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.

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.

Vitkin – Carignon 2006

The first thing I noticed while buying this wine is that it is pure Carignon, that is 100% Carignon.
You don’t see to many products that contain only one grape. Most wines will bland at least 2 grapes, so this is a refreshing attitude.

The nose is very clear on this one – blackberries. We noticed this immediately and everybody agreed that this is the dominating sent. As for the pallet, it was a bit more complex. Blackberries were noticeable, alongside plum and some sweet flavors as well. It end with a pinch probably since it is still young.
I believe that in a couple of years from now this wine will be truly magnificent.

The Vitkin Winery – I must say that every wine I tasted from them was excellent. they are one of my top favorite Israeli wineries. I believe that well see great things from them in years to come.

The 8th Beer Festival

Even though the passion for wine had grow vastly over the last decade, the Israeli crowed is still more familiar and friendly with the close relative called beer. This week for 3 days in kibbutz Maabrot the 8th beer festival took place. Some 60 beers from both local and foreign breweries were available.

The thing i like the most in the beer festivals are the atmosphere, which unlike wine event, is always more young and cheerful. With a band playing light jezz in the background of a sunny afternoon, the atmosphere was just perfect for trying some new beer.

One interesting thing I heard from one of the brewery owners was that what he liked about beer making is the unlike wine beer is Non-Controle, which means you can do pretty much anything you want. This is nice for us consumers, to know that this brewery will experiment and try and give us some interesting beers.

These are my notes:

Haifa – Amber Ale

Somewhere between Amber and Red in color, this light and very well balanced beer was an excellent starter.

Fun to drink, and should defiantly be a beer to start your evening with.

Salara Bitter

Now this one was a whole different story. As the name

suggested this beer was dominated by bitter flavors.

I can’t help but think the this beer was very much like a traditional Mexican sauce called Mole Poblano.

Golda – Wheat

This was defiantly my favorite for this festival.

An excellent choice for a hot summery day with a touch of sweet sparkle in your mouth following by fruitish flavor that lingers nicely.

I expect great things from this brewery.

Asif – Brunet

Since I had this one with a frankfurter, I can’t relay remember its flavors, I do however feel its was an excellent companion for the H-dog.

It’s a shame that this brewery was missing all of its other beers, since I heard this have some excellent beers.

LiBira – Porter

This porter was dark brown with a saddle bitterness to it.It was full bodied with some caramel

flavors. A classic porter missing just` a bit of spiciness to make it perfect.