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.
Monday night I had the opportunity to taste five truly amazing wines. While most were from California (including Covenant’s second label, the Cabernet Sauvignon Red Sea 2003), there was one unique and special wine from Israel. In fact, it was from a winery that I had never tried before: Psagot.
While we didn’t take formal tasting notes, the Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, was quite an interesting wine from an interesting winery. Psagot, in the Benyamin mountains, was founded by the Berg family. They planted the first grapes in 1998, and in 2002, the winery was established with the help of the entire Berg family. It’s cellar, uniquely, is an ancient cave, which provides natural cooling.
Since I didn’t take tasting notes (I was too busy enjoying the wine!), I will leave you with Rogov’s:
Dark, almost impenetrable garnet with green and purple reflections, this medium to full-bodied wine reflects its 13 months in French barriques with a moderate touch of spicy oak and firm tannins that are in fine balance with blackberry, black cherry and cassis fruits. On the moderately long finish look for appealing hints of sweet herbs and tobacco. Drink now-2010. Score 88.
I don’t believe that this wine is available in the US, although they have a very attractive label and a very well-developed English website (something all too many Israeli wineries lack). However, if you are in Israel, the web site lists stores and restaurants (including the King David Hotel and Jerusalem’s Coolinary) where the wine is available.
I promise, promise, promise that this my last post for 2007 on the Beaujolais Nouveau. However, I just saw an interesting article in Ha’aretz about the Israeli wine culture.
While winetastingguy noted that wine consumption in America is on the rise, he pointed out that he wasn’t sure what the numbers were in Israel. Well, according to the article, Israeli wine consumption jumped 20% in 2006. That’s a lot of wine!
The release of beaujolais nouveau is also getting a lot of notice in Israel. It’s in the stores already, hundreds of people came out to various venues to celebrate events. Golan Heights had a fun event – showcasing the fun nature of the release. The new releases are not to be taken seriously, but just a fun and joyful experience.
In Israel, where in 2006 average annual wine consumption soared by more than 20 percent from the year before, the ceremonial uncorking of the young wine is hailed on talk shows, noted on national news broadcasts, and toasted at the climax of midnight countdowns across the country.
We can thank the French for this:
Beaujolais parties were first “imported” to Israel by wine shops and the French Embassy in Israel.
“We wish to share a tradition which is really representative of French culture,” explains Brigitte Benhayoun, commercial attaché at the French Embassy in Israel. This year, the Beaujolais tradition was upheld to its highest French standards: French gourmet cheeses and Edith Piaf songs.
But, in Israel, the highlight wasn’t French wines but rather Israeli. However, I ask – is this an example of Israeli wines looking domestically but failing to look at the global potential for great Israeli wines? I’m tempted to say “yes.”
But the heart of Beaujolais’ celebrations in Israel this year didn?t involve French figures or even French wine. In dozens of Beaujolais’ parties around the country, the wine served was produced by one of the three local wineries: the “Junior” from Tishbi, the “B” of Benyamina and the “Gamay Nouveau” of Ramat Ha-Golan. These wineries started to produce their own “Beaujolais” wine around five years ago. All together, they produce an estimated 15,000 bottles. This is far more than the amount of Beaujolais Nouveau bottles imported for this event.
Local wines have a great advantage on French Beaujolais Nouveau: the price. As Kobi Shaked, the import director of Shaked Company, explains: “Due to French legal restrictions, we have only five days to fly the Beaujolais Nouveau into Israel. It has a decisive impact on the price”. As a result, the price of a bottle of French Beaujolais nouveau is NIS 70 against NIS 25 for a locally produced one.
Local producers understood the advantage they could gain from taking part in this highly regarded event. As Shashon Aharon, Benyamina’s vintner, says: “Our goal was to enter the niche of young wines to be part of an event that makes a lot of noise.” Beaujolais parties are a great opportunity for producers to mark their presence on the local wine market.
And, in conclusion (yes, I realize I just basically pasted the article, but it was a good one), the growth in Israeli wine culture is due precisely to the generation that is getting ignored abroad – young Gen X and the millenials (including moi!). I’m sure this is especially pronounced in Israel with high tech and the growth of international business and travel, particularly in a technology field and its supported industries that skews relatively young, as well as an increasingly pro-work, capitalist Israel:
“Wine culture is rapidly developing in Israel. People travel a lot. They want to eat and drink at home like they do abroad. The 25-35 generation is completely into it,” says Bodec.
