Ultimate Wines for Succos!

Hello there everybody, we're back. It's Jay Bookspan with Gib Geller and we're going to talk about sukkahs this time and I got my pink sukkah shirt on. It's already the second day and we're sitting in the fresh beautiful sunshine here in wonderful Elizabeth, New Jersey with our new rabbi Nath in town and what's the first wine up? Okay so Barn Herzog Chardonnay. This is definitely not a new wine, it's been around for a very long time and it happens to be one of the favorite wines of David Shmuley Herzog, the chairman of the company, former CEO and it's just a wonderful, bright, high quality Chardonnay for a very very affordable price. How much is it by the way? About 13 bucks. 13-14 bucks at most. Emavushel, so if you're having, like I, the Ayan Hara, have large crowds, many of which may not be from my own family and may not be strictly observant, you know this is a great wine. They can look at it, they can pick it up, they can talk about it, they could do whatever they want and still it retains its cautious integrity. It's even got some elements of Russian River, meaning this seems to me that there's some L&L, malolactic creaminess to it, there's some vanilla to it. Can you tell me how that's possible on a wine of this price range? I think that the, you know, Herzog makes great value wines and it's quite possible that at least some of the wine goes through malolactic fermentation and I do believe, I'm pretty sure actually, that some of the wine is aged for a short time in oak barrels. And I'm going to tell you a secret, but don't tell anybody about this, there's something called oak staves and that is that they try to imitate, not just try to, it imitates actually putting in a barrel by putting in close oak wood staves, wood pieces in the stainless steel tank and that draws out just like it would in an oak barrel, but without the expense and that's how they're able to produce this really delicious Chardonnay for this really wonderful price. Okay, what's up next? All right, so we have the Shiloh Legend Ira, not Ira, Ira. Ira. And who is Ira? So Ira was one of the officers, soldiers of King David, played an instrumental role in the wars fought by King David and the whole Legend series, we have the Shiloh Legend Adino, the Shiloh Legend Itay and the Shiloh Legend Ira. And each of these wines have a different blend and each of them pays a tribute to one of those heroes of David. And I have to tell you this wine is primarily based on southern France Mediterranean blends, it's got Carignan, Grenache, Syrah and Barbera. Right, so a true Mediterranean blend. Mediterranean. Oh my gosh, is he ever going to become an American? Wow, I love the aromas on this, you know it actually, even though there's no Pinot Noir in here, it actually gives me the impression of some Beaujolais style. I hear that, it's like really red fruit driven, which is typical of Grenache and Carignan, they have those strong strawberry and raspberry notes and really really nice, this is great acidity, it's really a food wine. Right, you can even feel the acidity on your gums and so those tannins are there, but it's not heavy tannins, not hard tannins, they're more a little bit creamier than you would expect when you get that gum kind of tannin flavors. And this would be great for, what kind of food would you put that with? Wow, I think I would have some lamb chops. Oh really? I actually would put it with more of a fatty fish or a mushroom chicken, you know earthy or fatty, but not lamb chops yet, I think we'll get to that. Like salmon in a tomato, you know. I think we'll get to the lamb chops soon, but I don't think we're there yet. By the way, you mentioned the Vuchal before with the Bornherzog, the Chilo Legend, Adino and Itai, the two other Chilo Legend wines are Vuchal, this one is not, so something important to be aware of. Okay, what's next up? Next up is something really special about this one. Very special, so the Chilo Legend, you know, is a bit of a lighter red, so to speak. Here we have the Jezreel Icon, big, big ball, heavy ball, and it's a big bold wine inside. It's the flagship wine of Jezreel winery, and specifically the 2019 Vintage, which we are tasting now, got 94 points rating, I believe from James Suckling, truly an amazing achievement for any wine, but for an Israeli wine in particular. And James Suckling is a nice Jewish boy, right? Absolutely not, and he did not taste this wine as a kosher wine, he tasted it as a high quality wine from Israel. If you can find the 19 still on store shelves, get it and grab it real quick, but if you can't, the 20 is just as good, perhaps better. It does not have a rating yet, but I'm pretty confident that it's going to yield some consistent results with the previous Vintage. Wow, wow, what