Posted at 17:00h in Wineries by 0 Comments
I promise that this is the last post about Carmel Winery for a little while, but I promised last month some more information and news about Carmel and this post about Carmel’s quality revolution (which definitely does include the opening up of the Yatir Winery) just doesn’t cut it. But, since the story of Carmel is the story of Israel and Israeli wine, there is so much to say.
I was graced with a tour of Carmel’s wineries at Rishon L’Tzion and Zichron Ya’akov, Israel with “The Ambassador of Israeli Wine” (and an all-around nice guy) Adam Montefiore.
Rishon LeTzion is Carmel’s first winery, opened in the late nineteenth century and is Israel’s oldest continuing functioning industrial building. It’s also the home of the first telephone in Israel and first electrical power – showcasing its importance in Israel’s history. While today, it is surrounded by a bustling city, this yishuv was one of Israel’s first cities (hence the name: Rishon L’Tzion means First in Zion), and once primarily agriculture.
Rishon L’Tzion is familiar to anyone who has ever picked up a bottle of Carmel’s Limited Edition. The winery is on the front image. There are also famous pictures of David Ben Gurion (who worked there as a young adult) in front of the winery when he was a bit older … and with a bit more work experience under his belt.
Today, Carmel Winery’s corporate offices are there. The bottling facility is there. The brandy facility is there. One of the main wine making labs are there. The location currently also takes a significant role in the grape juice and non-wine products, as well as a bit of wine in the lower series is made there. But, its significance is primarily historical (and it’s nice that at least one winery has offices in a convenient place to live). Incidentally, Carmel makes some excellent brandy there.
After checking out Rishon, we headed up to Zichron … Zichron Ya’akov, that is. Zichron’s facility is also over a hundred years old – but don’t worry, it’s renovated and inside they are making wine with modern equipment and technology. At Zichron and Rishon, they also have some cement tanks, which is also used in aging the wine. It’s the only place in Israel that uses cement tanks (in addition to stainless steel and barrel aging), but they are common in the “Old World” of France, and even some ultra-premium wineries in Napa are beginning to use cement tanks.
The winery at Zichron Ya’akov is home to a brand new boutique winery. What makes it special? Well, besides high tech, they also have small and medium sized tanks, which allows the wine to be carefully aged and crafted from microplots and vineyards. It gets the best vineyard production in the wine – so only the best goes into the upper and medium-level wines. Because Carmel makes such a large amount of wine – from ultra-premium to sacramental – they also have the ability to only use the top stuff for the top wines. If, for example, some of the Cabernet from the Kayumi vineyard doesn’t meet the specifications of the winemakers, instead of making bad Kayumi Cabernet, they can use that production for the lower series. This is unlike most other boutique producers in Israel and may partially explain the decline in one top Israeli producer for the latest vintage. Yet, Carmel will not have this problem!
The vision of Carmel, from its founding by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, was to make great wines. While it took a while for that to happen, today it is and the Limited Edition is the fulfillment of the Baron’s dream to make a Bordeaux-style Old World wine.
Carmel Winery (they changed their name from Carmel Mizrahi in the 1990s) is making some great wines, from sacramental to single vineyard. If you haven’t had wine from Carmel (and I especially recommend the Appelation/Ezorit, Single Vineyard, or Limited Edition series), now is the time to pick up a bottle.
