When You Count / WeeksEnd wine

[Harry J]

bsd
Depending on what we're counting will appropriately be the accuracy. And if its someone else whom we are taking the time to make feel counted
how much more exalted is the effort.
And the ability to forgive, not just overlook is truly Divine.
Have a good one; h

[Daniel Monsey NY]

wine?! who can think about MORE wine?!

[Gabriel Geller]

Yep Daniel MORE WINE!

Hi Harry, shavua tov!

Friday night:

Teperberg Silver, Sangiovese 2009: Quite a solid value at this price point, Ruby toward garnet, light to medium-bodied with on the nose and palate sour cherries, red currants and some earthy notes and freshly cut herbs felt with the soft tannins on a moderately long finish. Not bad at all.

Shabat Lunch:

- Tishbi Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2008: A nice light gold and medium-bodied wine with on the nose and palate citrus notes and fresh pineapple with a moderately long finish as well. Not bad either.

- Barkan Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2007: Dark garnet, full-bodied with on the nose and palate dark fruit, especially blackberries and near sweet tannins rising on the long finish. OK.

- GHW Yarden Merlot Odem 2006: As amazing as last time I had this one, about 6 months ago. Dark, almost impenetrable garnet with purple reflections, with on the nose jammy black and raspberries, these showing also on the palate with notes of oak and oriental spices on the very long and mouth-filling finish. A clear winner and still my favorite Merlot.

- Tzuba Late Harvest Chardonnay N.V.: Even better than the last and first time I had it at the winery 3 months ago. Pretty deep gold, with on the nose ripe caramelized bananas and apples (my business partner already caught that at the winery back then, I did only this time), the apples were there again on the palate with honey, sweet oak, apricots and pears with a round, delicious, mouth-filling and crazy long finish. One of my top dessert wines and a great QPR as always with Tzuba.

Best,

GG

[Isaac C]

I had a bottle of BR Cohn Cabernet 2008 - I found it to be very different than the previous times - previously it was bursting with flavor the second I opened the bottle and seemed to almost die as the night went on. This time it was very closed and muted. Maybe it is in a dumb phase - I believe Yossie H had mentioned in October that he had a similar experience - has anyone else had it recently? It was a little better shabbos day but not the same wine I enjoyed so much the last 4 times.

[YoelA]

2008 Los Bayos bierzo, which was not as tasty as the previous vintage I had (believe it was the 2006), which had flavors of herbs, and 2000 Freemark Abbey riesling, which is starting to lose its zippiness (if that's a proper descriptor for a wine).

[Craig Winchell]

had a Shabbos guest, Rafael Lapin. He tasted some older bottles from the same lot I had drawn for Raccah's and Benyamin Cantz's tasting. He pronounced the 2010 Cab to be delicious, the 2010 Zin to be not far behind, and he rated in the order of 2010 Cab, 2010 Zin, 2011 Cab and 2010 Syrah (we only drank those 4). Indeed, the 2010 Cab was delicious in my book too.

[Sam M]

Dalton petit syrah 2010. Full body, mouhfull of fruit. I'm sorry I never got to taste the 2009.

Power to the people. Excellent , well balanced, more acidity than I would like. I'm expecting it to get better in a few month.

GM yiron 2010. I like this wine. But it was a mistake to open it after the previous two.

[Pinchas L]

Hi Harry,

Asif Cabernet Franc 2008 - Oryah rounded out the Cabernet Franc with 10% Petit Verdot. Perhaps lighter in body than its dark garnet color implies. It has a green streak running across its core of red fruit. The finish is punctuated with a generous dose of chocolate and tobacco. The wine is well balanced, without too much oak, but comes across as young, not in the sense that it is aggressive and requires time to settle down, but in the sense that perhaps with time, additional layers of complexity will develop and cut through the bright fruit.

Best,
-> Pinchas

[Gabriel Geller]

GM yiron 2010. I like this wine. But it was a mistake to open it after the previous two.

Yiron 2010??? Where did you get that?! The '08 was released to the Israeli market less than 6 months ago!

[Sam M]

GM yiron 2010. I like this wine. But it was a mistake to open it after the previous two.

Yiron 2010??? Where did you get that?! The '08 was released to the Israeli market less than 6 months ago!