a mouthful. It's six years since its Vintage, six. We're in 25, this is a 19. Oh my gosh, I still get the tannins on my gums, it's already 30, 60, 90 seconds later than when I tasted it, and the full flavors are still there. It goes on and on. Oh my gosh, and it's in the back of the mouth, it's in the front of the mouth, it's on the tip of the tongue, it's on my cheeks, it's my goodness, it's everywhere. It's a really interesting blend of like fruit forward, ripe fruit at the front, but there's some earthiness on the finish that gives complexity and a really unique twist to it. Okay, so again, what kind of food would you put with this? So I would go big, like a standing rib roast, for instance. Got some really delicious rib roast from Argentina delivered to me, and we're going to have it this year, so we'll see how that works out with this. Okay, and by the way, Jacob Nair, David, and the entire team at Jezreel has done a fabulous job of really doing a fabulous job. And what's the alcohol on this? It's probably 5 or 15 percent, 15 percent. Okay, and the last wine that we're going to have for this sukkah, so it's a very special wine that, you know, I was really amazed with it when I first tasted it. It's a dessert wine from Kamisa. Rancher Rinse. Let's do a little rinse. So it's a late harvest Gewurztraminer. What is the grape variety that's used in here? It's 100 percent Gewurztraminer. There's great acidity here, and you know, it's interesting, there's even some tannins on the finish. Which means that it had to spend some time with the skins in order to get tannins, right? You had to spend, I mean, right, just a little bit. But wow, again, one of those wines, just like the Icon, very different of course, but that stays with you. That is a long, long, and it's on the sides, it's on your cheeks, it's a little bit on the gums, which is very unusual for white. Wow, that's a truly unique one, and it's aged for six months in oak barrels. Wow, yeah. What's interesting about that is, is that, you know, you would expect if it's aged for six months, it would be more golden in color. It's got a touch of gold, but mostly it's kind of yellow with only a touch of gold, so it's real fresh. It doesn't have that, you know, oak aged, you know, oldness, if you will. Sometimes that's good, but it doesn't have that here. It's just really fresh, and fruity, and nice acidity. Wow. Honestly, I cannot compare it to any other dessert wine that I know. It has a very unique taste to it, and I would actually be curious, you know, to see how it ages. I have to tell you that because of the acidity on it, it has to have dessert wine. Drinking this alone is good initially, but that bitterness, which is great when you have something with it, actually, you know, you want something to balance that out. Right. So this is really, this is really great fruit wine, I'm sorry, dessert wine to go with. So let's just review real quick. Even vanilla ice cream. Yeah. The scoop of vanilla ice cream in this would be great. Unbelievable. Okay, so we had the Barenherzeg Chardonnay, a little creaminess to it, a little bit of malolactic, you think, a little bit of oak influence. Then you've had an amazing QPR, great quality price ratio. Then you had the Shiloh Legend Ira, which is a Mediterranean blend. Correct. I think it retails for 40, 45. Okay. That would be great with lots of great foods, especially, I said, like kind of mushroom and chicken and even fish in a red sauce of some kind. Then the Icon, one of the highest rated Israeli wines of all time at 94 rating from Suckling, who's not a good Jewish boy, nice boy, but not a good Jewish boy, and rated it just as a great wine of the world. And that was something really big, like a rib roast, right? Correct. And I said, I'm going to try to have it with our Argentinian. Delicious. And finally, the Pi Blanc from Camisa, which is 100% Gewurztraminer and must, must require some really delicious dessert with it. There's plenty of great rosés and sparkling wines and others that you can quaff, you know, after lunch or, you know, in the afternoon in the backyard. But this one deserves a really great sweet white or fruit driven dessert. So Gabe, I have to thank you. This was such a great, you're the one who always chooses the wines and somehow you did it again. You picked a whole bunch of great ones, by the way, notice that except for the Herzog, all the others are Israeli. That's right. So, you know, you're really focusing in on that. And hopefully by the time you all see this out here, all the hostages will be home as our thoughts continue and prayers continue to be with the hostages, their families and the safety of all in the Holy Land. This is J. Booksbaum and Gabe Gatter. Have a great year, everybody. Great year. Chag Sameach.