, but you can still get the General Admission tickets here, and use the coupon code: “eatupdrinkup” (without the quotes) to get a 10% discount off the rack rate of the general admission tickets.
My post on last year’s event can be found here. The museum is beautiful, the setting is stunning, and the weather today is looking to be 100% perfect, unless your GG and all you want is 65 degrees all day!
So, first stop is to the app store and get your KFWE App. This is the link for the Apple iOS app, and this is the link for the Google Android app. I wish they had a search function on the app, so that you could search for say, the best wine at the event, the 2014 Chateau Rayne Vigneau, to see which table it is on! Sadly, that is not an option, so I will list here the best wines and the tables they are on, and you can use that to find the wines I found to be some of the best, and cannot miss, options.
My list follows below – enjoy!
- Table 1: Goose Bay:
- 2015 Sauvignon Blanc
- 2014 Fume Blanc
- 2012 Pacifica Pinot Noir
- 2014 Goose Bay Pinot Noir
- Table 3: Capcanes:
- Everything!
- Table 5: Flam:
- Everything, though the rose really was not showing as well as I hoped
- Table 5: Terra de Seta:
- Classico and Assai
- Table 6: Elvi Wines:
- Everything
- Table 14: Domaine du Castel:
- Everything
- Table 15: Tabor:
- 2014 Tabor Adama II Zohar
- 2012 Tabor Limited Edition Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2012 Tabor Special Edition Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2016 Tabor Adama Sauvignon Blanc
- Any white wine you may like from the Mount Tabor series
- Table 17: Matar:
- Everything
- Table 18: Rothschild:
- Champagne
- 2016 Rose (2015 has faded already)
- 2014 Chateau Malmaison
- Table 18: Koenig
- 2014 Riesling
- Table 19: Wines of France:
- 2014 Chateau Leoville Poyferre ‘Pavillon de Poyferre’
- 2014 Chateau Royaumont Lalande De Pomerol
- 2014 Les Roches de Yon-Figeac
- 2014 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere
- 2014 Chateau Giscours
- 2014 Chateau Rayne Vigneau
- 2014 Chateau Soutard
- Table 19: Laurent Perrier:
- Champagne Rose
- Champagne Brut
- Table 20: Bokobsa:
- 2015 Hauteville – it tasted stunted in NYC but lovely in Paris.
- The 2015 Domaine Fontlaure Rose, Cotes de Provence, a nice enough rose
- 2014 Domaine de Boissan Gigondas
- Table 20: Drappier:
- DRINK IT ALL!
- Table 31: Eagle’s Landing:
- Super excited that Herzog is finally showing you all the wines they make for the club. Taste them all – I look forward to trying them too!
- The 2013 Pinot Noir – BEG FOR IT!
- The 2015 Pinot Noir – lovely!
- Table 33 and 34: Herzog Cellars:
- Guys you have to try the 2014 wines, they are all impressive. Yes Herzog makes a ton of wine, try them and enjoy!
- 2014 Herzog Clone 6 Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2014 Herzog Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2014 Herzog Single Vineyard Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2014 Herzog Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
- Variations from 2014
- 2014 Malbec
- 2012 Petite Sirah
KFWE NYC 2017 – gets even better, but could use some tinkering
dsu
Well, another KFWE NYC just finished on Monday night, and while it went off without a hitch, there were some aspects I hope they can improve for next year. Still, to me they made many attempts to move the “Must See” kosher wine event of the year, in NYC anyway, in the correct direction. I will break them down below, but for now, the takeaway about Monday night’s affair, was that it was an improvement over last year – overall.
The VIP session was back, a nod to the epic VIP session of LA’s 2015 event, but so far none have topped that event, even the VIP session at LA last year, at the beautiful Petersen Automobile Museum.
The doors opened for trade yesterday at Noon and closed at 4PM. While last year trade was a zoo quickly, that was not the case this year. Still, after two hours the trade became so crowded, it eclipsed last year’s zoo. It felt like two busloads of humans were deposited in front of Pier 60 with two hours to kill. Still, if most of those folks were really trade, I would be happy. In the end, I find the trade group, to be about 60% hardcore buyers, journalists, and trade folk. The rest is folks who know folks, but they are all ambassadors of wine in NYC and around, so in that vein, they are all of value to Royal.
To me the trade part of the show, is about getting the press talking about kosher wine and not using the M word ever again in a kosher wine article! Seriously, I was interviewed for an upcoming article in a press piece and I said, I would be unwilling to answer questions until she promised to me that she would NOT use the M word/company ANYWHERE in the piece. That word is 1990, come on, it is 2017 already! Kosher wine has eclipsed my dreams in many ways, let alone that crap wine. If you still have no idea what I mean, then LMGTFY.
As always, I have spoken how Royal Wines is the 900 pound gorilla – and it has the ability to crowd the market and push out its competitors as it flexes its muscles. Still, we need exactly what happened on Monday. The place was filled with reporters, wine buyers, and critics tasting wines and being educated about the current state of affairs of the kosher wine world. In that sense – it was a large success!
Wines at KFWE NYC
So, on to the wines. First of all, thankfully my friend Moises Cohen and Elvi Wines was here in person this year, sadly without his lovely family, so I was happy to hang with him when I was not busy tasting wines. That said, this year is what we call the shmita transition year, and it is painful for Royal, and the kosher wine industry as a whole. You see this is the year after shmita in Israel. The 2015 vintage from Israel, was shmita, so many US religious Jews will not drink them. What that means is that there is an entire year of no wine. Though, as I have spoken of a few times, 2015 was a bad year for whites, while reds are starting to emerge as the stars of 2015, if they used fruit that was pulled early in the vintage. Read the rest of this entry
Adir Winery – Latest releases
I have been visiting Adir Winery for years now, and it finally dawned on me that I have not yet made a proper post on the winery. I did post about the winery in passing two times, here and here, but it was high time to take a little more time to talk about this winery and to post wines notes for the current releases.
This was my third winery that I visited on my trip to the north, on my last visit to Israel. I had already been Kishor in the early morning, followed by Matar by Pelter after that, and then on to Adir Winery after Matar.
Adir winery started long before it was a winery, long before they thought of a winery. It started with the Rosenberg and Ashkenazi families. The Rosenberg family came to Israel in the late 1940s, leaving war-torn Poland for a new life. The Ashkenazi family immigrated to Israel in the early 1950s from Turkey. Eventually, they both found themselves in the Upper Galilee, near Moshav Ben Zimra. The Rosenbergs started planting vines in the 1980s, and then again in the 1990s, essentially planting much of the vines on the now famous Kerem Ben Zimra slopes and plateaus. In the meantime, the Ashkenazi family raised the largest flock of goats in the north, producing milk and cheese.
In 2003, the families got together and built what to many did not seem obvious from the start, a dairy and a winery in one. The dairy serves lovely cheeses and ice cream to the masses that come to the winery, while the wine is served on the other side of the building.
The winery has three main lines of wines. The first is their Kerem Ben Zimra wines, which has Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Then there is the A wines, which are blends, and have a white and red. Finally, there is the Plato and now a 10th Anniversary wine.
As I was visiting this time, Adir is in the midst of its biggest ever expansion, moving from two large building to 3 even larger buildings. The current wine cellar will move to another building, while the current tasting room will expand into another building as well. It will all be state of the art, and from what I could see very cool, with audio and visual sensory technology, along with lots of space to serve more cheese and wine than before. Read the rest of this entry