Oops! It was yiron 07. Thanks Gabriel.

[Gabriel Geller]

Anytime! I'm just very yeke...

[Daniel Monsey NY]

Anytime! I'm just very yeke...

Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, or other?

[gaston k]

Wined out from Purim. Got a growler of Captain Lawrence Freshchester Pale Ale. Very clean hops went very well with both Shabbat meals.

[Harry J]

hi; don guilermo malbec. nice wine;i find the malbec to be enjoyable-perhaps a cross in experience between cab and merlot. h

[Gabriel Geller]

Anytime! I'm just very yeke...

Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, or other?

Strasbourg, Alsace France...

[Z Spigelman]

Following 2 bottles of 15 year Glenfidich and some basic table wines on Purim, decided that I needed something special on Friday night: Tzora Misty Hills 2007 - delicious, berries and more berries and chocolate.
Shabbat lunch - Galil Mt. Barbera 2008 - I found it a little too acidy but the rest of the family liked it.
Zvi

[Elie Poltorak]

Friday Night: Kiddush on Flam Classico '10--Very well-made wine. A perfectly balanced, quiet blend; very food-friendly, drinking very well despite its youth. Not such great QPR though--at $15-20 this would be a great table wine but when you're getting to $30 you expect something more memorable.

Enjoyed a bottle of Covenant Lavan '09--fabulous chardonnay, even better than the past two vintages. All the complexity we've come to expect from this wine, with a crisper mouth-feel and a long clean finish. One of the very best kosher chardonnays out there (Yarden Katzrin is my other favorite although they're as different as can be).

Shabbos day: Gamla (Israeli Gamla that is--purchased in Israel) Brut--OK but nothing special. The Yarden is much better.

Cabcanes Peraj Haabib 2009--One of the best vintages yet of one of the very best kosher wines--certainly better than anything since the early aughts. This was my first bottle of this vintage at home (I had previously tried it at tastings) and it was just fantastic. Although bursting with the berries we expect from this wine, it is more elegant than past vintages, with more mineral notes on the mid-palate, deeper toasted-oak and toffee flavors, and a long, super-smooth finish. I look forwarded to many more bottles of this fabulous wine.

Sunday I attended the City Winery tasting and had a slew of wonderful wines. However, the real action was at the Shirah and City Winery tables. Everything else I had already tasted at previous events or on my own. I'm of the opinion that, while useful to separate the wheat from the chaff, you can't really experience a wine at a tasting. All you can hope to do is identify the wines worth buying to taste at home--although even that is risky, as some wines are so delicate that they totally fall flat under "tasting conditions" (not enough time to aerate, improper temperature, no time to rest after shipping/handling/vibration. Of course that's all in addition to the difficulty in tasting so many wines at a time for a non-professional--particularly if you subscribe to the belief that spitting out fine wine is simply sinful! Nevertheless, I'll post what got me excited at the tasting.

Shira Winery: Unfortunately, they only shipped over the wines a few days before the tasting so much of the wine was exhibiting severe travel shock. Moreover, some of the wine was recently bottled and still hasn't gotten over the bottle shock.
The new Counterpunch was the worst victim and was completely dumb.
The Power to the People was presenting pretty well but well short of its potential.
The Coalition, on the other hand, was presenting much better and is a very interesting wine made primarily with a varietal I've never seen before (the name slips my mind). Not as full-throated as their syrahs, but a very interesting wine I look forward to getting to know better at my table.
They only had a few bottles of their new single vineyard syrahs (which I ordered a while ago and am awaiting eagerly), so they weren't officially pouring them. By the time they cracked those bottles, it was at the end of the tasting and I could barely distinguish a syrah from a cabernet. Nevertheless, I must say that the McGinley was presenting FAR better than the acclaimed Thompson. In fact, I liked the McGinley even better than the Power to the People blend! Nevertheless, I look forward to retrying the Thompson under better conditions once I get my order (after giving it time to recover from shipping).

