Posted at 12:12h in Wineries, Wines by David Rhodes 1 Comment
Wine has evolved over the millennium into an important part of celebrations for billions of people all around the world. Yet, for Jews in and outside of Israel it holds special significance. Every week’s Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch, it’s common to go through a bottle or two of wine with family, friends and guests while observing the Sabbath. Even less religious families frequently have family meals over the weekend that feature the host’s taste in wines or a guest’s gesture of gratitude. Weddings & bar mitzvahs can go through dozens and even hundreds of wine bottles depending on the size of the reception. Wine also plays a special role in holiday meals such as Passover in the spring and Rosh Hashanah in the fall, so wineries often release new wines to coincide with those holidays and they have become traditional gifts for companies to give to their employees as well between friends, family and colleagues.
Two neighboring wineries located on Kibbutz Eyal in Israel’s Sharon region, on September 17th (coincidentally my birthday) hosted tastings celebrating their 2011 harvest as well as the release of earlier vintage wines. The Saslove Winery, featuring father & daughter winemakers Barry & Roni Saslove, is not only renown for their quality boutique wines but for a passion educating inspiring winemakers or just anyone curious about wine. Barry gave a lecture on the 17th discussing the 2011 harvest and I got a chance to ask him about what seems to be a promising vintage. The winery was decorated with bowls of several grape varieties from their Tzivon, Alma, Miles, Safsufa and Kadita vineyards in the Galilee and they were serving juice from some of their prospective wines for tasting. If you’ve never had juice from wine grapes before fermentation, you’re surely missing out. This was the unfiltered must that hadn’t been left on the skins and those who had stopped by were lucky enough to taste their white Viognier (which at this stage looked like a banana smoothie) and a few reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Nebbiolo. The raw grapes were a treat to taste as well and although delicious they’re obviously not suited as table grapes as they are a lot smaller with a much higher ratio of skin to pulp which helps provide the color and tannins needed for wines capable of aging for a decade or more yet aren’t the pulpy payoff one wishes when eating plumper and often seedless grapes.
According to Barry, the winter of 2010-2011 provided his vineyards with 20% more water than the average year, about 1.2 meters compared to the typical 1 meter, and the rain came fairly evenly through out the “offseason” so there was little runoff which happens when the soil doesn’t have a chance to absorb the previous rain before the next rain comes or if it comes all at once. The moderate temperatures also were the “best he can remember” with “the nicest and longest spring” with cool days lasting into the middle of June, pleasant for both the residents of Israel and maturing grapes on his vines. Although the temperatures seemed ideal, there was an overabundance of humidity which contributed to ‘the full range” of pests from mite bearing ants, flying insects and lots of mildew and fungus which can decimate a crop. Typically, Barry and Roni might spray their 14 plots of grapes spread over 5 vineyards 7 times/season and this year they had to spray 15 times to prevent pests from either decimating his crop or being forced to pick early.
Because of the unusually fair weather but abundant pests, Barry thinks the 2011 vintage will be a real “winemaker’s year.” According to Saslove, this year might really show what a winemaker is made of as he thinks how a winemaker/viticulturalist reacts to the exceptionally fair temperatures, extreme humidity and plenty of pests will all show up in the final grapes and eventually the wine. It’s not uncommon for winemaker’s to say that 95% of what makes good or great wine good or great is the grapes. Another common saying in the industry is that “you can make bad wine out of good grapes but you can’t make good wine out of bad grapes”. Barry believes this might be the “best year yet for fruit” for the Saslove Winery. This is also good news for some other discriminating Israeli winemakers since the Saslove’s sell about 1/3 of their grapes to other boutique wineries which gives the Saslove’s the potential to grow from their current 80,000 bottles to eventually 120,000 bottles.
In the spirit of the New Year, the Saslove’s are also releasing their first series of Aviv red wines under the kosher certification that started for all their wines in 2010. They’ll be easy to spot on the shelves as the labels look dramatically different from previous year’s with colorful drawings of birds that seem lifted from a birdwatcher’s guide. The Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz each sport a single avian avatar with the Marriage blend of six grapes (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiollo) sporting a couple of yellow “lovebirds.” Previously, they only made a limited Cabernet Savignon called “Sagol” for distribution in Jerusalem. All four Aviv wines retail for about 79 NIS. From earlier in 2011, they also released their Lavahn (84 NIS), their new semi-sweet blend of Gewurztraminer, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is seemingly addictive to some and a great match for many of Israel’s spicier dishes whether it’s local white fish with spicy Moroccan or Yemenite sauces or Thai or Indian curry this wine is like nectar and worthy of making any bee or hummingbird jealous of those lucky enough to sample any of the bottles only available through the winery. They also released a red blend from 2010 aptly called April (79 NIS) just in time for Passover that’s developing nicely even though it wasn’t made as a wine meant to age for as long as their other reds. So now they have six kosher wines available for Rosh Hashanah with their upper echelon wines from 2010 still aging in oak barrels for future bottling and release in the next few years with all wines thereafter from all series being certified from 2010 onwards. With the addition of certification, the wines haven’t changed in their flavors, aromas, balance or complexity. The winemaker’s at the Flam and Tulip wineries would agree since their wines came under kosher certification with their 2010 vintages as well. As Israel Flam succinctly says of his sons’ wines, “our wines were always kosher. Now they’re just certified kosher.”
