Posted at 11:48h in Wine industry, Wineries by 1 Comment
Carmel Winery has made a revolution in sparkling wine and added a new value-priced quality offering to the small Israeli sparkling wine market. They are abolishing the President’s Wine, a cheap (but refreshing) sparkler
, and are introducing a new, higher quality offering.
The Carmel Private Collection Brut, made using the charmat method (like many sparkling wines in Italy, but not the ‘traditional’ or ‘champagne’ method that many of us associate with sparklers) is a new, fresh wine with a suggested retail of 59NIS. This makes it significantly cheaper than the traditional method sparkling wines from Golan Heights Winery and Pelter. This wine, in Carmel’s ‘Private Collection’ series, is now available. In fact, I just picked up a bottle this afternoon and will be opening it up this weekend for my wedding anniversary.
The Brut is made with 50% Columbard, 40% Chardonnay, and 10% Viognier with grapes from Zichron Ya’akov and the Judean Hills and, while non-vintage, the current release is from the 2007 harvest. Following is Rogov’s tasting note:
Carmel, Brut, Private Collection, n.v.: A far, far better sparkling wine than Carmel has ever done before. Made by the Charmat method (with the second fermentation accomplished in pressurized stainless steel tanks), a blend of French Colombard, Chardonnay and Viognier (50%, 40% and 10% respectively), with a portion of the Chardonnay oak-aged, shows simple but appealing aromas and flavors of apples, pears and citrus. A short mousse and sharp but not well focused bubbles here make one think more of Spanish Cava than of French Champagne. Drink now. NIS 59. Score 86. K
