Horizontal Tasting of Israeli Wines – 2001 Vintage

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in a horizontal wine tasting of Israeli wines from the 2001 vintage. This event took place at a lovely restaurant called “El Barrio“, This restaurant is located at the heart of Tel-Aviv right in the middle of the Na’halat Binyamin pedestrian mall.

Before I’ll go about the tasting event itself, I would like thank several people who helped putting this lovely evening together. First of all to Avi Halevi how master planned this lovely event, great work in gathering some great people and some excellent wine. Other thanks goes to Alon Gonnen, our host, the owner & chef of the El Barrio restaurant, which is a precious little spot I am sure to visit again. And last but not least to Daniel Rogov world renown wine critique. It was a pleasure tasting wine with you.

The Food – I am no food critique so I’m not going to pretend to be able to describe the food in a critique like manner. I can only say that it was wonderful, and that it gave me great pleasure. Hopefully these pictures will give you a seance of what I’m talking about.

The Wines – We had 9 wines in our tasting all from Israel all from 2001, here is the list in the same order we tasted them:

• Dalton – Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
• Benhaim – Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve
• Segal – Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon
• Yarden – Merlot
• Yarden – Merlot Odem Vineyard
• Yarden – Cabernet Sauvignon
• Yarden – Cabernet Sauvignon Elrom Vineyard
• Castel – Grand Vin
• Zauberman – Limited Edition

And now for my notes – I believe that the wine could roughly be divided to 3 groups, the first 3, those that came after and the last group is composed of a single bottle, the Zauberman.

The First Group

These wines are all over their pick and for all of the 3 the fruit is almost gone, they show somewhat the same aromas & flavors, and they lack the charm they once possessed.

Dalton (Reserve  C.S) – Royal red in color. The nose shows some cherry or even cherry liquor and a touch of chocolate, the pallet reviles flavors that are almost the same as the nose with edition of some wood. The fruit is very short and mild.

Benhaim (Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve) – This wine was very similar to the first one, almost no fruit niter on the nose nor on the pallet, definitely over its pick.

Segal (Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon) – This wine was the first in the bunch to show some character. The color was deep Bordeaux red with a significant amount of sediments as suitable for am unfiltered wine. The nose was of red fruit, generous tannins and combining with cherry. This one was also over the pick as well, however, unlike the first two wines this one had some fruit left in it – anyway don’t keep it any longer.

The Second Group

In this group we tasted the Yarden Merlot against the Yarden Merlot from Ortal Vineyard. Then we had the Yarden C.S vs. the Yarden C.S from Elrom Vineyard. the last one was Castel’s G.V.

Yarden (Merlot) – This was the first wine that was still alive. Ruby red in color. The nose dominated by red fruit. On the pallet firm tannins, raspberry and some cherry. Overall very nice and gave a nice competition to his sibling. ready for drinking.

Yarden (Merlot Odem Vineyard) – This wine was even more interesting, with cherry nose complimented by a bit of licorice. The wine showed medium to full body, and on the pallet velvet like feel, deep red fruit. Ready for drinking and might be good for a couple more years.

Yarden (Cabernet Sauvignon) – Royal Red in color. Generous cherry chocolate nose and full body. Full of ripe red fruit flavors, noticeable tannins and spice, with a long compelling finish. This one will be good for a little while longer.

Yarden (Cabernet Sauvignon Elrom Vineyard) – This one was a bit rounder then his sibling, with gentle tannins and a more velvet vanilla flavors. In my opinion don’t wait too long with this one.

Castel (Grand Vin) – The most noticeable thing about this wine, was its full body. This wine shows nice aging with ripe fruit acompanied by spicy choclate. This wine showed a long finish as well. Again don’t wait too long with this one.

The Third Group

This group contains only one wine – the Zauberman. Unlike any other wine we tasted in this event, this wine was on a place of its own. Diferent in both Aromas & Flavers and therefore could not be associated with the others.

Zauberman (Limited Edition) – Dark & Deep red with a nose almost spicy, strawberry and raspberry were also noticeable. On the pallet this was a fruit bomb (Some, those who did not appreciate the style, refferd to it as syrup). Chocolate, pepper, cranberries, raspberries and coffee were among the flavors that appeared in this wine. Some of the guys, more educated then me, referred to this wine as “Amarone” like. This one can enjoyed now or be put to sleep a few more years.

