The flavor of roasted almonds in wine of Negev
Discover the of Negev wines revealing the of roasted almonds flavor during the olphactive analysis (nose) and during the gustative analysis (mouth).
Negev desert wine region of southern Israel is one of the warmest and driest Vineyard areas in the world. It Lies at a latitude of between 31 and 29 degrees North, on the fringes of the Syrian Desert. For a northern hemisphere wine region, this is remarkably close to the equator; just a few degrees closer and it would be deemed a tropical wine region.
Negev only receives about 100mm (4 inches) of rain per year, much of which disappears in flash floods.
Modern computer-controlled irrigation is a necessity and water usage is understandably a major issue and is one factor why the wines of the region must reach a quality level to justify premium prices.
Despite its unlikely macroClimate, the Negev has been a vine-growing area since ancient times. It may well have been one of the world's very first wine regions – if an area could be seen as such 6000 years ago – and has been enjoying something of a minor renaissance since the 1980s, though it accounts for less than 5 percent of Israel's total vineyard area.
As demonstrated in the Judean Hills immediately to the north (and Galilee beyond that), high altitude is the viticultural antidote to low latitude.
Temperatures in the Negev reach great heights during the day but drop significantly overnight, which allows the vines some recovery time. High diurnal temperature variation is almost invariably a bonus for vineyard zones, but if the days are so hot and the nights so cool that the vines actually shut down, the chances of growing grapes with balanced sugars and acids are dramatically Reduced.
Thus the quality demands of modern wine consumers have driven Negev viticulture up into the hills, away from the extremes of the desert climate. Even at higher elevations, humidity is low in the Negev, but the vineyards nonetheless enjoy a morning blanket of mist before the heat of the day sets in.
Researchers examining remnants of jars dating back to the kingdom of Judah found evidence that royal elites in Jerusalem may have been drinking wine ‘flavoured with vanilla’. It’s already known that wine has a long history in the region, and some studies suggest wines contained added spices or herbs. Yet researchers said they were surprised to find traces of vanillin in some of the ancient storage jars, which were excavated from debris caused by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE ...
Jars recovered from the seabed and dating back to the Roman period have offered more clues about winemaking and storage in this era, according to a study that used a mixture of analysis techniques. A combination of chemical markers, plant tissue residue and pollen analysis helped researchers to build a picture about the possible contents of three amphorae ‘wine jars’ discovered near the coastal town of San Felice Circeo, around 90km south-east of Rome. ‘The evidence suggests the amphorae were us ...
The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...