The 2005 YATIR FOREST proprietary red is the flagship wine for Yatir, a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petit Verdot, and 10% Merlot, aged in French oak (1/3rd new) for 14 months. All grapes come from Yatir Forest’s high altitude vineyards (up to 2,700 feet). At once earthy and sweet, this tasty wine has an elegant mid-palate that gives it a certain, unexpected delicacy and sense of grace to go along with its tasty fruit. It is tinged with oak at the outset, but the longer it is open, the more the fruit as well as structure shine through and the more sophisticated and well balanced it seems. Impressive in its own way, this is a far more subtle wine than the ’03, if not quite as rich and sexy. I liked its length and persistence better than the ’04. It drank nicely the next day, still showing grip and intensity as well as good fruit. There were approximately 2,166 cases produced. Drink now-2015. Yatir is Carmel’s boutique winery in the Judean Hills, not far from the Negev desert. It is interesting terroir, to say the least. Yatir is under the helm of winemaker Eran Goldwasser, a graduate of Adelaide University.Importer: Royal Wine Corp, Bayonne, N.J.; tel: (718) 534-0118.