Taking Care Of Business (Oct. 2017)

October is the best month of all because the weather allows you to drink wines of every color and style
Sebastien Dampt, Chablis Premier Cru, Côte de Léchet, 2013

Last bottle, out of three or four I bought two years ago. And every single one has been a pleasure. It may not be grand, but if you drew a Vern diagram of all the Chablis characteristics, this would be at dead center. (Oct. 2, 2017)

Wine Route, 200 NIS (2 for 300 on discount).

Rizzi, Barbaresco, 2013

Rizzi is a small Barbaresco producer imported to Israel by the Yaffo Tel Aviv restaurant. Or Eldad Levi. Or both. It's very old world, dusty, tarry, tart and opaque. I have a Riserva and a couple of single vineyards that will need long cellaring since even the basic bottling is so defensive and reserved - although both the rose-water-and-salt nose and the tough-as-rusty-nails core are compelling. (Oct. 4, 2017)

Tscharke, the Potter, Grenacha, 2011

The reason this wine gets me is I sense it can teach me something about Grenache and how it evolves, if you start out with a good specimen, which this is. I'm an avid pupil - this is my fourth bottle over the last three years. The basic premise of the Potter is black fruit, just a little candied on the fringes, spiced by white pepper, the ample fruit supported by acidity and to a lesser extent very fine tannins. What I was looking for is what complexity it would develop and what its glass ceiling might be. The answer is, it's moderately complex with a filigree figure and I get a sense it could go another seven, eight years, deepening just a bit without gaining a lot more complexity. At the same time, it won't pick up ungainly wrinkles,either. (Oct. 5, 2017)

Mersch, 130 NIS.

Drank through a few Burgundies at Habasta. Olivier Guyot, Bourgogne, 2015 is very typical for the house and the village (this is a declassified Marsannay), so if you've enjoyed the previous vintages as much as I did - and this is one of my favorite house wines - go for it and consider aging it for a few years. Because it's my go-to wine, I ordered a bottle for a party of four, but the the wine I ordered to expand on my own knowledge was a pre-dinner glass of La Maision Romane, Eaux Vives Blanc, nv, which is a multi-vintage blend from Macon (the Bourgogne Crown catalog says 2012/13). I'm going to say it's a funky, earthy wine that is so much more about Burgundy than about Chardonnay that you might confuse it for a red wine in a blind tasting - and you're going to think it's an orange wine. I doubt it is, but if it is, well, Oronce de Beler may have pulled off a minor miracle and came up with an excellent orange wine. (Oct. 6, 2017)

Domaine Pavelot (Jean-Marc et Hugues) Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Guettes, 2010

Apropos the Burgundy Crown catalog, they carried Pavelot through a couple of vintages and stopped. I believe it's the only producer they dropped - or vice versa. I didn't mean to open any more 2010's for a while, I swear, but my I guess it's time for bifocals because I thought the label read 2011. This is fun to sniff, very pure red fruit, very alluring, sexy even, its complexity developing slowly. There's a good balance of red fruit,spices and iron fillings with no component dominating at the cost of the others. The palate is up to par, just as alluring and inviting. (Oct. 7, 2017)

230 NIS.

Dönnhoff, Nahe, Oberhäuser Brücke, Riesling Spätlese, 2007

A bad start. The color was not a good sign, light-amber and gold, way too deep for a ten year old Spätlese. The nose was a little more promising - apples and spices - but the palate is the worst offender of all, fat and cloying. Forty minutes later and the Brücke has gone through a full makeover. All the fat gone, it shows a lithe, fresh, racy figure - all the things you want in a top flight Riesling. Maybe the dollop of sweetness at the end is more fitting for an Auslese but it's balanced by salty flavors. Ultimately not a great bottle but its come back is very impressive. (Oct. 8, 2017)

Giaconda.

Tabor, Shahar, Riesling, 2017

Well structured, an interesting nose - fresh apples and white pepper - now, if only it had a bit more flavor... (Oct. 9, 2017)

Feldstein, Sauvignon Blanc, 2015

It was so hard to get a good read of this wine at Avi's launch that I had to get an extra bottle for a second peek. The big block last time was the predominance of gooseberries and the second bottle is just the same, except it's starting to show minerals on the nose. In a way, it mixes Kiwi hygiene and ripeness (to the point it even hints at currants) with the kinky salinity of the best of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume. Except it's still very much cloaked in its own monolithic shell. (Oct. 13, 2017)

About 120 NIS, your mileage may vary.

