Shorr Marselan 2018 Red Wine Review

Shorr Marselan 2018 Red Wine Review

The Shorr “Estate” Winery

Photos taken from MakorRishon

https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/13/ART2/750/506.html

The winery, which lays claim to being the oldest winery in modern Israel, was not so much founded but began organically in the family home of the שור Shorr family around 1848, using their basement in the Muslim Quarter in the Ir Atika of Yerushalayim (The Old City of Jerusalem). The Shorr family had come from a long line of wine makers.

“Shor” means “ox”, in Hebrew. Why they added an extra “r” so that it spells “Shorr”, I don’t know.

I read somewhere that the warehouse where they kept the barrels, lay on the other side of one of the actual outer walls of the Beis HaMikdash (The Holy Temple), although this is not mentioned on their site.

The story goes that both British Sir Moses Montefiore and French Baron Edmond de Rothschild, were so impressed with the winery, that this inspired them to invest not only in wine production in the Land of Israel but in establishing modern industry in general, here in Israel. Rothschild would go on to found the Carmel winery, still Israel’s largest winery today. But, contrary to common belief, they were not the first to establish a winery here.

So, you could say that the modern State of Israel owes this almost totally anonymous winery and its now 7^th generation owners, the Shorr family, much HaKoros HaTov, (a tremendous sense of gratitude).

The winery moved to its new location in Mishor Adumim, an industrial zone outside Ma’ale Adumim, in the 1970s.

You can find information about the Shorr winery on the Internet, under the name “Hacormim”, which I believe is the parent wine company.

https://hacormim.com/en/

Hacormim wines concentrates (no pun intended), almost exclusively on producing factory production generic sweet “Kiddush” style wines and ubiquitous table wines.

Interesting information can be found here but unfortunately, it’s all in Ivrit.

http://www.shorr1848.com/

The company is actually well-known amongst Israelis and Jewish tourists for their “Konditon” wine brand, whose very recognisable “ancient parchment” looking label, hasn’t changed in more than 40 years.

It is a syrupy sweet and spicy aged dessert wine which, according to the website, is made from a centuries old traditional recipe, mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud.

I actually remember more than 30 years ago in my young single days, whenever my Rav would invite me for Shabbos, I would stop off on the way to buy him a bottle of this stuff at Machane Yehuda market. It was his favourite Kiddush wine. Something which I was previously unaware of, but reading the notes on the Internet site, it seems that Konditon is even fortified with Israeli Brandy.

As they say on their website the bulk of their products consists of, “…superior quality sweet, aged, and dessert wines and pure grape juice, in the tradition handed down from previous generations”.

I visited the Shorr winery a few weeks ago and got to speak (although all too briefly), with the owner, Eli Shorr. Out of all his wine ranges, it soon became clear that he is most-proud of his Konditon style wines, even more so, dare I say, than his small range of premium dry wines, which I am about to review now.

Embarrassingly, I was not at first aware of this fact and walked straight into trouble at the very beginning of our chat, when I expressed my opinion that I personally would not touch any sweet syrupy wine with a barge poll, even going as far as to say that I didn’t think one should say Kiddush over it! He seemed visibly upset and even insulted by this and it wasn’t exactly the best of starts to our talk.

I was, up until a few months ago, totally unaware that the winery does produce a range of premium wines and they even neglect to mention this fact on their hacormim website!

So how did I become aware of this Shorr range?

As luck would have it, I received a bottle of “Marselan 2018 vintage”, as a Purim gift from a close friend who works for the OU Kosher certification organisation and who had only recently visited the winery. So impressed was I with this wine that I reached out to the winery to ask them where I could get some more. I was then contacted by the owner himself, Eli Shorr, who invited me to his winery where he was willing to sell me the wine in boxes of six-packs.

The winery is at the end of one of the many roads in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, littered with factories and workshops. I doubt very much that anyone driving by, would ever realise there was a “craft” winery there at all. The whole front of the building is covered in over hanging greenery and bushes which acts as excellent camouflage, and unless you happen to look up at just the right moment, you would be forgiven for missing the wooden plaque reading “Shorr Winery” at the very top of this rather run down looking building. Moreover, opposite the road on the right hand side, as you drive up is the huge HaCormim factory complex where I assume, they produce the sweet wines and grape juice.

Looking through the gates of the winery, you can see lots of old rusting winery equipment from bygone days, like a half-hearted attempt at arranging an outdoor winery museum. There are also old wine casks with rusty rings scattered all over the place.

