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Tishbi Winery Experience – Wine, And Lots More
Continuing the “Israeli Experiences” series, I want to talk about a great experience at Tishbi Winery.
While the Tishbi family had been in the “grapes business” since 1882, the actual Tishbi Winery was founded in 1984 in the foothills of Carmel mountain in the area called Zichron Yaacov. in addition to the vineyards in the Zichron Yaacov area, Tishbi also owns vineyards in the North and South areas of Israel.
First, we had to walk around the Visitors Center (which is brand new and modern looking), as there was a huge group (about 100 people we were told) participating in the tasting. Very nice modern facility, spacious and airy. Of course, the first thing we saw was wine:
Riesling (as you can see, it is called “French Riesling” to distinguish from Emerald Riesling which is another Riesling variety growing only in Israel):
Sauvignon Blanc:
Jonathan Tishbi Special Reserve ( this wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc and it comes from Sde Boker vineyard located in Negev Desert):
Barbera/ Zinfandel (!) Port (very interesting to see Zinfandel grape somewhere outside of the US):
The next thing we noticed after all the wines was … chocolate! Not just random chocolate bar as a condiment – the shelves full of Valrhona Chocolate. It appears that Tishbi recently became one of the biggest distributors of the Valrhona chocolate in Israel. As part of the tasting, you can experience a special pairing of various “single cru” Valrhona chocolates with Tishbi’s wines.
Finally, we managed to escape the Visitors Center and found out that we can have a tasting in the cafe next door, which we did. Here are some of the note for the wines we tasted:
We started with 2011 Tishbi Gewurztraminer, which was very nice, clean and simple, without strong bite which Gewurztraminer often has. 2008 Tishbi Special Reserve Chardonnay had a good body, good white fruit expression with a hint of vanilla, but it was a bit too sweet to my taste.
Those were the only white wines we tried, and then we switched to red. The first red was very surprising to me – 2011 Tishbi Cabernet Syrah. What is so surprising in the Cabernet? Well, note the year – it is last year’s harvest, and this Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t spend any time in the oak barrel! Moreover, it was poured from the stainless steel tank, which was located right there in the cafe. You can bring your own bottle and get it filled with this Cabernet Syrah blend for about $5 – this is the real deal, move over two buck chuck. I also would like to note that this was a very good wine – clean, with good fruit expression and perfect acidity. After that we tried a number of Tishbi Estate wines from 2007 vintage. 2007 Tishbi Estate Cabernet Sauvignon had a beautiful classic nose, but was a bit too sweet on the palate. As an added bonus I need to mention that it had Ruby Cabernet grape as part of the blend – which is a new grape for my grapes count, so I’m advancing to 361 now. 2007 Tishbi Estate Merlot was simply perfect – a great balance of all the components. 2007 Tishbi Estate Syrah was also very good, with pepper notes on the palate, full body, good concentration of tannins. 2007 Tishbi Estate Petite Sirah had good dense fruit and full body, coupled with the perfect acidity.
Last but not least we tried 2006 Tishbi Barbera Zinfandel Port wine. This wine spends a year and a half in the oak barrels before it is released. The wine was excellent, with good fruit and perfect balance, not overly sweet – and it also paired very nicely with the Valrhona chocolate (which is somewhat expected from the port). By the way, below you can see the process of pouring of that 2011 Cabernet Syrah:
At this point we took a little break, and had the nearly perfect cup of cappuccino:
When we went back to the Visitors Center, we noticed something we overlooked before – a full distillery! Located right there in the Visitors Center, there is a still pot which is used to produce Tishbi Brandy:
And here is an illustration which explains the distillation process:
Here is the end result of the distillation – Tishbi 16 years old Brandy:
We were lucky, as we were also able to try that 16 years old brandy (typically you can try it only if you buy a bottle – considering that it costs about $450 for the bottle, you can imagine that I wouldn’t be trying that Brandy otherwise). I can’t help but to comment that I think the price is a bit high (okay, way too high).
All in all, we had a great time at Tishbi – if you are visiting Israel, it is well worth a trip. Otherwise, you can find Tishbi wines in the stores in the US, and I would definitely recommend them. That concludes my report, folks – cheers!
