So I had an idea for the holidays leading up to New Year’s Eve, how about tasting a wine range of Israeli sparkling wines and comparing them to European sparkling wines such as Champagnes from France, Cavas from Spain and Proseccos from Italy. Well, it might have just remained an idea if I hadn’t had the phone numbers for several importers and Israeli wineries. So with the help of my friends Rani Rogel and Chef Alon Gonen, we invited several wine insiders to compare and contrast and score nine Israeli sparkling wines with nine imported European sparkling wines accompanied by mouth watering treats from Alon’s Tel Aviv kitchen.
We started our effervescent marathon tasting the simplest wines climbing towards the most complex. We rated the wines on a scale of one to twenty judging the sparkling wines on eleven different criteria including the color and clarity, the flavor and aromas, the balance between sugar, acidity, body and astringency, finish and of course the bubbles. We broke the wines into flights of similarly priced wines or similar themes: demi-secs, Italian Proseccos, Spanish Cavas, a flight each of mid priced and higher priced Israeli sparkling wines and then three notable Champagnes.
Understanding sparkling wines can be a bit intimidating for the uninitiated and even for more seasoned wine professionals. For that reason, there are wine insiders who specialize in just sparkling wines. Its a whole other breed of wine, someways more simple and in other ways more complicated. Surely, it’s a lot more labor intensive than making still wine which helps explain the additional price. Additionally, with conventional non-sparkling “table wines” or still wines there are four categories of sweetness: dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet. With sparkling wines there are six categories from driest to sweetest: Extra Brut and Brut (which aren’t perceived sweet) Extra Dry (slightly sweet), Sec (noticeably sweet), Demi-Sec (very sweet) and Doux (super sweet). These are the French terms which are often adopted elsewhere but may vary country to country. The most commonly made and available is Brut wines which pair well with most foods and its one reason why Champagne has been such a hit at grand events. Yet, sometimes it finds a bad match. Sweet dishes, for instance, such as wedding cake would pair better with a sweeter wine and if you insist on bubbles and why not, bubbles scream party; a Demi-sec wine (the next most popular sweetness level in Israel) would be a better choice or a sweeter “frizzante” (Italian for slightly sparkling) wine such as one of Israel’s growing number of Moscatos (or an imported Moscato d’Asti from Italy).
tasting at Chef Alon’ Gonen’s Tel Aviv’s abode
The first three wines were sweeter demi-sec imported wine which are popular with younger consumers and often served with spicy food or as an aperitif. Although tradition would have us try sweeter wines last, tradition also suggests one try simpler wines first and in order to give these wines a chance against more complex higher priced wines we started with these and would cleanse our palette with buttered bread before we would go on. Unless otherwise stated all of the sparkling wines were non-vintage blends.
The Bosca Acai Sparkletini Verdi (Kosher) NIS 32 was our first drink on a night we were forced to huddle inside during a rainy winter night in the “White City.” As the price might indicate the Bosca is not a serious wine and more of a wine cocktail popular on tables in Israel for shabbat and with college students and soldiers, sort of a bubbly Boone’s Farm for those familiar with the American confection, popular in convenience stores and supermarkets. It scored the lowest score of all the evening’s entries with 5.5 out of 20 points. Yet there’s an audience for this beverage just as there is for Barcadi mixers. At a comparable price but scoring significantly better at 8.5 points was the Cava Gota de Maravilla semi-seco (Kosher) NIS 35 which was a little more serious with a better balance with its sweetness and acidity. As our third wine from out starting flight was a private label, FCBarcelona Cava demi-sec (Kosher) NIS 40 it’s sort of a novelty yet it scored the best of all three with a decent score of 11 points better than some of the dryer bubbly we had to follow.
Anastasia enjoys one of the eighteen wines we tasted & judged
Our second flight consisted of two Italian proseccos and our first Israeli sparkling wine. From Israel’s largest winery we tasted the Carmel Selected Sparkling NIS 35 (Kosher) which scored a modest 8 points from our panel. Its probably the easiest to find of all the wines sampled. Only scoring slightly better were the Italian proseccos. The Prosecco Gran Torino NIS 50 scored 9 points with the Canti Prosecco NIS 50 scoring the highest from this flight with 10 points.
Following the proseccos we delved into a pair of Cavas. Cavas are known as typically good values in the world of sparkling wines. Cava Bruy Heretat El Padurell NIS 40 scored a 11 points while Cava Recoda Brut NIS 50 (Kosher), imported by Israel’s Binyamina Winery, scored 12.5 points, the highest for any of the Cavas tasted and the highest at its price point.
Our next two flights were all Israeli sparkling wines. First, we sampled Tabor Brut 562 white NIS 55 (Kosher) 12 points and Tabor Brut 562 red NIS 55 (Kosher) 10 points. The 562 refers to the altitude of the vineyards and even though the white scored higher there were those who voiced their approval for the only red sparkling wine of the night which meant because of the score there were those who really didn’t care for it as well. Striking a place in the middle was the Carmel Private Collection Brut Rosé NIS 55 (Kosher) at 10.5 points.
The second flight of all Israeli sparklers started with 2010 Teperberg Brut NIS 69 (Kosher) which scored only 6 points. It had strong yeasty flavors that might have seemed out of balance to any masked fruitiness. Possibly non-vintage blends in the future might remedy this or it will find an audience with those who prefer a doughy sparkling wine and those consumers do exist. Teperberg also makes popular sweet red and white Moscatos for about half the price. A new series of wines from the Golan Heights Winery offered the Gamla Hashmura Brut NIS 69 (Kosher) matching the highest score then for the evening at 12.5 points. It was also the only Israeli entry that is made from traditional Champagne white Chardonnay and red Pinot Noir grapes. Tishbi Brut NIS 85 (Kosher) made from 100% Colombard grapes scored a respectable 11.5 points. The highest ranking Israeli sparkling wine comes from the only Israeli boutique winery to invest into making this labor intensive endeavor. The Pelter Brut Blanc de Blanc NIS 199, made from 100% Chardonnay, scored a robust 15 points which was comparable to the premium Champagnes in our last flight at a much lower price. Of the Israeli wines, only the Gamla, Tishbi and Pelter were bottle fermented in the traditional Champagne method.
Our last flight, which was a flight of fancy were three well known Champagnes. Champagne Piper Hidesick Brut NIS 280 12 points, Champagne Bauget-Jouette NIS 280 14 points and Champagne Laurent Perrier Rosé NIS 495 (Kosher) with the highest score of the evening at 15.5 points. All of the Champagnes were good benchmarks for what heights Israeli sparkling wines can aspire towards which the Pelter seems like it may have already reached. All in all the Israeli wines scored well compared to European wines at about the same price. One notable absence from the tasting was Yarden Blanc de BlancNIS 125, also from the Golan Heights, as it’s in short supply, but winemaker Victor Schoenfeld has a Yarden sparkling rosé to be released in the near future which should be among Israel’s best sparkling wines, based on a sneak preview tasting Victor hosted over one year ago in Tel Aviv.
David Rhodes is a California trained sommelier & wine educator now living in Israel. David has written hundreds of articles about Israeli wines and been featured on Israeli, American, Mexican & Chinese TV & radio as a wine authority. David regularly hosts wine tastings & trips to his favorite wineries in Israel and can be reached at [email protected]