I was buzzed in through the security gate by Eli. Walking through the front yard and then entering through the main entrance, it is immediately clear that this is a place which does not see many visitors, although underneath all the debris lying around, it seems that the design of this edifice was rather grand. Certainly not in the style of a factory.

Whilst looking around, I reached the conclusion that if they ever wanted to, it would be perfectly possible at minimum expense to turn the yard and main room as you enter, into a modest visitor’s centre. With the massive popularity of visiting wineries here in Israel, and the affluent town of Ma’ale Adumim right on their door step, they have, in my opinion, a huge potential for a real business opportunity.

Is Shorr really an Estate Winery?

Being a bit of a purist, and having just visited Tura Estate winery, only a few weeks before, cemented my notion of an Estate Winery as an estate in the countryside, surrounded by vineyards, where everything is done on site. So, I asked Eli how he can justify the use of the term “Estate”, when none of the grapes he uses are grown anywhere near the winery, being in the middle of the Judean desert? I used Tura, Gvaot and Gush Etzion as examples of “true” Estate Wineries.

He explained that in fact, you can use the term “Estate” for wine which is fermented and stored for maturation in the same location and that there are plenty of so called “Estate” wineries here in Israel, where they use grapes which were not grown in the area of winery, including, he said, Tura and Gush Etzion.

Now, whilst this could be true that these wineries may not exclusively use grapes grown in their local area, I do know that, unlike Shorr, which is in the middle of a factory complex, surrounded by miles of sand dunes, both Tura and Gush Etzion on the other hand, do have vineyards surrounding their wineries, and certainly, in my opinion, look the part!

A Massive Misunderstanding

I managed to ask Eli one more question before we had to end the conversation. There had been a massive misunderstanding. In all fairness to Eli, he had been expecting some guy to turn up, take the box of wine, pay and leave, and was not expecting the likes of me and all my questions. I, on the other hand, being used to visiting distilleries and wineries, even those which do not have official visitor’s centres, was under the wrong impression that I was being “invited” by appointment, to have a look around and a chat. How wrong I was!

Which Type Casks had he used for maturing his Marselan?

I told him that because of my years of experience with Single Malt Whisky, I thought that I had detected the flavour influence of American Oak cask maturation in the Marselan, which I found surprising, seeing as almost all wineries here in Israel use French Oak. So I asked him what type Oak casks did they in fact use? French or American Oak?

He said that he wasn’t sure off the top of his head but assumed that they were all French oak. However, later he kindly “WhatsApp”ed me and told me that in fact I was correct! The Marselan was matured in a combination of American and French Oak casks.

The “Grape of Joy” or Joy “ג'וי” Series

Actually, Shorr have an entry level series called “The Hello” but I have as yet not come across any of them.

The “Joy” series consists of the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Marselan, all Vintage 2018. When I arrived at the winery, Eli had prepared a box of six bottles for me, containing four Marselans, one Merlot and one Cabernet Sauvignon. Each bottle has a retail price of 60 Shekels but I managed to find them in Machane Yehuda market on special offer for 3 for 100 Shekels.

The Artwork and Label Design

Shiloh Winery "Shor" Range

When I saw the label and the Shorr name, I quite understandably mistook it initially as a newly labelled bottle of wine from the Shiloh winery, from their excellent “Shor” range. However, on closer inspection, Shorr appeared to be the name of the winery!

I think that it would be in their interest to make an effort in any redesign of the label, to distance the Shorr winery label from the Shiloh Shor range. Apart from this, can anyone please explain to me what the connection between Oxen and wine is?

Label Design

In the top left hand side, we have a very impressively designed looking crest.

There is, what looks like a vase of Grapes, but on closer inspection, the vase morphs into a graphical illustration of an Ox’s head. At the top of the crest is the representation of the walls of the Jerusalem Old City.

It is a visually striking and very clever design. Actually, if you look at it again, the crest design may actually double up as the top of a wine glass, (all be it with a jagged edge)?

The rest of the label shows an illustration of a vineyard and is quite typical of wine labels. However, this is where in my opinion, it goes all wrong, for, superimposed on top of this scenic vineyard, is this huge monster of an ox. It stands there, on its hind legs, as if it is just about to jump out of the picture and gore you to death.

With the vineyard behind, the ox is completely out of all proportions. Its face has human features and frankly, it looks a bit creepy.