Wente Experience
As you know, I collect wine experiences. Anywhere I go, I’m looking for wine-related experiences – locally produced wine in the restaurant, great concept bar in the airport, such as Vino Volo, or visit to a winery whenever possible.
When traveling to California, it is essentially expected that one should be able to find a winery to visit. During the last week’s trip, we decided to visit Wente Vineyards in Livermore Valley together with my friend Kfir Pravda (@kfirpravda). The selection process was simple – we didn’t have much time before the meetings, Livermore Valley was close enough, and Wente was the only name I could recognize on the map.
Turns out that it was a very good decision. I was not really familiar with Wente wines before, outside of their mutual project with the Food Network, Entwines, so it was very interesting to start from scratch. By the way, a quick side note – we visited the winery at the very beginning of November, but the harvest was still going on – I guess 2011 wines will be interesting…
Wente produces four different families of wines – Vineyard Selection, Heritage Block, Small Lot and Nth Degree. Only the first two can be found in the stores – Small Lot is available at the winery only, and Nth Degree is only available through the mailing list.
We started from the 2010 Small Lot Viognier, which was very nice and bright – not necessarily the French style, but still very enjoyable. Next, we tried two Chardonnays: 
2010 Morning Fog Chardonnay Livermore Valley was completely unoaked, with good tropical fruit and fresh apples, good acidity, balanced and not overpowering. 2009 Riva Ranch Chardonnay Arroyo Seco Monterey was a bit more concentrated, with aromas of vanilla and toasted oak, all very balanced, with an excellent acidity (this wine belongs to Heritage Block collection).
Moving to the reds, we started with 2009 Small Lot Counoise, as it was a very unusual wine. Counoise is a red grape mostly used in Rhone in France where it is blended with many other grapes to produce Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines – it is very rarely bottled on its own. This wine was very interesting – dark concentrated color, bit of spiciness on the palate, good balance – I thought I found a winner. Well, yes, until I tried the next two wines – Grenache and Petite Sirah:
2009 Small Lot Grenache was incredible – velvety smooth, with beautiful fruit expression, a touch of coffee and chocolate, as well as hint of earthiness. If anything, it was very comparable with some of the best Grenache wines in the world – Spanish Grenache wines, such as the top wines of Alto Moncayo. This Grenache wine was definitely the highlight of the tasting (Drinkability: 9-). 2009 Small Lot Petite Sirah was following the suit with more intense color and higher fruit concentration, very balanced with good acidity and tannins, easy to drink and inviting.
Wente Vineyards is also home to a restaurant (The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards), which was outstanding. The restaurant focuses on local ingredients, and therefore serves what is in the season. Here is a picture report for you – all the food was absolutely delicious.
Smoked Sturgeon Salad (probably the best smoked sturgeon ever):
Angus Burger:
Chocolate caramel cake:
and Ginger IceCream:
All the food was absolutely delicious and perfectly presented, so if you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend that you shouldn’t miss The Restaurant at the Wente Vineyards.
That’s all for the great experiences at the Wente Vineyards – I really wish though those Small Lot wines would be available in the store.
So long till the next post – Cheers!
Restaurant at Wente Vineyards
5050 Arroyo Rd
Livermore, CA 94550
(925) 456-2450
http://www.wentevineyards.com/restaurant/
Experiencing Wines of Canada
Coming back to the memories of “ahh-so-distant-by-now” our Canada vacation (it’s been almost a month!), I need to share my wine experiences with you. You might remember two earlier posts (you can find them here and here), which I prefer to refer to as “picture reports”, which gave you the visual expression of the food and some of the wines in Canada. However, we had an opportunity to spend some time in one of the Canadian wine countries, surrounding the small town of Niagara-on-the-Lake – and it was an eye-opening experience for me.
Until this trip, my idea of Canadian wines was very simple – Icewine. I knew for a while that Canada makes some really famous Icewines, which compete with German and Austrian Icewines. Outside of Icewine, my only reference were wines of the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York (general direction of Canada). While I wouldn’t claim that I visited a mass amount of wineries in Finger Lakes, in a few places we visited the only drinkable wines were Rieslings, and all the red wines were plain bad. Therefore, these were my expectations for Canadian wines.
