Israeli wines offline in London
La Trouvaille, London
Tasted Tuesday, May 10, 2005 by Rani with 1,510 views
Introduction
A few of us gathered on a chilly spring evening at French bistro La Trouvaille (decent food and truly excellent service as usual) to sample 14 Israeli wines (4 whites, 10 reds) that I have accumulated over the past year or so, mostly bringing them over in threesomes from Israel. I was very curious to taste these wines side by side, and get a lay of the land in terms of the quality, different styles of winemaking and terroir. I was equally curious to subject these wines to the highly honed (and unbiased) palates of my fellow UK wine afficionados, who were, by and large, completely inexperienced with Israeli wines.
Some of the wines, namely the Katzrin Chardonnay, Eliad, Margalit, Recanati, Tsora Ilan and 2000 Castel Grand Vin, were double decanted a couple of hours prior (i.e. decanted and poured straight back into the bottle). In hind-sight, this may not have been necessary as most of the wine were not hugely tannic or closed, but who's to say...?
All participants had tasting sheets with some technical details about each wine, and a map of Israel's main wine gorwing regions. I started the evening with a short explanation about climate and terroir, and about the brief recent history of wine making in Israel, with the explosion in small and medium-sized wineries and the injection of knowledge acquired from winemaking regions across the globe, ranging from California throguh Australia and Italy to Bordeaux.
Now on to the wines...:
Flight 1 - The whites (all Chardonnay) (4 Notes)
Flight 2 - Two 100% Cabs (2 Notes)
Closing
Overall, quite a show of strength for Israeli wines. The development over the past decade is truly astounding, and the number of new wines and wineries (only a handful of which were represented here tonight) is mind boggling. There were no corked bottles, and only one wine (Tsora Ilan) showed poorly - I'd be curious to taste a different bottle again since this was clearly not the same wine so highly rated by Daniel Rogov and others.
With that exception, I think the order I chose for the wines (with some feedback from Rogov and fellow Israeli wine lovers) was the right one, as there were perceivable steps up in quality as the evening progressed.
At the end of the evening I asked everyone to vote on their top white and their 3 top reds. The winner among the whites was the 2000 Castel "C", and among the reds 2000 Castel Grand Vin (WOTN), with Amphorae in 2nd place, and 1998 Castel Grand Vin in 3rd place. Recanati, Flam and Margalit all deserve honourary mentions as well as the Clos de Gat Chardonnay.
A general comment: With the exception of Castel, many of the reds were ripe, a little too alcoholic and perceived as more mature than they should be, compared to some European benchmarks (French, Italian wines). British and European palates (and I count myself among that group) expect a little more restraint in wines, and while I realise that many producers would like their wines to be approachable when young, most of the wines sampled here were the top cuvees from their respective wineries and I would expect them to age a little better. Perhaps they should take a page out of Castel's book, because whatever it is they're doing, it's working... (I'm guessing this has to do with picking earlier and judicous maceration - in the Israeli climate, achieving phenolic ripeness shouldn't be a major challenge, but not overdoing it would be).
A very enjoyable evening, and one I would like to repeat with some variations in the near future.
2003 Clos de Gat Chardonnay 90 Points
Israel, Judean Hills
100% Chardonnay, oak fermented and aged in 50% new French oak. Lovely nose of trpical fruit, with a hint of oak. This has a nice freshness, with notes of white flowers, good acidity, a chalky mineral backbone but just a tad too much alcohol. Otherwise well balanced and very enjoyable.
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2002 Golan Heights Winery Chardonnay Yarden Katzrin 87 Points
Israel, Galilee, Golan Heights
100% Chardonnay grown at 1200m altitude in the northern parts of the Golan Heights, oak fermented and aged in new oak (I'm guessing American, at least in part) for 10 months. Loads of vanilla, butterscotch and melted butter on the nose. Good fruit, quite ripe with a slightly sweet finish. Very much in the oaked California style, this is not my cup of tea. Well-made no doubt, but too much oak treatment for my palate and not enough acidity.
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2001 Domaine du Castel 'C' Blanc du Castel Judean Hills 89 Points
Israel, Judean Hills
100% Chardonnay, fermented and aged in 2/3 new French oak. This had a fruity nose of apricots, white flowers and hints of melted butter. Quite a well balanced and fruity mid-palate with nice acidity. Very enjoyable but not as interesting as the 2000.
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2000 Domaine du Castel 'C' Blanc du Castel Judean Hills 91 Points
Israel, Judean Hills
100% Chardonnay, fermented and aged in 2/3 new French oak. Quite a reductive nose (slight stink at first that blew off) - burnt matches, hung meat and white flowers. On the palate this is quite structured and complex, with savoury notes mixed in with summer fruit in the background. Good length and acidity, well-integrated oak. I liked this - quite an intellectual wine and a notch above the 2001 in my book.
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