Posted at 08:40h in Wine industry by 0 Comments From the IsraelWines.co.il site: The Wine Advocate’s first generic tasting of Israeli wines resulted in a resounding success, which will encourage the whole industry. The Wine Advocate is the mouthpiece of Robert Parker, the world’s most powerful and influential wine critic. No less than 14 wines scored over 90 points. This has always been the mythical barrier between a good international class and a world class wine. Much to the frustration […]

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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…

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Posted at 16:02h in Wine industry by Avi 0 Comments Israeli wine was recently featured in several international wine publications: Wine Enthusiast featured Recanati Shiraz 2010 (90 points) in their Top 100 Best Buys for 2012. Decanter Magazine’s November 2012 issue features an article on Israeli wine. …

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Posted at 13:30h in Events by 0 Comments I just want to wish my readers in the United States a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday full of good cruelty-free food (Yes, I do miss the Tofurkey and saw a fascinating documentary Sunday night about how Jewish values support a vegetarian diet in order to be shomrei adama – guardians of the earth) and great wine – preferably from Israel. I leave you with this beautiful ad from the Golan […]

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Posted at 16:37h in Events by 0 Comments Well, I can’t just drink Israeli wine all the time. This past Thursday, I returned to Jerusalem’s Wine Hall – a relatively new but top wine store in downtown Jerusalem – for a tasting of the California Herzog line of wines. As you may recall, I first went to their Carmel Limited Edition and Single Vineyard tasting, but they had several other weekly tastings. For New Year’s Eve, they will be doing […]

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Posted at 14:11h in Reviews by Avi 0 Comments Congratulations to Carmel Winery and winemaker Lior Laxter, and the whole team for Carmel Winery’s recent win at the Decanter World Wine Awards! As Decanter described it: Carmel Winery in Upper Galilee has beaten some of the world’s most renowned producers of Syrah and Shiraz at the Decanter World Wine Awards. The Galilean winery last night won the Red Rhone Varietals Over £10 trophy for its Kayoumi Single Vineyard Shiraz 2008. […]

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Posted at 10:17h in Wine industry, Wines by Avi 0 Comments Carmel Winery’s quality reputation continues. As it continues to get higher and higher rated wines, increasing in quality, one of Israel’s largest wineries are also making branding changes. Marketing and wine branding are close to my heart, as my background is in international marketing and communications, so I was thrilled to see that Carmel Winery has introduced new labels for its Single Vineyard series of wines.

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Posted at 14:00h in Wine industry by 1 Comment Below are the scores for the Wine Advocate article on Israeli wines by Mark Squires. Robert Parker also sat in on the tastings, and tasted himself. IsraelWines.co.il also has the scores, in descending order. You can see the notes of the WA’s scoring system here However, note that tasting notes are very important. I saw excerpts of the Recanati tasting notes and they lost a few points because they had a […]

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Posted at 16:00h in Wineries by 0 Comments Yatir Winery is another great Israeli winery. All the Yatir wines that I have drunk have truly stood out as some of the best wine that I have ever drunk. Smooth, complex, and just tasty, Yatir is a winery in the Negev (the Negev! Desert!) formed with partnership with Carmel. There’s not much to say about Yatir. Rather, there’s much to experience as they make truly truly excellent wines for special occasions.

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Posted at 19:23h in Events, Reviews by 0 Comments Last week, I had the immense pleasure of traveling to Tel Aviv (I admit, a rare occurrence!) to attend the book launch of Daniel Rogov’s 2008 Guide to Israeli Wines, the premier rating book of Israel’s top (and not-so-top) wineries. Only in the past 20-or-so years, with the beginning of Golan Heights Winery, has Israel begun producing world-class wines, and only in the past few years with older wineries that used […]

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