I’m drinking a lot of Israeli wine here in Israel during the Passover holiday.  Then again that should not come as much of a surprise to anyone who frequently reads this blog as I ALWAYS drink a lot of Israeli wine.

That said I had the opportunity to get a terrific wine at a very affordable price here in Israel that unfortunately is NOT an Israeli wine.  Capcanes, a Spanish winery whose wines I have previously written about makes two kosher (and kosher for Passover) wines.  The big boy is the “Peraj Ha’abib”, which is just like perach Ha’Aviv or “Spring Flower” in hebrew.  So through a friend I was able to get my hands on a few bottles of the 2005 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib here in Israel for the rough equivalent of about $40.  This wine sells for about $60+ back at home in NY, so I figured I’d grab a few bottles and indulge.

I opened up the first of the 3 bottles with my family at our Friday night meal.  It was showing BIG/STRONG oak characteristics, with almost over-powering cloves.  Not everyone at the table picked up on it, but it was unmistakable to me.  The mouth feel of the wine and the underlying fruit were both very nice, but this wine was dominated by its toasty clove aromas.

I then opened up the 2nd bottle on Monday night while dining with the special lady at a fancy Jerusalem restaurant.  This bottle was the same vintage, same winery, same wine…and I believe SAME CASE.  Yet it was COMPLETELY different from the first bottle.  This time the wine had a similar mouth feel yet the dominant clove aromas were GONE.  Beautifully integrated oak and fruit, with the fruit shining through. 

SO, getting back to the title, there is something in wine known as “vintage variation”.  This happens as hand crafted wines will vary from vintage to vintage.  Different weather patterns, longer/shorter growing seasons, more/less rain/sun, etc… – all these factors lead to differences in vintages and wines from different vintages that are remarkably different from one another.

But to happen to the SAME wine from the SAME vintage and the SAME case?

I suppose this could happen in a tiny winery where the wines were aged in different barrels and then bottled without being re-blended???  But I would imagine that most wineries, even small one, will mix all the barrels together in a tank of sorts before bottling.  So how/why could something like this happen?  Have you ever experienced anything like this before???

Happy same wine different flavor wine tasting!

WTG