Talk-A-Vino

To begin with, I would like to state that by no means I plan to become a restaurant critic and compete with Zagat. But as this blog is about wine, food and life, visiting a restaurant provides perfect mixture of all three elements.

On the way to the the airport, thanks to my another dear friend, Pablo, I was again lucky to experience great food and wine, this time at the place called Dixie Grill Bar. It might be a tourist notion, but same as in the case of Le Champa Del Mar, I believe you have to actually know about that place in order to get there. Coming from outside, it is hard to tell there is a restaurant behind the wall. Inside, the place looks simplistically stylish and has very nice ambiance. The only thing which is out of place, in my opinion, is paper napkins instead of actual cloth napkins – I would not even think that I will pay attention to something like this, but it appears that I do.

Anyway, let’s talk about wine. Based on Pablo’s recommendation, we went with wine called Yiron 2006, from Galil Mountains. The wine is a  Cabernet-based blend (Cabernet Sauvignon with addition of Merlot and Syrah). It has a nose of dark berries with some cedar notes, and on the palate has a good balance of fruit, tannins and acidity. All in all, it was a very good wine which was evolving with the time during dinner, so it was actually a very good choice. For those who knows my rating system by now, I will rate it at…

Drinkability: 7+

Few more notes about this wine. First, it is available in US, so it would be possible (and worthwhile) to find it. I also want to mention that Daniel Rogov, famous Israeli wine critic gave this wine a 91 rating ( which is good). And on the subject of Israeli wines, Gary Vaynerchuck, a wine internet celebrity from Wine Library, recorded an episode on Israeli Kosher wines with Daniel Rogov, and you can see it here.

And for the food – as usual, a picture worth a thousand words, so here we go:

Beef Carpaccio

Fried truffle Gnocchi with mushrooms

Fillet of fish over heirloom tomatoes

And this will end my series of Israel posts (at least for now). If you are ever in Israel – visit the places I mentioned, you will not be disappointed. As for the wines – Israeli wines are more and more available, and worth seeking out, as these are the world class wines.

Cheers!