Israeli wines

Since October 7 I have been disproportionally buying wines from Israel. I have really liked Golan Heights Yarden Cabernet and Petit Verdot. They are reasonably priced between $30 and $40 and widely available (Wine Library, Total Wine and local stores). In this difficult time I thought I could support Israel’s wine industry.

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I’ve wondered a lot of times about buying Yarden, but I think I read on here that it’s kind of international / generic in style. I take it you haven’t found them to be that way? Do you get any interesting sense of place about the wines?

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give Psâgot, Flam, and Tabor a whirl, I only know a bit because I was working with a high end Israeli restaurant and had to help source the wines, probably tasted through 24 bottles or so and those wines stood out.

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I recently had the Tel Arad “Yatir” 2012. It’s mostly syrah with some mourvedre, from the Yatir Forest region. I didn’t dig it so much, it was kind of candied sweet, tasted more like grenache than syrah, but it was interesting to have experienced.

A few years ago, I had Tzora (not sure which bottling) and that was very good.

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I had Psagot too. It was good. if I am not mistaken Costco sells it, maybe their lower tier wine.
As far as Yarden concerned I like Cab and Petit Verdot. I don’t have that sophisticated palate as others here might, but I did not find it generic especially Petit Verdot. In any case the main point for me was to provide support and these wines are in my price range. There are higher end Israeli wines that can be purchased.

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From Domaine du Castel try Castel Grand Vin or its 2nd label Petit Castel. Both elegant Bordeaux style. Also for the long haul.

If you like your wine concentrated, powerful and tannic you can try Shiloh’s long line of wines.

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I had a few Shiloh that were offensive so that colors things a bit for me.

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All my recommendations are brought in by Royal Wine that specializes in Kosher wines so that makes sense, they’re the largest supplier for Kosher in the US.

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Recall having had a few good Israeli wine when visiting there but everything was obviously in Hebrew many years ago and I don’t have any pictures to share…

But, and this is probably more helpful, I recall that Jamie Goode tasted through a bunch and this is the link: TN Israeli wines

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Here it goes review on my Yarden :slight_smile:
Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 Israel
Bold, rich and sweet with nice blackcurrant fruit, some spice and a twist of earth. Rich and sweetly fruited, this is developing nicely with lots of sweet fruit. Nicely dense and pure. 91/100
Glad to see he liked it

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Love your TN, great report. Didn’t you try Castel ?