When I asked around 20 people for their opinion, all of them expressed their dislike for this superimposed ox. A few even said that it reminded them of some kind of ancient Avoda Zara statue. In short, no one had a single nice thing to say about it.

The Label Text

I typed it out:

סדרת "ג'וי" מביאה לביטוי ייחודי את האהבה והאושר המציף שהגפן מעבירה ליין.

היינות בסדרה נוצרו בתשומת לב רבה מגפנים שטופחו ביד אוהבת ונבצרו בעדינות רבה בחשכת לילה קריר בכרמי היקב.

לאחר התסיסה נשלח היין למנוחה והתבגרות סבלנית באולמות קרירים עטוף בעץ אלון למשך 12 חודשים, ובהגיעו לפרקו הועבר בעדינות ואכפתיות לבקבוק ושב למנוחת איזון קצרה לפני שיחלק אתכם את ה"ג'וי" שלנו.

הרכב היין: 85% מרסלן, 15% פטי ורדו. מקור הענבים צפון והנגב הענבים נבצרו בשיא בשלותם הפנולית ליצירת יין רך ונגיש.

 

Here is my own rough translation:

The “Joy” series uniquely expresses the overwhelming love and happiness that the vine brings to wine.

The wines in the series were carefully crafted from lovingly hand-picked vines and very gently carved in the cool night darkness of the winery's vineyards.

After fermentation, the wine was sent to rest and patiently matured in cool halls wrapped in oak for 12 months,

And when it arrived, it was gently and caringly transported to the bottle and returned to a brief resting position before handing you our “Joy”.

Wine composition: 85% Marselan, 15% “Petit Verdot”.

The source of the northern and Negev grapes was at the height of their phenolic ripeness to make soft and accessible wine.

---------

Below, it states that this wine is bottled at 14% ABV.

There are also no less than four different Kashrus Certifications:

OU-P, Badatz Beit Yosef, Chief Rabbanut Yerushalayim, HaBadatz Shel Agudas Yisrael.

(I find it interesting that it doesn’t have the local Ma’ale Adumim Rabbincal Certification, as most food products produced in Mishor Adumim seem to have).

18 Charuvit 18, Maale Adumim. (I don’t know why it says this because it’s actually in Mishor Aumim).

The Internet site www.shorrestatewinery,co,il printed on the label is dead!!!

It’s nice to see the Production Date clearly stated on the label as: 13/09/2019

As mentioned above, from my talk with Eli Shorr, I found out that the casks used for maturation were Two-Thirds French oak and One Thirds American Oak.

This is not just a criticism of Shorr as it’s common to many Israeli wine labels, but the text is 80% fluffy marketing nonsense which could be describing literally any wine made anywhere and at any time.

I think today’s wine drinkers are a bit more sophisticated than in previous generations, and this kind of marketing is no longer acceptable.

By all means, wrap it up in romantic elegant verse, but people want useful information on their wine labels. Some facts about the grape is surely in order. Tell us where the vineyard is situated. Which Cask type / types were used?

(Okay, end of my little rant).

The Marselan Grape Story

Caption: Photo From Wikipedia.com

Marselan is a red wine grape variety created in France in 1961 by Vinter Paul Truel near the French town of Marseillan. (Hence its name).

The grape variety is a cross between the classic and much used French Cabernet Sauvignon and Spanish Grenache grape. The grapes are mostly grown in France, a few in California and have become very popular in China.

The variety produces large clusters of small grapes, which was thought to be perfect for wine making. It also has good disease resistance and has good potential for aging.

It is a late harvest grape giving the body character of a Cabernet Sauvignon with the ability to flourish in warmer climates like the Grenache.

It was only admitted into the Official varieties of Wine making grapes in 1990.

So, on the face of it, this grape would seem perfect for the Israeli climate.

Besides Shorr, Recanati, Binyamina, Beit El and Ella Valley are all producing Marselan wine, although I only managed to find the Recanati Marselan in the wine shops.

 

Typical Flavours

According to various YouTube videos, these are the typical flavour notes one is likely to find in a Marselan:

[Please note that I compiled these tasting notes from YouTube AFTER I had written down my personal tasting notes for this Shorr].

Much more like (and often confused with) a Rich Cabernet Sauvignon type Black Red colour. Not like the Grenache which tends to be a light rusty brown. Earthy. Mild Tannins. Like a carefully crafted soft CS. Dark Cherry and Strawberry fruit notes. Slightly herbaceous with soft spices.

