With close to 300 wineries to write about, often meeting with wine makers and winery executives is based upon unexpected opportunities as much as who I want to talk to on any given day. So when I was invited to interview Motty Teperberg at the Teperberg Winery in the Judean Hills outside Beit Shemesh, I took advantage of the opportunity to talk with the CEO and owner of Israel’s fourth largest winery which currently produces about 5 million bottles.
I had met and chatted briefly with Motty several times before at festivals and tastings hosted by Teperberg for wine writers living in Israel. Often there’s too many distractions or other writers to compete with to get more than a few minutes of Motty’s time so over a half an hour of his undivided attention in the confines of his office was something close to priceless for me as a wine writer.
The Teperberg Winery had been founded as recently as 2006 by the Teperberg family who had focused on making kosher grape juice and sweet sacramental “kiddush” wine under their Efrat label since 1870 and which still continues today to make between 2-3 million bottles a year. Motty had started working at Efrat with his father in 1976 after studying Economics & Business Administration at university and finishing his service in the Israel Defense Force. Motty saw the potential for expanding the family business into the fine wine market and crafted Teperberg 1870 as a separate brand and has nearly doubled the production of the Efrat/ Teperberg family offerings since 2006. It’s an impressive accomplishment to go from zero bottles of fine wine to millions in just a few years.
A substantial 50 million NIS was invested in building a new state of the art wine making and bottling facility that is still expanding to this day. This was during a period where several of Israel’s largest wineries were making huge investments to improve the quality of grapes coming from better vineyards and investing in state of the art equipment. Teperberg might have had an advantage in building a new facility from scratch instead of renovating or replacing antiquated equipment and facilities such as what happened at the Carmel and Binyamina wineries. A further 12 million NIS has been budgeted for their new two-story 1000 square meter visitor center currently under construction planned to open by the end of 2013. My first view of those plans alluded to a dynamic center that Motty’s son, Amotz, is overseeing the construction and future management of which will serve as a portal towards experiencing their ever expanding selection of reasonably priced wines.
Although in the next five years, Motty may increase production by as much as 50% to about 7 millions bottles for both Teperberg and Efrat, his focus is expanding what has been mostly a value for money winery into offering more premium wines such as a soon to be released single varietal Cabernet Franc and potentially a Malbec and a Bordeaux style blend in the foreseeable future. The winery has had a few price points ranging from a few bottles for 100 NIS to a Reserve series hovering over 100 NIS/ bottle with their Terra & Silver series in between but new wines are in the pipeline to be released starting at 160 NIS and higher and even in relatively limited releases could bring prestige to the whole line-up and get consideration for Teperberg wines on more exclusive restaurant and hotel wine lists.
Previous distribution pathways opened up by Efrat wines opened doors for Teperberg in Israel as well as overseas so that about 20% of their wine is exported mostly to North America and the United Kingdom. Allied Importers is their American agent although they are seeking a west coast distributor since most Israeli wine importers have comparatively weaker distribution away from the heaviest concentration of Jews in the US in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic corridor. Currently, Motty and winemaker Shiki Rauchberger (who has worked with the Teperberg family since 2001) travel to the US 2-3 times a year to nurture business opportunities in their biggest overseas market and hope to expand exports from 20% to 30% of sales over the next 5 years. About 75% of the winery’s 3500 dunams (875 acres) of vineyards are contracted from independent growers under an array of short-term and long-term contracts with some of their most prized vineyards covering Israel from the Galilee, the Judean Hills to the Negev including vineyards in Alma, Tzuba and Mitzpe Ramon respectfully.
Besides establishing themselves as possibly the most consumer friendly winery out of the top ten biggest Israeli producers, Teperberg, under Motty and Shiki , has managed to create one of the widest and most unique selections of varietals and styles. They offer the standard array of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc but are getting better known by many curious consumers for their Viognier and Gewurztraminer white wines, Malbec and Sangiovese red wines as well as a selection of Brut and Moscato sparkling wines not to mention Rosé and even dessert wine.
With close to thirty wines, there’s something for everyone often at a price point they’ll find affordable. With their growers and winemaker gaining more experience every year with vineyards that are often still maturing Teperberg wines show great promise to get better with each vintage.
Although many wineries benefit from having their own vineyards, it can be restrictive if there’s a particularly challenging year. Ultimately you need to use what grapes you got, sell them or take a loss. Many winemakers shop year to year for their grapes on the open market or depend on contracts with growers. That can present its own challenges but also its own rewards if the winemaker is discriminating enough and gets involved in the vineyards early enough to help the grower sculpt the future harvest towards producing grapes designed for the wine they had in mind.
One winemaker who has proven adept at shopping grapes from growers is Ido Lewinsohn. His family winery, the Lewinsohn WInery, located in his father’s garage, in Hod HaSharon, has been producing highly sought after wine since their 2007 vintage. In that short amount of time, the winery has already entered into its third stage of evolution of wines. Just as a sailboat is more maneuverable than an aircraft carrier, a small winery can more easily change direction than a larger winery. Ido is one of the few winemakers in Israel with the perspective of both helms as he also works on the three man winemaking team of the Recanati Winery which produces close to 1 million bottles/year about 100 times the size of what he and his father Amnon produce.
