Posted at 18:00h in Wineries by David Rhodes 0 Comments
Give any competent winemaker great vineyards, a well-equipped winery and the backing of well-heeled owner and it’s interesting to see what they can come up with. Israeli born Na’ama Sorkin had minimal practical experience when she was first interviewed by the Dalton Winery’s owner Alex Haruni yet, she did have a good education, enthusiasm and a good pedigree. Maybe, most importantly, she had what some say a winemaker needs to succeed most, humility.
Na’ama attended Adelaide University in Australia, the same wine program that gave Israel the Yatir Winery’s celebrated winemaker Eran Goldwasser and is now training sommelier turned aspiring winemaker Yael Sandler. Na’ama was also invested in helping the Haruni’s mission to use the winery to attract tourists and new residents to the sparsely populated Galilee. Having a father who had spent years overseeing vineyards made her no stranger to the industry and her father’s experience and connections would prove to be advantageous as the winery made strides to improve the quality and quantity of grapes available to them and find new vineyards for new grape varietals.
A recent tasting of Dalton’s new Alma series is a case in point of how the winery is developing under Na’ama’s stewardship and Alex’s patronage. The Alma series started three years ago with the release of the 2006 Dalton Alma Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cabernet Franc blend. The 2007 release of this classic Bordeaux style red is still showing potential for an additional five years of aging but its combination of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc is ready to drink now for those too impatient to wait. As the Cabernet takes the lead expect black fruit to dominate like cassis and blackberries but the Merlot does add some rounder plum and chocolate with the Cab Franc adding some balanced acidity and floral aromas.
The 2008 and 2009 kept the same grapes but with a different ratio in each blend as is the tradition in Bordeaux where the winemaker uses a blend to find balance with what happened in the vineyard play out in the barrel, the bottle and eventually the glass. The 2008 blend finds no one grape dominating as its a 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc wine that comes from what many Israeli winemakers have claimed might prove to be the best vintage for Israel of the decade. The 2008 also seems softer with almost double the less tannic Merlot as plums here come through louder than any Cabernet contributing factors, for now. The 2009 Alma “CS-M-CF” returns closer to the 2007 model with 67% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes being supported by 23% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc with 12 months aging in French oak as individual wines before an additional 2 months aging as a blended wine. The 2009 also comes across a little fruitier and alcoholic than earlier releases yet the components come off as more integrated which isn’t unusual with wineries experimenting with new blends. Any hope for a single varietal Cabernet Franc will have to wait as they currently have only enough to enhance this blend and no new Cabernet Franc plantings coming on line anytime soon.
This year the Bordeaux style Alma gets two companion wines wearing the Alma label. First, another red but not any other red. Several winemakers have been touting southern Rhone varietals such as Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre and blends as better suited to Israel’s general climate than Bordeaux varietals like Cabernet or Merlot. Dalton’s 2009 Alma “S-M-V” is a good ally in this argument as the Shiraz- Mourvedre – Viognier blend displays hints of the elegance one might expect from a southern Rhone wine at a more reasonable price. With a blend of 82% Shiraz, 12% Mourvedre and 6% Viognier there’s no question the Shiraz dominates with blueberry, black pepper that gives way to white pepper with the Rhone white varietal Viognier defying what anyone other than a winemaker would expect by actually boosting the intensity of a red wine’s color and providing floral aromatics and a rounder mouthfeel. The S-M-V Alma goes through a similar oak aging process as the “Bordeaux” with 12 months of individual aging before aging two months together as a blend. The most popular southern Rhone red varietal, Grenache, is slated to be harvested by Dalton in 2012 and will likely find its way into this blend or a blend of its own.
Last but not least in the series is the 2009 Alma “white” which is 60% Viognier and 40% Chardonnay. Without sur lees aging or malolactic fermentation, this white gains its substantial mouthfeel from partial oak then bottle aging. White peach, apricot and floral aromas stem from its Viognier to be complemented by pear, golden delicious apples, banana and slight hints of French oak imparted vanilla and caramel since only 60% of the wine is oak aged. With Semillon grapes coming on line in 2012’s harvest, a classic Bordeaux white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon might soon join the Alma series as soon as 2013. Pinot Gris (as Pinot Grigio is called in France) will enter the winery in 2013 and will likely end up as a single varietal white wine possibly released in 2014.
Whatever new wines emerge, it’s evident that the confidence and experience of being on the job for several years blended with the humility needed to keep on improving one’s wines is paying off for both Na’ama’s reputation as a winemaker and for an ever increasing throng of fans for Dalton wines.
