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2007 Yarden Blanc de Blancs, Late-Disgorged Zero Dosage Sparkling wine, along with some impressive California wines
This past week a few new friends dropped by and we enjoyed some new and old wines together. Many thanks to Eli for getting the food together and to Beryl, Greg, and Ari for hanging out with us, and of course many thanks Benyo (AKA Benyamin Cantz) from Four Gates Winery for sharing from his wisdom, time, and wines with us all.
I used the tasting to do an interesting side by side comparison of the 2007 Yarden Blanc de Blancs and the newly released 2007 Yarden Blanc de Blancs late disgorged. What was interesting was that I did not know that the late disgorged Yarden wines were also Brut nature wines, AKA Zero Dosage wines!
If you are following the posts, I recently posted about Zero Dosage wines. My take away from them was that they are a DRINK NOW style wine. Overall, many of the French Champagnes that we have in kosher have been drink-now wines. The Drappier which is mevushal has been a Drink-now style wine, and again Drappier prints the dosage date, so use that to decide if the bottle in front of you is too old.
The Laurent Perrier was also having serious age issues here, as the Champagne was not moving fast enough here in the USA. The not-mevushal Rothschild was outstanding in France.
With all that said, the kosher Champagnes here in the USA are not built to age. However, the Yarden sparkling wines age far better, IMHO. The 2007 Yarden Sparkling Blanc de Blancs has been wonderful for many years now. So, when I had the chance to taste the newly released 2007 Yarden Blanc de Blancs Late Disgorged alongside the normal 2007 Yarden Blanc de Blancs I was really excited! I had bought the wines but I had no one to try them with, so when Eli and his friends said we are coming into the area, I told Benyo and we used it as a great opportunity to share some wines.
The notes speak for themselves, but to me overall, the Late disgorged is not worth the money. The wine is GREAT, but for 70+ dollars, not worth it. Still, to taste them side by side, you could see the same style of the wine, but while the normal bottling was still showing very well, the newly disgorged wine was screaming in tart and very bright fruit.
The color was also, lighter in color, and I loved how the 2007 cork was already very crushed, while the new late-disgorged wine showed a perfect sparkling wine cork. See, the image below, along with Eli, big head!!!!
Tura and Har Bracha Wineries – two great examples of Shomron Wine Passion
The title may seem extreme but there is a clear and present passion and almost zeal to the wine makers and vineyard managers of the Shomron. In no way is that a slight to other wine regions, or to denote that others are not as passionate. The real point is that when I met with 30+ wineries on my past trip to Israel, every winery spoke about their wines and their processes and technology, but none spoke as passionately about their land as the winemakers in the Shomron. I need to stress, that many speak about their vineyards, the terroir, like Tzora and others, but the passion about the land versus the correct vines to grow – the sheer desire to own and plant trees or vines – it was truly an uplifting experience.
However, before we get into all of that, this post is about day two of week three during my trip to Israel last year December (2012). This posting is an account of my visit to both the Har Bracha and Tura wineries, in that order. Since we left off, I had completed week one all by myself, and week two partly with my nephew, who yes slowed me down, but truly added so much color and life to the proceedings, that it was a fair trade 🙂 The day started off like any day in Israel, we were set to see as many wineries as possible within a single day! The day started off with Doron and I picking up Gabriel Geller, yes the dastardly mastermind of the previous week’s Monday adventure to Ella Valley, Teperberg, Flam, and Herzberg Winery. It was a grand day trip and one that Geller was ready to try again! Talk about committed or is it that he needs to be committed, I am really not sure! Anyway, we pick him up and off we go to another wine adventure on Route 60! There were many stories that occurred to us on route 60 on this storied day, but being that they were part of the tapestry of the day, we will weave the tails into this wild and ruckus wine trail adventure.
The Shomron day started off with a visit to Shiloh, and then to Gvaot, described here. From there we were pointing our car towards Har Bracha and that is when we should have listened to the darn phone – both of our phones! The madness started with Doron’s phone which texted him with a very important message. You see he has an AT&T phone, a very nice phone actually, that did not easily support popping in a new SIM (the modus apprendre of international cell phone travelers when they visit Israel), so he went with an international plan from the US with certain countries on it. Simple enough plan, that is until you enter route 60, or more specifically, the Shomron area of route 60. AT&T was texting Doron to notify him that his data plan did not work in the new country he had just entered! Well, if that was not enough of a hint, at about that same time, my phone starts to chirp. Now, I must be specific here, we were interested in getting to Har Bracha which is north of Shiloh and we actually have to pass Tura to get there, but that was because Tura was not available at that time, so Har Bracha was where we were pointed towards.
To quickly remind you, Yossie’s wine map is an awesome resource for finding kosher wineries in Israel, and for getting a sense of what and where the kosher wineries are in Israel. The map gave us a great layout of our day, and it also gave us a closer understanding of what was driving waze so crazy! Waze is the only real navigation tool in Israel and one that I explained saved my life at least two times in the north. Well, my girlfriend (waze’s voice is a female’s voice and it tells me where to go at all times – so all my friends think it fits) started to notify me that I needed to get ready for a left turn coming up. Now, driving in Israel is an already tense and terrifying enough of a job, looking at a navigation device is too much. So, Doron and Gabe (back seat driver) were thrust into the navigator role. Doron had the girlfriend and Gabe knows most of the roads by heart, and he also had his own phone-based girlfriend as well. All the phones were telling me to turn left, while Gabe was coaxing me forward – with soothing words of, do not worry we need to keep driving – no warning! Read the rest of this entry
Teperberg Wines at the 2012 Gotham Tasting and Sommelier
This is the tenth article I am writing on wineries from the Judean Hills wine region of Israel. No matter where you look around the landscape of Israeli wines and wineries you will find story after story of rebirth, renewal, and a fair amount of plain old new! Carmel, Binyamina, Barkan, were all producing mass consumption/bulk wine up until 1o to 15 years ago. Since then, they have seen serious rebirth, still selling almost undrinkable swill for the masses, and also selling high-end, and very respectable wines for us wine aficionados.
