Cabernet Sauvignon (Israel)	1991	Yair Margalit

9/95. Bought locally July-93 for $16.
This wine from Israel's best boutique winery is usually sold during only one week a year at the winery. Tonight with Friday night's dinner for two.
COLOR: Very deep violet-red.
NOSE: Mildly strong bouquet of black-fruit, vanilla, some tar and generally what one would expect in a pure Cabernet Sauvignon wine.
TASTE: After being opened and decanted (for aeration) for an hour, still very close with hard tannins dominating. On its own not a very pleasant wine, but went very well with the food (home-made rolls stuffed and baked with minced veal and lamb, followed by steak and French-fries). Towards the end of the bottle, the tannins softened a great deal and the concentration, which was there all the time, started to show itself beautifully.
LENGTH: Medium length. The aftertaste, in line with the taste, was hard and coarse at first, but got much smoother with time.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: Reasonable fruit and a lot of wood both on the nose and on the palate. Plenty of body and concentration. Good acidity in comparison with what we are used to in Israel. Still, doesn't feel like a perfectly balanced wine.
OVERALL: Good wine, maybe even very good. Delicacy is not the name of the game here. Still much too young to pass judgement, but unfortunately only one bottle left < g >.
MARK: 15+/20.aaaaaaaaBUY MORE? No.

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Jacob "Yak" Shaya.