City winery:
The '09 Williamette Valley Pinot Noir was fabulous. I've never been a big pinot fan and I've been very disappointed with almost every pinot I've tried (particularly the new eagerly awaited Pacifica), the exceptions being Four Gates, which is ecclectic and terroir-driven as all his wines and the super-spicy Yarden--which tastes more like a syrah than a pinot. Now I know what I've been missing! Apparently, this is what Pinot Noir is supposed to taste like. I really hope other kosher wineries start giving this grape the respect it deserves.
The '08 cabernet (blended from 3 vineyards) was the sole disappointment from this winery. The wine lacked any character.
Both '09 cabernets (Obsidian Vineyard and Betinelli) were both fabulous--although very different . Each represents a unique terroir and is really well-made. I bought several bottles and look forward to experiencing them at home.
I also tried a couple barrel samples in various stages that were awesome--most exciting being the '10 Haystack, which is being bottled in 2 weeks. The sample I tried was a bit overoaked but the winemaker tells me the other 5 barrels are much less oaky and once they're mixed they'll even out. I've come to love the Haystack grape in the wines Herzog produced--once as a single vineyard (my favorite Herzog ever) and once blended with another vineyard in a Gen VIII. The sample I had shows lots of promise so I can't wait to try the final product one its blended, bottled, and settles down.

[Gabriel W]

Sunday I attended the City Winery tasting and had a slew of wonderful wines. However, the real action was at the Shirah and City Winery tables. Everything else I had already tasted at previous events or on my own. I'm of the opinion that, while useful to separate the wheat from the chaff, you can't really experience a wine at a tasting. All you can hope to do is identify the wines worth buying to taste at home--although even that is risky, as some wines are so delicate that they totally fall flat under "tasting conditions" (not enough time to aerate, improper temperature, no time to rest after shipping/handling/vibration. Of course that's all in addition to the difficulty in tasting so many wines at a time for a non-professional--particularly if you subscribe to the belief that spitting out fine wine is simply sinful! Nevertheless, I'll post what got me excited at the tasting.

Shira Winery: Unfortunately, they only shipped over the wines a few days before the tasting so much of the wine was exhibiting severe travel shock. Moreover, some of the wine was recently bottled and still hasn't gotten over the bottle shock.
The new Counterpunch was the worst victim and was completely dumb.
The Power to the People was presenting pretty well but well short of its potential.
The Coalition, on the other hand, was presenting much better and is a very interesting wine made primarily with a varietal I've never seen before (the name slips my mind). Not as full-throated as their syrahs, but a very interesting wine I look forward to getting to know better at my table.
They only had a few bottles of their new single vineyard syrahs (which I ordered a while ago and am awaiting eagerly), so they weren't officially pouring them. By the time they cracked those bottles, it was at the end of the tasting and I could barely distinguish a syrah from a cabernet. Nevertheless, I must say that the McGinley was presenting FAR better than the acclaimed Thompson. In fact, I liked the McGinley even better than the Power to the People blend! Nevertheless, I look forward to retrying the Thompson under better conditions once I get my order (after giving it time to recover from shipping).

We actually shipped some aerators to help the wines open up a bit, but my friends who were pouring for us couldn't find them. Bummer.

The primary varietal used in The Coalition blend is Touriga Nacional.

[Gabriel Geller]

The primary varietal used in The Coalition blend is Touriga Nacional.

Gabe, hi

Is this like the new worldwide trend in the kosher wine industry (Netofa Tinto, Yarden 2T and now you guys) or what? May I ask you if you had decided already a while ago to make a Touriga Nacional based wine or was it following a discussion with either Victor Schoenfeld or Pierre Miodownick?

Anyway thumbs up for the achievement with the JW tasting!

[Yossie Horwitz]

For a quiet weekend at home after a few weeks of traveling and tons of tasting I opened my second to last bottle of Château Malmaison Baronne Nadine de Rothschild 2000 which is on a slant down the hill but was still enjoyable enough to bring actual and nostalgic pleasure for what was one of the true French QPR wines for quite some time. My full TN:

Chateau Malmaison, Baronne Nadine de Rothschild, 2000: A wine I have drunk and recommended many times over the years in my newsletter and for good reason. Historically, this wine (along with the Le Crock) was one of the absolute best deals available for French Bordeaux. Sadly now no longer available and in the twilight of its long life, this wine was still very enjoyable. Now presenting as a medium bodied wine, with good acidity, some (but not much) fruit remaining including lots of plums, cassis and cherries on both the nose and palate with leather, smoky oak and tantalizing hints of the spice and herbaceous it used to have, culminating in a drastically shortened but still enjoyable finish. Time to polish off any bottles you have left as this one isn’t getting any younger.