Conclusions

• Set aside the Zauberman, don’t wait with any of the wines, and enjoy them while you can.
• For me the star of this tasting was the Yarden C.S (Not the S.V rather the regular one), it is very nice to see an Israeli wine that holds nicely.

NG Saluting to Local Breweries

NG, to which my affection is very high, has dedicated the last month to promote the local beer industry, by promoting beers from local boutique breweries, and hosting brewers once a week. This is a nice action taken by my favorite Israeli meat restaurant, which not only gave stage to some local product, but exposed it’s customers to excellent bear that is not available everywhere.

Taking part in this fiesta where brewers from the local breweries how came to give “a show” on NG’s balcony. Each Friday a brewer would come and demonstrate out on the balcony brewing of one his brewery’s beers, explaining the whole process and ingredients involving in wine brewing.

Set a side the nice educational show, NG, gave us the opportunity of enjoying a selection of their cuts made in a “Drunk” manner, that is, they made the cuts marinated in bear. Alongside the beer you could order a variety of beers from the local boutique breweries. Different styles and flavors showing a wide arch of the beer world was available for the tasting.

I know that some people believe that meat should be accompanied by wine, however, on a hot summer afternoon, there is nothing like a good cold beer to accompany your 1.2KG porter house stake.

Here is the list of beers that was available:

• Dancing Camel – India Pale Ale
• Libira – Porter
• Golda – Jerk Dark Ale
• Salara – Bitter
• Isis – FreeStyle
• Shap-Beer – Lettet-B (Lettet means – Malt)
• Malka – Bright Malka
• Golan – Galil Wheat

Credit should also be given to Beer Master. These guy do an amazing job in promoting the local beer industry – Kudos.

No for the beers Iv’e tasted:

Dancing Camel – India Pale Ale –

The color is just like a beautiful deep golden sunset.

Full bodied and rich in flavors, distinct maltish flavor with a touch of sweet honey. The finish give a very very saddle bitter aftertaste.

Overall excellent beer that would fit a good juicy stake.

Golda – Jerk Dark Ale –

Brown dark Jamaican flavored beer. With the Jerk spice this beer gives a  balanced bitter flavor with some dark pepper spice.

Medium in body and very nice with non spiced meat.

Benedikt (24/7)

I’ve heard a lot of nice things about this restaurant, so I decided to finally try it. One thing I can tell you about Benedikt, and that is – If you crave for a great breakfast, Benedikt is defiantly a place you should visit. Located in mid town Tel Aviv, alongside Rothschild boulevard it has a quite look and feel to it.

One interesting fact about this restaurant is that they serve breakfast 24/7, which means that you can get the most impotent meal of the day whenever you feel like it.

The menu is stacked with excellent choices and one may find anything from your classic Eggs Benedikt through Chili Con Carne to English breakfast.

I decided to try the Eggs Benedikt on top of grilled asparagus and slices of steak. They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words, so here is my 1000 words on this dish.

Juno wine & food (Wine Bar)

In Milano Square (Tel Aviv) you’ll find a very small wine bar. The tables are located on the street and there are no more then 10 small tables, each of which fits 2-3 people.
The bar itself is a very small room with a single wall populated with selves stacked with wine, both Israeli & foreign.

We came across this wine bar by surprise. However, drinking some wine is something I never say no to. It was a hot summery day, and we took the owners proposal to choose a cup of white wine.

The owner recommended a German winery called Dr. Lucian, which is known for it’s cool refreshing and fool of aroma wines. We took 2 cups, a Riesling and a gewirtztraminer.
Both wines were excellent on the nose very fruity and on the pallet the Gewirtz was a bit shay for its type, the Riesling on the other hand was somewhat sweeter then I expected, in a good way I must say.
Eventually we took a bottle of Riesling home as I am sure I will meet this wine a lot in the hot summer to come. Overall this wine bar was very nice and I hope to visit it again during evening hours to see how the atmosphere changes.