In their first vintage, Ido made two single varietal reds, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot and one single varietal white, Chardonnay. Ido felt a little confined by making single varietal wines which require at least 85% of the primary grape mentioned on the front label even though his wines were gaining a cult status by those few Tel Aviv sommeliers lucky enough to secure Lewinsohn wines for their restaurant’s wine lists.
Ido would change the labels and the brand so that each vintage he would produce one white and one red wine. The white would be Garage de Papa Blanc and the red Garage de Papa Rouge. This would allow Ido to experiment with different grape varietals and blends of different percentages while still promoting a brand customers could still easily identify. Even though his reds have changed year to year, his white has remained a Chardonnay each vintage and he has indicated no desire to change from Chardonnay as long as an adequate supply of quality grapes are available.
In the winery’s second evolution, the 2008 Rouge was still dominated by the Bordeaux varietal Merlot but showed hints of what was to come with significant contributions from Syrah and Petite Sirah. By their 2009 vintage, Ido had abandoned Cabernet and Merlot altogether for Lewinsohn’s third incarnation of reds relying primarily on “Mediterranean” varietals of Syrah, Petite Sirah and “Old Vine” Carignan. One reason for the change is based upon certain philosophies Ido has about making wine. Since I’ve been following, tasting and writing about his wines for a few years now its been edifying to see how it plays out in the wines.
Previously, Ido has stated that he prefers his wines to gain their aging potential through acidity rather than tannins. For dry white wines, other than oak aging a winemaker has no other viable choice than relying on acidity. But red wines typically rely more on tannins from the skins and are enhanced by one or more years in oak. Ido consciously was picking grapes earlier seeking higher acidity rather than waiting for higher ripeness, therefore more sugar and ultimately after fermentation alcohol. With Bordeaux varietals Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Cabernet Franc however picking early often meant the wines also exhibited greener “vegetal” characteristics that are reminiscent of green pepper or green beans from higher concentrations of methoxypyrazine that would typically dissipate in riper more mature grapes. Since Ido wanted to continue to make lower alcoholic red wines with between 13 to 14% alcohol with higher acidity playing a role in aging as well as making the wine more food friendly even as a younger wine, a switch to grapes more suitable for earlier picking that wouldn’t exhibit “pyrazine” was inevitable when he wanted his wine more linked to a style than a particular varietal.
Additionally, both his red and white wines go through sur lie aging in the barrels which allows them to gain a fuller body and a more elegant mouth feel. In the Blanc, this allows Ido to bypass a secondary malolactic fermentation which preserves more fruitiness of the Chardonnay with green apples, pears, lime, kiwi, pomelo and melons shining through. In his reds, sur lie helps make his lower alcoholic wines also fuller bodied even at a younger age so that waiting for tannins to mellow and integrate isn’t as crucial as in more traditional red wines. With the switch in grapes, red plums from the dominating Merlot give way to more black and even blue fruits of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.
At my most recent tasting at his family’s house adjacent to the “Garage de Papa”, I was there during the Lewinsohn’s annual VIP tasting for customers, writers and valued friends. You can often judge the quality of a wine by who shows up to taste it. In this case, Assaf Margalit, the heir and current winemaker of Israel’s first quality boutique winery, Margalit, launched in 1989 was present to enjoy his former intern’s wine. Ido had spent the summer of 2003 interning with Assaf and his father, “the wine professor,” Ya’ir Margalit who is currently on sabbatical in Napa. Additionally, Eran Pick of the notable Tzora Winery was in attendance and he and Assaf didn’t leave until each had ample samplings of Garage de Papa 2011 Blanc and 2008 and 2009 Rouge. Kobi Arviv, the newest winemaker at Recanati to join Ido and senior winemaker Gil Shatsberg, also came to show his respect and has ventured down a similar path as Ido launching a micro-winery Mia Luce also producing one red and one white each vintage.
Imitation is often the most sincere form of flattery yet flattery for Ido’s wines is coming in many different forms from more and more reputable sources. Although, I take great pride in that I was the first to write about his wines in English, I surely won’t be the last as more and more writers and connoisseurs are offered his wines and proclaim them to be examples of what great wines Israel’s most innovative winemakers are delivering.
For more information about obtaining Lewinsohn wines send e-mails to: [email protected]
The Blanc retails for 140 NIS and the Rouge 150 NIS
David Rhodes can be reached at: [email protected]
Even in a smaller wine region such as Israel there are certain wines that have become iconic: Castel’s Gran Vin, Yarden’s Katzrin, Margalit’s Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve or Yatir’s Forest are a few good examples. These are wines that most experts and those who tasted them agree are some of the best the country can produce. The general consensus and their legendary status didn’t happen over night but as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said “the tree is in the acorn”. To the keen observer, one can gauge the potential of something special in its early stages and I’m going on the record that the 2008 Flam Noble I tasted could be the first vintage of the next iconic wine from Israel. Time will only tell whether I’m right and how keen of a sooth sayer I might be.
