Vineyards of Jerusalem Mountains Archives - Israel Wine Tour

Wine tasting at Kerem Barak – Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 11:04:22 +0000

This small boutique is owned and operated by the Rosenberg family. Yossi Rosenberg studied wine making at Sorek Wine Making School in 2003 and later advanced his studies at the Tel Hai wine making program. The family moved to the village of Beqoa in 2011 with the purpose of planting a vineyard and starting a winery. In 2012 and with the help of their friends, the family planted a vineyard which consisted of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay.

The winery has a lovely visitor center which has an open house on Fridays. When we visited the winery, people were enjoying freshly baked sourdough breads and cheeses, all made on the farm. After sampling them, we must admit that they were absolutely delicious.

Other than wine tasting and pre-arranged meals, the farm offers cheese making classes and baking workshops. As far as the wine is concerned, we tasted several good reds. The 2012 Adom consisted of Cab, Syrah and Petite Sirah aged in oak for 18 months which was very flavorful and enjoyable. The point of uniqueness came from the whites; this is the only winery in Israel to produce an Orange wine! This is 100% French Colombard which fermented with the skins.

The vineyard was named after Barak Shmuel Rosenbeg, the son of Yossi and Yael who passed away from an illness back in 2010. Barak was an artist who enjoyed drawing cartoons and the logo of the winery was his creation. The Rosenberg’s are commemorating him on their bottles of wine as well.

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Visiting Soreq Wine Making School and Winery in the Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 17:59:03 +0000

Soreq Winery is celebrating its 20 year anniversary this year. This boutique operation of 35, 000 bottles a year was started by the Shacham family back in 1994. Today, Soreq Winery also operates as Israel’s leading wine making program. The school has the clear advantage of operating within an active winery, allowing the students to gain real world experience in the craft, right from the beginning.

Once a year, the school is hosting a Home Winery Festival which is a lot of fun and certainly recommended. Among the school’s faculty one can find researchers, Wine makers, Agriculture consultants, Industry experts etc. It is worth mentioning that the school has been around as long as the winery has, The school’s alumni have proceeded to open more than 100 new wineries in Israel to this day.

I feel that the motto of the school, “creating happiness through wine production” is very much in line with the personality of Nir Shacham, Wine Maker at Soreq and Head Faculty member of the school. On the day that we were touring the winery, Nir had already paid a visit to his vineyards in Mizpe Ramon in Southern Israel and made it back to the winery for a 10:00 AM wine tasting. He was energetic, knowledgeable and it certainly showed that he was engaged in something that he loves doing.

The winery is not kosher and that allowed Nir to offer us barrel tastings that he pulled of Tal Shachar Merlot which was nice and fruity. Another lovely wine (that we already had at dinner since) is the 2013 Rose, made of 40% Grenache, 60% Carignan and a tiny bit of Syrah. My absolute favorite was the 2011 Petite Verdot, not a varietal one encounters in Israel often.

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Visiting Nevo Winery in the Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 09:27:53 +0000

Nevo Hazan created this winery by himself but is thankful for “intervention from above” in his words that has helped create Nevo Winery, A tiny yet beautiful 7K bottles a year winery in the Village of Mata, Judean Hills.

The story of how this winery was started is certainly out of the ordinary. We meet passionate and hardworking wine makers all the time but in this case the story is a bit different. It all began 15 years ago. Nevo who was finishing the building of his house was moving out of the wooden cabin that was next door, had found out that his aunt has fallen ill. The aunt who was living in the north, had been scheduled to start treatments at the Haddassa Ein Karem Hospital, and he invited her to live in his now vacant cabin a short distance away from the hospital. At the time, the land the house was on was re-measured and the Hazan family found out that an old bomb shelter that was no longer in use was now a part of their property as well. This shelter would later become a wine cellar.

According to Nevo, his aunt is no ordinary lady either. In the process of Chemotherapy and Radiation treatments this lady had the energy to climb the trees near the house and pick olives to make olive oil from, fruit to make Jams etc. When Harvest time came around, Nevo’s aunt had asked him to get some wine grapes so they can make wine together. The wines were terrific. Nevo’s aunt got better and after about a year she headed back home. Nevo told her before she left that he would continue making wine from that point onwards. He then started building a tasting room outside the family’s house. According to Nevo, no architect or engineers were involved and the tasting room has been built by him alone. This in my honest opinion is one of the most beautiful winery tasting rooms I have ever been to. Outside the tasting room, Nevo also built a brick oven to bake bread and roast lamb for a long period of time, yet another trick he learned from his favorite aunt.

