I was happy to have the opportunity to attend the first (trade-only) day of IsraWine Expo and determined to take full advantage, arrived as early as possible for the opening press conference which included a talk by Adam Montefiore’s on the state of the Israeli wine industry to the approximately 45 visiting foreign journalists, wine buyers and other professionals (for a more-or-less complete list of foreign attendees, see here: http://www.grape-man.com/content.asp?NavigationID=684&ContentID=6023) – quite interesting. It was great to have the opportunity […]

Read More »

Posted at 12:42h in Wineries by 1 Comment I do apologize that I am posting often about the same wineries – Recanati, Galil Mountain, Golan Heights, Yatir, etc. – and not paying enough attention to Pelter, Vitkin, Chateau Golan, Ella Valley, or some of the 100s of other Israeli wines, but certain wines are just so versatile. Such as two of my favorite wineries: Galil Mountain and Recanti. In fact, about a month ago, I was at an interesting French […]

Read More »

Posted at 15:31h in Wine industry by 0 Comments There are numerous events taking place in Israel, particularly near the Judean Hills, to celebrate the Israeli wine route. Israel is also an excellent wine tourism destination. Check out this article in ynetnews.com for more details.

Read More »

Posted at 11:07h in Events, Featured, Wineries by Avi 0 Comments The third edition of The Wine Route of Israel has been published by Cordinata. The book is the most comprehensive overview of the Israeli wine industry to date. This coffee table book contains over 250 pages in full color, with photographs of wineries, winemakers, vineyards and wines. It will be an excellent gift to the wine lover, the connoisseur and to those wishing to get to know the Israeli […]

Read More »

Posted at 12:06h in Wine industry by David Rhodes 0 Comments As someone who first started studying wine as a Geography student in college, I’m fond of wines that give homage to their terroir whether its the emphasis of a single vineyard from where the grapes are harvested or the altitude of the vineyard or in the case of the Ella Valley Winery’s new release, its latitude and longitude. As I also helped manage an auto parts store while working […]

Read More »

Posted at 17:54h in Wine industry by 0 Comments Will have much more to say about Golan Heights Winery (had some excellent wines from them last week), but in the meantime, here’s a picture I took last Monday of an Israeli flag flying over their steel barrels outside of their winery in Katzrin, on the Golan Heights.

Read More »

Posted at 19:14h in Kosher, Wine industry, Wineries by 0 Comments (For Daniel Rogov’s original posting, go here) Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov is making his annual rounds and recently visited the kosher winery, Ella Valley Vineyards. I’ve previously written about the excellent wines from this Jerusalem-area vineyard and my previous visits. Note that the 2008 tastings were made from components, and so when it is released, check back for updated tasting notes as it can change between the component […]

Read More »

Posted at 13:20h in Wine industry by 0 Comments Sonadora, a hotshot DC lawyer cum wine aficionado had an interesting wine-food pairing the other day: tacos with Israel’s Flam Classico. Well, the pairing was a flop but, according to Sonadora, the Flam has “the nose that I now really love about a Cabernet Sauvignon.” The Flam Classico comes from one of Israel’s top boutique wineries. Flam, a family winery, was established in 1998 by two brothers. It’s located just half-an-hour […]

Read More »

Posted at 12:00h in Wine 101, Wine industry by 1 Comment Here are some pictures from ancient times (Byzantine era to the Babylonian era) of wine vats (called amphorae, also the name of a great winery in Israel – which is selling under the name Marvah in the United States) that were discovered off Israel’s coast. They were used by ships near the Mediterranean and are on display at the Israeli Maritime Museum in Haifa:

Read More »

One of the best Israeli examples of my belief that wine can be called “philosophy in a bottle” is from the Recanati Winery. Israeli born and UC Davis trained Gil Shatsberg took over as the chief winemaker in 2008 and since then, he and his associate Ido Lewinsohn (who trained at the University of Milan and also worked in France and Australia) have transformed one of Israel’s largest wineries from a winery known for mostly premium New World style wines […]

Read More »