Wine tasting is an important part of wine appreciating. I’ve long had a section on wine tasting.
Now, the aptly named Wine Tasting Guy, a fellow passionate lover of Israeli wine, has a few videos about wine tasting and a taste of a recent release from Israel’s Dalton Winery that he tasted while visiting his brother in Israel. Dalton has some great wines that were recently released, and I plan on opening up their new rose release in these hot spring days.
Here is Wine Tasting Guy talking about wine tasting. Gary Vaynerchuk he’s not despite the shared name, but despite his more subdued style, he’s still worth watching!
Gary, aka, Wine Tasting Guy enjoys the Dalton Sauvignon Blanc
While the Israeli wine revolution was started by what’s today a large winery and 
continued with the work of other large wineries (Tishbi, etc.), it was pushed by the later growth of smaller wineries like Margalit and Castel. As a result, of course, large wineries like Carmel radically restructured and today are making top of the line wines. The Israeli wine revolution, though, was slow to some of the larger wineries who lost a lot of market share but were still able to remain profitable thanks to the mass-market supermarket wines – an important business market for any country, even if they aren’t making wines that the critics rave about (after all, do you know the name Charles Shaw and Yellow Tail better than you know the smaller wineries of California and Australia?). But, as a result of the wine revolution, even they had to catch up.
I wrote a few months ago about Hetzi Hinam, an Israeli discount supermarket chain, buying Binyamina Winery. Not much was known then, but since then, Binyamina has started construction on a new winery and begun plantings.
Daniel Rogov recently made his annual visit to Binyamina Winery and had this to say:
First of all, with massive and very impressive construction now going on the new owners (The Hetzi-Chinam chain of supermarkets) seems to be going all out to elevate the winery to state-of-the-art status. At the same time they seem to have very wisely given CEO Ilan Hassan and winemakers Sasson Ben-Aharon and Assaf Paz the green light to continue in their direction of ever improving wines. The winery is now involved with new plantings of major vineyards in the Upper Galilee and on the Golan Heights; a new and full-time agronomist is coming aboard; and the feeling that I picked up during my visit was a very positive one.
With regard to today’s visit and considering earlier tastings, I had expected and found fine results from the two top series (Avnei Hachoshen and Reserve). What delighted me as much as anything though was the dramatic increase in quality of the winery’s most basic Teva series. Teva at this stage is presenting wines that will comfortably compete for best values on the market. The Teva wines may not be for the most sophisticated of drinkers but that is not their target audience and be there no question but that high quality entry level wines are critical to success for any large winery and that regardless of whether we are talking of local consumption or export.
I agree with Rogov 100%. The power of a winery is not how well their top of the line wines are, but rather how good and well made are their entry-level simple wines. Binyamina has been, I admit, one of the rare wineries that I’ve taken a pass on. I’m glad to know that this will be changing soon.
Following are some of Daniel Rogov’s tasting notes:
Continue reading Binyamina Winery – On the Way Up
My wife and in-laws went to Tishbi Winery, but, well, I didn’t. So I’ll just have to suffice with some pictures from the winery:
Wine Blogging Wednesday featured kosher wine and was hosted by The Corkdork. Yes, I know, it’s Thursday, but Wednesday was chag, the last day of Passover in Israel and the second-to-last day in the Diaspora. More importantly, I was invaded by the in-laws, so my Wine Blogging Wednesday post had to wait.
For WBW: Kosher Edition, I bring you a list of links on kosher wine – and a reminder that not all kosher wine is from Israel and not all Israeli wine is kosher. For kosher wine from Israel, check out wineries like Yatir, Golan Heights Winery, Tzora, Castel, Dalton, Carmel, Galil Mountain, Recanati, Teperberg, Tishbi, and more.
Also, the following articles on kosher wine are well worth reading:
Kosher and Proud of It by Carmel’s Adam Montefiore
The kosher conundrum – not all Israeli wines are kosher, not all kosher wines are Israeli
Kosher is Not a Country, from my friend and colleague Richard Shaffer, including his great video:
and, of course, there was the tasting in the Wine Advocate in which Mark Squires said, among other things, that “I can say Kosher certification seemed to be no impediment at all to making excellent wine.”
But, if you’re interested in fine kosher wine from Israel, just check out the many posts.
And, if you can’t find fine Israeli kosher & non-kosher wine, check out my post on where to buy Israeli wine.
San Diego Wine and Drinks Examiner: Try some Israeli wines for Easter
Check out this article for some wine suggestions for the Easter holiday, or any other day.
Posted using ShareThis
I’ve posted my Passover wine recommendations here and here (and, in an update, I believe that I will be drinking the 2007 Teperberg Silver Sangiovese and the 2007 Tzuba Cabernet Sauvignon for the Passover seder, 2007 Teperberg Terra Malbec, and 2007 Galil Mountain Barbera for the Sabbath and holiday meals).
What is the rest of the old and new media suggesting for Passover wine drinking (some recommendations are good – others, well, they still don’t get it).
Wine Tasting Guy has made some excellent Israeli wine recommendations for Passover.
The Los Angeles Times has an article on upscale alcohol, including the new $200 California Herzog wine from the To Kalon vineyard in Napa (and extensive quotes from the above Wine Tasting Guy – kol hakavod Gary!)
The Foodie aggregates some past kosher wine recommendations.
The examiner.com recommends Dalton Winery on your Passover table.
Cape Cod Times suggests wine from the Golan Heights Winery and Barkan.
The Detroit Wine Examiner blog on examiner.com recommends Recanati’s Sauvignon Blanc Reserve, a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Golan Heights Winery, and Tzuba’s Late Harvest Chardonnay.
Forbes has gotten into the game with some wine recommendations including the Dalton Canaan Red, Kadesh Barnea’s Merlot, Ella Valley’s Vineyards Choice Merlot, Segal Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve (Marom Galil in Israel), Rimon Pomegranate Dessert Wine (not a grape wine and so doesn’t fit the religious requirements for the seder or holiday blessings).
The Wall Street Journal suggests a Riesling for the white wine lover. I bought a bottle of the Teperberg Silver Late Harvest Riesling as a nice cute dessert wine myself.
And, not wine recommendations, but great places to buy Israeli wine in America are Israeli Wine Direct, who are supporting Save a Child’s Heart, which provides pediatric heart care to children from around the world, while Israel Wine Company is supporting Israeli teens at risk via the Crossroads charity, right in my own community.