Nevo attended the 2 year program at the Soreq wine making school in the Judean Hills and is now producing wines from grapes in Mata, some of which are from his own vineyards. Last year as a pilot Nevo produced a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Rose which has been a great success and will be produced on a larger scale this year. In addition, Nevo winery produces a crisp, non oaked Viognier as well as red varieties of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon which have been aged 18 months in French Oak. One final blend is of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. The wines are lovely and so are Nevo and Ifat who will welcome you at the winery.

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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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Wine Touring in Judean Hills – Kadma Winery

Barak Yitzhaki — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 10:17:48 +0000

Kadma winery in the heart of Judan Hills is the only winery in Israel that uses large clay vats [or in a more scientific name, earthenware casks] for fermenting its wine. This is an ancient form of fermenting wine still somewhat popular in Eastern Europe.

The earthenware casks at Kadma Winery have the capacity to ferment 10,000 liters of wine at a time and were baked off with bee wax on the inside guaranteeing a tight seal of the clay at all times. They were sourced especially for the winery in Georgia by a specialist and then shipped over to Israel. Needless to say, no insurance company was willing to insure the unique shipment.

According to tradition, the vats are meant to be buried in the ground for long periods of time. Soil temperatures in Israel would not allow this [the winery did consult the Meteorological services initially but they confirmed Israel’s soil is too warm] As a result, the vats remain standing upright in the cool rooms of the winery.

Kadma is small family winery is headed by wine maker Lina Slutzkin who was born in Georgia and had a 20 year career at Intel before attending the Soreq Wine Making School. Lina was the person on the ground to oversee the ordering and packing of the vats when they were shipped to Israel. The winery under the consulting of Winemaker Dr. Arkadi Papikyan makes a semi sweet Chenin Blanc as well as single variety Merlot, Syrah [the later, has won a medal at the Gold Cluster competition in Israel in 2013] a dry Reserve, and a Port style wine as well.

The winery has a large visitor center with an outdoor patio in Kfar Uriya where guests can watch a movie about the unique wine making process, try the wines and inspect the vats closely.

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Why We Love Taking Our Guests to Agur Winery in the Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:09:07 +0000

The answer to the question above could easily be answered with two words: Shuki Yashuv. Shuki is the owner and wine maker of this 20K bottle a year hidden gem of a winery. He is an eccentric, colorful and both an artist and a farmer. This leads to a unique wine tasting experience each and every time.

Shuki suffers from somewhat of an attention deficit disorder and he is very candid with his guests about it. Because he is well traveled and very well read, the topics of conversation as the tasting is going on will always mix bible , philosophy and history with a lot of humor to top it all off. Physically the winery is in a serene and beautiful spot, well hidden from the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv yet only an hour away from both of them.

Let’s talk about the wines Agur winery produces. Shuki makes blends only. He is the student of the late Ronnie James, a person who very much believed in the overall Terroir of the Judean Hills. Shuki believes that the best way to extenuate the overall spice of the region is to blend varieties that grow in this very region.

His 2012 Rossa, a Rose made from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvedre was snatched off the shelves in the beginning of summer and has been called the best Rose in Israel by several critics. Shuki also produces 2 Bordeaux blends called Kessem and Special Reserve which although they are produced from the same varieties, these are completely different wines. The grapes arrive from different plots and the extraction is done quite differently as well. Finally Kessem is aged for a year while the Special Reserve for a longer period, resulting in a red wine that resembles the flavors of Red fruit as opposed to the considerably darker and heavier Special Reserve.

And finally there is the baby. Shuki’ s newest creation is a Syrah Mourvedre blend called Layam which he started to produce only in 2010 a mineral yet fruity Cote De Rhone blend which is produced at very small batches and is not to be missed. Much like the opportunity to sit in with its wine maker.

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Wine Tasting at Tzuba Winery in the Judean Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:34:13 +0000

Paul Dubb, the son of a South African Kiddush wine maker from Cape Town has been a kibbutz member for 18 years now. He is of course the Head Wine Maker of Tzuba, nowadays a 50K bottle a year boutique winery in the Jerusalem Hills.

Kibbutz Tzuba has been blessed with great wine growing conditions. It is located 730 meters above sea level and possesses Terra Rossa and Limestone soil. A mere 10 minute drive outside Israel’s capital, The kibbutz has ample agriculture land growing apples , nectarines , pears and yes, a considerable amount of wine grapes.