I decided to start from the winery with the name at least I heard of – Inniskillin, and of course, the only wine I knew “of fame” there was an Icewine. As a side note, I want to mention that the winery had a playroom for kids – which is a very important factor in letting adults enjoy wine tasting, even during family vacation. The first wine we tried was 2010 Two Vineyard Riesling – very clean, good tropical fruit expression, all paired with beautiful acidity, a nice finish. This was a great start of the tasting. The next wine completely blew me away – the 2009 Legacy Series Pinot Gris. First, I didn’t expect Pinot Gris to be produced in Canada. But is not the main factor. Very complex, with explicit minerality and spicy bouquet on the palate, this wine still puts a smile on my face when I think about it.
After having a great start with the whites, my level of expectations increased for the reds – and rightfully so. 2009 Montague Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir was very nice, varietally correct with a precise expression of smokiness and red fruit. Again, I would never expect to find a Pinot Noir of such clarity at a winery located so high up North – but I did. 2009 Shiraz Cabernet had perfect acidity, good minerality, just the right balance of dark fruit. 2009 Cabernet Franc was simply my favorite red wine – perfect, very balanced, with clearly expressed green peppers and explicit minerality (you might think that I’m abusing the term – but minerality was one of the key characteristics of all the Inniskillin wines we tasted, so I can’t help myself but to call it out).
As you might expect, sweet wines were next. We are not talking about some arbitrary late harvest wines – we are talking about Icewines, which have the highest sugar concentration out of all sweet wines, as the grapes are ripening on the vines until the frost reaches –8°C (about 17F) – then the grapes are harvested while being frozen and pressed right away – which yields a tiny amount of super-concentrated grape juice – this is why the wines are called Icewine (also such a low yield explains the high price of the Icewines). First, we tried the 2010 Sparkling Vidal Icewine, which was very light and delicate. 2007 Cabernet Franc Icewine was a real star though. I have to mention that Inniskillin was the first winery to produce Icewine from the red grape. Also, Inniskillin worked together with Riedel, the leading wine glass maker in the world, to produce a specially shaped Icewine glass that enhances the aromatics of the Icewine.
Going back to Cabernet France Icewine, it was incredible, one of the best ever dessert wines I ever tried. Why am I saying that? Balance. Ultimate Balance was the first and foremost characteristic of this wine. Beautiful balance, perfect lingering acidity, and literally unnoticeable sweetness – great wine. All in all, it was an outstanding lineup of wines at Inniskillin, I can’t recommend highly enough each and every wine I tried.
Next stop we made at the Cattail Creek Family Estate winery. One of the reasons to pick that particular winery was the fact that they have a few wines with the grapes I didn’t have before, like Chardonnay Musque, or different Riesling clones. I’m glad we stopped by, as we found more great tasting wines, plus most of the wines are made in very small quantities, so many are available only at the winery itself. First, we tried 2008 Catastrophe White, which was perfectly refreshing, with good acidity and a good amount of white fruit. Then we tried 2009 Catastrophe Red, which had very good balance, nice red and black fruit expression, soft and pleasant. It is interesting to note that Catastrophe wine series labels depict real cats who lived at the winery. Last but not least was the 2009 Chardonnay Musque – very nice, with good acidity, good reflection of what Chardonnay is, good subtle tropical fruit expression, more as a hint. This was yet another great experience.
Our last stop was Chateau des Charmes. This winery had the most impressive building of all:
The wines here were also very impressive. We started with 2007 ‘Old Vines’ Riesling (I wanted to experience “old vines” Riesling) – and to my complete surprise, this Riesling had a Petrol nose! I was always under the impression that Petrol nose is a property of only German Rieslings – and here we go, Riesling from Canada with full classic German Riesling expression. In addition to the Petrol nose, it also had very good fruit, medium body and perfect balancing acidity. Next were more of the very impressive Pinot Noirs. 2007 Pinot Noir had a beautiful nose, and lots of tannins on the palate – it was unusually muscular for the Pinot Noir, probably in need of a few years to open up, but still, it was very good. 2007 ‘Old Vines’ Pinot Noir was also very big and powerful, with a clean smoky nose, but also needing time as the previous wine.
