Maybe, just maybe, someone in the Israeli wine industry has started reading this blog. I have been writing about the availability of good everyday wines in Israeli supermarkets for over a year. In my opinion, the key to making Israel a normal wine producing and consuming country is via the supermarket distribution channel. In virtually all of the world the vast majority of wine is purchased via supermarkets. Walk through any supermarket in Europe and you will see aisles and aisles of wine and liquor. Even in the US where many states have restrictive wine distribution laws, sales via specialty stores make less than 20% of wine sales. All other wines sales happen via Walmart, Costco, various supermarket chains, and so on. Of course in the US, the kosher consumer has none of these options. Jews for the most part treat wine as a beverage to be consumed on Shabbat, holidays, and special occasions. In countries with good distribution, like France, this is not the case at all. Walk in to your local supermarket and you will find tons of kosher wines on the shelves – priced competitively enough to warrant shelf space in non-kosher markets. In Israel, the market has evolved slowly. Until recently, what was available on supermarket shelves here were Kiddush wines, undrinkable wines imported from Chile, or wines that were mass produced by the large wineries without much care for quality. As the Israeli market has matured, producers realized that the only way to grow the market is to change the culture and make wine a drink consumed daily rather than on weekends and special occasions – and the key to that is providing drinkable wines available in the supermarket –and we have started to see nicer options from the local industry. You can now find nice options from Recanati, Carmel, Teperberg, and Vitkin on your local supermarket shelves. That’s not to say that some of the big producers aren’t still producing drek – they are and it’s as bad as ever – but if you are willing to look past the 25-35 shekel bottles, there is now a wide variety of wines that cost 50-60 shekels and even a few decent wines in the 35-50 shekel category. This has led the importers to try and find ways to compete for some of that market share – and until now I would argue with only mixed results. What has been missing is the largest player in imported kosher wines – Royal. In Israel, Royal wines are imported exclusively by Zur, which for all intents and purposes is the Israeli arm of Royal in terms of imported wines. (Israeli domestic wines are another story, and most Israeli wines imported by Royal in the US use local distribution other than Zur here in Israel – the exceptions being Psagot, Shiloh, and Jezreel.)
For whatever reasons, until recently, prices here in Israel for Royal’s wines was INSANE. Truth is, on the higher end French wines, prices still are! But on Spanish and Italian and on some of the lower end French wines, prices are becoming more reasonable. But most encouragingly, Zur has decided to engage on the supermarket front. This started about two years ago with the entry of the excellent Elvi Herenza Rioja Semi-Crianza which looks like it has been selling well. Now Zur has added some French and Italian to the mix, and I couldn’t be happier, as all of the wines I have seen from Zur/Royal in supermarkets have been excellent so far, unlike much of what we have seen from other importers looking to enter the supermarket space. Why is this so significant? Well, it’s my belief that Royal/Zur can fundamentally alter how wines are sold in Israel if it wants. In the US getting into the supermarket space is likely not a huge opportunity. Jews in the US are far from making wine a part of their everyday consumption – and even then you would be relegated to the “kosher” isle in most locales. Even in the NY metro area where you have super large Kosher supermarkets, they often do not bother carrying wines, as consumption is so low, the hassle of getting a liquor license isn’t worth it – and when they do carry kosher wines, it is a limited selection (though there are notable exceptions). In Israel though, with rare exception, all supermarkets are fully kosher, all major wineries are kosher, and even 90% of the small boutique wineries are kosher. Being kosher isn’t a specialty thing here. It just IS. And so, in Israel Royal has the opportunity to act like a major regular importer of wines and sell through every major supermarket chain. Eventually, like in large supermarkets in the US, you will see chains having larger and larger liquor isles with greater and greater variety. In fact, Zur could do in Israel with other French producers what Royal does in the US with Israeli producers, and that is import from a number of producers that it has relationships with ONLY to Israel (I’m looking at you Taieb!). That could be truly revolutionary and allow supermarkets to be stocked with excellent reasonably priced French wines – something that even the US can’t currently claim! But I’m getting ahead of myself and that is all still just a dream. For now, let’s celebrate what we have, three new wines that are entering the market – all excellent values that sell between NIS 50-65 – and let’s hope that this segment continues to grow.
2019 Chateau Les Riganes, Bordeaux – On the nose, we have rich earth and forest with nice dark red and black fruit. In the mouth, we have a super fun French wine – following through on the nose with rich dark red fruit, cherry and really dark tart raspberry, and a nice earthiness that sort of envelopes this wine through the mid-palate where you get hints of some flint and lead. The fun continues into the finish where you get tons of toasted herb and nice rich tobacco. I don’t want to oversell it – this wine is NOT super complex or deep. It is just a fun medium bodied everyday wine to have with dinner on a weekday. For those of my readers in Israel who have little experience, despite having some nice structure with medium acid and decent tannin, this wine will NOT last more than 2-3 years. So get, drink it and enjoy!
