I love how social media can be used to introduce people to Israeli wine. On my Twitter account (@hakerem – you arefollowing me, I presume), I found a wine blogger who was looking for some wine tips. Well, first we bonded over a few tweets about (the lack of) social media in the wine industry. Then, I suggested some Israeli wine — which she had never had before. Upon taking my suggestion, @foodwinechickie ordered a bottle of Segal Cabernet Sauvignon […]

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The Wine Advocate, owned by Robert Parker, the world’s most famous & influential wine critic, has again tasted wines from Israel. This is encouraging because Israel now seems to appear at least once a year in a formal tasting. It was not so long ago that Israel was off the Parker radar. However today that has all changed. In Robert Parker’s Wine Buyers Guide No. 7, Israel receives more pages than South Africa and the same as New Zealand. The […]

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Ha’aretz’s weekend magazine has a new series where they profile a parent and child. This weekend is Moti Teperberg, from Teperberg 1870, and his daughter Hila Lieber-Teperberg. read the full article A little history of Teperberg winery: Moti is a fifth-generation Jerusalemite on his father Menachem’s side and 10th generation on his mother Rivka’s side. The foundations for the family’s wine business were laid by Avraham Teperberg, who immigrated to Ottoman Palestine from Austria in 1850, and two years later […]

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Daniel Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wine is coming out in a few weeks for 2010 (How did that happen?). He’s been publishing this annual guide to Israeli wine for the past several years and it keeps on getting bigger and bigger. One of the most interesting sections of Daniel Rogov’s Israeli wine tasting guide is his annual ranking of the Top 10 Best Wineries in Israel. In 2009, Daniel Rogov picked the following wineries: Golan Heights Winery (Katzrin, Yarden, Gamla) […]

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I’ve written about Israeli wine from Biblical Times until the 1990s. Here’s Israeli wine from the last decade: Now is the time to look back at the 2000’s, as the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close. It was a very good decade for Israeli wines. The boutique boom that began in the 1990’s continued. There are now hundreds of small wineries making wine on a domestic basis. Israel received third party recognition for improved quality at […]

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‘Wines of Israel’ is a new book published by Cordinata, which is being launched at Succot. It is really the little sister of the larger format coffee table book, The Wine Route of Israel. ‘Wines of Israel’ is in an attractive, compact, concise and practical guide giving an insight into the wines and wineries of Israel. It features 100 wineries ranging from the large well-known commercial wineries to the small little known garagistes. The text is brief but informative and […]

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Wine Spectator is currently holding its 2009 Video Content and 9 finalists have been announced. Among the video finalists is a little known wine critic named Daniel Rogov talking about wine from a little known wine region called ISRAEL. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video but it’s available here (and then click here to Wine Spectator’s site to actually vote). After watching Daniel Rogov, as the old school “Expert Source” (and yes, he really is like that!), along with the […]

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Read the full article In the rolling pine-covered hills west of Jerusalem, winemaker Eran Pick checks on the vines he cultivates, plying an ancient trade which has been common to the area since biblical times. “For 3,000 years wine has been produced in these hills,” says Pick, 40, who is trained in a mix of New and Old World winemaking and worked in California and Bordeaux before joining Tzora Vineyards. Established in 1993, Tzora was one of Israel’s first boutique […]

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Nestled amongst the vines of Israel’s largest contiguous vineyard at Kibbutz Hulda, about thirty minutes southwest of Tel Aviv, Israel’s second largest winery, Barkan, hosted a press event to inaugurate it’s new and long awaited visitor center and to launch its release of their three Cabernet Sauvignon’s in their 2009 Barkan Altitude series. Over 30 wine writers and bloggers were invited from all over Israel to witness what is a major accomplishment in Israel, getting approval for a large visitor […]

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In Daniel Rogov’s weekly column in Ha’aretz he reviews some of the best wines of 2009. Chateau Golan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Royal Reserve 2005: Almost impenetrably dark garnet in color, this wine is both concentrated and elegant. A blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc, opening with spicy, mocha-tinged blackcurrants, those yielding to blackberries, herbs and light oak. Hints of light sea salt and leather on the super-long finish make the wine intriguing. Perhaps the best yet from the […]

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