Industry News Archives - Israel Wine Tour

2023 Harvest Updates – Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 10:48:09 +0000

Harvest is on its way as Israel is experiencing a challenging time . The Judean Hills boutique producers we work with including Zafrirm, Sphera and Agur have been showing both resilience and optimism by doubling down and planting new vineyards and new varieties ahead of Harvest.

Zafririm

Lori and Shaike Lender continue to produce great blends and one of two great Zinfandels [along Seahorse] in the country. The winery has been planting Chenin Blanc and Cab Franc, the latter would come in handy for Lori’s Rose which sells out very early in the season.

In 2022 Lori decided to produce a Wild Syrah [fermented only with its natural Yeast] This has become a great, light Summer red for this winery, For those of us who are patient and or enjoy a complex heavier red The 2017 Patom ,is ready and is absolutely remarkable now.

Sphera

Doron Rav Hon and Sima continue to be one of the top white wine producers in the country. in 2022 the winery grew to 50K production. Doron has started a new Chardonay based sparkling wine, an endeavor that will take roughly 3 years. The winery will harvest a Judean Hills Sauvignon Blanc for the first time this summer. Up until today , all their fruit was coming from the vicinity of the winery in the village of Givat Yeshayahu and the Sauv Blanc was coming from the Upper Galilee. As our friend Shuki Yashuv of Agur winery likes to say “ wine is not high tech. It most certainly is not low tech either, it is slow tech!” Now there all their grapes are local and we are very curious what the 2023 vintage will be like for our friends at Sphera!

Agur

Time flies , it has already been a bit more than 2 years since Elad Katz has joined this winery and brought in Eyal Drory as its head winemaker. In 2022 Agur leaped to 70K bottles a year from roughly twnery thousand. Eyal procured sold whites , a rose that has gained a following and a superb carbonic maceration Kessem which has no less than 5 varieties, one of which is Garnacha Tintorera.

Both Agur and Sphera spent the weeks ahead of harvest planting a Greek variety by the name of Assyrtiko. A veriery that does well in the heat, has a lot of minerality and could do very well in the Judean Hills. We wish everyone a great harvest and a thriving democracy.

Shuki Yashuv left , Elad Katz and Eyal Drory planting

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Pre-Launch tasting of the 2016 vintage at Sphera Winery

Barak Yitzhaki — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 17:46:55 +0000

It is no industry secret that most of our guests are North Americans visiting Israel. Last week, we were touring with a Brazilian Judge and her husband, a Public Prosecutor. When we started emailing, the lady mentioned she is a big fan of white wines and has spent time wine touring in several great regions in France.

Sphera Winery Novemver 16′

We figured since the 15′ wines of Sphera have sold out a while ago and the launch event of the new vintage is scheduled for May at the winery, this would be a terrific opportunity to taste some of the wine ahead of the public.

Sphera’s core market is the Tel Aviv restaurants. In fact, 80% of their wine is sold there. The abundance of top level establishments in Tel Aviv which serve small plates, or dishes with an Asian flair that would benefit from a well-crafted, crisp and minerally Israeli white wine next to them, puts Sphera in the big leagues of Israeli boutique white wine.

Markerting wise Sphera is also hitting it straight on the nail. Sima Rav Hon, Doron’s wife deserves a lot of credit here. The winery is now a part of the Judean Hills Quartet along with Tzora, Domain Du Castel and Flam. Smart decision for all sides involved. The winery itself is pristine white and has rotating art work presented along with recreating their image for a Sphere year after year. Their newest edition will be presented at the May launch event they are holding.

I will be the first to admit [even when the wine maker is listening] that I am not a big fan of Chardonnay. The varietal 2016 Chardonnay that Doron Rav Hon created for the White Concept Series took me by surprise. 60% fermented in stainless steel and the wine was crisp, fruity and not oaky at all. I liked the Riesling a lot as well and what stood out the most I think, was how different the First Page [blend] was from previous years. Doron mentioned that he needed the Riesling for the Varietal batch and in the First Page that meant that the Semilon would have a bit more presence. The result was a nice complexity and some anise flavors as well. It is a fantastic winery and a must if one is a fan of white wines.

Tours and tastings at Sphera Winery can be offered as a part of our Judean Hills Wine Tour. Availabilty pending schedule approval of the winery.

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Recap of the Judean Hills Wine Festival

Barak Yitzhaki — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:37:16 +0000

As industry professionals we take the time to attend the different wine festivals throughout Israel. The advantages of attending are numerous. We find out about new wineries that can later become a destination for us to take our guests to, this in addition catching up with other wineries that we have not had the chance to visit recently.

