Saturday, August 20, 2011

Austria/Israel - white & red

This defines a great evening: warm, smart and funny friends along with excellent food accompanied by great wines from Israel and Austria. Starting with the elegant GV von den terassen 2006 from FX Pichler then Margalit Cabernet Franc 2007. Common theme: spicy elegance. Both wines showed very well and were a very good match to Mediterranean food.

FX Pichler
is among the most celebrated Austrian winemakers and is definitely a great producer. The quality of this wine was a surprise for me as it's a "standard" Smargad, but proved to be among the best I've had from this winery. Aroma and mouth wise, this is a very typical Smargad (highest quality level) Wachau Gruner Veltliner (GV).

Pichler GV Smargad von den terrassen 2006
Very elegant wine, starts with white flowers blossom and tropical fruits. Then you get the spices: pepper & vanilla. Everything works together towards a rounded and smooth mouth. Long elegant finish, 95


Margalit continues to produce the best red wines (unfortunately they stopped producing whites around 2000) in Israel. I voluntarily participated in producing the wines in 2007 - that was a birthday surprise, arranged by my wife. However, the wine tasted here was put into fermentation at another day. So, no personal interest here. This is mostly Cabernet Franc, with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon wine, from the upper Galilee.

Margalit, Cabernet Franc 2007
Deep, lively color. Very elegant, with black currents, black cherries and a note of blackberries along with black and green peppers. This is a very well integrated wines, with a smooth mouth feel and light tannin. Ready for drinking, but with years ahead. Great, long finish. 92

2 comments:

mr vancouver said...

Looks like a promising wine and I would love to try white and red combi.

Unknown said...

My mother used to always say "I love to cook with wine...sometimes I even put it in the food!" There's nothing quite like a good bottle of red wine. Thanks for the article, I really enjoyed your commentary and opinions!

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