Tzuba Winery presents new wines

Tzuba Winery presents new wines for summer 2016. The winery is an Estate winery. Tzuba vineyard is located on the hillside Kibbutz Tzuba in the Judaean Mountains at an altitude of 700 meters. The new wines for the summer are: Metzuda Semion Sauvignon 2015, Metzuda Chardonnay 2015, Metzuda Semion/Sauvignon Blan 2013, and Metzuda Limited Edition 2013.

Tzuba winery is located at the entrance of Tzuba Kibbutz. The winery overlooks Judaean Mountains. It is accessed by a long staircase from the parking lot but is also accessible by car. The visitor’s center of the winery offers guided tastings and wine tours, you can coordinate a visit with Tzuba’s wine maker, Paul Dove. Paul was raised in South Africa in a family of wine-growers and this is how he started and learnt how to grow vines and make wine. Tzuba winery has a large balcony overlooking the beautiful view of Judaean Mountains, a wine shop, and a window to the barrel room.

Tzuba winery is an Estate winery. The vineyard spans over 350 square kilometers out of which 70 belong to the Winery. The vineyard is located around altitude 700 meter on superior grounds. The vines that were planted here were carefully selected. The work in the vineyard is mostly manual and it is environment-friendly. 

Paul Dove, Tzuba winery winemaker

We met on Tzuba winery’s balcony at sunset for dinner and had wine tasting of Tzuba winery new wines for summer 2016. 

 Here are the wines that we tasted:

Metzuda Semion/Sauvignon Blanc 2015 

A classic young Bordeaux blend of 50% Semion and 50%. Half of the wine was aged for 8 months in new French oak barrels and half in stainless steel.  This is a very light fruity wine with a hint of almond flavor. Perfect for the hot Israeli climate! 

Metzuda Chardonnay 2015

A single vineyard Chardonnay from the Tzuba vineyards at altitude 700m.  The wine is aged for 8 months in new French oak barrels. It is a beefy, yet light wine, with rich aroma of caramel and lemon peel. 

Metzuda Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc 2013

This wine is a blend that the winery has been making for a few years by now. It is available from 2011, 2012, and 2013. The ratio between the different grapes changed over the years, but always contains more Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlo than Cabernet Franc. It is a wine from manual vintage that was aged 24 months in French oak barrels.

We tasted the three vintages and it shows the development of the wine from 2011 to 2013. During these years the blend content was changed and even the section in the vineyard was changed. The difference between the 2011 and the 2012 harvest is evident, where the 2012 has much more body than 2011, and the 2013 vintage also has a heavy body. The best wine of the three is the 2013. The Metzuda Sauvignon/Merlot/Franc 2013 is tasty and round and has a heavy body and wonderful color; it is elegant with a complex aroma of ripe fruit and herbs. 

Metzuda Limited Edition 2013

This wine is the private selection of Paul Dove, the winery wine-maker. He chose the best grapes from the best field of the vineyard. The blend contains 75% Syrah and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon that was aged in French oak barrels for 24 months. Paul’s choice is not random, Syrah grapes are characteristic to Judaean Mountains.

In fact, Paul made a number of different blends, and organized a tasting group; this blend was the choice of the majority of the tasters. I am not surprised, because I like it too, it has heavy body lovely dark ruby red color and rich taste; very elegant! You may want to hurry with this wine, as there are only 1200 bottles of the Limited Edition 2013.

Tzuba wines are marketed in Europe and the USA; they are sold at the Tzuba visitor center and at Wine and More stores around Israel. The wines are kosher Mehadrin and OK.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Tzuba Winery