Bottom Line:
- Price: NIS 50-60
- For Aging: No
- Would I Buy Again: Yes
- QPR Rating: Great
- Taste/Depth/Quality: Above Average
- Overall Rating (1-5): 4
2019 Chateau Trijet, Bordeaux – OK so this is a little bit of a cheat, as I didn’t actually purchase it or see it in a supermarket – BUT, it is priced identically to the Riganes, and therefore I have to assume it will make its way into the supermarket aisles as well. This wine has much in common with Riganes with a couple of key differences. On the nose, rather than the upfront red and black fruit and earth, you get menthol and some green notes, only then turning a bit more red with the earth bringing up the rear. The fruit while starting green, is slightly riper as well, though not in an overpowering way. In the mouth the fruit is bright and red with juicy red berries before moving into some nice almost rocky-mineral earthiness, and finally the menthol, which sort of lurks in the background. The finish is impressive for being both green yet ripe. But it is balanced by some excellent acid. Another wine to drink over the next 2-3 years.
Bottom Line:
- Price: NIS 50-60
- For Aging: No
- Would I Buy Again: Yes
- QPR Rating: Great
- Taste/Depth/Quality: Above Average
- Overall Rating (1-5): 4
2019 Terra di Seta, Chianti Classico – Saving the best for last, we have the new release of Terra di Seta Chianti Classico. This is a wine that I have been waiting to hit supermarket shelves here in Israel. And, IMHO, this is the PERFECT vintage for that to happen. Until now, in Israel the TdS wines were priced way above what they were selling for in the US. It’s something that made no sense – Israel is closer to Italy, meaning a cheaper shipping cost. There was really no justification. But. Like Elvi’s wines, Zur has decided to price these more competitively and make their profit in volume rather than on the margin. This seems to be across the board for all of the TdS wines – but for now let’s concentrate on the Chianti Classico. I have to say, I tasted this vintage earlier than I have any other past vintage. In fact, it has been on shelves for close to two months already. On opening, in fact as soon as you pour it almost, you can tell that this is a lighter wine than previous vintages. On the nose, you can almost smell the acid, which we will talk about in a second. But what you get is some excellent smoke, toasted herbs, and a hit of menthol. The wine is closed. And I think more closed than I remember the 2018 being – but I ascribed that to the fact that I am tasting it super early relative to previous years. At this point, the wine tasted of ripe red fruit, menthol, and crazy acid. But it just felt one-dimensional to a degree, and it was not what I expected. So I left this wine until the next day and had it with lunch – and then again with dinner – so basically I experienced this wine over 24 hours. The wine IS super young. Period. After 12 hours the improvement was so marked I could hardly believe it. On the nose you get excellent umami notes that are there up front – mushrooms and soy sauce in addition to the beautiful smoky flavors and nice red fruit from the previous day. Totally balanced and beautiful. In the mouth, what felt slightly thin yesterday felt perfect today – and it’s not that the wine filled out body wise – this is a LIGHT wine. Lighter than any previous vintage and quite frankly EXACTLY what I always have been looking for in an entry level Chianti. It’s that the flavor has filled out over the entirety of the wine, with smoked meat, ripe red fruit, menthol, mushrooms, and rocky earth. The finish is all herb and quite lovely. The acid, while still incredibly high, works with fruit, and the tannin give this a firm base to carry through, but is also lighter than usual. All of this equals a PERFECT everyday wine. We don’t all eat steak every day. You want to have a bowl of pasta? This will work. You want to have chicken (or duck)? Yup – this works. Burger night? Yup, I can see the acid cutting through the richness of a burger. Fish? Salmon and tuna for sure – or any heavier fish (light bodied white fish might get washed out – though, it too MIGHT work). Chinese food? Well, there we may have gone too far – I like my Chinese food spicy, and this bottle would be wasted in that situation. But my point is, this may be the perfect everyday dinner bottle – exactly because at its heaviest it can best be described as medium boded – with excellent acidity and light tannin that just works in almost every Monday night dinner situation I can think of at a price that is really hard to beat. This is EXACTLY what you want in a supermarket wine – a bottle that I can walk in, pull off the shelf, and have with almost anything I am thinking of eating on any given night. The added bonus here is that there IS depth – but not at the expense of that wonderful lighter body! If there is one criticism it’s that it might be a tad too young – and I hope that people give it the time it needs or at least the air. Personally. I’m stocking up. This wine should hold for five years easily and if previous vintages are any indication, even longer.
Bottom Line:
- Price: NIS 55-65
- For Aging: To a degree
- Would I Buy Again: Absolutely
- QPR Rating: Great
- Taste/Depth/Quality: Great
- Overall Rating (1-5): 4+