Note: Before I start, I just want to disclose that Ya’acov is a friend. While I don’t believe that our friendship impacts my notes, I do want make sure that you kind readers have that information in hand when glancing through my scribbles.

2nd Note: Apologies in advance for the length of this post. I have been writing it for over a month and it encompasses 2 complete portfolio tastings plus a couple of other tastings thrown in there. There is a lot of information and even more wine…..

As I have mentioned in the last couple of posts, David Raccah of Kosher Wine Musings spent a couple of weeks here in the Holy Land and we visited a number of wineries together. One visit that was a no brainer was Ya’acov Oryah’s. I have written in these pages MANY times about my love for Ya’acov’s wines. But this year was more special than most. I had tasted a number of these wines at various stages either at RCC’s or at a KFWE Pre-Game. They were either barrel samples or just post bottling – really unfinished – but they all showed tremendous promise.

In any event – I was REALLY looking forward to how these wines were going to come out based on all of the hype and what tasted really spectacular in early pre-release incarnations. On the other hand, I’ve been burned plenty of times by barrel tastings. So Ya’acov made arrangements to walk us through the wines at Red & White Wine Bar – right outside of Mamilla. As I am neither a tourist nor a resident of J-lem, I really don’t get a chance to visit wine-bars in the area that often – but as far as nice cool places to sit and have a glass of wine or 20, this is place works! Really nice cool vibe – and Arnold the owner is a really nice chill guy.

At this tasting we tasted through all of the current public releases – and one of last years red’s just as a comparison.We also tasted through 4 of the Psagot releases (3 white and the Rose). Minus the Psagot, we tasted through 16 wines – 1 bottle was last year’s release and one bottle which will be released next year. That leaves 14. More than half of those wines are Orange wines – that’s not a typo! 8 orange wines released at once from a single producer. This may very well be a record and make the Yaacov the most prolific producer of Orange Wines in the world – I don’t know – from my brief skimming through famous orange (non-kosher) producers, they seem to make at most 2-3 different bottles a year. In terms of kosher, there are only a couple of other orange wines that have been made – and they really don’t even deserve to be mentioned on the same page as the Oryah wines – so I won’t.

Months ago, when I first heard about the lineup that was coming – I really struggled to understand why. Last year, Ya’acov release a 2016 blend (until now know simply as Alpha Omega) and a 2017 Alpha Omega Chenin Blanc. For me, the wines were VERY similar. Not 100% – but similar enough for me to doubt needing multiple releases in the same year – both from a portfolio perspective or from a marketing perspective. This is something new – and relatively uncommon even in the non-kosher world, it’s not something that will be easy to get people to adjust to.

So now I have tasted through the 9 that Ya’acov produced this year – and – I get it. While the 2017 CB was close to (I actually think better than) the 2016 Alpha Omega blend – each of the 2018 wines bring something different to the table. It is truly eye opening. And WOW – year over year, these wines are getting better and better. The 2016 & 17 wines were a VAST improvement over the original 2014 release and these raise the bar even further.

Further, to gain a complete appreciation for what has been accomplished, you really need to taste through as many of these as you can to get the full experience. It is truly eye opening. Or so I thought…. You see just the other night I had the opportunity to taste through the entire portfolio again – but this time rather than taste them through with David in a professional setting, with my friend Simon I helped put together a tasting in honor of the distribution of the first vintage of the SOB project – more on that in a sec.

This tasting was with a crowd of more normal every day drinkers. They were wine lovers no doubt, but there is a big difference between David Raccah and the average wine lover. While I think maximum impact is gained through telling the story through progression, the average palate can be , IMHO overwhelmed by the sheer number of orange wines in a single setting. So when Ya’acov disclosed last night that many of these wines were NOT going to be sold just yet, I realized that he had the situation well under control for the market. And in fact outside of Israel, the 2016/17 Alpha Omega line is being sold – and those wines are far more ready than any of these. But even in Israel, only 2 or 3 of these ’18’s will be on sale right now with remaining wines being held a bit to mature.

In addition to these to mega-tastings, over the last month I have been privileged to share 2 additional meals with Ya’acov and his lovely wife Patricia. The first was over chol hamoed at Crave in Jerusalem where a group of us got together to sample their excellent Pesach menu and taste through a number of older wines of Ya’acov’s that were NOT meant for aging to see how they held up (some surprises there) – as well a number of other wines. While crave for the most part is known for their upscale version of street food during the year, on Pesach they present their spin on a Bistro menu. I have to say – the food was EXCELLENT. Some of my favorites that night were the short ribs, the crispy wings (severed with a honey horseradish basil sauce), and of course their famous lamb bacon. The food was served family style and attacked at each pass, so unfortunately no pics – but take my word, Crave is worth stopping by if you have not done so yet – even on Pesach!

The second meeting out we sampled three sparkling wines that are still in progress having been bottled just a year ago – 1 for Psagot and 2 under his own label. This was at Simon’s house where it we had these wines with a taco bar. Gotta say – bubbly plus tacos are a HUGE win. I know most people think of sparkling wine as an aperitif or to be served only at special occasions. Nonsense! It is SO versatile and will often pair with foods that are near impossible to pair otherwise.

As mentioned above, the final tasting was also at Simon where Bracha Arnold catered the release party of the 2017 SOB with a number of small plates that were served throughout the evening. Perfect for “grazing” while tasting.

And now finally onto the wine. Below I will present notes on on all of the wines that Ya’acov made that I’ve tasted over the last couple of moths, omitting the wines we had over Chol Hamoed from other wineries.