[Yossie Horwitz]

Not sure this thread is the best place for a discussion of the Jewish Week tasting at City Winery but given that Elie posted his notes here, I figured I'd add my 2 cents.

Especially when compared to some of the other recent tastings, both in the US (KFWE & Gotham) and Israel (Sommelier and IsraWinExpo), there was a relatively small sampling of wines and almost none that I hadn't tasted previously which left me plenty of time to hang out and talk to old friends. I was really happy to see the Shirah wines there and they were definitely one of the more popular tables being well serviced by the two folks they had pouring the wine who were friendly and knowledgeable and the wines (an unfortunate relative rarity in the world of large-scale wine tastings). I skipped the Power to the People having tasted it many times before (including on the judging panel for the Jewish Week guide) but tasted through the other four wines. It may have been bottle variation, my aggressive aeration or allowing the wine to open in the glass for nearly half an hour but I didn't find the Coalition (a blend of 45% Touriga Nacional, 30% Syrah and 25% Petit Verdot) or Counter-Punch (50% each of Grenache and Syrah) to be suffering from bottle shock (that said and as I usually do, I am refraining from posting a full TN until I re-taste the wines in my [relative] quiet of my home after allowing them to settle (all four have been purchased and should arrive within a few weeks)) although I agree that both SV wines did exhibit some. While both SV wines were good, I actually preferred the Thompson wine, finding it slightly better balanced, with more focused fruit and complexity.

I also enjoyed the City Winery wines, the two 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (one from Bettinelli and the other from Obsidian Ridge) as well as the barrel samples of Cabernet Franc 2010 (which is rocking), a few Haystack Peak Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 barrel samples and a 2011 Cabernet from Fore vineyards which was at the tail end of its fermentation. After tasting the other various "new" Pinot Noir offerings from AlexEli and Pacifica, I agree with Eli that the 2009 Spring Street from City Winery is the best of that bunch.

Additionally, I was happy to see that Red Garden was pouring the Livni Pinot Noir which, while not a varietally true Piniot is a delightfully different and delicious wine (they also had the 2009 Sde Calev Cabernet Sauvignon). Also on hand were a few Tanya wines and some new wines from Beit El and a new line (Charisma) from Arza. They were also pouring the Tura wines which have not improved over the years nearly as much as most other smaller Israeli wineries.

Yarden had a pitiful lineup with the only noteworthy wine being the SV 2006 Merlot from Kela which was showing pretty badly - not sure what's up with them and the decision to showcase such an awful selection (for some reason they also didn't provide many wines for the actual judging). Royal had about 35 wines (as opposed to the over 100 they poured at Gotham's event) and seemed to have focused on the wines that were mentioned in the annual wine guide and Allied had a pretty limited selection as well.

All in all I thought the event was well attended and people seemed to be having a good time even though the selection of wines wasn't great.

[David Raccah]

Interesting that the wine lineup was so poor. The lineup at Gotham seemed better, though it lacked the Shirah wines. Also, Bravdo wines were the clear winner at Gotham, I guess they were not at City. The Red Garden guys are bringing in fine wines, but the prices will be a serious impediment to their success. No matter what score I give the wines, or if they receive a Yossie recommendation, they will be slow to move if the wines are too expensive. That said, the Tanya and Livni Pinot were very nice. The Beit El for the first time was drinkable.

[David Raccah]

On a separate aside, I have NO IDEA what is going on with Yarden. They have clear and present competition from around the world and with Royal and many other, including Red Garden, Allied, and Happy Hearts importing GOOD Israeli wines, why were they no-shows at the two main wine events in NY???

I am sending out feelers..
David

[Yossie Horwitz]

I agree on the pricing issue with respect to the Red Garden stuff and they seem to agree as well. They indicated that is one of the reasons they parted ways with Gvaot whose wines end up retailing for ~$60 and why Bustan didn't go so well here. I have to check my notes, but I am almost certain that Livni is selling in the low $30 range which, while not cheap, is relatively reasonable. Tanya prices also seemed reasonable (at least compared to thier last iteration on our shores).