Recap of the judean hills wine festival

The Judean Hills event is certainly one of the favorites among our friends and colleagues. It is the kickoff event to a month long festival taking place at the wineries and it is a large and important festival that top boutiques wineries in the Judean Hills participate in. Below is a short recap of news that came out of the festival.

Wine Maker Lina Slutzkin of Kadma Winery told us about the use of Saperavi grapes that she was getting into. This is a Georgian variety that can handle extreme cold and is unique because of the red anthocyanin within the grape pulp as well as the skin. A similar characteristic is of the Alicante variety which the winery is starting to use as well. The use of less common varieties is always a good way for a small winery to stand out from the pack.

We also enjoyed speaking to Sandro and Irit Pellegrini who own and operate La Terra Promessa [ if you have not been to their restaurant/winery , you are missing out!] Sandro mentioned harvest was done a bit before Yom Kippur was celebrated in Israel and that this is fairly similar to previous year. The winery is continuing in its path of producing Riesling and blends that include Primitivo, Sangiovese, Syrah and Cabernet Frank.

Finally, a very small winery producing 1500 bottles a year by the name of Samson and Delilah caught our attention. The winery was founded in 2006 and ages all their wines anywhere between 18 to 36 months. We tried a 2009 Cabernet varietal which was impressive. The winery is located in Kfar Uriya.

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Harvest 2015 Recap for Israel Boutique Wineries

Barak Yitzhaki — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 08:01:44 +0000

The Judean Hills Wine Festival , One of our favorite festivals of the year is taking place in 10 days .This is a good opportunity to talk a bit about the 2015 harvest which is winding down in Israel.

Things started out well. We had a cold winter, with three cases of snow in Jerusalem and five in the Golan Heights. Even the writer of this blog was enjoying 2 meters of snow on Mount Hermon by December. This was followed by a long spring and June & July that were uncharacteristically comfortable.

Mid July and beginning of August,Tzora and Tzuba Wineries in the Judean Hills were early to harvest their whites and happy with the fruit that was coming in. When we started experiencing a 3 week long heatwave in August, news of early ripening of Merlot in the Golan was coming in. With at least one boutique winery harvesting Merlot ahead of its Viognier!

What will certainly be remembered the most from this 2015 harvest year will be the dust storm. We had a 5 day period in which everything was covered in a thick yellowish layer of dust. Speaking to the wine makers in retrospect is quite interesting.

Shuki Yashuv of Agur winery stresses the point that Israel and the Judean Hills are well known for the Diurnal Temperature Variation in the course of a single day. Allowing the grapes to rejuvenate themselves in the evening regardless of how hot the day has been.

Now that the grape leaves were covered with a thick dust, a similar effect to a brick oven was taking place. The heat was being bottled in the plant allowing the sugar levels in some cases to sky rocket in a couple days, and in some cases it lead the vine to understand it was inn deeper stress than it could handle, and for it to shut down sugar maturation all together.

Wineries handled the dust storm quite differently from one another. In the Golan, we saw wineries spraying the grapes and leaves with high pressure water to reduce the dust and cool off the berries. In Psagot, we saw Cabernet Sauvignon that was left on the vine and has only been harvested in the 2nd half of October on behalf of Amphorae, a boutique in the Carmel.

Paul Dubb, winemaker and GM of Tzuba Winery says that half of a specific plot at Tzuba was harvested the day before the dust storm and the other half was harvested immediately after, the difference in flavors between the two was quite large.

Shuki summarizes by saying the 2015 harvest is one of the most challenging harvests he has experienced, luckily for him he had 16 previous harvests to get him ready for this one. “Everyone is reallly interested about: “how was the harvest this year?” But the MOST IMPORTANT of it all is the following: never ever judge the quality of wine by how challenging the harvest was. Wine has its own ways and will always reveal itself a few months AFTER the actual harvest. A good winery should produce good wine in any given harvest. Given that most of Agur’s wine is tasted before it is bought, so if it is good and the price right- go ahead and buy it. In winter when the experienced tasters will get a chance to taste the “en premiere” or “future wine”- rush to buy, because what you can say for sure in this harvest that the quantities will be smaller than usual”

We will revisit the wines of 2015 in two years’ time and it will be interesting to see what attributes the wine will posses.

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Visiting Castel Winery in The Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 06 May 2014 19:12:13 +0000

A few months ago, Israel Wine Tour staff was lucky enough to attend a Winemaker dinner with Ariel Ben Zaken, son of Eli Ben Zaken, the owner and founding Winemaker of Domaine Du Castel winery in the Judean Hills.

Castel winery is one of the oldest boutique wineries in Israel and certainly the oldest in the Judean Hills. It remains an Estate Winery and interesting enough, the winery still produces only four types of wines, an oaked Chardonnay, a small batch of Rose and 2 reds, Petit Castel and Grand Vin.

