This is the last post that I “owe” from tastings that happened a couple of months ago.  As we say in Hebrew – Achron Achron Chaviv – which can be roughly translated as last but certainly not least – Ya’acov Oryah. As always, let me start by saying Ya’acov is a friend, and while I don’t think that impacts my impressions of his wines – I like to be up front about that and you can decide for yourself. Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Ya’acov on the excellent recent write up of his wines in Forbes. It’s so nice to see him getting some recognition in the wider world of wine.

The notes below are comprised of two tastings I did a couple of weeks apart. The first was an early taste-through of the 2020 lineup. By early, I mean really early. For technical reasons, bottling happened rather late this year. This tasting took place a few weeks later (4-6) while I usually taste through these wines 3-5 months after bottling. This was more to get an initial impression of many of the wines, especially the Skin Macerated Whites, which have a tendency to change. The second tasting was at the launch of the 2018 SOB release. SOB stands for Special Oryah Blend and is offered en primeur. It is a limited release wine with two vintages already out, a third currently in barrel, and a fourth being harvested now. The wine started out as an idea that a few of us had to ask Ya’acov to make a private barrel wine for a number of us here in Israel and abroad who are fans of his. Eventually, realizing that we are out of our depth when it comes to giving meaningful input on things such as vineyard selection, the project morphed into Ya’acov experimenting with a somewhat unconventional blend. No rules. No predetermined styles or blends to conform to. Lucky for all involved, Ya’acov felt the end result was worthy of repeating – in fact, so much so that he increased production in the second year (the 2018 vintage) with intent for it to be sold as his flagship red blend. And that is where the wine sits in the portfolio today. It is what Ya’acov feels is his best expression of a red wine in his style. At the same time, as the launch was at the winery, Ya’acov took the opportunity to share some additional exciting barrel samples as well. The result – another crazy long Oryah post with 20 or so wines to go through. Buckle up, off we go…