Shiloh Winery: A Guide to the Range
Shiloh Winery is one of the names people type into Google on its own, with nothing after it. "Shiloh wine." No grape, no vintage, no price. They know the name and they want to see the shelf.
So here is the shelf. Fifteen bottles, from a winemaker's blend to a magnum, and five different tiers whose names tell you almost nothing unless somebody explains them. Shor, Privilege, Legend, Secret Reserve, Mosaic. This is what each one is, who it is for, and the one buying decision Shiloh makes harder than most wineries do.
Where it comes from
The winery sits in the biblical town of Shiloh in the Shomron, in the hills north of Jerusalem, where the Mishkan stood for 369 years. Amichai Lourie has been the winemaker since the early 2000s. The vineyards are high, the soil is limestone, and the nights are cold, which is the combination that keeps acid in grapes that ripen in a hot country. If the Israeli map is new to you, our guide to Israel's wine regions lays out how the Shomron differs from the Galilee and the Judean Hills.
Worth saying plainly: almost everything here is a big, ripe, oak-aged red at 14% to 15.5%. Shiloh does not make shy wine.
The range at a glance
| Bottle | Tier | Style | Mevushal | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privilege | Winemaker's blend | Dry red, four grapes, 14% | No | See today's price |
| Rose | Rose | Dry rose, 12.5% | No | See today's price |
| Shor Merlot | Shor | Dry red, 15% | Yes | See today's price |
| Shor Cabernet Sauvignon | Shor | Dry red | Yes | See today's price |
| Shor Barbera | Shor | Dry red | Yes | See today's price |
| Sauvignon Blanc | White | Dry white | Yes | See today's price |
| Legend Honi | Legend | Dry red blend, 14.5% | No | See today's price |
| Legend Fiddler | Legend | Dry red blend, 14.5% | Yes | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Cabernet | Secret Reserve | Dry red, 14.5% | No | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Merlot | Secret Reserve | Dry red, 14.5% | No | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Petit Verdot | Secret Reserve | Dry red, 14.5% | No | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Merlot | Secret Reserve | Dry red, 15.5% | Yes | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Cabernet | Secret Reserve | Dry red, 15% | Yes | See today's price |
| Mosaic | Flagship | Bordeaux blend, 14.5% | No | See today's price |
| Secret Reserve Cabernet (1.5L) | Magnum | Dry red, 15% | No | See today's price |
The thing nobody explains: Shiloh bottles the same wine twice
Look at the table again. Secret Reserve Cabernet appears twice, at two prices. Secret Reserve Merlot appears twice too. These are not different wines. They are the same cuvee, and the more expensive one has been flash-heated so that it is mevushal.
That matters because of who is pouring. A mevushal bottle can be handled and poured by anybody at the table, which is why caterers and simcha halls want it. A non-mevushal bottle has to stay in observant hands. Most wineries solve this by making a cheap mevushal line and a serious non-mevushal line, and you end up choosing between the rule and the wine. Shiloh does not make you choose. You pay two or three dollars for the heating and you get the flagship either way. If you are unsure which you need, mevushal versus non-mevushal walks through when it actually comes up.
One honest note on taste. The heating is not free. The mevushal Cabernet is listed at 15% against the non-mevushal at 14.5%, and the mevushal versions read a little rounder and a little softer in the tannin. If you are opening it at a quiet table with nobody else pouring, buy the non-mevushal and save the few dollars. If there is a waiter, buy the mevushal and stop worrying about it.
Shor, the mevushal workhorses
Shor is three single-grape reds at one price, all mevushal, all given fifteen months in oak. This is the tier to know if you host.
Shor Cabernet Sauvignon gets fifteen months in French oak. Cherry, cassis and plum, then vanilla, licorice and pepper, closing on cedar and dark chocolate. Full-bodied with real structure. This is the brisket bottle.
Shor Merlot is the plusher one: cooked plum, black cherry, cocoa, a wisp of cedar, 15% and soft with it. Good when the table is split between people who want a big red and people who do not.
