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Three Rose wines made from Cabernet Franc – drink or not?
This past weekend I had the chance to drink a pair of rose wines based off the affable and approachable Cabernet Franc grape. Of the three wines in this post, fortunately or unfortunately (depending upon your opinion) only one is available here in the US. The third wine is a tasting note from my trip to Israel last year. The three wines are the; 2010 Flam Rose (a wine we enjoyed at the winery and at the 2012 IFWF and bought at the winery in Israel), 2010 Eden Wild Rose (bought in Israel), and the 2010
I have a serious soft spot and love affair with all things Cabernet Franc and was more than excited to share my two prize bottles of rose with an entire table of guests. Unfortunately, that was where all the excitement ended and where reality set in. I first tasted the 2010 Kadesh Barnea Rose in November of last year, at the Sommelier event in Israel, and I thought it was a nice and accessible wine, but did not think it was worthy of a major mention. However, as I found more of these Cabernet Franc based rose wines, I thought it was worthy of noting that the grape is fine for red, but not that memorable for rose.
I next tasted the 2010 Flam Rose at the winery this year and it was lovely, bright, and mineral based, which really helped to add excitement and pull it up from the normal quaff-able status that rose wines receive by default. We next tasted it again at the 2012 Herzog IFWF, and again the wine showed well. However, around the table this past week, the wine was showing a bit weaker and without the acid punch and deep minerality that separated this rose from the pack. It was still the clear winner of the three, but to be fair, would you call a 5 foot person on an island of 4 foot people a giant?
The first and only time that I tasted the 2010 Eden Wild Rose was this past weekend at my house, and while it had some captivating notes and flavors, it too lacked the punch to bring it all together, and let alone be drinkable with food.
I had never heard of the Eden winery, until my friend Gabriel Geller, owner and managing partner at the Wine Mill store in Jerusalem, told me about him and sold me a bottle. Personally, I loved the original aromas from the wine, but I REALLY must thank Gabriel for also selling me a bottle of the 2009 Eden Wild Red, a blend of Cabernet and Merlot, which was fantastic and extremely unique! Read the rest of this entry
2012 Herzog International Wine Festival – part two of wine notes
As stated in the previous posting on this lovely event, there were many wines to taste and there was no way I could post all the wine notes in a single posting. Here is my follow-up posting on the wines tasted at the event, including the wines that I loved and did not love.
The wine notes are listed in the order that I tasted them:
2010 Domaine Netofa – White – Score: B++
The nose on this light gold colored wine shows clean and lovely nose of green apple, peach, grapefruit, kiwi, light quince, and rich/nice loamy dirt and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and balanced with nice minerality, along with nice bright fruit that mingles well in the mouth. The finish is long and spicy with nice quince, tart green apple, grapefruit, and green tea.
2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve, Unoaked – Score: B
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, the wine was flat without much to grab your attention. The nose on this straw colored wine has apple, lemon, nice mineral, bright acid, and melon. The mouth is somewhat plush and the finish has citrus to round out the wine.
2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve – Score: B+
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, though not as bad as its unoaked twin. The nose on this dark straw colored wine has light oak, brioche, lemon, nice spice, light creme, and honey. The mouth is round with spice, summer fruit, and oak influence.
2011 Tulip White Tulip – Score: B++
This wine is a blend of 70% Gewurztraminer and 30% Sauvignon Blanc with the sweet and floral notes of the Gewurztraminer showing nicely with honey and guava, while the green apple and bright lemon notes from the Sauvignon Blanc blend together in a unique manner. The nose on this straw colored wine hits you with mineral, light honey, bright lemon, green apple, and guava. The mouth is nice and honeyed with light petrol, and citrus. The finish is long with both sweet lemon creme and bright lemon at the same time, along with fig, and tart notes. This is a great wine that would go well with fish or sushi.
Flam Winery – The venerable European-styled family boutique winery, that is now kosher
Our culture is very quick to exaggerate for the sake of sensationalism and many in the wine industry press or bloggers have never missed a chance to prove it. Still, every so often we get it right! Use the word boutique in conjunction with a winery, and everyone from Mondavi down to your local corner Garagiste, will lay claim to being one. If you then throw in the terms family owned and European styled, believe it or not, you can still find many who are willing to lay claim to them as well. Thankfully, I was able to spend some quality time at a perfect example of exactly what we are talking about, the Flam Winery, in the rustic Judean Hills.
In a previous post concerning Ella Valley Winery, I have already discussed what I believe to be the definition of a boutique winery. In a sentence or more, it means a crazy (in a good way) level of oversight from the mundane to the essential. Of course, my take leaves a large enough space to drive a semi-trailer through, as exemplified in these retorts to my post. With that said, to me Flam Winery exemplifies many of the aspects of what I look for when talking about a boutique winery. Yes, they are smallish, at some 120 thousand bottles a year, along with very tight oversight of their vineyards. Flam leases five vineyards throughout the country, three in the Judean hills area and two in the upper Galilee. The vineyards are leased so that Golan Flam, the head winemaker, can work hand in hand with the vineyard manager, and know that they will both get what they want. The vineyard knows it will be paid on a consistent manner, per acre. While, Golan knows that the vineyard will be managed with quality as the benchmark and not quantity. Also, Golan has the opportunity to work hand on with the vineyard manager to maximize the potential of the grapes, in the direction that he thinks is most beneficial to the vineyard and the winery.
There are a few famous family owned wineries, including Castel Winery in the Judean Hills, and Tulip Winery in the Galilee. Flam Winery, of course is also on the short list of quality family run wineries. Flam Winery, which was started in 1998, is a personification of Golan’s dream to create an Israeli wine estate, focused on premium quality wines. The dream was hatched after graduating from Hebrew University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, on a trip through Tuscany, Italy in 1996. While on a fascinating tour amongst the splendid wineries of this enchanting region, Gilad & Golan decided to build a boutique winery in the Land of Israel, which should be surrounded by superb vineyards, and would be the source of the best possible Israeli wines. Golan returned to Italy to get his Master’s degree in Enology, and worked at Carpineto Winery in Tuscany, and in Australia as well. In 1998 Golan returned to Israel to be the wine maker of Flam, and joined forces with his brother Gilad, a successful lawyer and businessman, who runs marketing and Business Development. They recruited their mother, Kami, a successful businesswoman to be the winery’s CFO, and they leaned heavily in the beginning on their father, who was then the head wine maker for Carmel Winery.
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