HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog

In 1884, a year before his death, Sir Moses Montefiore, then 100 years old, made his last donation to the new village of Rishon le Zion, birth place of the modern Israel wine industry. Over 100 years later a young Englishman with blue eyes made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel. The great, great grandson of Moses Montefiore’s heir had the same objective – to contribute to Israel and to advance Israeli wine. He began by specialising in the ‘on trade’ – hotels […]

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Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov has been making his annual round of tastings as of late and he recently visited Saslove Winery. Saslove, founded by Canadian immigrant Barry Saslove, is one of those great Israeli boutique wineries that are a secret to those outside of Israel. Here is the original thread and the following comes straight from Rogov: Considering that Saslove founded his eponymous winery in 1998, he is indeed one of the “old-timers” on the Israeli boutique scene. I […]

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Israeli Wines in the Wine Advocate 3, Mar 2010 Share The Wine Advocate, owned by Robert Parker, the world’s most famous & influential wine critic, has again tasted wines from Israel. This is encouraging because Israel now seems to appear at least once a year in a formal tasting. It was not so long ago that Israel was off the Parker radar. However today that has […] In: Wine industry| Wineries Tags: Carmel, Castel, Clos de Gat, Galil Mountain Winery, […]

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Israeli Sommelier in London 27, Mar 2010 Share The term ‘Sommelier’ is the one of the most abused words in the Israel wine scene. Anyone who serves wine in a restaurant is referred to as a sommelier and people who complete wine courses also use the term loosely. Of course, a real sommelier is something virtually unknown in Israel. The genuine article will have […] In: Wine industry Tags: Sommelier

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Best Values for Israeli Wine 15, Mar 2010 Share This was the second year of the Best Value competition, organized by Studio Ben Ami. There were 128 wines in the competition from 28 Israeli wineries. The main category was for wines less than 79 shekels and there were also prizes for wines under 50 shekels. The results were announced at the David InterContinental Hotel in […] In: Wineries| Wines Tags: Barkan, Ben Haim, Carmel, Gamla, Golan, Mt. Odem, Odem, Recanati, […]

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Adam Montefiore: The Ambassador of Israeli Wine 25, Mar 2010 Share In 1884, a year before his death, Sir Moses Montefiore, then 100 years old, made his last donation to the new village of Rishon le Zion, birth place of the modern Israel wine industry. Over 100 years later a young Englishman with blue eyes made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel. The great, great grandson of Moses Montefiore’s […]

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13 Dec 2008 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 […]

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Israel’s World Class Dessert Wines 30, Oct 2009 Unfortunately most Israelis associate sweet wines with Kiddush and religious ritual, and therefore the very word ‘sweet’ has connotations of a cheap and nasty wine. Something which is to be avoided, at all costs. However some of the world’s most sought after and expensive wines are sweet, pudding wines. An Eiswein or Trockenbeerenauslese from Germany, […]

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Canadian wine journalists visit Israel 20, Dec 2007 Israeli wine just got a bit of attention in Canada. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with private organizations, brings many different groups of people to Israel. I have personally been involved in a trip of bloggers, but they have also brought in entertainment/youth culture reporters, political leaders, and others. The journalists included Tony Aspler, Jugen […]

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Wine Tasting at Tel Aviv’s Eretz Yisrael Museum – Thursday is Last Day 22, Oct 2009 From Daniel Rogov’s forum: Wine and Gourmet Magazine will be holding its 12th wine tasting event at Museum haAretz in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday, 21 and 22 October. A small change this year, for whereas in the past the event featured only Israeli wines, this time imported wines will also be offered for tasting. […] In: Events Tags: Tel Aviv, wine tasting

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