I was happy to have the opportunity to attend the first (trade-only) day of IsraWine Expo and determined to take full advantage, arrived as early as possible for the opening press conference which included a talk by Adam Montefiore’s on the state of the Israeli wine industry to the approximately 45 visiting foreign journalists, wine buyers and other professionals (for a more-or-less complete list of foreign attendees, see here: http://www.grape-man.com/content.asp?NavigationID=684&ContentID=6023) – quite interesting. It was great to have the opportunity […]

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Among the wineries at the Ra’anana Wine Festival was the Villa Wilhema Winery. Founded by wine growers on Moshav B’nai Atarot (near HaTayaasim Junction and Airport City), grapes are sourced from the Upper Galilee and Ben Zimra vineyard. The winery has events on Fridays. Conviently located near Ben Gurion Airport, it’s worthwhile attending both for tourists looking to visit a (non-kosher) Israeli winery and residents. Gat Shomron Winery, in Karnei Shomron, was one of the wineries at the Ra’anana Wine […]

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The following post is from wines-israel.com Charles Loinger seems as young and as energetic as ever. As a sprightly 90 year old, he still talks as fast as ever, with all his old passion & enthusiasm. He speaks in French accented Hebrew with the occasional French word thrown in for emphasis. Hard to think that he retired in 1986! Charles Loinger was born in Strasbourg, France in 1920. He decided to become an agronomist, and later specialized in wine, studying […]

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Daniel Rogov seems to have taken a playbook from Gary Vaynerchuk and recorded a video of him tasting wine. Enjoy! And some non-Israeli kosher wines from California and Spain Daniel Rogov discusses how to taste wine at a wine festival or wine tasting event. The Jerusalem Post blogger Levi Shapiro has a new post about my two favorite Israeli wine folk: Daniel Rogov, Israel’s premier wine critic, and Adam Montefiore, Israel’s premier international wine marketer, often referred to (though he […]

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I wrote about Sommelier 2009 last year and now it’s time for Israel’s best wine festival: Sommelier 2010. Open to the trade all day or at night (for 100NIS/night) for the general public, Israel’s Sommelier showcases Israel’s best wins and wineries. This year’s event will be TODAY 8 November 2010 and tomorrow 9 November 2010. Open to the public after 19:30/7:30PM (with admission until 21:00/9PM), the event is at the Heichel HaTarbut in Tel Aviv, near the Azrieli Center and […]

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Judean Hills Wine Festival During the month of October, 25 wineries in the region will be open to members of the public. Visits to the wineries will be free. To obtain a full schedule of which wineries will be open on which days telephone *8108. Every Friday, those can spend 50NIS and get a tour of local wineries. Meet in the Beit Shemesh train station. Reservations can be made by telephoning *8108. Participating wines include Agur, Anatot, Ben Hannah, Castel, […]

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[I plan to write much more on this next week, but here is a post that I wrote on Daniel Rogov’s forum] I’m just reading it now (Hope to have more on it on my blog sometime next week) but it analyzed the California wine industry and found: 700,000 people watch wine related videos each month. Over 7000 wine tweets/ day The wine experience has become portable with over 300 iPhone apps. There’s a Twitter meme called #winewednesday (I’ve used […]

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Daniel Rogov, Israel’s premier wine critic, has reviewed several great Israeli wines in recent editions of Ha’aretz. For the hot summertime, rose’s are the perfect wine, even if they have gotten a bad rap. Rogov’s reviews of some great roses are at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086863.html His TNs: Chateau Golan, Royal Reserve, Rose, 2008: Made entirely from Cabernet Franc grapes, developed partly in stainless steel and briefly in used barriques. Medium-bodied, with appealing red and black berries, strawberries and red currants on a […]

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Baby Binyamina is the first release of the 2008 vintage from Binyamina Winery. A light and fruity wine, it was released one minute after midnight on November 20. Like Beaujolais wine, the Binyamina B underwent carbonic maceration. This means that this young wine is meant for immediate drinking and not long-term storage. Unlike Beaujolais wine, the Binyamina B is made of one-hundred percent Carignan grapes and has twelve percent alcohol content. This grape originates in Spain and has a rich […]

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Carmel Mizrahi Winery was founded in 1882 and is, 126 years later, Israel’s largest and most famous winery. While not the first winery in Israel, it is the most well known and for many years (and even today) often serves as the face for Israeli wine. This can be good or bad, depending on which wines you are looking at and whether you are looking at ‘the old Carmel’ or ‘the new Carmel.’ I admit I am often critical of […]

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