Binyamina Winery is for sale! The Israeli discount supermarket chain Chetzi Chinam is currently in negotiations to buy Israel’s fifth largest winery, Binyamina, according to the Israeli Hebrew press. This site is the first place to report this story in ENGLISH. According to the Israeli financial newspaper, Globes, the negotiation between the heads of Hetzi Hinam to acquire Binyanima Winery for about 42 million shekels (about $11.8 million) include not only the winery but also the brand and property in […]

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Israeli Wine Direct is bringing some great winemakers to the US to introduce their wines to the American market. Definitely worth checking out! Zeev Smilansky of Meishar will be in Chicago June 8-9 (Sun-Mon). Golan Flam and several other Israeli winemakers will be at the Jewish Vintners Celebration in Napa Valley from June 20-22. For more information: http://jewishvintners.org/ Golan Flam will also be in Chicago June 23-25. To meet Zeev or Golan, please be in touch with Israeli Wine Direct.

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Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov has been making his annual round of tastings as of late and he recently visited Saslove Winery. Saslove, founded by Canadian immigrant Barry Saslove, is one of those great Israeli boutique wineries that are a secret to those outside of Israel. Here is the original thread and the following comes straight from Rogov: Considering that Saslove founded his eponymous winery in 1998, he is indeed one of the “old-timers” on the Israeli boutique scene. I […]

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Here is an interesting article from the Canadian Jewish Independent on Israeli wine and my favorite part – the business and export side of quality wine. Nice focus on Carmel and Flam, including quotes from the legendary Adam Montefiore of Carmel and also Golan Flam of Flam. Nice to see Israeli wine getting noticed as Israeli – and not just kosher – wine and learn some history of the Israeli wine world. Nice quote from Montefiore about ‘liquid religion’ as […]

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Here are just a few photos from the Sommelier wine conference held last week in Tel Aviv. I will have a post about this amazing Israeli wine event next week. Pardon the quality as these photos were taken from my cell phone after my (fresh) camera batteries died.

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The Savannah Morning News picked the Galil Mountain Chard as the “Wine of the Day” for January 30, 2008. Saying that it could fool anyone into thinking it’s a California Chardonnay in a blind tasting, I have to admit that I would be very interested in trying. Israeli wines definitely would make a useful blind tasting as they are so poorly viewed by those who think it’s Carmel Conord (and, sadly, these people still exist despite having NO basis in […]

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It’s quite possible that Domaine du Castel makes THE best wine from Israel. Unquestionably, they make some of the best wine in the world. I first encountered the wines of Castel only last year, when I was asked to write a story on them for ISRAEL21c, which you can read here. While there, I tasted an immense array of wines and I have to admit that my best wine experience ever was tasting their Grand Vin at that tasting and […]

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The following is a guest post from wines-israel and reprinted with permission Many Israeli wineries win awards, many win gold medals. There are even wineries which ‘collect’ awards, sending wines to any competition where medals are generously given. This is because to the general consumer, a gold medal looks the same whether it is a competition in Panama or London. However the weight & value of the gold medal can be vastly different according to the credentials of the competition. […]

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Time Out Israel has published a list of the top ten Israeli wineries, as selected by wine expert, Gal Zohar. The list appears in the January edition of the English version of this magazine. The cover headline is ‘Wine Tourism in Israel. Gal Zohar is a sommelier and wine consultant, who is also in the process of producing the New Israeli Wine Guide. He recently published the top ten Israeli red and white wines in association with wine journalist, Yair […]

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Those who live in Israel know that each year new Israeli wineries keep on opening up and new wines are constantly released. Old wineries keep on improving and competing with the best. With over 250 wineries in Israel, both certified kosher and not, the Israeli wine world has changed rapidly and it’s even hard for observers to keep up. Yet, despite the fact that Israel’s best wines have praised by the oracle of wine critics, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, there […]

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