Personally, I think it is the correct business structure to have for a growing winery. You need simple bulk wines that have high margins and can be sold anywhere and everywhere. Wines that people buy in the millions, literally. Then you need wines that bolster the lineup, entry-level wine-drinker wines, that can be the bridge to take you from swill to paradise. Think white zinfandel from Herzog Wine Cellars, they sell those bottles by the millions and they are the perfect gateway drug to get you to Chenin Blanc and then maybe to Chardonnay or Black Muscat, and finally to some real dry red wines.
Today the winery we are looking at is the Teperberg winery which was founded in 1870 by the Teperberg family (from where the name of the winery is derived) in the Old City of Jerusalem. Actually, to be accurate it was located in an alleyway of the old city of Jerusalem, and may well have been the first winery in the modern era of Israel. Later in 1964, the winery moved outside of Jerusalem, to the then quiet suburb of Motza (now a thriving community), and took on the name Efrat. The winery, ignoring its many name changes, continues to mostly produce sacramental sweet wines, as that is what its main clientele are looking for. However, in the 1990s Efrat started to create dry red wines, and to be honest they were a disaster. I remember always passing up on them, even when in school, and buying Carmel dry or semi-sweet wines instead. Read the rest of this entry
Psagot Viognier, Tzuba Port Style Wine, and roasted red pepper chicken
2006 Psagot Viognier
This past week we enjoyed some chicken, rice pilaf, and a pair of wines. The chicken was made as usual by my wife, and I helped to whip together the rice pilaf, which was simple and nice. The chicken was awesome, and it paired quite nicely with the perfumed and vegetal Psagot Viognier. I was surprised by the amount of green flavors that exist in the Psagot Viognier. Viognier wines are normally fresh and vibrant and show fruit characteristics that are hopefully infused with a nice perfume vapor. The bright fruit, perfume, and weight make Viognier, a nice replacement for those who are burned out from wood or butter infused Chardonnay. What is unfortunate is that while the Psagot Viognier is wonderfully perfumed and rich with fresh fruit, it is overly compensated with very dry tea leaf and vegetal characteristics.
Normally vegetal and herbaceous flavors come from pulling the grapes a bit early, and can be seen as a flaw in the wine. But as always, it depends on how it affects the wine. Recently, I blogged about a Four Gates Wine Cabernet Franc vertical where I stated that green/vegetal flavors are not so bad, but again, it is about how the flavors affect the wine, not that vegetal flavors themselves are not a flaw. Anyway, this wine threw me, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not so bad. I blogged about Viognier wines before, but wanted to highlight the vine’s fussiness. If you want that magical perfume flavors and nose in the wine, you need to pull the grapes off the vine within a two week period, and it may well be early – i.e. not fully ripe. I think this is what happened to the Psagot Viognier. I have not had the pleasure of tasting earlier releases of the Psagot Viognier, but I wonder if the vineyard’s geographical location (in a deep wadi/valley), contributes to the lack of sunlight or heat, which could limit the vine’s ripening potential. Also, white wine is not a huge seller in the kosher wine market. The summer months sees an increase in white wine sales, but more in the Sauvignon Blanc and Rose wines, which have a distinctive crispness to them. If you combine these two, it may be the Psagot Winery recently decided to stop making Viognier and Chardonnay varietals. Anyway, the wine is still fun, just not as good as it could have been.
2005 Tzuba Port
We also enjoyed a Port style wine from the Tzuba Winery, which was very yummy. The wine is based on late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that were aged for 14 months in French Oak barrels. The wine shows lovely spiciness and intense red and black fruit flavors that easily handle the sweetest of deserts.
The wine notes follow below:
2006 Psagot Viognier – Score: B – B+
The nose on this yellow to gold straw colored wine explodes out of the bottle with a rich honeyed perfume, that comes along with violet, peach, and strong vegetal aromas. The mouth on this medium bodied wine pops with bright acidity that somewhat overpowers the rich honey, peach, and pear roundness. If you can get past the herbaceous flavors, the mouth is rich and almost glycerol in nature and really cool. The mid palate is bright, fresh, and green, almost tea like. The finish is super long and spicy with more vegetal and honey flavors on a bed of tea leaves. This wine would have received a much higher score, if not for its out of whack styling.
2005 Tzuba Red Dessert wine in Port style – Score: A-
This wine is a real joy! The nose on this black colored wine is packed with sweet ripe figs, cherry, blackberry, alcohol, sweet wood, and pepper. The mouth on this full and luscious black and sweet wine is packed with spicy wood, cherry, roasted herbs, and tightly wound black fruit. The mid palate and long spicy finish is filled with core acidity, complex plum and fig fruits, and a nice dollop of alcohol that fills out the port styled wine. Quite nice indeed.
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