Our Sea - Revisiting Tulip and Maia

Last year, right before COVID-19 hit us, I took a day trip to Tulip Winery with a couple of friends, to visit our good friend winemaker David Bar-Ilan. Let that serve as due diligence. 

Listen, winemaking has little room for genius, but it needs plenty of hard work, dedication and love. There's no single, secret formula. It's all about growing good grapes and finding the resources and support from the owners to treat them right. And knowledge and experience to know what to do with the grapes - which is where hard work, dedication and love really come into play.  

David has been doing a great job and he's got enough balls and savvy to deal with the curveballs this business tends to through. I cherry picked a few favorites to follow up on. The Chardonnay, especially, is always on my radar.

Maia, Mare Nostrum, 2014

This is the top red from Tulip's "subsidiary", which was originally set up to produce wines made of grapes from the warmer climates of Europe, which everyone colloquially names "Mediterranean grapes". Its a Carignan, Syrah, Petite Sirah blend, with excellent acidity and a unique nose. When I tasted the 2016 last year, in the back of my mind, I noted a resemblance to Piedmont. I find it here, too. The nose starts out peppery and meaty and then there's something that recalls fried mushrooms and dust. 

Tulip, Winemaker's Series, Chardonnay, Mata, 2018

Think Macon or Cote Chalonnaise: apples, flint and dry grass on the nose, a palate that delivers subtle flavors of spices and nuts on background of honied apple flavors that are no less subtle. I always say that growers and makers of Chardonnay don't need to ape Burgundy, they just need to understand that the grape will reflect subtleties of soil and climate if you handle it right. I know David Bar-Ilan shied away from the grape until he felt ready. He was still finding his footing with the 2017, but with the 2018, his understanding and stylistic choices are starting to pay off.

Franc Merlot, Reserve, 2018

This formula is so successfully laid out here that it's a wonder no one had ever thought of it before. In Israel, I mean. The earth and pencil lead character is a clever twist on the Loire and the fresh fruit and acidity make it very lovely and more-ish, until it shuts down after an hour. Obviously in need of more time than I'd expected.