Champagne for the New Year (Sparkling wine for Sylvester) Take II

Posted on December 31, 2007 - Filed Under Rogov | Leave a Comment

A follow up to the below post. If you still can’t decide what sparkling wine to open tonight, here’s two tasting notes on the bubby from Daniel Rogov’s column in Ha’aretz:
 Pelter, Blanc de Blanc Brut, n.v.: Although categorized as non-vintage, this wine was made with Chardonnay grapes entirely from the 2003 vintage. Gentle yeast and [...]

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Israeli sparkling wines for the New Year 2008 (Sparkling wines for Sylvester)

Posted on December 28, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry, Rogov, Wineries | Leave a Comment

It’s a few days until New Years – or Sylvester as we call it in Israel – and with that comes bubbly. Yup, sparkling wine (or champagne, but champagne really only refers to sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France).
Well, Israel isn’t known for being a world-class leader in this category but there are [...]

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Wine Advocate Scores

Posted on December 24, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry | 1 Comment

Below are the scores for the Wine Advocate article on Israeli wines by Mark Squires. Robert Parker also sat in on the tastings, and tasted himself.
IsraelWines.co.il also has the scores, in descending order.
You can see the notes of the WA’s scoring system here
However, note that tasting notes are very important. I saw excerpts of the [...]

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Historic Tasting for Israel

Posted on December 24, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry | Leave a Comment

From the IsraelWines.co.il site:

The Wine Advocate’s first generic tasting of Israeli wines resulted in a resounding success, which will encourage the whole industry. The Wine Advocate is the mouthpiece of Robert Parker, the world’s most powerful and influential wine critic.
No less than 14 wines scored over 90 points. This has always been the mythical barrier [...]

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International wine in Israel

Posted on December 23, 2007 - Filed Under Wine Events | Leave a Comment

Well, I can’t just drink Israeli wine all the time. This past Thursday, I returned to Jerusalem’s Wine Hall – a relatively new but top wine store in downtown Jerusalem – for a tasting of the California Herzog line of wines. As you may recall, I first went to their Carmel Limited Edition and Single [...]

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Heads up: Wine Advocate Released

Posted on December 22, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry | Leave a Comment

Quick heads up that the Wine Advocate tastings on Israeli wines have just been released. The magazine was just mailed yesterday morning, so it should be arriving in subscriber’s mailboxes shortly and the article will be on the eRobert Parker site (only accessible to subscribers and subscriptions cost $99, so I don’t have one) around [...]

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Canadian wine journalists visit Israel

Posted on December 20, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry, Wine Events | Leave a Comment

Israeli wine just got a bit of attention in Canada. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with private organizations, brings many different groups of people to Israel. I have personally been involved in a trip of bloggers, but they have also brought in entertainment/youth culture reporters, political leaders, and others.
The journalists included Tony Aspler, Jugen [...]

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Organic Israeli wine

Posted on December 20, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry, Wineries | Leave a Comment

The following story originally appeared in “the honey,” an English e-newsletter about life and culture in Israel:
 WINE
PURO VINO
If this purist bent suits the current fancy, take it a step further and go organic in your wines. The much acclaimed Sea Horse Winery on Moshav Bar Giora, just southwest of Jerusalem, has been growing organic syrah [...]

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How do you store your wine?

Posted on December 18, 2007 - Filed Under Wine Basics | Leave a Comment

This weekend, I opened up a bottle of the 2006 Galil Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Unusually, Rogov says that it is best starting in 2009. Yet, like most people, I am not going to store this wine until 2009 – as the wine is still good and I lack adequate storage solutions.
For those who don’t have [...]

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Blogging Petit Sirah

Posted on December 16, 2007 - Filed Under Israeli wine industry, Wineries | Leave a Comment

I’m still a newbie to the wine blogging world and so I missed Wine Blogging Wednesday. Apparently, last week’s WBW#40 was for people to blog about Petit Sirah – a varietal in which there are a few good Israeli choices. This is extra unique as Israel doesn’t yet have a ton of varietals (most table [...]

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