Alcohol is an important component of many people’s Purim holiday celebration. For those looking to add kosher wine to their Purim baskets and Purim feast, here are some suggestions. Given the current state of the economy, I’ve only listed low priced wines.
Under 50 NIS
For great value wines, many of the wines from Tzuba (not available in the United States), the Golan series of Golan Heights Winery, Galil Mountain’s basic series, or the Teperberg Silver series from Teperberg 1870 make great value wines.
Tzuba
- Tzuba Ha’mayan, Belmont Red 2006
- Tzuba Ha’mayan, Belmont White 2007
- Tel Tzuba, Sangiovese-Nebbiolo 2006
- Tel Tzuba Chardonnay 2006
- Tel Tzuba, Chardonnay Dessert Wine N.V.
- Golan Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
- Golan Merlot 2006
- Golan Chardonnay 2006
- Golan Sion Creek Red 2006
- Golan Sion Creek White
- Yarden Mt. Hermon Red 2007
- Yarden Mt. Hermon White 2007
- Segal Merom Galil (“Special Reserve” for international audiences) Fusion Red 2006
- Segal Merom Galil Fusion White 2006
- Segal Merom Galil Cabernet Sauvignon Single 2005
- Segal Merom Galil Merlot Single 2005
- Segal Merom Galil Syrah Single 2005
- Carmel Private Collection 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot
- Carmel Private Collection 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
- Carmel Private Collection 2007 Merlot
- Israel Wine Company – http://www.israelwinecompany.com – offers an Israeli wine club, select gift packs, and winemaker Ari Erle’s own special house wine that was made from his family’s vineyards in Israel.
Golan
Golan Heights Winery’s Golan series has always provided excellent young wines, providing good value. Israelis can purchase this in many common supermarket chains (albeit, I think it would be cheaper at a wine shop). For these young wines, if the following year’s vintage is available, it may be worth buying the younger wines, depending on storage conditions.
There is also the Golan Sion Creek Red and White. I’m not a big fan of Golan Heights Winery’s regular blends (the Sion Creek series and the Yarden Mount Hermon, which is not the same quality as the other Yarden-labeled wine). However, at a recent wine tasting party, made up solely of wines costing 50NIS (about $12) or less, the Golan Sion Creek Red came out the winner.
Segal
My personal view on Segal, however, is to avoid the cheap Shel Segal wines, particularly the Red wine (Dry Red, Adom Yavesh) which has Israel’s great failure, Argaman. Although it has its fans.
Carmel
Don’t let the name fool you. Carmel has been making major improvements and, in their lower-to-mid level series, these can be seen this year. The 2007 vintage of the Carmel Private Collection series is absolutely amazing value-for-money.
In addition, at a really low price, their dry wines from the Selected series are good for sub-30NIS wines. These supermarket quaffers may be a great Purim wine for additional enjoyment (within moderation, of course, and please avoid alcohol abuse).
I’ve written about Teperberg 1870 and, if available, strongly encourage you to check out their wines! They are a personal favorite, and I look forward to checking out their Malbec, the first Israeli wine of this varietal. Rogov recently reviewed a few of Teperberg’s latest releases.
Alcohol & Purim:
While we only advocate responsible alcohol consumption, many people find Purim to be an occasion to imbibe a bit more than usual. This comes from the interpretation of a verse in the book of Esther that, on Purim, you should not be able to tell the difference between Haman (the villain) and Mordechai (the hero). Of course, many have also warned of the dangers of alcohol abuse and drunkenness, and alternative views hold that one can fulfill the precept without drinking. Yet, Judaism’s sacred sources have often written about the joy of responsible wine consumption, so I suggest that instead of drinking the hard liquor on this joyous holiday that, as in any time you want to enjoy, a bottle of Israeli wine is appropriate.
Purim Baskets:
Here are a few places that you can buy Purim baskets or Israeli wine for the holiday:
In the United States:
In Israel:
See the links to the right for several Israeli wine shops.
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Tags: Carmel Winery, Galil Mountain, Golan Heights Winery, kosher, Purim
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 17:59 and is filed under Kosher and Jewish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