“Figures show that annual consumption has risen from 6.5 liters per habitant to eight liters in 2006,” notes Brigitte Benhayoun.
Despite the prestige of French labels, Jessy Bodec encourages Israelis to drink more Israeli wines. “The quality of Israeli wine gets better every year. Take the Beaujolais for example, Israeli producers make it just as tasty and so I simply recommend to buy Israeli,” concludes Bodec.
This video is a fascinating introduction to Tzuba Winery. Unforunately, it’s all in Hebrew, which makes its usefulness rather limited outside of Israel. I often wonder why Israel doesn’t invest more in English-language material on its wineries. There is even an Israeli wine forum or two that attacks the few outlets for Israeli wine in English.
Nevertheless, I digress. Even if you don’t understand the video, this introduction to Tzuba Winery, founded in 2005, is in the Judean Hills and produced 30,000 bottles with the 2005 vintage. I hope to bring profiles of Israeli wineries in the near future, and perhaps even a review of Tzuba if you would click on the “Support HaKerem” link at the top of this blog and help me bring Israeli wines to you.
This is Israeli wine. Fun, vibrant, and undiscovered.
If you haven’t had Tabor wines, try it. Several of my friends swear by it.
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 Heights Winery. Its tranquility should get you through this relaxing holiday weekend. Of course, here in Israel, we are working hard to bring you great wine. Although, I do admit that I will be having some stuffing this Shabbat in honor of Thanksgiving day.
What wine will you be drinking this holiday weekend?
I wrote last week about the release of the 2007 vintages of Israeli wines, and specifically beaujolais-style. Well, it turns out, of course, that only one of the young wines are true beaujolais-style – the Gamay Noveau from the Golan Heights Winery. But, GHW has also already released the 2007 Moscato and Tishbi, Carmel, and Benyamina released young vines.
I haven’t yet had a chance to open up by Gamay Noveau (but will this weekend), but one person described it as “tomatoey.” I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I also picked up a bottle on Monday of the Benyamina BB. This is an old vine Carigan, which gets a bad rap but perhaps wineries like Binyamina can resuscitate its image. On the other hand, this was a very cheap wine — one of the cheapest in the store, so I guess I ought not to be expecting too much.
Incidentally, the Jerusalem Post has an article on Beaujolais, including a review of the Benyamina and Gamay. I know the Gamay isn’t available outside of Israel, but I’m not sure about the others. But, this is an example of the many Israeli wines that are not (yet?) available except only in Israel. Why is this? Is it a marketing failure? Is it because there isn’t interest in Israeli wine due to misconceptions?
Questions for anyone who happened to stop by this blog:
When did you start learning about/appreciating wine?
Why do you like wine?
How do you learn about wine? Books? Which ones? Courses? Where? Winery tours? What countries/regions?
One of the topics of this blog will be the young wine drinker, the late Gen X and the Millenial (1975-legal drinking age).
I just received an e-mail from Gary Vaynerchuk, the brash, pedestrian, young host of Wine Library TV, a video podcast about wine, and Director of Operations at his father’s megaliquor store, Wine Library, in New Jersey about an article about Wine 2.0 in CNN.
Wine 2.0 – the use of the Internet to sell wine – is something that we in the Silicon Wadi ought to be paying attention to. Israel, a high tech leader, should be using the Internet to sell wine – including better websites (many haven’t been updated in years), blogs (this is the only Israeli wine blog that is written in Israel, but I am certainly not an employee of any winery), and the translation of Hebrew sites to English.
Vaynerchuk has done a tremendous job reaching out to young, potential wine drinkers. Through the democratization of wine – of which the Internet is an important part of – and wine education, the Millenials and Gen X are learning to appreciate wine.
It doesn’t surprise me, as someone from a family of wine retailers, that this is coming from an immigrant (OK, he came to the US at the age of 3) and a retailer – not a critic or Wine Spectator or Decanter.
As CNN says:
That kind of attitude appeals to people who are mystified by the arcane lexicon of traditional wine journals or turned off by what they perceive as elitist barriers. Across the Internet, budding wine geeks are discovering a burgeoning number of Web sites, blogs, bulletin boards and other outlets that preach the gospel of the grape in terms they can understand.
And
The mission of wine sites like “Wine Library TV,” say several of the people behind these new outlets, is to demystify wine (and in some cases, sell it, too). Using the language, attitude and new media that appeal to a young, tech-savvy generation, they advocate trusting one’s own palate rather than obeying powerful wine critics. Some of the sites also provide opportunities for average wine drinkers to share their opinions.
