2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2018 Allegory CabSav Howell Mountain - half bottle decanted (big mistake). Initially I would have confused this with overripe Israeli CS. The decanted portion was both cloyingly ripe and hollow in the middle. The non-decanted portion tasted ripe but very well structured. 36 hours later it is more of what I would expect from Howell Mtn.
Ripe blackcurrants/crème de cassis, blackberries and black plums, hints of greenness (hope this will evolve to mint). Good acidity and tannins to keep it developing. Must shed its baby fat. Retry in 3 years. Should keep through 2033+.

2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2012 Giscours - given a tough vintage, this is quite decent. Dried blackberries, cherries, dried herbs, earth, tobacco, leather, hint of something floral. Tannins with edge , but well integrates. Acidity is nice. 24h later quite thin all around. Drink now.

2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2001 Guiraud - Luscious, richly verdant desert beauty… pretty much as good as it gets in kosher Sauternes. Will keep improving for at least a decade, probably more.

2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2108 Clos des Lunes - we typically associate Sauternes with luscious, richly verdant desert beauty, but Sauternes in some vintages are either mediocre or nearly nonexistent. 2018 was the latter. Enter dry Sauternes, of which quite a bit is being made by Sauternes houses, and also by the likes of Domaine de Chevalier producing Clos des Lunes. This dry wine certainly benefited from all the challenges that plagued their sweet counterparts in 2018. Juicy Meyer lemon with hints of green apple, pineapple and pear. Lush on open that gives way to more elegant nose with hints of flower, almonds and quite a bit minerality. Well balanced acidity and fruit making this wine enjoyable with or without food. Joyful wine! Drink now and over the next 5 years.

2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2021 Le Nardian - pale gold and fleshy, with a ton of orange rind followed by green apples, honeysuckle and a bit of vanilla. With air becomes more complex with oxidative notes of walnuts and almonds skins. Acidity is very well balanced with fruit. Drink now through 2030.

2/4/2024 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2012 Mia Luce - to be honest, I, personally, have challenges with Carignan. Especially Israeli Carignan, almost always, comes across too ripe and sweet for me with not enough spice and herbaceous to balance dried fruit flavors. This 2012 Mia Luce has shed most of its ripeness. It is a really well made wine. With phenomenal levels of acidity and quite a bit tertiary flavors of cigar, earthiness, smokiness and spice. 36 hours later it sheds even more of the ripeness and drinks quite well. Pairs really well with lamb leg and dried salami. In window, but should further develop for at least 5 years.

10/3/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Muted on the open. Hints of yellow apple (could be confused with oxidative) and green tomato (no clue why) on the nose, but clearly CB on the palate. Obvious tannins and medium acid. Next day - classic CB on the palate and nose - apples, pears, quince, wildflowers honey, maybe even sweet oregano (the tomato leaf from yesterday?). Well structured. Pairs well with food. Very orange beware, otherwise pretty enjoyable.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Nice starter! Apples, blossoms, yeast, cheese, brioche, some minerality. Receding intensity but begs to go back for it.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Nice! Medium garnet. Nose - medium intensity with florals, black cherry, red plum, spices, pepper, oak, earth, cocoa beans. Medium+ acidity, medium+ tannins, medium alcohol (high by the label but very well integrated), full body. Palate - riper than the nose, with cloves, licorice, oregano, chocolate, tobacco. Drinks beautifully now, but I felt it has few more years, maybe up to 5, to develop more tertiary flavors.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Deep ruby. Medium+ intensity. Ripe black cherries, ripe black and red plums, sweet herbs, some spice, soil, vanilla, cedar, chocolate, toffee. Medium acidity, medium tannins, high alcohol, full body. Palate - ripe and a bit jammy and the fruit still overwhelms secondary and tertiary flavors. IMHO it needs 5 more years. Will taste midpoint.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2008 was an excellent vintage in Italy and it somewhat evident in the balance of this wine. Still youthful. Ripe cherry, red currant, raspberry, sage, intense leather, cedar, pot, soil, spices, dark chocolate. Medium acidity, ripe medium tannins, medium alcohol and medium+ body. Palate is balanced with more elegant/less ripe profile - black cherry, redcurrant, boysenberries, bayleaf, leather, soil, chocolate. Will hold off for few years before opening the next bottle.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Perpendicular to 2008. While age is obvious, it is quite tomato leaf green (which is ok, but would have been so much nicer if it had evolved into mint). Less ripe Merlot profile comparing to 2008. Significantly more evident tertiary flavors of toffee, chocolate, and baking spices. Great pairing for chocolate mousse.

