With close to 300 wineries to write about, often meeting with wine makers and winery executives is based upon unexpected opportunities as much as who I want to talk to on any given day. So when I was invited to interview Motty Teperberg at the Teperberg Winery in the Judean Hills outside Beit Shemesh, I took advantage of the opportunity to talk with the CEO and owner of Israel’s fourth largest winery which currently produces about 5 million bottles.
I had met and chatted briefly with Motty several times before at festivals and tastings hosted by Teperberg for wine writers living in Israel. Often there’s too many distractions or other writers to compete with to get more than a few minutes of Motty’s time so over a half an hour of his undivided attention in the confines of his office was something close to priceless for me as a wine writer.
The Teperberg Winery had been founded as recently as 2006 by the Teperberg family who had focused on making kosher grape juice and sweet sacramental “kiddush” wine under their Efrat label since 1870 and which still continues today to make between 2-3 million bottles a year. Motty had started working at Efrat with his father in 1976 after studying Economics & Business Administration at university and finishing his service in the Israel Defense Force. Motty saw the potential for expanding the family business into the fine wine market and crafted Teperberg 1870 as a separate brand and has nearly doubled the production of the Efrat/ Teperberg family offerings since 2006. It’s an impressive accomplishment to go from zero bottles of fine wine to millions in just a few years.
A substantial 50 million NIS was invested in building a new state of the art wine making and bottling facility that is still expanding to this day. This was during a period where several of Israel’s largest wineries were making huge investments to improve the quality of grapes coming from better vineyards and investing in state of the art equipment. Teperberg might have had an advantage in building a new facility from scratch instead of renovating or replacing antiquated equipment and facilities such as what happened at the Carmel and Binyamina wineries. A further 12 million NIS has been budgeted for their new two-story 1000 square meter visitor center currently under construction planned to open by the end of 2013. My first view of those plans alluded to a dynamic center that Motty’s son, Amotz, is overseeing the construction and future management of which will serve as a portal towards experiencing their ever expanding selection of reasonably priced wines.
Although in the next five years, Motty may increase production by as much as 50% to about 7 millions bottles for both Teperberg and Efrat, his focus is expanding what has been mostly a value for money winery into offering more premium wines such as a soon to be released single varietal Cabernet Franc and potentially a Malbec and a Bordeaux style blend in the foreseeable future. The winery has had a few price points ranging from a few bottles for 100 NIS to a Reserve series hovering over 100 NIS/ bottle with their Terra & Silver series in between but new wines are in the pipeline to be released starting at 160 NIS and higher and even in relatively limited releases could bring prestige to the whole line-up and get consideration for Teperberg wines on more exclusive restaurant and hotel wine lists.
Previous distribution pathways opened up by Efrat wines opened doors for Teperberg in Israel as well as overseas so that about 20% of their wine is exported mostly to North America and the United Kingdom. Allied Importers is their American agent although they are seeking a west coast distributor since most Israeli wine importers have comparatively weaker distribution away from the heaviest concentration of Jews in the US in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic corridor. Currently, Motty and winemaker Shiki Rauchberger (who has worked with the Teperberg family since 2001) travel to the US 2-3 times a year to nurture business opportunities in their biggest overseas market and hope to expand exports from 20% to 30% of sales over the next 5 years. About 75% of the winery’s 3500 dunams (875 acres) of vineyards are contracted from independent growers under an array of short-term and long-term contracts with some of their most prized vineyards covering Israel from the Galilee, the Judean Hills to the Negev including vineyards in Alma, Tzuba and Mitzpe Ramon respectfully.
Besides establishing themselves as possibly the most consumer friendly winery out of the top ten biggest Israeli producers, Teperberg, under Motty and Shiki , has managed to create one of the widest and most unique selections of varietals and styles. They offer the standard array of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc but are getting better known by many curious consumers for their Viognier and Gewurztraminer white wines, Malbec and Sangiovese red wines as well as a selection of Brut and Moscato sparkling wines not to mention Rosé and even dessert wine.
With close to thirty wines, there’s something for everyone often at a price point they’ll find affordable. With their growers and winemaker gaining more experience every year with vineyards that are often still maturing Teperberg wines show great promise to get better with each vintage.
