This is pleasing. Following my alphabetic wine selection rules has paid off this week. Whilst shopping for some light nibbles to enjoy with friends I was keeping an eye open for a red wine with a significant R. I spotted this:
This is the first wine I have selected that is made in Israel. Specifically, in the Judean Hills (not the Hills of Judea...apologies for that, but it was a great film) which the bottle tells me is the source of many of Israel's finest wines.
Recanati is a winery founded in 2000 and named after one of its founders, Lenny Recanati, the other being Uri Shaked. If you want to read more about them and their story click here.
This wine doesn't appear on their website and this is often the case for wines sold in M&S, as there is a credit to M&S winemaker Sue Daniels at the bottom of the back label which earlier names Kobi Arviv as the maker in the winery, suggesting this is a custom blend / style only sold through M&S.
Carignan has its origins in South-West France and is known as a robust if rustic grape, and Petite Sirah, also known as Durif after Fraçoise who created it in the late 19th century by crossing Syrah with Peloursin, also hails from France but has become more common in US, Australia and, as in this case, Israel. It's another tannic grape and it seems to blend well with Carignan, based on the evidence of this bottle.
I sipped my way through a glass and a bit whilst cooking a pork fillet stuffed with chestnuts and mincemeat and found it very enjoyable. It made its presence felt quite noticeably and so I saved the rest to have with the meal. The sweetness of the mincemeat provided a welcome counterpoint to the plummy wine and helped balance the ripe tannins in the wine.
Buy again? Why not, as I have plenty of red wine enthusiast friends who would consider this a tenner well spent.
No comments:
Post a Comment