Scores from Mark Squires are in...

[David Raccah]

The scores are in from Marl Squires and the same old same old have won 90+ scores :

http://www.israeli-wine.org/2012/01/05/ ... ne+Blog%29

Can someone with a subscription please post the rest of the scores - I would love to see how Yarden, Dalton, etc. did

Carmel did great and so did Alexander Winery, and Barken, even the new Assemblage, which I loved at Sommelier. The shocker is no Flam!

David

[Andrew Breskin]

Only Yarden was the '07 Gewurz at 87pts

Nothing from Dalton

[Yossie Horwitz]

Given the impact Squires has historically given to QPR in recommending wines, I am a little surprised at the two Alexander wines on the list but nice to see new faces getting the recognition they deserve although would be nice to see Ella Valley, Recanati or even Binyamina get some deserving love.

[David Raccah]

I do not want to turn this into a love vs hate fest, but one must start asking questions - what is the massive discrepancy between Rogov and Squires in regards to the Galilee? Yes Carmel and Barkan are nice addition to squires 90+ list, and Flam of old was from fruit of the Galilee, but no wineries from the Galilee are on the list, is that just a coincidence?

I do believe this segues into the other thread of French wines, the wines listed here are far less fruit forward and in your face like Yarden, Binyamina Cave, and other Barkans. Interestingly, one of the Assemblage made it and that is far less in your face. Seems there is a theme here.

Just my 2 cents,
David

[David Raccah]

Squires says Flam was in the other Israel wine list, so not here. He also stated concerning Yarden: "lately haven't seen high end wines.." - I really do think this does segue way into the other thread.

David

[Gabriel Geller]

I was also surprised not to see any of the GHW's wines. Not even the Rom, nor Carmel's Mediterranean and this is not the first time. Like you say David, there seems to be some kind of a preference on the WA's part for wines that are less fruit forward, say more old-world french style wine. Then I would have been interested to see wines such as the Dalton Alma SMV or Netofa's in the list. But clearly New World style seems not to be their field of interest when it comes to tasting Israeli wine, whatever the reason.

As discussed in another thread, israeli critics like Rogov zl, as well as kosher wine lovers like many of us here may have different experience with wine tasting in general and our perception might be very different and our points of comparison very poor, too poor to be matched with Squires's or Parker's. With that said, let's not forget that Rogov did have a very large tasting experience as he didn't drink kosher only and was participating to Hugh Johnson's and Tom Stevenson's books on a regular basis. So with all due respect to the folks at WA, WE, WS and their peers, we did have here someone that was able to compare a french non-kosher bordeaux with an israeli blend and give a honest opinion. So saying that "lately haven't seen high end wines" from Yarden in the best case reflects only his own taste and the kind of wine he was looking for rather than being truly an objective judgment on GHW's wines quality.

I will not throw out accusations against anyone in particular here, but I personally have very little opinion of the WA ratings as I was told many times a bunch of negative stuff from people working in the Industry for the past 40 years (not wineries, winemakers nor producers so don't look for the frustrated folks who didn't get their 90+) that I know I can trust with my eyes shut for their professionalism, knowledge, objectivity and honesty.

Best and shabbat shalom,

GG

[Andrew Breskin]

He doesn't travel to Israel to taste. He tastes what is available and submitted to him. If you've taken a look at GHW's website recently, you can see that PR isn't one of their top priorities. If they wanted to, they could submit samples to WA. Also, I think Raccah has been doing this; Mark Squires is very good at answering emails so there's no need to speculate as to his intentions.

[Gabriel Geller]

I just wanted to say that their ratings personally do not matter to me very much so I'm not paying attention really. Of course, I wont expect a Yatir or a Castel with a rating of 90+ to be a bad wine, though I'd hardly ever suspect any wine from those wineries to be possibly bad given their background but other than that, trophies and WA ratings are not my cup of tea, or my glass of wine in this case. However, I find usually WE ratings to be closer to my approach and would rather rely on them although my own palate is of course the only judge I can trust quietly with the addition of those of 2 eminent forumites (they'll probably recognize themselves)...