Vineyard: Barkan
Wine: Syrah, 2000
Type: Very Dry Red

This is a fresh new wine in Israel and Barkan has done a wonderful job in marketing and packaging it with panache and style.

Barkan has bottled this Syrah, 2000 in an attractive, striking, sleek black bottle with a red label streaked with black letters spelling Syrah. Small gold letters on the top of the label spell out the winery, Barkan.

If syrah is a new grape for you, perhaps you have tasted it under the name shiraz. Here, in Israel, it is called syrah. In Australia and South Africa it is called shiraz.

This syrah was aged in small oak casks for six months before being bottled. The taste is spectacular.

You feel the power of the wine with your first sip. Actually, instinctively, you pucker because the wine is so very dry. This is a wine that must accompany food. Drink it alone, as a night cap or on a social afternoon with friends and you will be disappointed. It has a full body and is a very fragrant and powerful wine. The wine is so fragrant, in fact, that you need not even swirl it in your glass to smell the aroma.

This wine will certainly age well and will be superb in 2-3 years. This is a different type of wine for Israel and the kosher wine drinker. It is an experiment with tremendous success.

Rated: 9+