7/17/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Even though only 1 year younger than 2006 (sorry for stating the obvious), it matured quite differently. Fully mature with complete tertiary fruit transition with dried blackberries and red currants, tar, dark coffee, dried tobacco, farmyard, earth, mushroom, walnut skins. Medium- acidity (clearly receding from prior few bottles. Medium silky tannins. Nice!!! Expect only downhill from here.

7/10/2023 - Eli’s Vino wrote:

Tired and downhill. Drink up!

7/5/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2003 Château L'Hermitage, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Magnum
July 4, 2023 - Deep garnet with bricking rim, medium+ nose intensity with bright primary fruit - redcurrants, cherry, raspberry, bramble, and hints of kirsch and mint; clove, cedar and hints of chocolate; leather, earth, tobacco and hints of mushroom. On the palate – dry, medium acidity, medium+ sandy tannins, medium alcohol, medium body, medium+ flavor intensity with primary flavors reminiscent of the nose, albeit more on the baked, jammy side. Similar, secondary with more charred wood/ash, earth, and chocolate noir, and a bit of resin; dried/cooked fruit blackberry, tar, dried cigar.
24 hours later – overall much more jamminess and cooked/baked fruit flavors. Less pronounced tertiary flavor. Tired.
Toward the end of the window (for magnum). Tertiary is fully developed. Well balanced. Body is a bit puzzling, varying form bit watery to quite structured. Nice medium finish. Tannins are puzzling feeling underripe (which is impossible in that vintage).
Loved this wine, but body inconsistencies and tannins kept it away from the majors league.

6/11/2023 - Eli’s Vino Does not like this wine:

Too hot to my taste.

6/5/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Phenomenal! This is a third time I’m tasting this wine and it evolved tremendously. Crazy complex with nose of roses, violets and acacia, bunch of red and black fruit - both sour and black cherries, cranberry, red and black currant, red plum, blueberry, blackberry, bramble, olives, eucalyptus, mint, hints of clove and cinnamon, carob, sweet tobacco, cedar, smoked herbs, soy. On the palate above+more fruit, tarragon, thyme, cocoa, soil. Still very primary and secondary, tertiary just at the beginning. High acidity, medium alcohol (but so well integrated, that is almost imperceptible), medium/+ body, medium+ finish. In drinking window and should last for 10-15 years. Wow! (No decanting and starting at cellar temp).

6/5/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Pretty nice Gewurztraminer. Intense peach, pears, Mayer lemon, some tropical fruit - guava, passion fruit, red grapefruit. Fruit so intense it feels sweet, and there is a bit of residual sugar, but it’s dry. Medium+ acidity medium alcohol and nice balance at low temperature. Cuts throw spicy food like knife through butter. Gets unbarebly intense (for me) and unbalanced at above 55F.

5/30/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

This changed quite a bit over the past couple years. Was much more red. Now mostly black plums, black cherries, blackberries, grilled herbs, black pepper, cocoa. Very fruit forward (a bit too much for me, but certainly a crowd pleaser). Pretty well balanced. Has few more years in it, with further brooding.

5/29/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Had this wine in two stages:
1. Straight out of the bottle at cellar temperature - nose of sour cherry, pomegranate, cornelian cherry, blueberry, hints of mint, wet forest flour, rosemary, lemongrass, cedar. Similar palette, with lacious silky tannins and high acidity. More sour cherry than anything else.
2. Quick decant and overtime going to 65F or so - all the sour berry flavors transitioned to darker version of the same - black cherry, riper blueberry, hints of cassis, less grassy. On the palette tannins get more robust and acidity less noticeable. Fuller body. Overall very good (but I preferred the first stage).

Very nice and well balanced wine!

5/21/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Beautiful wine. Blackcurrant, red cherry, sour cherry, eucalyptus, rosemary, hints of violets (or maybe some other flower, that in my head resembles violets). Earthy. Fresh. Light. Drinks beautifully now. Works as well with chicken as it does with chocolate.

5/16/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Wow! Cabernet Sauvignon Rose… pink flamingo color. Strawberry rhubarb compote with layers of citrus fruit with Mayer lemon, blood orange and grapefruit on the nose with above plus lemon peel, hints of grapefruit pith and grass on the palate. Acidity is high, but fruit profile is so pronounced that it doesn’t feel like it. The finish is medium (perhaps the only drawback to this wine), but I can’t get the flavors out of my head for the past hour. Quintessential summer drinker. Perhaps one of the best roses I ever had. I’m wondering if they intended to emulate Rose de Loire.

