TN: 2010 Shvo Rosé (NK)

[Joel D Parker]

Hi Guys,

I thought about posting this on the main forum, since it's not kosher, but then I realized it probably isn't available outside Israel, so no one would be able to follow up on the note.

2010, Shvo Vineyard, Rosé (800meters high, Upper Galilee region, I think)

On the nose lovely fresh strawberries (*without a hint of candy) and a bit of saline. On the palate, wow, gushing with acidity, almost feels like a prickly pear in the mouth, and follows all the way through with more salinity, underpinned by a great depth of ripe red fruits. It's not syrupy like other Israeli rosés, for example, Har Odem, and yet it maintains a top-class strawberry note, and feels full bodied but not too heavy on the tongue. It did not directly remind me of a good Tavel rosé, but it was a fantastic Israeli wine I will return to for about 75NIS, or roughly 20$.

We paired it with a goat's cheese quiche = lovely. Would go well with fine pizza, veggie pasta, and other flavorful dishes, IMO.

Best,

Joel

[David Raccah]

Thanks Joel! Kosher is NOT what this forum wants to be about. We hope we are more about all things Israel and Kosher as well. Either way nice notes and please feel free to drop a note on any wine you taste, kosher or not, Israel or not. Finally, what are the varieties that make up this wine?

Thanks,
David

[Gabriel Geller]

2010, Shvo Vineyard, Rosé (800meters high, Upper Galilee region, I think)
(...)We paired it with a goat's cheese quiche = lovely. Would go well with fine pizza, veggie pasta, and other flavorful dishes, IMO.

Joel

Hi Joel, I second Dave's comments. Now, because of you, at 10 in the morning I'm starving for a nice wood-oven pizza with some good wine...

Best,

GG

[Mike_F]

Shvo Vineyards Rose is 100% Barbera. We had it with a complete line-up of all 4 currently available Shvo wines at a recent tasting at our workplace wine club, and reactions were mixed - I likd it and think that Joel's note describes the wine quite well, but others in the group were not impressed.

Other Shvo wines that we tasted are listed below, prices are list prices from Wine Depot, but the red was on sale for a while at 75 shekels and I regret not buying a lot more of it at that price.

Shvo Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (75 shekels): vibrant, refreshing, a lovely wine, appreciated by all the group.

Shvo Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2009 (94 shekels): second time I tried this wine, second time encountering musty unbalanced notes - previously I had thought I got a bad bottle, but two in a row might indicate a more widespread flaw? Alas, nobody in the group liked it.

Shvo Vineyards Red 2009 (94 shekels): Rhone Valley spiced with Piemonte (blend is 45% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 15% Mouvedre and 20% Barbera) creating a beautiful wine, rich and complex with well integrated tannins. Balanced, elegant and very enjoyable now, no idea if it will improve with time, but not likely I will have the patience to find out.

[Mike_F]

P.S.: For those who don't know, Gabi Sadan - the owner and winemaker at Shvo Vineyards - used to be the head winemaker at Galil Mountains winery. He left there in order to open his own operation, that would allow him the freedom of making his wines himself, without the restrictions inherent in a large commercial kosher winery. The differences between his flagship Galil Mountain Yiron or Meron wines and the Shvo Red are profound, and very interesting, at least to me.

[Joel D Parker]

Shvo Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2009 (94 shekels): second time I tried this wine, second time encountering musty unbalanced notes - previously I had thought I got a bad bottle, but two in a row might indicate a more widespread flaw? Alas, nobody in the group liked it.

Interesting note on that. I did see that the 2010 is now available and it's a bit less, at 79NIS at the WineRoute. I know the first bottling, the 2009, was a relatively small batch, and I understand from Gaby that his winery is very low-tech and he does a lot of really neat experimentation with local yeasts and cultures, so it doesn't surprise me that there would be bottle variation. I wouldn't rule out the 2010 Chenin Blanc though, which may have worked out some of the kinks and I understand is a larger bottling--perhaps meaning that there was a more systematic bottling in place.

Best,

Joel

[ChaimShraga]

With all the hype about Shvo, I was surprised at the Chenin's lackluster performance when I had it a few months ago.

[Mike_F]

Chaim,

I was also surprised, in fact I was disappointed having come with high hopes after developing an addiction to the Chenin Blanc from Sea Horse (James).

What do you think about the other wines from Shvo?

cheers,

Mike

[ChaimShraga]

I liked the red and would buy it again. I'm going to drink the Rose soon and the Sauvignon Blanc is also on my list, just waiting for summer.

[Joel D Parker]

I tasted the 09 Sauvignon Blanc and shared a bottle of the 09 Chenin Blanc with a friend from Australia last night. He tasted the red and wasn't too impressed--thought maybe it should have been straight Shiraz instead of a blend.

The Sauvignon Blanc was okay, but not outstanding for me. I suppose after having the 08 Henri Bourgeoise 'La Damoiselle' the night before, it would have been impossible to please.

I thought the Chenin Blanc was extraordinary. A sort of musty, mushroomy-nutty nose that did not strike me as strictly characteristic of the grape, but still it wasn't off-putting. After a half an hour it really developed its acidic structure and was just lovely. We had a cheese platter at the "Wine Bar" on Nachalat Binyamin Street in Tel Aviv, and the wine really brought out the best flavors in the blue and goat's cheeses. It wasn't such a good pair for the Brie and Manchego.

All in all, it was a tasty wine, and one of the most interesting Israeli whites I've ever had. It was a bit oxidized, but that didn't bother me, as it seemed intentional--or anyway it was due to the long fermentation of natural yeasts. My friend and I had a discussion of the pros and cons of 'free' yeasts in the air versus bought yeasts for winemaking. We didn't reach a conclusion, but I argued that the 'free' yeast method is what makes so many regions in Europe different, even if it may not always be a good solution for every winery.

Best
Joel

[Gabriel Geller]

I liked the red and would buy it again. I'm going to drink the Rose soon and the Sauvignon Blanc is also on my list, just waiting for summer.

Is 30C not hot enough for you to call it "summer" already?

[ChaimShraga]

Well, Israel is mostly summer and there's always AC, so there's no real reason to delimit seasons, but for sentimental reasons, I still await the conclusive formality of summer.

The Rose, is great, really. The freshness of it is very convincing.