CLOS DE GAT | Har’el | Syrah | Judean Hills | 2014
syrah

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Today we are going to review a quite unique wine – Har’el Syrah Judean Hills 2014 by Clos de Gat. This is a single varietal syrah wine that has been produced with grapes from vineyard sites around the Judean Mountains, bordering Israel’s biblical Ayalon Valley, where Joshua defeated the Five Kings. An ancient “Gat” (Hebrew for wine press), pre-dating the Roman period by a thousand years, is located in the heart of the vineyards, hence the name of the domain ‘Clos de Gat’. Har’el (which translates as ‘Mountain of God’) is 100% syrah, made with handpicked grapes that are fermented in open tanks. After ageing for 16 months in 30% new, French oak barrels and racked every 4-6 months, the final blend is bottled without filtering. In a world where bolder is better, syrah is the perfect choice, as it is darker and spicier than cabernet sauvignon and contains a high amounts of health-invigorating antioxidants. But enough with all that theory – without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
concentration: deep & opaque
colour: garnet
clarity: hazy
hue/rim: garnet

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: red fruits & black fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | dried cherry
__black fruits: black cherry | black plum | blackcurrant
fruit character: overripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | animal | earth
__spice: black pepper | nutmeg
__oak: vanilla | liquorice | tobacco
__animal: veal | leather | musk
__earth: salt | black soil | dust
__wood: old & new /  light & medium
aroma: primary | secondary | tertiary

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: med(+)
alcohol: med(+)
tannin: med(+)
__grip: ripe
body: full
balance: good
__dominant: acidity & alcohol
complexity: complex

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits & black fruits
fruit character: overripe & dried
non fruit: spice | oak | earth
finish: med(+)
aftertaste: velvety

//Scoring
CLOS DE GAT | Har’el | Syrah | Judean Hills | 2014
variety: syrah
country: Israel
region: Judean Hills
rating: 92.7

//Conclusion
maturity: in its prime
verdict: great
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This is definitely a great wine of Israel and, with a total of 92.7 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Verdict: this is a very fine syrah wine that is made in a clear-cut old-world style – fruit-forward and spicy, yet savory and leathery – definitely one of the best we’ve reviewed so far – a wine that is still developing into the bottle, therefore we would advocate for 2 or 3 more years of bottle ageing. The wine tastes supple, round and noble, with fine-grained tannins and mouth-watering acidity. This is a complex and well structured syrah wine, with a full body and well integrated alcohol. As we’ve already mentioned before, older wines develop more complex and less fruity flavours, where a fully mature wine can offer an explosion of amazingly nuanced scents that are virtually impossible to name – which is a pure, hedonistic pleasure.
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