The story of how this came to be is as following: Domaine Du Castel, one of Israel’s most prestigious wineries in the nearby village of Ramat Raziel needed more grapes to expand production. The owners reached out to the kibbutz 13 years ago asking for them to grow on behalf of Castel. The kibbutz realized that growing wine grapes was significantly more economical than growing any other fruit; they simply require one tenth the amount of water than other fruits grown in the area. These days, the grapes that comes out of the Tzuba vineyards is very much sought after. Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes from Tzuba are sold to various wineries throughout Israel and since we have visited many of those wineries we can attest to the fact that they take great pride in the fact that they are buying their grapes from the grape grower crew of Kibbutz Tzuba.

The winery produces a well-known Cabernet based blend named Metzuda as well as varietals such as a Merlot, 100% Syrah , Cabernet Sauvignon and what we feel may be one of the best Chardonnay produced in Israel. It is a unique, dry, guava aroma Chardonnay which always takes our guests by surprise. Paul is always humble and leaves us to explain that this is a wine that has won medals and awards some as recently as Terra Vino 2012 Gold Metal. I personally participated in the competition as a sommelier and I can attest that the competition in this category was a heavy one.

One more varietal that Tzuba produces and one does not see often in Israel is the Pinot Noir. This is a thin skinned grape that is very difficult to grow in the Israeli sun. Tzuba goes through the trouble of producing it. Very little stays here in Israel and Royal/ Kedem buys pretty much the whole batch. There are North American Jews who are happy to buy a good Kosher Pinot.

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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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Visiting Yossi Itach at Katlav Winery in the Jerusalem Hills

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:52:34 +0000

The story in which Yossi recalls his first wine making experience under the tutelage of an elderly Persian woman [a mother of a friend] is a funny one. Persian Jews used to produce wine at home in Iran before the fall of the Shah and when Yossi had been asked to supply 400 KG of wine grapes to the woman back in Israel, he said that he would do so but would be interested in making the wine together with her.

On the specified day, anxious to begin the process, Yossi washed the grapes before the lady arrived. As soon as his teacher walked in the room, he understood that he made a mistake. The lady was “blessing” him with an entire arsenal of cuss words that would make anyone who understood Farsi, blush.

The following day, Yossi brought new grapes, this time he did not wash them, and made his first batch of wine alongside his teacher. Fifteen years have passed since Yossi made his first wine and realized that this was his calling. He then planted his own vineyards in the hills of Nes Harim, overlooking Jerusalem.

Katlav Winery is currently producing between 20 – 25K bottles a year and Yosi Itach is both the Vintner and the Wine Maker of this winery. Yosi is using an old world systme to cool his barrels of wine. There are 5 manmade caves at Katlav, all of which are insulated from outside temperatures. Keeping the barrels cool and conserving energy throughout the aging process of the wine.

On the day we visted Katlav winery as a part of our Judean Hills Wine Tour , Yosi treated us to a barrel tasting of his 2012 Cabernet Sauvinion well as the two special blends that are already available in the open market. The first is Nes Harim 2010 which is a blend of Merlot and Petit Verdot in equal parts. This is a unique blend for this winery and a great overall t. The 2nd blend we tried was Wadi Katlav 2010 which has a Cabrnet Sauvinion base [50%] as well as Merlot [25%] Petit Verdot [15%] and Cabernet Franc [10%], a wonderful wine that I simply had to take home.

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One of the Best Small Wineries in the Judean Hills that You Don’t Know About

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:08:32 +0000

A good friend recently told me that in life, we are all constantly making plans and the all mighty G*d above us is laughing as we do it.

I honestly think that it is no stroke of luck that has brought Lori and Shaike Lender to open Zafririm Winery in the area that they did. The Lender couple who combine a vast knowledge in Archeology and Art History, have chosen the Judean Hills, a region wealthy in ancient ruins both above and below the ground, to open up their small family winery. Even the wines they produce are named after ruins that are in close proximity to Zafririm Winery.

What stands out to me, even though this is a family winery, is the fact that the whole family joins forces during peak periods such as harvest time and goes grape picking together. Lori had recently told me about a very special small plot of Petite Sirah that she has access to. She has a small luxury that few wine makers enjoy; she can assemble the men in her life [her husband Shaike, and 4 sons] and go out to pick the grapes that they want on the very same day that she feels that they are at their best. Other wineries in Israel have to wait for the cavalry to show up and help along.

Zafririm Winery has been making Old World wine since 2002, and currently produces 4,000 bottles a year. Although I realize that the wine is not getting enough attention, Lori has been dealing with a good problem to have. The wine is selling out, twisting her arm to decide on a date to release the younger vintages. All the wines currently released into the market are 2009 and 2010, anything older is sold out.

From the current selection that is available for sale, my favorite is the 2010 Lavnin. A blend of 40% Syrah, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon and 27% Petite Sirah, aged 15 months in American and French oak barrels. This is a wine that is soft and elegant, a terrific effort in my humble opinion.

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