Vertical Tasting – Clos de Gat

Translated Post (Hebrew)

Last Thursday, orchestrated by Michael Rab, a vertical tasting of wine by Cols  de Gat was conducted. We were accompanied by Mr. William White – the marketing manager of Masion Sichel which markets the winery’s wines abroad.

First and foremost I would like to thank Michael for organizing a fun and interesting tasting, and for Michael’s daughter for the lovely and very delicious food. Another thanks I owe to Mr. White for giving us the story behind every wine – this made the tasting so much more interesting.

The biggest advantage of taking part in a tasting held by Michael, is the access to his privet collection, in which you’ll find bottles that are not available in regular tasting let alone wine stores.

During this event we tasted 10 wines produced by Clos de Gat, and for desert we had “Mesha” by Tabor winery. This tasting event can be divided to three parts – The Whites, The Specials and the Vertical Tasting, but before I go about the tasting, a few point I came to learn about Clos de Gat:

• Clos de Gat wines are only produced from grapes grown on vineyards owned by the winery.
• Clos de Gat relays on wild yeast alone for producing their wine.
• The winery’s name is a composition of 2 languages, French – Clos (A winery surrounded by a fence) and Hebrew – Gat (A place for stepping on grapes)

The Whites

This part included 3 wines amongst the first white wine ever produced by the winery. The first wine was the youngest of the bunch, a 08 bland called Chanson. Even though this bland is considered very young it is no longer available in stores (Just run out).

Chanson 08 -This bland is composed of Chardonnay, Semillon, Viognier and Chenin Blanc. A light golden with orange shades. The nose is dominated mainly by guava and the pallet is the same as the nose with addition of a buttery finish. A light fun wine – serve it extra cold.

Chardonnay 02 – This is the first white wine ever produced by the winery, the grapes came from Ella Valley vineyards. This is the only white wine ever produced by grapes grown on vineyards that are not owned by the winery. I must say that this is a very impressing white wine considering its age. This wine is deep golden in color as suited to a mature white wine, the nose is very short and saddle, the pallet shows generous acidity and saddle bitter aftertaste and a bit of wood on the finish.

Chardonnay 07 – This one is the youngest Chardonnay produced by the winery, and to my humble opinion is not yet ready, it requires cellaring so it can build up its character. Golden in color with green shades, the nose shows lemon like acidity, on the pallet lemon and even some lychee are noticed.

The Specials

This part of the tasting included 2 of the more appreciated wine of the winery – Harel Syrah  and Sycra Syrah  (Sycra is Aramaic for bright red), both from the 04 vintage. These wine were tasted together for compression.

Harel Syrah  04 – Deep borderline opaque Purple with Bordeaux sidelines, the nose starts with wood and immediately transforms to raspberry and chocolate. On the pallet raspberry and plum with generous acidity and some spices combined with tannin.

Sycra Syrah  04 – This wine is 100% Syrah , its color is brighter then the Harel on tends towards Cherry. On the nose ripe red fruit and on the pallet mainly ripe raspberry some pepper and firm tannin, even to firm tannin. This one is not ready for drinking. I believe that a few more years of cellaring will allow the wine to become harmonic.

The Vertical Tasting

In my eyes this was to most interesting part of the tasting, as having the opportunity to taste 5 consecutive vintages gives you an excellent tool to test the way the winery, vineyards and mainly the winemaker have evolved.

Ayalon Valley 01 – This is the first harvest for this winery and the first wine ever produced by the winery. This was defiantly an excellent opportunity to see, smell and taste how it all began. This bland is composed of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes (Starting the 03 vintage Petit Verdot was added). In this vintage the Cabernet grapes came from Castel’s vineyards, the Merlot was from the Clos de Gat’s vineyards. This wine has a beautiful red color with shades of brown indicating a mature wine. The nose (Thanks to Lior for helping identify the scents) reminded me of Rioja wines mixed with some leather and some tobacco. The pallet reveals raspberry and sweet chocolate, a flavor very common among mature Israeli wines. This wine matures gracefully and without a doubt plays in the big league.

Ayalon Valley 02 – The most surprising wine! this wine non like all the others tasted that evening had something else about it, something which later on matched beautifully to Mr. White’s story about this wine. Mr. White has told us that on a blind tasting held in Europe he asked the crowd whether the believe this wine is right or left bank, the crowd was not conclusive, however no one suspected that this wine was produced outside of France. Indeed this wine shows a nose and pallet of “Old World” wines. Cherry nose with some barrel flavors. On the pallet cherry and mild plum. This wine shows medium to full body.

Ayalon Valley 03 – This is where shift occurs, and this bland takes a turn towards “New World”, where the flavors are more saturated and rough. Bordeaux color and a nose of cherry combined with spicy pepper. On the pallet a full bodied wine id revealed with rich tannin and concentrated red fruit. As a bold flavors lover, I believe that this wine should be consumed now.

Ayalon Valley 04 – To my taste this was the best wine that evening with an excellent ageing potential. Unlike his younger sibling this wine would benefit cellaring that would allow it to build up. Bordeaux with orange sidelines, full bodied with ripe red fruit (mainly plum and cherry) and generous tannin, this wine fills up your mouth with velvet like feel that lingers beautifully.

Ayalon Valley 05 – This wine resembles his younger sibling, and had stured a debate amongst the tasters, some claimed that this wine, with time, will evolve to be just like the 04, others me included believed that the 04 has more character and will evolve to be greater. Ruby color with raspberry cherry nose. On the pallet cherry and generous tannin and even some licorice towards the end.

Once again I would like to thank Michael on the beautiful initiative and to his daughter for the marvelous hospitality. Hope to see you all next time. You can find more about this tasting in Lior’s blog.