If you’re not familiar with the winery then you should get to know Ella Valley Vineyards. The winery was established in 1998 with vineyards located in three areas: Nes Harim with an elevation of 700 meters, Ella Valley with an elevation of 320 meters and Aderet with an elevation of 350-400 meters.
This year the winery has undergone some far-reaching changes. Udi Kaplan, who was the winery’s manager, took the place of Danny Valero as CEO, Lin Gold replaced Doron Rav Hon as winemaker and the wine bottles now have new labels.
(Udi Kaplan, CEO of Ella Valley Vineyards)
Lin Gold recently returned to Israel after completing her masters in oenology at the University of Adelaide in Australia. Lin joined the Ella Valley Vineyards in the summer of 2011, just in time for the 2011 harvest.
(Lin Gold, winemaker at Ella Valley Vineyards)
Today Ella Valley Vineyards hosted an event at the winery to launch three new wines to members of their loyalty program. The wines released are the Merlot 2007, Cabernet Franc 2009 and the Sauvignon Blanc 2011 all from the Ella Valley Series.
The Sauvignon Blanc 2011 is special. First of all, this wine is all Lin’s. This is the first wine that Lin Gold has had responsibility for from the harvest to the bottle.
The Ella Valley Sauvignon Blanc is a great summertime wine for Israel. The grapes were harvested ripe with full fruitiness and high acidity. Some of the grapes had a pH of less than 3, which allowed Lin to forgo adding acids to the wine during fermentation.
The wine has a very pleasant crisp acidity, with nice fruity flavors of grapefruit, asparagus and lime. This wine is very refreshing and if I didn’t have to drive home I surely wouldn’t have spit out any wine!
While the 2011 harvest allowed her to rely on the natural acidity and not use additives to make the wine into something else, Lin still had many tools in her bag to influence the wine. Temperature regulation, timing, blending and more were all part of Lin’s crafting this wine. Unlike an artist painting on canvas, winemakers can’t erase and start over again if they err.
I look forward to seeing Lin’s next wines even though it will be another few years before Ella Valley will release red wines that Lin has produced from harvest to bottle.