Last but not least was 2008 Gamay Noir ‘Droit’, which happened to be a clone of Gamay and therefore it accounted for an additional grape for my “counting grapes” project. This wine had a very unusual herbaceous nose, and was nice and light on the palate – definitely a food-friendly wine.
That concludes the Canadian wine story, as we didn’t have time to visit more places. But even based on this experience, if before I knew of only Icewines from Canada, now all the Canadian wines are squarely on the “to find and drink” list for me – and I highly recommend that you will make an effort to find them and try them as well. The challenge is – I didn’t see that many Canadian wines on the shelves of the wine stores here in Connecticut. Oh well, hopefully, we can change that. Cheers!
Canada Food and Wine Experiences, In Pictures
It appears to be very difficult to write blog posts while on the family vacation, despite all the desire to do so. Therefore, here is a quick report from Canada – all in pictures. I can tell you that so far I had being very happy with food, including restaurants in Niagara Falls (which was not expected considering that this is very popular tourist destination). I was also blown away by the quality of Canadian wine. Before the trip, I honestly thought that outside of the Icewine, Canadian wine would be on the level of Finger Lakes wines in NY, where whites can be drinkable, but reds are simply mediocre. Boy, was I wrong! We visited three wineries, and didn’t have a single bad wine! Well, this will be a subject of a separate blog post, so for now, here is quick report in pictures (warning – don’t look while hungry).
Nachos at Spicy Olive restaurant, Niagara Falls:
Beef Baron restaurant, Niagara Falls:
French Onion Soup:
Escargot:
Spare Ribs:
Wineries experience:
Inniskillin (from whites to reds to Icewines – outstanding, will discuss later):
Inniskillin Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah and Cabernet Franc – WOW:
Inniskillin for those who can’t even drink wine:
Cattail Creek Winery, very interesting whites and reds:
Catastrophe series (note that labels depict real cats):
Chateau des Charmes – you should see that building:
Back to the restaurants:
Cora’s (Niagara Falls) – Breakfast done right!
Breakfast cocktail:
Crepes Egg and Cheese Panini:
Crepe with Raspberries and cream cheese:
Blueberry Pancakes:
Will definitely talk more about wines in the future posts. If you are interested in reading more about restaurants, you can take a look at my page on Yelp (click here). Until the next time – cheers!
Cora
7555 Montrose Road
Niagara Falls, ON L2H3A4
(905) 358-1555
http://www.chezcora.com/home
Honora Winery
Guest Post by Celine Labarre
Honora vineyard and estate is located in Southern Vermont’s Green Mountains of West Halifax, only 2 ½ hours from Boston and 3 ½ hours from Manhattan and are within minutes of Mount Snow Ski Resort, Molly Stark State Park and the Harriman Reservoir.
Avigliano at Honora Winery is a very unique and unforgettable setting for your wedding, civil union, special event or corporate gathering.
Our beautiful 6,000 square foot Napa Style event center is nestled in between two of our vineyards. The French doors that surround the building allow beautiful views from every direction. It is also complete with 2 hand crafted mahogany bars, 6 wrought iron chandeliers and to enhance the ambiance of any event there is a four-sided stone cut fireplace in the center of the space.
On the grounds there are 3 traditional white gazebos or a more rustic wooden arbor on a Belgium block patio that make great locations for ceremony or cocktail areas.
Our facility will be able to accommodate parties up to 200 guests between the hours of 10am and 9pm.
We at Honora Winery & Vineyard will strive to make your event extra special and memorable by providing you with an experience that is unique to your needs. Whether it is traditional, casual or black tie we will be there to surround your guests with our family hospitality … a mix of elegance and warm familiarity.