As a van full of invited wine writers walked up into the backyard garden of the 200 year old villa turned into one of Israel’s most expensive boutique luxury hotels, the Alegra in Jerusalem, we were greeted with a properly chilled crisply tart glass of 2011 Flam Blanc, the winery’s only white wine made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. This blend of two popular grapes better known as single varietals from other wineries play off of each other nicely. Ceviche featuring diced white fish with fresh pomegranate was well paired and a refreshing match way to awake our senses after a mid day ride from Tel Aviv.
As pleasing as a well crafted tart white wine can be on a reasonably warm afternoon, that’s not the wine we came to taste or the star of the show. We sat downstairs at Alegra’s huge chef’s table in the hotel’s wide open kitchen that seats about 20 for a tasting of the 2008 Flam Noble. This wine, in contrast to their untraditional white blend Blanc, is a traditional red Bordeaux blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot and 11% Petit Verdot. Although Flam does grow the other two Bordeaux red varietals, Cabernet Franc and Malbec, winemaker Golan doesn’t currently see the benefit of adding them to any upcoming Noble blends at the winery or as single varietals but intends to bolster other single varietals or their Classico blend.
As a special treat we got to compare the 2008 to their more recently bottled 2009 Noble and they were distinctly different although I could easily smell and taste how each might attract an equal share of devotees depending on any aspiring connoisseurs’ preferences. After tasting both on their own with an introductory talk by Golan and Gilad Flam we climbed the stairs to what must be one of the most panoramic views within Israel.
Once again a long table was set out by our hosts for an amazing lunch prepared to be paired to the three wines we tasted earlier and once again we were poured ample amounts for tasting and even enough for savoring. Few if any present resisted more of these fabulous examples of just how good Israeli wines are getting from the right winemaker empowered by well cultivated and situated vineyards in the Galilee and in the Judean Hills. I question why a few wine writers who left early? What could have been better for a wine geek than to get even just one more sip of these wines.
A simply stuffed savory ravioli paired well with the aforementioned Blanc and was a subtle set up to the main event: an ample cut of Filet Mignon cooked in a reduction sauce of Flam Noble from a still aging barrel paired with our second helping of the 2008 and/ or 2009 Noble. Its fairly rare you get a chef or a winery willing to use their 230 NIS (about $60 )bottle of wine as a source of a reduction sauce but it delivered and if you never tried cooking with a wine you’re drinking for dinner this experience would have converted you to the technique even with a wine 1/2, 1/4 or 1/10th the price.
So what went into this special wine to make it so good. Flam is already considered by many to be one of the top ten wineries in Israel so that were capable of an iconic wine won’t a surprise to many. Yet for this wine, winemaker Golan Flam took grapes culled from the best rows of their best vines from three different vineyards. Low yields helped concentrate the complex and expressive flavors and aromas of each grape so that red and black fruits play off each other with cassis, plum, blackberries caressing one’s palette delicately but definitively in balance with the fine grained French oak barrels used for aging 12 to 15 months in the estimated seventeen different barrels that contributed to a modest 5,000 bottles that will surely sell out quickly after release.
Golan doesn’t have any plans in the near future for adding more wine to their now seven wines in Flam’s line-up. He thinks that might even be one wine too many for a winery of their size hovering about 100,000 bottles a year. But like a proud parent, he doesn’t know which wine he would part with and has an affection for all of them as they fit together to offer a wide and differing array to pair with different meals, seasons or even moods, Current releases now include their 2011 Rosé and Blanc each selling for about 79 NIS (or about $20), their entry level 2010 Classico red blend for 85 NIS ( a very popular red wine by the glass at better restaurants in Tel Aviv), their 2008 Syrah, Merlot or Cabernet Reserve which sell for 120 NIS, 140 NIS and 165 NIS respectfully and now their flagship 2008 Flam Noble at 230 NIS. The winery’s wines became kosher as of 2010 vintages and beyond (without any noticeable affect on the wine) as all that changed was who was handling what at the winery rather any way grapes were grown or techniques applied in the winemaking.
The 2008 and 2009 Flam Noble won’t be exported as much as their 2010 vintage and beyond as there’s a far greater demand for Israeli kosher wines than non-kosher wines. But kosher consumers in the US shouldn’t worry that it will be another 2 years before Flam will be sending the 2010 vintage to the US since the winery will be sending it in time for Passover 2013. However, they are sending it in larger quantities for at least that first kosher vintage and Israelis will enjoy an ironically larger supply of their last non-kosher vintages. Either way, with only 5,000 bottles they will be in rare supply and high demand so any purchases now will surely save you money later when it quickly sells out and its reputation inflates prices. I’ll prize my one bottle given to me as a preview but will be eager to see if others agree with me as I may have just planted a seed but it will take others to make the legend grow.
