I was looking through my wine collection for something unique and I came across a wine called Anov Merlot 2002. This wine was carried by KosherWine.com for a limited time because it was only produced for one vintage. It is a private label wine which was only sold in America and I believe was produced by Ella Valley Vineyards, but I don't know if that is public information. So don't tell anyone I told you.

Anov Merlot 2002
I was a little worried about this wine because not many moderately priced Merlots ($14.99) can last 7 years. I decanted it first just to be safe, and the color was looking pretty youthful. I gave it a swirl in my glass and was able to pick up lots of berry aromas, shocking for such an old Merlot. It did have a strong alcohol tinge to it though and a touch of rotten egg. At 13.9% alcohol it shouldn't have such a strong alcohol profile. This makes me wonder if it is possible to gain extra alcohol as the wine ages. The wine was still tasting pretty good; medium bodied with light fruit & olive flavors. Overall a pretty decent wine which held up exceptionally well for its age. 81 points.

Shiloh Cabernet Merlot 2006
The other wine that I pulled from my wine collection was the Shiloh Cabernet Merlot 2006. I had never tasted this wine, so why not now. The label is what initially caught my attention. It has a beautiful and simple black label with shiny red and silver writing. Just from the packaging it looks like a great gift.

What is also interesting is that it is a Cabernet/Merlot blend, something that France has been doing forever, but Israel has only slowly started experimenting with. My favorite Cabernet/Merlot  blend is of course the Galil Yiron. I highly support these blends and would like to see Israel do more of these.

This wine comes from the Judean Hills and I have been impressed with many wineries in this region including Tzuba, Tzora and Castel. This wine doesn't let me down. It starts with its dark ruby color and continues into a full bodied mouth filling bomb of flavor. Most notable are the chocolate and herbaceous characters. As I continued to drink the wine, I couldn't help but notice that it was becoming a little too oaked. The label did say that it spent almost 15 months in French Oak barrels, maybe they should shorten that.  85 points.

Overall I definitely favored the Shiloh over the Anov, but that's just because I prefer big bold wines. Still the Shiloh wine could use a slight improvement by reducing its time in oak. This wine definitely has potential.