 

Shorr Marselan Tasting Notes

Friday afternoon, after placing the chicken, beef and potato kuegel on the Shabbos platter, I opened this bottle and left it in my cocktail cabinet, (away from little grandkids hands), to oxidise for just over 2 hours. This was about the time it takes to take a shower, get dressed for Shabbos, go to shul (or rather the park besides the shul), come back, sing Shalom Aleichem, Aishes Chayil and bless all the children and grandchildren, and then manage to get everyone around the Shabbos table so that we could finally say Kiddush.

 

Colour and Appearance

A Clean Cherry Red Black. Good. Swirling this around in the glass, it has a good viscosity, showing thick alcohol tears.

Aroma

Wine experts often talk about a wine in terms of Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol, and Sweetness. I think that’s like assessing HiFi Loud Speakers or headphones in terms of Low, Mid and High Ranges and Oscilloscope tables. It sounds scientific and impressive but to me it’s meaningless unless the reviewer can translate this into what it’s like to listen to music with this equipment, which after all, is the ultimate goal. Which is why I think it’s important, instead of talking in terms of combinations of acidity and Sweetness, we mention a fruit which we are all familiar with, which will relate far more accurately, the reviewer’s experience with the wine.

So, instead of saying that this wine has good medium acidity, I will say that the wine shows some bold fruity flavours Red fruits like Black Cherries, Tart Strawberries and Raspberries.

Rich aromas of Dark Parev Chocolate and a hint of Expresso coffee.

Sweet Glazed Cherries

There is also a slightly earthy and mineral-y smell with mild kitchen spice notes.

Sweet Blackcurrant and Cinnamon cake.

Drinking

Luscious dark fruits - black cherries and strawberries. There is a lovely mineral stone flavour that accompanies the fruit. Less like pebbles and more like black rocks or black slate used as hand held black boards. (I probably tasted this a child).

 

A good weight to this wine with silky smooth Tannins, even on an empty stomach.

Medium to almost full CS quality body, but not quite.

It reminded me very much of the excellent Gvaot Cabernet Sauvignons.

After HaMotzi and now with a piece of Challah and Smoked Salmon inside of us, drinking this Marselan, exposed even more flavour complexity and body.

Notably, there are strong indications of use of Quercus Alba American Toasted White Oak for maturation with lovely caramel-vanilla / toffee flavours. (The use of Toasted American Oak casks was later confirmed by Eli Shorr).

Lovely medium to long aftertaste of fruits, chocolate and wood spices.

I can honestly say that in a blind tasting, I’d probably guess this was as a Gvaot or Ramot Naftoli -  that kind of quality and style. Moreover, I would have estimated this Marselan at around the 100 – 120 Shekel range.

Conclusion

I heartily recommend this very special wine. It is really delicious, perfect for Kiddush as well as the rest of the Shabbos seuda, and is excellent value for money.

The other Grape Varieties – Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon

After getting all excited about this Marselan, I was really looking forward to drinking and evaluating the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Unfortunately, with great sadness, I have to tell you that the two other grape varieties in this series were totally underwhelming. I cannot tell you how bitterly disappointed I was.

Both showed the same problem. They both had lovely fruity and wood spice aromas promising much, but this simply did not translate into the flavour. It was as if after smelling, someone had poured a cup of water into the wine.

The taste was thin, watery, lacking any complexity with no aftertaste whatsoever.

In other words, they both tasted like cheap plonk. Descent table wine the likes of which you would find at a “Simcha Hall”, costing 30 – 40 Shekels.

Conclusion

Not recommended unless you see them on offer for around 35 Shekels, and even then, the huge discrepancy between aroma and flavour would still, in my opinion, be off putting.

Where can you purchase these Wines?

I have no idea in which markets they sell their premium dry wine series, but it doesn’t seem to be to the local Israeli market. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while, would know that I pretty much know every wine shop in Yerushalayim and asking around, (where as everyone had heard of Eli Shorr), no one I found actually stocks his products. The only place in Machane Yehuda market where I did find Shorr wines for sale, was a large butcher’s shop called “Simman Tov”, at 92 Rechov Agrippas, who are selling the bottles at 3 for 100, instead of the RRP of 60 Shekels.

I haven’t seen them anywhere else, and that’s after a month of looking. Perhaps it all goes to the export market, hence their requirement for the OU Kashrus certification?