One Week of Festivities, One Great Winery If you have a chance, don’t miss the 30th Anniversary celebration for the Golan Heights Winery (Yarden, Gamla & Golan labels) being observed the next week at the port on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv. It’s free to just show up and mingle and hear the music as […]
Being the only winemaker at a winery making a million bottles of wine a year is enough work for any one man. For instance, one Israeli winery of a similar size employs three winemakers. Yet, Golan Tishbi likes challenges and keeping himself busy whether its building pizza ovens for the winery’s visitor center or tinkering […]
Previously, I had tasted Tabor wines on several occasions at festivals and a few times at the winery and each time I was politely presented their wines by an assistant winemaker or someone from their marketing department yet on my latest opportunity I finally got to sit a bit with the senior winemaker, which to […]
It doesn’t happen too often and definitely less than most people might imagine but I don’t typically drink much wine recreationally at home…alone. It can be a dangerous habit to get into and raised as a thrifty New Englander I’m resistant to open a bottle if I’d have to take a few sips and throw […]
Lately, I’ve written about the Tulip Winery, the Kfar Tikvah based winery relying on Galilee & Judean Hills vineyards. It’s inspirational story, which I’ll omit here, can overshadow how good their wines are leaving a writer limited by a word count deciding whether to focus more on the story than on their wines. My most […]
One of my favorite ways of passing an evening in Israel is introducing visitors or newcomers to good if not great Israeli wines and dining experiences they haven’t yet encountered. Often I’m limited by different factors such as if the group keeps kosher or keeping to a budget of some kind. I don’t see those […]
Notes & Favorites from Day One of the 2nd Annual Jerusalem Kosher WIne Festival Even though I just started this year to score wines after spending years writing hundreds of essays and articles, I hope to refrain from scoring wines at festivals since there’s so much additional stimuli to distract from focusing in on the […]
Jerusalem is hosting its 2nd Annual all–Kosher Wine Festival at the International Convention Center (ICC) Binyanei Ha’Uma in Hebrew, January 28th to the 30th 3PM to 11PM, conveniently within a few minutes walking of the Jerusalem Central Bus station and new light rail trains. Its also known as Wine Seven Two, a play on 972 […]
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 […]
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 […]
During my four plus years in Israel, I’ve tried to attend the major beer events each year typically held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. By far the one most suited for writers and insiders is the annual Beers Israel expo organized by Sommelier Israel, the same organizers of the annual Sommelier wine trade […]
There’s a saying among winemakers, “it takes a lot of beer to make wine.” The point being that whether its toiling in the vineyards or moving barrels, pumps and cases of bottles at the winery, it’s easy to break a sweat making wine and a mug of ice cold brew sometimes is more in order […]