Only a few meters away from the Saslove Winery is another family owned boutique, the Avidan Winery. These friendly competitors make dramatically different wines though they are both highly prized and well regarded by Israeli and international critics. First, Avidan’s winemaker,Tzina Avidan tends to use mostly less commonly employed grapes which are bound to result in different wines. Avidan regularly releases Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Petite Sirah and often makes blends consisting of Grenache, Mourvedre and Carignan which aren’t grapes being found under the Saslove label or many other boutiques in Israel although Avidan has Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines (like Saslove and so many others) for those who don’t want to stray too far from more traditional wines.
Additionally, even though they’re making much less wine than Sasloves (30,000 bottles compared to 80,000) they have about twice as many labels. This comes from a lot of experimenting with different versions of wines from the same grapes, several blends or putting the same wine out in different incarnations to see maybe what the consumers want from future vintages. Larger commercial wineries often make similar “test wines” but don’t always release them. Avidan bravely bottles and releases these wines and many wine lovers and writers are glad they did. They have one series called “Fringe” embracing wines that defy traditional grape combinations and expectations. Of course some wine drinkers want wines that fulfill their preconceived stereotypes but Fringe wines seem slated for “open minded connoisseurs”.
For instance, Tzina has been experimenting with different styles and grape combinations for making ros`es. The 2009 was a dry blend of Grenache, Carignan and Pinot Noir with the 2010 dropping Pinot Noir from the blend with the addition of Merlot ( a much more traditional ros’e grape). Yet, in 2010 Tzina made and released two versions one fruitier and slightly sweeter than the other. These sell at the winery for about 50 NIS. For this New Year, Avidan is releasing their 2008 Petite Syrah. (Yes, I know it’s more commonly spelled Sirah but I’m just reporting what’s printed on the label which is not uncommon in Israel). Either way, this robust wine is derived from Judean Hills’ grapes and it’s impenetrable purple color hints that it will match well with savory grilled meats or BBQ with plentiful black fruit and ground pepper that isn’t lost to the two years of French oak aging that delivers a lot of chocolate in both the aromas and flavor. This wine goes for 160 NIS but is the equal of many finer wines in this price range yet one of the most expensive single varietal Petite Sirahs available in Israel.
Last but not least on my “birthday visit” to Avidan was a taste of their selection of semi-dry and dessert wines. Their 2007 Gran Soliel is 100% Chardonnay and just slightly sweet though it has surely given the wine more aging ability than the average Israeli white wine. Tzina is coy sometimes about telling a taster what grapes make up a wine since her wines don’t always fit what industry people call “varietal specificity.” By that I mean, certain grapes often have certain flavors and aromas that wine professionals and consumers expect when the grape is mentioned on the front of the label so Avidan’s “Chardonnay” is wisely not called a Chardonnay on the front label as it might disappoint someone seeking a Chardonnay they may have had in the past. Tzina’s intention was to stress more tropical fruit than classic apple, pear or citrus flavors and the wine avoided the secondary fermentation process that makes so many “New World” Chardonnays “butter bombs”. Three years of oak aging imparted a rounder body and mouth feel but since the barrels were older they were more neutral in imparting flavors and little vanilla is detectable that might be expected otherwise. This is another example of how Avidan’s “Fringe” wines might not deliver a wine you expect but you might start to expect that their wines are uniquely desirable for just that reason. At 99 NIS, its a worthy investment.
To push the point forward about how many different wines they do have although some are just variations of a familiar theme, Avidan has a white port style wine also made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. By port style, I mean that the wine was fermented into a wine with only 9% alcohol leaving residual sugar for a sweeter wine then fortified later with neutral spirits to raise the total alcohol to 17%. This Avidan Gold is another Avidan wine aged 3 years in neutral barrels and it exhibits golden delicious apples, notes of mango and pineapple, caramel, butterscotch and vanilla and without a mistake honey. Seemingly a great match for many sesame seed based desserts, marzipan, apple pie or strudel or creme brulee. At 120 NIS, don’t think this is a wine you have to drink in one sitting. Because of its sweetness and it’s higher alcohol, fortified “port-style” wines last far longer than dry table wines after opening even weeks or months depending how finicky you are.
Although I enjoy flirting with white fortified wines, my preference though is for red “ports” whether from Israel or port’s true home in Portugal. Red grapes seem to have the extra gravitas to stand up to the additional alcohol more so than white. I’m often talking with winemakers how it could be advantageous for Israeli dessert wines to find an identity and branding of their own like dessert wines from Portugal, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Canada have branded for themselves. Until then, we can still enjoy the increase in more and sweet and succulent wines as Israeli winemakers embrace dessert wines that were snubbed for so many years as a way of escaping guilt by association with sacramental “kiddush wines” that harken to a past when Israeli wines weren’t winning more than their fare share of international accolades.
Avidan’s “red port” called Ruby and Saslove’s red “Kadita” (139 NIS) are two great examples of confident Israeli winemakers who have great reputations for making dry wines delivering to consumers great dessert wines as well. Any respectable wine region is remiss without its share of dessert wine options and on the boutique scene, Avidan and Saslove have two hard to find but easy to savor dessert wines ideal for raising a glass to the traditional Hebrew toast “l’shonah tovah tikatevu” May you have a good and sweet New Year.”