5/14/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

It’s a nice bubbly. Methode champenoise. Nice, fine, well integrated bubbles. Very pronounced sur lie flavors - brioche, toast, butter, with well integrated oak flavors. Quite austere, with only hints of primary, mostly yellow, fruit flavors. Clearly could benefit from multi-vintage blending to add complexity on the fruit side. Overall - very nice and better than some of the other kosher Blanc de Blancs out there. For people that appreciate secondary flavors. (Not for people that like/ prefer primary flavors).

5/14/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Loved this PN. Not knowing that it was wine, I would have though I’m drinking freshly squeezed whole fruit pomegranate juice. Red fruit on the noise and palette. Pomegranate, sour cherries, cornelian cherry, wild strawberries. Hints of eucalyptus. Med+ acidity and med tannins. Tannins was one of the things that so much resembled Pom pith. Alcohol is so beautifully integrated that it barely perceptible. To me much more of a cold climate PN. Not Israeli PN profile. Has at least 5 years to go.

5/14/2023 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Unfortunately my last bottle of 2012 Brilliance. Finally “past it’s peak”. I didn’t care for it when it was at its peak - too bombastic plum profile for me. Now, the black plum receded (it’s certainly still there, but) with friar and Moyer plums taking over. With nice blackberry and shadberry and hints of mint. Much more tart and balanced to my taste. Plenty of secondary and tertiary flavors with cedar, vanilla, leather, tobacco, smoke (as in smoking pipe). The tannins are sandy and now fully integrated. Acidity is still mid+.

2/7/2022 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Malbec with a touch of CS. Dark purple with aging edge. Super bright for Malbec, especially Israeli with medium+ acidity good enough for tomato based dish. Nose – earth, tobacco, bilberry, sour cherry, hints of grilled meat. Palate – sour cherry, bilberry, sweet tobacco, carob, blackberry, hints of smoke, vanilla and pyrazines and with (24 hours later) hints of plum and earth. Tannins very low at this point, with very smooth coating. Medium finish. Very! French profile. Left a quarter of a bottle for next day to see if it falls off the cliff. Not only it didn’t loose any flavors it actually gained some. And while it is a bit past its prime it still holds quite well. Will see if it continues to hold over the next couple of years.

1/15/2022 - Eli’s Vino wrote:

5th bottle since March 2021 and it improved significantly from the early bottles. Added complexity on the nose with red apples, white raspberry, grapefruit, lemon, nectarine, and minerality. On the palate red grapefruit, raspberry, cowberry, red gooseberry, saline and stone fruit mineral flavors. Still good acidity. Getting shorter on finish.

11/2/2021 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

2020 Rose of Grenache Vignette by Itay Lahat –orange, grapefruit, bilberry, violets and something tropical (maybe lychee) on the noise; palate is pink grapefruit, whortleberry, rowanberry a bit of fennel on high acidity. Long finish. When it warms up a bit palate becomes more lemony, with more tart berries, loosing whortleberry and gaining boysenberry. Very refreshing! Easily enjoyable without food, and amazing with M&C.

10/24/2021 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Exceptional! Will drink well for several more years. Dark amber color. Salted caramel, apricots jam and golden raisins with spice. Creamy on the palate with apricot jam and honey dew melon, dulce de leche with hints of salt, but also hints of kumquats and perhaps yellow raspberry. Concentrated, long finish.

7/26/2021 - Eli’s Vino Likes this wine:

Tasted over 3 and 4 hours periods. Its clearly very young and closed on opening. Its was most interesting to me somewhere mid-point of the breathing time (approx. 2 hours in). Solid cranberry, plum and hibiscus and a whiff of violet. On the palate cherry, more plum and unripe/tart pomegranate. Good balance of acidity and fruit and a hint of tannins. Toward the 3+ hours mark it transitioned to plum sauce and hibiscus, mostly loosing the cranberry. On the palate more plum, even prune, but with same tart pomegranate which is interesting combination (at this point, if I would be blind tasting I could have confused it with right bank Merlot, notwithstanding slightly opposite acidity/tannins ratio). I preferred the 2 hour mark. What I missed throughout is burgundy terroir – mushrooms, soil, leaves, toast.