Posted at 19:25h in Reviews, Wine industry by 0 Comments
It’s been an open secret that Wine Advocate (Robert Parker’s wine publication – a fellow Terp! but more importantly, the most famous wine critic) and Parker recently tasted Israel’s 100 best wines, as determined by a small group of critics/professionals.
Well, there is a sneak preview on the Parker wine forum. First off, apparently the article will NOT be by Parker (this is a surprise!) but rather Mark Squires. More importantly, Squires and Parker write that they absolutely loved several Israeli wines (including the Castel – Israel’s best IMHO – which started the thread). Several commentators also point out that Margalit – from acclaimed wine scientist Yair Margalit – is another excellent (and not certified kosher!) Israeli wine.
BTW, this is what Mark has to say about kosher vs. non-kosher:
Bill, a hint: Most of the highest rated wines were Kosher. To fully answer the question whether it matters if they have a Kosher certification, I suppose ultimately, one would need A and B samples. BUT I can say Kosher certification seemed to be no impediment at all to making excellent wine.
It’ll be in the next issue of Wine Advocate – let me know if you see it and I will have a big post when I can get my hands on it!
Of course, this is about promoting Israeli wine beyond people who have already heard of it, however, New York Times wine writer Howard Goldberg jumps into the fray, pointing out that he’s been reporting about Israeli wines since the beginning. Perhaps everyone needs to read him more to learn the still existing but completely false misconceptions about Israeli and kosher wines (which, even I fell pray to not too long ago).
Question: What impact will this Wine Advocate articles have on Israeli wines or their receptions abroad (especially since many of the wines – especially the non-kosher ones – aren’t available in the US and the kosher ones are hidden in kosher shops and kosher sections, ignored by everyone who doesn’t care specifically about kashrut)???
