HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog

Posted at 20:09h in Events by GuestPost 0 Comments The tenth year of Eshkol Hazahav! This is Israel’s main wine tasting competition which is held annually. Eshkol Hazahav, which translates as ‘The Golden Cluster’, has become a fixture in the Israeli wine calendar. It is regarded locally as the Oscars of Israeli wine. After four days of tastings by carefully chosen wine professionals, the cream of Israel’s wine industry gathered at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv for the […]

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One of the most fun wine events is fast upon us – the release of the 2007 Beaujolais Nouveau. According to that all-knowing source Wikipedia: Beaujolais nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is the most popular vin de primeur, fermented for just a few weeks then officially released for sale on the third Thursday of November. But it’s not just France that makes this wine. Other wine regions also […]

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Posted at 20:47h in Wines by Avi 0 Comments We’ve been covering the Israel Museum since the beginning. Check it out Check out the Jerusalem Wine Festival, one of the most fun and exciting wine festivals in Israel. This is how the city of Jerusalem describes it: The Jerusalem Wine Festival, the leading event for the wine industry in Israel, is a salute to Israeli wineries, which last year brought together a record 60 Israeli wineries that displayed hundreds of […]

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Posted at 21:42h in Wineries, Wines by Avi 0 Comments I first wrote about Jezreel Valley Winery, one of Israel’s newest wineries founded by high-tech entrepreneur Jacob Ner-David & Yehuda Nahar with Californian Ari Erle as the winemaker. Since writing the article I got my hands on several bottles of the wines at innovine – an event hosted at Google Israel focusing on wine and technology. While at innovine I had the opportunity to taste their Chardonnay, Redblend (a mix […]

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Posted at 20:47h in Wine industry by David Rhodes 0 Comments I was on my way to Haifa last night (from Ra’anana) with a friend who shall remain nameless (his wife gets upset when I mention his drinking online but many of our mutual friends will guess who he his anyways). And since I’ve been told drinking is legal in Israel in a car (for the passengers at least) and there’s no open container law (although flaunting it might still […]

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    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… Posted at 12:08h in Events, Food by David Rhodes 0 Comments 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 […]

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Since 2007, there have been annual tastings of Israeli wines by the Wine Advocate, the mouthpiece of Robert Parker, the world’s most influential wine critic. Mark Squires, who is the specialist on Israeli wines in Parker’s wine tasting team, did the tasting as usual. There were 80 wines from 21 different wineries. The highest scores were achieved by Yarden El Rom Cabernet Sauvignon, Yatir Forest and Tzora Or. A score of 90 points or more is a target for Israeli […]

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Posted at 14:30h in Wine industry, Wineries, Wines by 4 Comments Carmel Winery has just announced the launch of its award-winning premium brandy, the Carmel 100. This quality Israeli brandy was aged for at least eight years in oak barrels. This new release of the Carmel 100 brandy is in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Carmel Winery. Brandy Carmel 100 is made with Columbard (70%) with the addition of Chenin Blanc and Emerald Riesling. Most of the brandy (75%) […]

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Posted at 09:45h in Wine industry by David Rhodes 0 Comments 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 recent article about Tulip focused on their story so lets dive now headfirst into […]

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Posted at 16:25h in Wine industry by Avi 0 Comments Gat Shomron Winery, in Karnei Shomron, was one of the wineries at the Ra’anana Wine Festival and also was at Sommolier. Founded by Avigdor Sharon and Lior Nachum on the settlement of Karnei Shomron, not far from Kfar Saba, in 2003, this small winery released its first wines from that harvest in 2005. Grapes are sourced from the areas of Shomron and the Upper Galilee. Among their wines include two […]

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