For more information about having your event at Honora please contact:
Celine Labarre at Celine@honorawinery.com
Long Island Wineries Trip – Great Weather, Great Wines
Talk about being lucky. Last year in October we had a great trip to Long Island wine country, enjoying great weather, 2 hours long lunch with good food, wine, and company. We started planning second annual Long Island Wine Country getaway about 3 months ago – we set the weekend, but who can know about the weather? This is why I’m talking about being lucky. Beautiful weather – just look at the picture of the grapes (accidental leftover after the harvest), against the beautiful blue sky… Immaculate.
And there we went. The plan was simple – visit 3 wineries, taste the wines and have lunch with the wines we like. We started with the Lenz Winery, as it was far-most in our plan. Two things were interesting about Lenz Winery – they are well known for their Sparkling wines, and Lenz Merlot was compared with Petrus, one of the best regarded and equally expensive wines in the world (here is the link if you want to read more about Chateau Petrus, Bordeaux wine from Pomerol). The 2004 Sparkling Cuvee, made from 100% Pinot Noir, was nice, yeasty and balanced. Does it worth $30/bottle? Comparing to actual Champagne – may be, comparing with good California Sparkling wines like Chandon or Mumm, or Gruet from New Mexico – probably not. As for 2002 Old Vines Merlot, the one which should be compared with Petrus – I never had Petrus, so I’m not qualified to make any comparisons. I can only state that I didn’t like that Merlot at all.
The next stop was Jamesport winery. One of the driving forces behind our choice of wineries was a post in Wall Street Journal wine blog by Jay McInerney, where he was talking about tasting great Petit Verdot and other good wines at Jamesport and Paumanok wineries. Since we were planning to have lunch at Paumanok anyway, and Jamesport was around the corner, it was easy to decide that we want to taste the same wines.
I’m glad we stopped at the Jamesport. I chose Estate Series tasting flight out of many others available, and I can tell you that it was one of the very few experiences where I liked each and every wine in the flight. Reserve Chardonnay 2007, Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2007, Riesling 2009, Pinot Noir “Sarah’s Hill” 2007, Estate Merlot Block “E” 2005, Syrah MTK 2007 and Melange de Trois 2005 – all were very good wines. One minor disappointment was the fact that Sauvignon Blanc 2009, highly regarded in James McInerney’s article, was sold out. As we were explained, 2009 was a difficult vintage, and only 350 cases of 2009 Jamesport Sauvignon Blanc were produced, so it is not surprising that it was sold out. But then I have to mention an absolute highlight of the trip. We decided to try Petit Verdot Reserve 2007 – at $100/bottle, the tasting of this wine costs $10 for 3 oz pour, but still, looking for the experience we decided to go ahead and try it. This was one of the best $10 spent on the wine ever – luscious, multi-layered fruit, amazing balance of tannins and acidity and great mid-palate density! Considering my rating system, this was definitely a 9 – and I wish I would have a budget to put a few bottles in my cellar – this wine will evolve amazingly over the next 10-15 years.
The next stop was Paumanok winery, where we finally had our lunch.
We didn’t do tasting flight there, as everybody was already quite hungry, instead, we got a bottle of Rose, and a bottle of Riesling, and 
Paumanok Cabernet Franc 2007. Unfortunately, we couldn’t escape our dose of disappointment here as well, as Paumanok Petit Verdot 2007 ($60), lauded the most in Jay McInerney’s article, was sold out! At least the Cabernet Franc 2007, also highly mentioned in the article, was available ( good value at $24.50). The Cab Franc was very nice, with a refreshing tartness, layers of restrained fruits and medium body – it was simple and pleasant to drink.
The grapes are already harvested on Long Island so the new vintage will be on the way.
The weather is still warm so you can enjoy yourself in the Long Island Wine Country. This year, or the next year, and many years after – the wines are only getting better. Get your friends together and go out and play…
Food, Wine and Finger Lakes
It seems that I’m looking at good prospects of visiting Finger Lakes region of New York quite often over the next four years ( my daughter just started a college there), so I’m gladly taking the opportunity to talk about food and wine in that beautiful part of the country. Finger Lakes region is well known for its multiple wine trails. For a long time, the region was mostly known for it’s Riesling wines, and then white wines, such as Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer, now it is slowly changing with the grapes such as Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin, Baco Noir producing interesting wines.
