Featured Wine

Damon Little is Beverage Manager for Nathan Outlaw Restaurants and Sommelier for Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, showcasing his wines through his blog. With a true passion for wine and food pairing and viticulture, he has a particular interest in exceptional wine from unusual grapes, small-yields or practices which set particular vineyards apart in producing character and most importantly, quality.

Late Harvest Gewürztraminer 2007, Sha’al Vineyard, Carmel Winery, Galilee, Israel

Basil Blancmange with White Peach Sorbet is a dessert offering flavours that could cause an emotional effect on the palate, perhaps confusion initially, but the brain swiftly connects the dots realizing that the unusual combination of Basil and White Peach creates nothing but bliss for the taste buds.

The exciting challenge of matching a wine to this remarkable dessert is pushed to the limits when a Hazelnut and Basil Pesto and Hazelnut Crisp are added to the above mention dessert.

For the perfect compliment, I have matched the 2007 Late Harvest Gewürztraminer made by the Carmel Winery.  The first and most historic winery in Israel, founded in… 1882 by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, today they own 1400 hectares vines planted throughout the country.

This wine is made from handpicked Gewurztraminer grapes harvested in October from a single vineyard in Galilee, Israel’s finest wine region. These vines are planted over 700 metres above sea level which ensures cooler evenings, maintaining good natural levels of acidity.

The wine is perfectly balanced and is perhaps a little less perfumed than one would expect from Gewürztraminer.  This late harvest full bodied style boasts ripe apricot, golden raisin and baked apple on entry with sweet spice and ginger infused lychee on the lingering finish.