Shor Barbera is the odd one and the interesting one. Barbera is a Piedmont grape that is almost never made kosher, and almost never mevushal. Fifteen months in French and American oak gives it a coffee and cocoa depth over cherry, plum and raspberry. If you only buy one Shor, buy this, because you cannot easily buy it anywhere else. We wrote about the grape itself in what is Barbera.
Privilege, the one that undercuts everything above it
Privilege is the cheapest red Shiloh makes, which is a strange thing to say about a four-grape winemaker's blend. Cabernet Sauvignon leads, with Syrah for pepper, Cabernet Franc for a leafy graphite note, and Carignan filling out the middle. Six months in French oak, so the tannin is already settled and it does not need a decanter.
Four grapes give it more going on than a varietal wine at the price. This is the Tuesday bottle that drinks like a Friday bottle.
Legend, where the label is half the gift
The Legend series names each wine for a figure from the Talmud and puts his picture on the bottle. Both sell at the same price.
Legend Honi is named for Honi HaMe'agel, the circle-drawer who slept seventy years. Blackberry, cassis and sweet oak spice, full and ripe with a firm tannic frame and a long warm finish. Lamb, grilled steak, slow-braised meat. It is a gift bottle as much as a drinking bottle, because the label does half the work at a yom tov table.
Legend Fiddler is the mevushal flagship: Petite Sirah for body and color, Petit Verdot for the graphite lift, Shiraz for peppery warmth, fifteen months in French and American oak. Dense and dark, blackberry and plum and baking spice over a smoky char. This is the bottle for the simcha where the wine still has to be serious. Petite Sirah is the grape doing most of the heavy lifting here.
Secret Reserve and Mosaic, the serious end
Four Secret Reserves, all off Shomron hillside fruit, all aged in French oak, all 14.5% or higher.
The Cabernet Sauvignon is the one to give air. Blackcurrant, cedar and sweet vanilla oak, firm and grippy. An hour open, or a decanter, and the oak settles back into the fruit. Steak, lamb chops, slow-cooked brisket.
The Merlot is the easier of the two: black plum, mocha and sweet spice, rounded and plush. Roast chicken, brisket, rich stews, hard cheese.
The Petit Verdot is the rare one. Petit Verdot is normally a blending grape used a few percent at a time, and a 100% bottling of it is unusual in any wine, let alone a kosher one. Violet, blueberry, blackberry and graphite, inky and dense, firm fine tannin, a floral edge on the finish. Decant an hour and pour it with rack of lamb or braised short ribs.
Mosaic is the flagship Bordeaux-style blend and the one built for the cellar. Black currant, dark plum, tobacco and oak spice, dense black fruit and espresso, refined tannin, a long structured finish with cedar. Decant forty-five minutes at least. Prime rib, short ribs, aged hard cheese. If classed-growth Bordeaux is the reference point you are reaching for, compare it against our guide to kosher classed-growth Bordeaux.
And for a table that goes long, the Secret Reserve Cabernet magnum pours roughly what two bottles pour, with eighteen months in French oak behind it.
The two that are not big reds
Shiloh Rose is dry, 12.5%, pale salmon in the Provence style. Strawberry, white peach and citrus blossom, crisp with a mineral-edged finish. Serve it cellar-cold with grilled fish, salads and mezze.
Shiloh Sauvignon Blanc is mevushal, which is rarer than it sounds for a white at this level. Grapefruit peel, gooseberry, cut grass, a whisper of white flower, then lemon-lime and a mineral edge. That cut comes from altitude and cold nights. If you want the grape explained first, start with what is Sauvignon Blanc.
Which one should you actually buy
- First Shiloh bottle: Privilege. Most wine for the money in the range.
- Somebody else is pouring: Shor Cabernet, or Legend Fiddler if the meal is a big one.
- A gift: Legend Honi. The label carries the conversation.
- Something you cannot buy elsewhere: Shor Barbera or the Secret Reserve Petit Verdot.
- The best bottle in the range: Mosaic decanted.
The whole range sits on one page under Shiloh red wine, and if you are comparing Shiloh against the rest of the country, our roundup of the best Israeli red wines is a good place to stand back and look. Free shipping on orders $150+ in the lower 48.
