Drinks

It occurs to me that, for the approaching holidays, a specific regional wine might be in order.

That’s right, something from near the Sea of Galilee, where (if a certain Good Book is consulted) water runs like sweet red vintage stuff.

Yes, wine has been native to that part of the world since before Biblical times. For much of the modern era, though, varietals from France, Italy and Germany dominated even the table wine category. But ever since the emergence of New World labels in the 1990s, aficionados have been willing to branch out.

And you may need to branch out in order to find Dovev’s 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, imported from Israel. I ran across a bottle over Thanksgiving vacation, though it (or other vintages) may be available from Denver area retailers.

On the nose, ripe dark fruit and a dense, burnished sweetness stride forward, trailed by the fainted mineral note—which one can imagine mimics the scent of an inland ocean. The fruit-forward character follows through on the palate. It’s like sipping a jam of berries aged in old wood, as a dry, toasted note rises at the finish.

Although bottled according to vintage, Dovev’s Cab is purely a table wine: inexpensive, simple and rather easy to drink on its own.