One of my new favorite Israeli wineries comes from a kibbutz not far from Jerusalem. Tzuba Winery is based at Kibbutz Tzuba in the Judean Hills. It’s first release was only from the 2005 vintage. While that vintage was quite enjoyable, this year’s releases (of the 2006 and 2007 vintages) are absolutely amazing and a great price. Only available in Israel, Tzuba is just another hidden gem of unique and excellent wines only available to visitors in Israel. My favorite […]

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During the last five years, I’ve attended dozens of Israeli wine festivals. Now I even consult for a few festivals. Before I moved to Israel I helped start a wine festival for San Diego County’s wineries. After years of offering free advice, I found often that the only way to get people to listen to you is to charge for your advice. Sadly most people seem to put value on advice depending how much they pay. Some doctors and lawyers […]

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Ella Valley Winery is located in the valley of Ella in the Judean Hills, which has been a viticulturally important area for 2000 years. While, from an historical point of view, the aesthetically stunning Ella Valley is primarily known for the monumental show-down between David and Goliath; it does have other claims to fame. As with many other Israeli wineries, an ancient wine press was discovered on the site of the winery providing additional visual confirmation that the area had […]

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The Savannah Morning News picked the Galil Mountain Chard as the “Wine of the Day” for January 30, 2008. Saying that it could fool anyone into thinking it’s a California Chardonnay in a blind tasting, I have to admit that I would be very interested in trying. Israeli wines definitely would make a useful blind […] From the Vancouver straight.com. The prices seem a bit high, I must admit (although it is Canadian dollars). Uncorked February 14, 2008 Israeli wines […]

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While this site is not a kosher wine site, with many Israeli wine not being kosher and much kosher wine not being Israeli, I know it’s of interest to some readers and so I’m reviewing a new book out on the market, written by a New York real estate expert, The Kosher Grapevine: Exploring the World of Fine Wine Disclaimer: I received the book as a review copy Irving Langer’s The Kosher Grapevine: Exploring the World of Fine Wine is […]

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Wine Blogging Wednesday featured kosher wine and was hosted by The Corkdork. Yes, I know, it’s Thursday, but Wednesday was chag, the last day of Passover in Israel and the second-to-last day in the Diaspora. More importantly, I was invaded by the in-laws, so my Wine Blogging Wednesday post had to wait. For WBW: Kosher […] Gary Vaynerchuk does a kosher and Israeli wine tasting I’ve posted my Passover wine recommendations here and here (and, in an update, I believe […]

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Another day, another winery. It at least it feels that way sometimes. But not all of Israel’s hundreds of wineries are created equal. So its nice when there’s a new one on my radar for all of the right reasons. Producing 18,000 bottles of their own wine and being relatively new to the industry, the Maor Winery has been located along the western base of the Golan Heights along the shores of the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret) since moving […]

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The following is a guest post by Adam Montefiore, the Ambassador of Israeli Wine In most homes, Shabbat is the time to get out the finest crockery. People who look quite scruffy during the week will be dressed in their best suit and finest dresses. There is a lot of pressure on the lady of the house to prepare the best possible meal. With this effort to make Shabbat as special as possible, it is surprising how often people are […]

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Decanting Israel, which I spoke about previously, seems to be trying to channel Gary Vaynerchuk with their second video: Gvaot Herodion Cabernet – Merlot 2006, which is a wine that I’ve found to be quite enjoyable too.

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(This story first appeared on Wines-Israel and is reprinted with permission) There has been a trend in recent years of boutique wineries becoming kosher. Now two more wineries, have decided to make kosher wines from the 2010 harvest. The first is Flam Winery which was the largest Israeli winery producing non kosher wines in recent harvests. Flam Winery is owned by the Flam family. Situated in the Judean Foothills near Beit Shemesh, the winery produces well over 100,000 bottles a […]

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