I have to admit that visiting wineries was not the main purpose of this trip, so with this post, I would like to mostly share the experience around the food. Outside of Panera Bread which is consistently good no matter where you go ( I would personally go as far as declaring it the best implementation of “slow food” in the fast food setting), we visited two other places. First, we had dinner at the restaurant at the Inn called Rogue’s Harbor Inn (it is Bed and Breakfast place). Overall all the food was consistently good, with the focus on local ingredients. The only surprise ( in a bad way) was the smallest fried calamari appetizer I ever saw. All the entrees were done very well, so here are some pictures:
Wild Mushroom Ravioli (great mushroom flavors):
Chevon sausage with greens ( local sausage):
Three cheese Chicken Parmesan:
Scallops Solera:
Few notes about the wine: it was great to see a wine list fully composed of local wines – I think it is great when local 
food is complemented by the local wine. We chose Long Point Ciera Rose 2009, simple and pleasant wine, as it was working well with the variety of dishes we ordered.
Another place we stopped at was Castel Grisch winery. Located in a very picturesque place, the winery offers magnificent views of the lake and surroundings. As we made it to the winery, of course, I had to try the wines. I did try most of the wines, except the ice wines, and unfortunately, I didn’t find anything I like, except Gewurztraminer 2007, which was actually done in Alsace style – dry wine with very nice floral and spice expressions. In addition to the winery, Castel Grisch also operates a very nice restaurant, with a good selection of sandwiches and hearty soups, such as Hungarian goulash soup. I would definitely come back there for the food, but most likely not for the wine.
This would effectively conclude the post. As we had good success with the food, I will make an effort to find good wines – I’m sure I will, as I have plenty of time… And until later – Cheers!
Rogues’ Harbor Inn
2079 East Shore Drive
PO Box 97
Lansing NY 14882
607-533-3535
http://roguesharbor.com/
Chrysalis Vineyards in Virginia – Definitely Worth a Trip
While traversing the wine blogosphere, I came across a post about the book called “The Wild Vine” by Todd Kliman. This sparked my interest because of two reasons – for one, it was talking about the grape called Norton, which was for a long time on my “to try” (of course partially due to the Wine Century Club and my Treble Journey). Another reason was that the book was talking about Virginia on the very first page, and Virginia was already set as my vacation destination for the coming week. To my full delight, Chrysalis Vineyards, located on Champe Ford Road in Middleburg, was the place where The Wild Vine book started, and it happened to be just around the corner of our intended destination in Virginia, which made visiting it very easy.
When visiting wineries in some “well developed” areas, like Napa Valley in California, you usually drive along a big road, simply making turns into short driveways. 
Coming to Chrysalis Vineyards was pleasantly different – a mile and a half on the narrow unpaved road, surrounded by luscious greens. Somehow you get this real rustic feeling, which sets you in the right mood for tasting the wines ( and probably affects the way wines taste, but I guess this will be a subject for another post :)).
There was a great lineup of wines at the winery. There were simply no wines that I didn’t like (has something to do with the road and right mood, huh?), and all the wines were of a very good quality. The selection of grapes that are used at the winery also was very unusual – being accustomed to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah from the West coast, and then Riesling, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir from the Northeast seeing Viognier, Petit Manseng, Albarino, Petit Verdot and Tannat (and of course Norton), was exciting.
The tasting included 12 wines, out of which 2009 Viognier (exceptionally perfumed and vibrant), 2005 Norton Estate Bottled (80% Norton with the addition of Petit Verdot and other grapes, very balanced with silky tannins and long finish), 2005 Petit Verdot (80% Petit Verdot and 20% Tannat, very soft and round) and 2005 Norton Locksley Reserve (again, very balanced and soft) were really shining, I would rate them all at 7+ and 8 (Viognier definitely deserves an 8).
All in all, if you have a chance to visit Chrysalis Vineyards – don’t miss it, go discover the Real American Grape for yourself – and let me know your opinion!
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