Sea Horse Winery
Ze’ev Dunie, the Sea Horse winemaker, transitioned into winemaking after making a documentary about the budding Israeli wine industry. He had officially caught the bug. Little did he know that this transition would transform him from a cult film producer into a cult WINE producer.
After working with a partner for two years in the late 90’s Dunie went on his own and formed Sea Horse in 2001. Most Sea Horse wines are made from organic farmed vineyards and all wines are made by hand. Manual punch downs (generally three time per day) and gentle (mostly neutral) oak lead to wines that are expressive, elegant and complex.
The 2007 “Gaudi” is made up of 60% Carignan (from 30 year old vines) blended with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and20% Syrah. The wine matures in 3 year old French and American barrels and is bottled unfined and unfiltered. Itssubtle fruit and bracing acidity make it a great food wine.
The 2006 “Fellini” is a blend of 55% Syrah and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, each from the Judean Hills “Shoresh”vineyard. The Syrah is initially aged for 6-8 months in what Dunie calls his “white oak” – French barrels that hadpreviously been used to age Chardonnay. Whereas the Cabernet spends this period in 2 & 3 year old French &American barrels. Following this initial barrel aging the wine is blended and spends another year in neutral oak beforebeing bottled unfined and unfiltered.
