2015 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon Special Edition

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 83 points

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  11/27/2020 - forceberry wrote: 83 Points

  13,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Moderately translucent, luminous ruby red color. Open, expressive and somewhat evolved nose with clean, fruit-forward flavors of wizened blackcurrants, some dried dark fruits, a little bit of savory wood spice and a hint of something meaty. No emphasis on oak, the sunny, sweetish fruit here is to the fore. The wine is ripe, sweet-toned and moderately jammy on the palate with a full body and lush flavors of ripe blackcurrants, some raspberry jam, a little bit of sour cherry bitterness, light vanilla tones, a little bit of toasty oak and a hint of wizened dark fruits. The overall feel is silky, quite round and somewhat soft; the gentle structure relies both on the medium-to-moderately high acidity and ripe, mellow tannins. The finish is ripe, quite sweet-toned and medium-long with flavors of strawberry jam, some overripe black cherry, a little bit of blackcurrant, light sweet notes of toasty wood and vanilla, a hint of dried dark fruits and a touch of stony minerality.
  
  Well, this wine was a third wine in a blind flight of three wines, and I guessed that the three previous wines were Cabernet Sauvignon, so I guess this must be a Cab as well. The overall taste profile is somewhat different here, having much more fruit here instead of oak, but the overall feel is also sweeter and softer, showing more ripeness and less structure. My guess was either a modernist Left Bank Bordeaux from a hot vintage or a Cab-driven Bdx blend from California; turned out to be a straight Cab from Israel. A decent effort, but the sweet, almost jammy fruit and its soft structure leave a rather lukewarm impression. I guess the wine is evolving into the correct direction and I hope the remaining oak tones will integrate with the fruit over time, but I doubt any amount of aging will make the wine feel particularly interesting. This wine only strengthens my beliefs that either Israel is too hot a region for growing grapes or they just don't know how to make good wines.

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