Hello folks!
I've spent this last Thursday morning (and some of the afternoon as well) in the good company of Forumite Elie Poltorak and his cousin at the state-of-the-art Yatir's winery & vineyards. We were hosted by the winery's passionate founder and CEO Yaakov Ben Dor and were joined later on by Eran Goldwasser the head winemaker by the end of the tasting (he was hosting a Czechian winemaker). After showing me the beautiful vineyards, surroundings and views of the forest, Yaakov and I drove down to Arad to meet with Elie where sits the winery's facilities, passing by breathtaking views and camels.
After visiting the barrels, bottling and tanks rooms we were given a complete and exhaustive tasting of the winery's line up.
As well, thanks to a friend that will go unnamed here, we were given the big surprise of having the opportunity to taste their unique "Port" (more some kind of a dessert wine, very interesting wine), a one-time run of 2 barrels having produced about 500 bottles that were sold exclusively at the winery and which are sold out. Yaakov treated us with the very last bottle left.
Following are the notes for the wines I haven't yet published/tasted.
Yatir, Viognier 2010: Light greenish gold with on the nose flowery tones such as honeysuckle, stone fruits, light to medium-bodied, stoney minerals and fruits such as white peaches and fresh apricots, pears, yellow grapefruits and quince, nice acid, some wet grass along some citrus zest bitterness on the moderately long finish. IMHO much better than the 2009. By the end of the tasting we re-tasted the Viognier at which point most the stone fruits had receded highlighting notes of honey and sweet pears.
Yatir, Syrah 2009: Dark purple with on the nose saddle leather, blackberries, black pepper, blueberries and plums. Full-bodied with on the palate wild ripe blueberries, boysenberries, smoked meat, purple, plums leafy bitterness, bracing acid with mouth coating tannins rising on the very long finish. Loved it.
Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon 2009: Dark garnet towards purple, on the nose ripe cassis, blackberries, crushed berries, dark chocolate. Much of the same going on the palate with this full-bodied wine together with bright acid, some fresh blue and black fruit, cassis, tobacco with searing tannins coating the mouth on the very long finish. Really nice, liked it a lot more than the 2007 (haven't tasted the 2008).
Yatir, Port-style 2005: This wine is made of relatively late harvested 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that had a reasonable 26 brix at harvest. The fermentation was stopped by adding some 5 years-old Carmel brandy and spent a bit more than a year in oak. On the nose this wine features some cherry liqueur, sweet licorice and wood and differentiates itself on the palate as a "Port" by the absence of dried fruits notes instead of which take place sweet fleshy fresh fruits such as plums and blackberries with very good acid, notes of black coffee and milk chocolate, sweet cherries and almonds lingering on the endless finish. Absolutely delicious!
Yatir, Merlot - Cabernet Sauvignon- Shiraz 2008: Dark garnet with on the nose smoked meat, blackberries, ripe cassis and raspberries, smoked wood. Full-bodied with on the palate some almost overripe black fruit and toasty wood, much less acid than the other wines of the line up with velvety tannins, sweet chocolate and mocha on a very long finish. Quite good and certainly a much better wine than the 2-3 previous vintages. Unfortunately the following 2009 vintage isn't as good.
Yatir, Merlot - Cabernet Sauvignon- Shiraz 2009: Dark garnet with a purple hue. On the nose some animal notes, sweet red fruit and leather as well as plums. Full-bodied with on the palate somewhat overripe black and red fruit, licorice, prunes, a touch of sweet tobacco and vanilla with tannins that rise on a fairly long finish. Decent but not great.
Best,
GG
