#WineWednesdayWisdom: Comparing Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon Wines

Two Herszogs, three Cabernets, same wine maker, different vineyards, same grape. What's the exciting part of it? And is there really a difference? People ask us all the time, do you really see the difference in wine? Is there a difference in wine? And my short answer is you, the viewer, you can also see a difference in wine. All you got to do is open these three wines side by side without being an expert. You will smell the difference. Now, how to distinguish the difference to identify the difference and understand what you like and what's coming from where that you need Mos's expertise for. But any nose can tell you the difference between these three wines. Why? Because they come from different places in the world. They come from different vineyards and the different vineyards tell the entire story. And then each of them are treated differently. Some of them have more oak, some of them have less oak. And each grape is matched and piered in a different way. So of course they're different. making in wine making you let at least for her side I could say that you let the wine create it journey you let it decide based on the grapes the AVA American viculture area where the grapes come from and you know this year by year the history of it you let the grapes speak for themselves you make sure you let the grapes express themselves I need to do this because this was a lot of fun when I told my bank I told my bank recently I had a meeting and I spoke about you I said I have a friend right unique guy. He has a father and a mother. But that father and mother also had another how many children? That's what I I wanted to ask. How many children did your father and mother have? 16. 16. Oh, and these 16 family is 17. Oh, your wife's family is 17. Is there anyone? The 13. That's why I did the 26 p.m. Is there anyone like Moshe in the entire family? I don't think so. So let me ask you, one father, one mother, and one Mer and nobody's the same because of course there's genetics. Of course there's similarity in the wines. They're all talented and they all have maybe they all have some commonalities and maybe you can identify all these three as being Herszogs. All three of them are visibly Herszogs. They have the structure, the balance, the discipline that you're going to have in Herszog wines, but they're all so visibly different. So that's what I wanted to ask you. So it's basically two sons raised in a different uh no but born born at a different time raised in a different way. You know how they say about children nature versus nurture. How much of the child's personality has to do with their nature and how much of the child's personality has to do with how they were nurtured, who their friends were, what school they went to, how their parents bought them up. Wine has that balance. I would say in Herszog it's more nature than nurture because the Herszog wine makers philosophy is to allow nature to do the most of the talking and the nurturers only to control as much of that nature where in Israel you'll have many wine makers that are more about the nurture they'll take the grapes and they'll influence it much more than the typical herz of wines. the best way for people to differentiate. First, I'm going to say what Modi said before. Modi said at the beginning, three bottles of wine, buy three bottles. I'm going to say make sure that you do it with three friends as well, not just the three bottles. Get a few friends, make it a fun evening. Get together, do this, taste it, cook up some foods, pair it with them, see the differences. 100%. It's that simple. So, just in the nose, I'm going to jump into Alexander Valley. Trying to keep it on directive here. I'm getting I'm getting coffee. I'm getting leather. There's a lot of peppery. We have green pepper, bell pepper, but there's a lot of spices. I got sage. There's a lot of those green herbs that I'm getting here as well. Right. So, we should say that the 22 is distinctly different than the 21 cuz we talked about nature and 20 22 was a very different vintage than 21. Right, Joseph? Correct. So, it's a more much more of a restrained vintage. Napa is more inland. It's a hotter climate. The soils are different and you're getting much more fruit. In all the California you get, but especially in the Napa, one of the things every Napa wine is going to be very dark forest fruit, blue fruit, blueberries, elderberries. You get a very dark red blue fruit in Napa always, right? So, the Alexander Valley was visibly softer. I would call it more elegant. Napa Valley is more robust. And and we talked about that before that sometimes you want to enjoy a wine with food, sometimes you want to enjoy a wine without food. Different occasions, different style wines, but the one that will surprise us the most cuz we're getting down to the last 30 seconds is the Lake County. I think what you get now in the lake is a whole another level of spice that you did. So you think because of the spice it will be good with sesame chicken? I think it's going to cut through when you speak about sesame it just took something but it's about that has a lot of grease as a lot of fat. This is has enough tannins, enough acid to cut through them. Fantastic. Because I'm in the mood of sesame as well. I also think it it shows the most oak influences as well on the on the uh Lake County. This aspirin candy wrapper so strong. But even the oak has to do with the wine. The wine maker David is not going to put oak just just for putting oak. It's going to have to match up to the character of the grape to the character of the wine to give it the oak that could handle it. So, I want to raise a glass to moisha for being predictably unpredictable. And and and and by the way, that's that's the great thing about wine. When you go into wine, you have preconceived notions about what you're going to taste and what you're not going to taste because Moisture told you you're going to taste this or Joseph told you you're going to taste that. Be predictably unpredictable. Have fun. Be loose. And I think the main message is telling you is not whether you taste leather, berries, fruit, peach, cats, or something else in the wine. What he's telling you is be predictably unpredictable. Have fun when you drink. Enjoy the drink. Enjoy the beverage. It's Hashem's It's Hashem's great pleasure. The only thing in the world that has its own unique blessing, the only thing in the world that has its own unique blessing is wine because it's special. So, taste, be descriptive, think, eat, whatever you want. Have fun. Take the snobbyess, as I said, like Moa does. Take the snobbyiness out of wine. Just enjoy. The more we taste, the more we know. [Music]