When you work at a winery, you soon find out there’s no shortage of people who want your wine for free. Winemakers tend to be generous souls, from my experience, but there’s a limit to how many wine writers, dignitaries and charities you can bestow with samples or bottles for a charity gala and still afford to keep the doors of a winery open. So, as diplomatically as possible the staff of a winery must choose who to support and […]

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It’s summer time and that means it’s time to break out the white wines — which are great deals too! In this week’s Ha’aretz, Israel’s premier wine critic Daniel Rogov tries a few whites. By Daniel Rogov In Israel, as in California, nearly all the locally made white wines are made from grapes that have their origins in France – Chardonnay from Burgundy, Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux, Viognier from the northern Rhone Valley and Gewurtztraminer from Alsace. Not even the […]

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In this week’s Ha’aretz, Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov tastes wines from the Alexander Winery, Gat Shomron Winery, and Tishbi winery. Wine and Spirits / Greats from Alexander By Daniel Rogov Located on Moshav Beit Yitzhak in the Sharon region, the Alexander winery, founded in 1996 by Yoram Shalom, receives grapes largely from contract vineyards it controls at Kerem Ben Zimra in the Upper Galilee. It has mainly produced Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and now coming on […]

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Note: I meant to publish this early last week, but for technical reasons, this post never got published. My apologies. By Daniel Rogov As every November, tomorrow dozens of wine stores from Paris to Rio de Janeiro will celebrate the first wines of the 2008 Beaujolais harvest. Beaujolais nouveau, a red wine, is the most popular vin de primeur, fermented for only a few weeks before its release on the third Thursday of November, known as “Beaujolais Day” or “Beaujolais […]

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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 […]

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Daniel Rogov has a positive review of the Benyamina Winery in last week’s Ha’aretz. Benyamina is a large winery, often overlooked. It’s great to see that this Israeli winery is constantly improving. Wine and Spirits / Sophisticated Binyamina By Daniel Rogov That Binyamina winery is on the way up is beyond question. With far better control over its vineyards than in the past, increasingly modern equipment, and Sasson Ben-Aharon and Assaf Paz aboard as winemakers, it is clear that the […]

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Today’s the day! The Jerusalem Wine Festival – a fun way to taste Israeli wine – is here. I plan on being there on Wednesday so check it out. If you attend the event (or any other Israeli wine event) please send me your photos and, even better, your thoughts, remarks, or even a guest post. E-mail any photos or posts to info[at]israeli-wine.org It will take place between 19:00-23:00 (7PM-11PM) in the sculpture garden of the Israel Museum. Participating wineries […]

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Not too long ago you may recall some rave reviews by me about some Recanati wines. Generally speaking I think they are consistently one of the best commercial wineries in Israel so when I heard they were releasing a new wine I was excited for the opportunity to taste what they crafted and when I found out it was a new single varietal to the Israeli wine portfolio, the red Marselan, to Israel and a varietal I wasn’t too familiar […]

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The following is reprinted from wines-israel.com. I don’t have to mention that another great source of Israeli wine news is this blog, aggregating and publicizing in Israel in English the story of the Israeli wine scene. The wine critic is someone who is wine knowledgeable. His job is to taste wine on our behalf and write about in a way that is informative and helpful. A critic will gain a guru-like following of people who follow every word. He quantifies […]

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Israeli wine is world class. Yes, we’ve heard this recently from the likes of Robert Parker, Mark Squires, Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Spectator, Decanter, and other wine critics and trade publications. But I think they’ve all got it a bit wrong. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with their scores and I’ll take the 93 that the Wine Advocate (Robert Parker and Mark Squires) gave the Yatir Forest. Rather, my wine philosophy is that Israeli wine is not world class […]

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