Through the democratization of wine, people are also learning to appreciate Israeli wine. Gary has to be commended for including new Israeli wines, such as Castel, on his video cast.
As Gary says “You, with a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world, aren’t we?”
Yes we are.
I don’t know whether to be happy that many people have already discovered this blog after only a week of existence or upset that many – by no means all – discovered this blog because they were looking for information on kosher wine.
This will be a constant refrain on this blog:
ISRAELI DOES NOT MEAN KOSHER
At the same time, there is no reason for someone who is not Jewish or kosher-keeper not to drink wine that “just happens to be” kosher.
In fact, while all of the larger producers in Israel produce wine that is certified kosher, and thus most Israeli wine is certified, most of the smaller boutique wineries do not have kosher certification. Thus Israeli is not a synonym for kosher.
But, while we’re on this topic, what does it mean for a wine to be kosher? What doesn’t it mean?
It doesn’t mean:
- That it was blessed by rabbis
- That it is sweet and syrupy
- That it’s Concord
- That it was cooked
- That it was made in any way differently than non-certified wine
It does mean:
- That the wine production process is the same as any other wine
- That it was made only by observant Jews
- That the ingredients are all certified and do not contain any dairy (unless otherwise stated) or meat (such as bone fining, as is common in some European wines), particularly in the fining process.
- The equipment must be kosher, meaning nothing non-kosher (various meat and dairy products, for example) should have touched the equipment unless it was koshered (usually boiled thoroughly, this is empty and without the wine in the vats)
If it’s an Israeli wine it also means:
- That the grapes of new vines can’t be used for winemaking until the fourth year after planting (orla)
- No other fruits and vegetables may be grown in between the rows of vines
- The rules of shmita must be followed. Either land must be sold to a non-Jew in a leniency called heter mechira or the land must lay fallow every seventh year.
- A symbolic amount of wine must be poured away, reminiscent of the tithes to the Temple in Jerusalem.
As you can see, none of this affects the quality of wine. In fact, some of the issues specific to Israeli wine are actually recognized as sound agricultural practices.
Yet, in part due to the added expense of having only Orthodox Jews touching the wine, many of the small Israeli wineries are not certified kosher and the ones that are certified. So, both there is no reason for a kosher wine not to be worth drinking by all and also many Israeli wines are not certified kosher.
The World Cup is here.
No, not of soccer, but rather of wine.
The Grape Thinking blog “A better way to think about wine” and Taste Vine, a new Web 2.0 app that creates “taste semantic recommendations”, have launched the World Cup of Wine. In their own words:
WCOW is a competition that allows you to submit a wine from any country to be reviewed and promoted, based on popularity, to the Final Faceoff. The purpose is to promote internationalism within the wine industry, discover new wines to try, and find out which country has the most popular wines.
As we progress through September, we will create a ‘bracket’ to show the standings for each country.
Show the world that Israel is a word-class wine competitor. I just added a profile for the 2004 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin, one of Israel’s newest and best wines, and so I strongly urge you to vote for the Grand Vin or add other Israeli wines. (Full disclosure: I included Rogov’s tasting notes as the description for the wine, which I have only had twice – once at the winery and once at a press event – but thoroughly enjoy. In fact, it’s the best wine I’ve ever had – whether that says something about the wine or about me is for you to decide). I must add that by adding the Castel, I created an Israel
country list – as it was overlooked previously.
You can vote for the Castel here.
If you add other wines, consider that we want to have a few top rated Israeli wines and not merely a lot of low-rated Israeli choices. But, click on over and show that Israel is a world cup contender in the world of wine.
More information on the WCOW is available here on Grape Thinking.
If you’ve been to the supermarket lately, you’ve probably noticed that the hottest trend in the food industry is pomegranate products.
Several years before the trend got started, a family in Israel’s Upper Galilee region began working to create a tastier and healthier version of the ancient fruit, only to cross their way into yet another huge food market. Their product: the world’s first pomegranate wine fit to be sold to international wine connoisseurs.
(Read the rest at ISRAEL21c)
Gary Vaynerchuk just tasted this wine on Tuesday’s episode of Wine Library TV. Gary has done a good job of trying to bring in the Israeli wine to his show – how can you not since it’s so good! Now, this wine — which many argue because it’s not grape isn’t really wine — Gary says simply tastes like pomegranate and alcohol. Not for everyone, but it is healthy and if you like pomegranates, why not try the Rimon?Check out the full episode .