One note Ariel made that we found interesting was on the process of making his “C Blanc Du Castel” Chardonnay. He said that when pressing the grapes, Castel’s methodology is to throw in a few stems into the soft press. By doing so, Ariel feels that additional “green” flavors are added to the juice. That was a surprise for me as the Castel Chardonnay is most certainly an oaked, woody, full bodied wine, so learning they still wanted that type of freshness was news to me.

Another comment that I found interesting was when a barrel tasting of the 2012 Grand Vin was poured, People loved the wine and were wondering how Ariel felt it compared with the 2010 Petit Castel Magnum bottle that was opened earlier that evening. Ariel said he was happy that people were excited about a future wine and any mixed feelings about a wine that is sold out are fair.

Scheduling a tasting at Castel is not the easiest of tasks. The winery does not have a visitor center and tastings are led in a small tastings room compared to those of neighboring wineries. The wine is wonderful and although Castel is producing more than 150K a year, they constantly sell out all of their wines. Robert Parker, Mark Squires and Serena Sutcliffe have given this winery its fair share of recognition, but a simple tasting of the wine ultimately speaks for itself.

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Surprise Wine Tasting at Sphera Winery in the Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 09:51:17 +0000

I have known Doron Rav Hon for a long time, and he is one of the most respected Winemakers in Israel. After studying in Burgundy, Doron was chosen to be the Head Winemaker at Ella Valley Vineyards and he stayed there from 2002 until 2011.

Two years ago, He was finally able to follow his dream of opening his own winery, the name which was chosen for it is Sphera Winery White Concepts and the idea was to open a small but highly proficient winery which will revolve around white wines only.

After getting to know quite a few winemakers in Israel and spending time with a lot of them, I can tell you that what matters most to them is not necessarily to “go on their own” but actually going back to basics. In large kosher wineries the winemaker is more of a consultant who cannot really touch or handle the wine he or she is making. In a smaller operation such as Sphera, a Winemaker such as Doron has the opportunity to once again, be the wine maker that he is and to handle the wine making task himself.

So why write about Sphera now? That is because of a recent surprise visit we paid to Doron as a part of our Judean Hills wine tour. We were fortunate enough to end up at his winery and taste some of the amazing white wine he has been working on. Sphera is located in kibbutz Gat which is just a few Kilometers south of the Judean Hills. The winery shares the same roof with Laterrapromessa winery, which is known for the great restaurant it houses (yet another wonderful reason to visit). The winery was especially designed for white wine production with special high capacity cooling tanks, Heavy duty large press machine and special barrels for white wine

During the visit, we tasted the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and First Page (a blend of Semillon, Pinot Gris and Riesling) all from the White Concepts series and all from 2012 vintage. The overall perception at the end of the tasting was that Doron produces excellent, balanced and harmonious wines that are tasty and refreshing especially in the hot summer days of Israel.

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Wildlife Suffers as Grape Growing Increases in Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:41:42 +0000

As a part of this community, we cannot be happier that the Israeli wine industry is expanding. It would be foolish however, to assume that this rapid growth is not taking a toll on the environment.

Driving along the beautiful Highway number one between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, one can see dozens of newly planted vineyards. The young grape vines can easily be recognized by the milk cartons placed on the bottom of the vine to protect it from deer and other hungry residents of the Judean Hills. Once the vine settles in, it is not as susceptible as it is in the first few months after being planted. The fruit that the vine produces is not as lucky.

Barkan Winery which recently opened a large visitor center in Kibbuts Hulda, is one of the largest growers of the new vineyards in the Judean Hills. The growers working for Barkan, recently placed a 16 kilometer long fence intended to protect their vines from the deer roaming the area. You see, it took a bit of time before the deer realized that the grapes taste good, and when they did, the damage to the yield quickly grew. The trouble is that deer need to have access to food on one hand, but be able to flee away from their predators by running faster up the mountains and out maneuver the jackals, foxes, hyenas and stray dogs of the region. With the presence of a 3 meter fence this becomes highly problematic, and they are often trapped with nowhere to escape.

In an interview to Ynet, Amir Balvan from the Israeli Wild Life Protection Agency said “ This is one of the most important ecological hallways in Israel and is being used by approximately a hundred deer as well as other species.“ We at Israel Wine Tour, cannot help but agree with him. It is imperative to find solutions such as plastic sleeves that would protect the grape vines. Ideally, such a solution would make the fences around the vineyards obsolete. But not all solutions are full proof. Grape growers that are using the plastic protective sleeves are reporting that any fresh leaves that sprout outside the protective sleeves are constantly eaten by deer. It is clear that more trial and error is required in order to solve this problem. Protecting the wildlife of Israel is something the wineries of the region have to be able to pride themselves with.

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