It’s not every day that you get to taste wine with a Master Sommelier – and even less common to taste with a female Master Sommelier since as it turns out there are only 16 of them in the entire world.

I have been interacting with Master Sommelier Laura Maniec on Twitter for a while now.

She’s the Wine & Spirits Director for B.R. Guest Restaurants, based in New York.

This Thursday evening, February 18, at 8pm ET, Laura and I will be tasting 5 small-production wines from Israel I import.

I sent her 10 bottles to try and we’ve agreed to break the group up into 2 sets of 5 and get to them all over time.

We’re starting with premium Israeli Reds that represent Israel’s 2 best winemaking regions – The Judean Hills and The Upper Galilee:

Tzora Shoresh 2006 (single-vineyard Cab)

Flam Superiore Syrah 2006

Pelter T-Selection Cabernet Franc 2007

Flam Cabernet Reserve 2006

Margalit Enigma 2006

I’m doing this tasting “virtually” (I will be in my home in Chicago and she will be in her office in NYC) in part since one of the projects I am working on is the development of a virtual trade wine tasting platform that fits the economic realities of a small supplier/importer who must be targeted, efficient, and take responsibility for generating demand “direct to trade”. In the new world of wine small suppliers will have to learn to step up and interact a lot more directly with consumers and trade buyers.

I’m inviting YOU the Public since I want to take you behind the scenes with me as we hear from one of the top wine experts in the US. “Trade Tastings” like this happen all week long behind closed doors. I want you to get a glimpse!

Honestly, I am just super-excited to have someone with Laura’s knowledge and skills tasting with me. I told her I want The Truth as she sees it about these wines. Her frank feedback will be invaluable. I am honored Laura is taking the time to try these wines she can’t try from anyone else (I’m the exclusive US importer of all these wines) and certainly not from large traditional distributors.

I will Tweet and message everyone with links to the ustream site where we will be tasting LIVE over the next couple days. I hope a lot of people will join since we will all very likely learn a lot from Laura. No doubt, she already knows a couple textbooks more than I ever will about Israeli climate, soil, terroir!

You can ORDER the set of 5 wines we will be tasting. If you would like to taste along with us, consider UPS 2nd Day Air to have it arrive on time.

Cheers!

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