Giacomo Fenocchio, Barolo, 2012

This is very classic, but probably proves that most of the pleasure in Piedmont today is in the crus. (Oct. 14, 2017)

Álvaro Castro, Quinta da Pellada, Dão, Tounot, 2011

The importer says this is a blend of Touriga Nacional and Pinot Noir, but some online wine shops say Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Alfrocheiro Preto. There's certainly a fresh, floral sensuality to it that is Pinot-ish but the dark color and savory herbs, recalling tobacco leaves, is all Portugal. I think this has reached its peak plateau; it'd have needed sterner tannins and sharper acidity for a longer shelf life. (Oct. 15, 2017)

Tshernichonsky, about 300 NIS.

Tzora Vineyards, Judean Hills, Blanc, 2016

Nowhere is the modern winemaking evolution in Israel more evident than in our Chardonnay. The best of the crop have steered away from the bland, oaked products of copycat producers of a decade ago that fooled so many consumers and critics, some of which, in hindsight, should have known better. This is a firm, yet friendly, wine, its acid backbone providing ample support to the ripe fruit. But fuck the polite description of measured balance, what should win you over is the lovely bouquet of citrus fruit and minerals - even if the palate is going to remain bitter for 2018 and a long stretch of 2019.  (Oct. 17, 2017)

Golan Heights Winery, Yarden, Blanc de Blancs, 2009

For years I'd been wondering when they'd finally do it, when GHW would manage to ruin their last remaining great wine. When the BdB would go the way of the dodo and the elegant Yarden Cabernet. Don't worry, that hasn't happened yet, not quite - but, the 2009 is only good. Which, when you think about it is a minor miracle - a good, worthwhile Israeli sparkling wine with no local predecessor and virtual no peer - that I don't stop to think about too much and I should. It's a shame that, while I thought previous vintages could give a good n.v. Champagne a run, this lacks body and presence, even though its complex and savory enough to make a fine dinner companion. (Oct. 19, 2017)

Luis Pato, Bairrada, Vinha Pan, 2011

I wonder whether Luis Pato might be interested in a barter deal for my translation skills. I think he broke Google Translate. It took me a couple of passes through the winery's notes to suss that the wine is sourced from the same vineyard as his sparkling Baga wine, Pan being short for "a place called Panasqueira" - or a more marketable label. Tne vineyard is first harvested for the sparkling wine, then for this a month later. According to Pato, this gives the wine "unusual concentration". Thankfully, six years after that second harvest, that concentration shows as a very good integration of fruit, tannins and acid, rather than a monster bomb - which, to be honest, is what the phrase "unusual concentration" often implies. It's still in its formative days, though, so it's very dusty, almost tarry a la Nebbiolo. I also find graphite, iron and ink and a very saline finish. Days will tell, quite a few of them - right now, that dusty character is a little too much. (Oct. 21, 2017)

Tabor, Sufa, 2013

This Petit Sirah-Cabernet Sauvignon blend is the best wine I've tasted from Tabor recently, including more prestigious wines like the Shahar above or the Tannat. The nose is subtly earthy and dusty - I stress the word "subtly" because the offhand nuances are a relief after the Pato Pan - and the fruit is at quite a precise juncture between ripeness and freshness. Lovely.

But seriously, Tabor people, what's with the back label spiel? "An exciting, fascinating wine that offers a sensual experience that leaves a long lasting impression" reads like a parody. (Oct. 22, 2017)

Niepoort, Ten Year Tawny Port, nv

This is lighter than the Colheita, 2005, with roughly the same level of complexity and character, though: nuts, cured meats, mildew. The rusty, savory finish takes it beyond aperitif/digestif territory where it's actually not a bad accompaniment to a winter stew or the like. (Oct. 29, 2017) 

Porto, 160 NIS.

Chateau Cantemerle, Haut-Medoc 5me Cru, 2008

When I bought this six or seven years ago, it was already quite sad to think what 200 NIS could have bought a decade before. In 2017, 200 NIS will hardly even get you a Cru Bourgeois and that's depressing. But this is a very, very nice wine, its nose very fine, actually, a mix of black fruit, crushed rocks and a touch of cedar, detailed and refined. The palate has solid weight and length and is very refreshing - rusty and tart in a textbook claret way, the same rust and tartness fanning out into a splendid savory bite on the finish. (Oct. 31, 2017)

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