Why We Love Taking our Guests to Somek Winery

Barak Yitzhaki — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:40:32 +0000

We all root for the underdog at one point or another. I find myself doing that every time I visit Somek Estate Winery in Zichron Ya’akov as part of our Carmel Region Wine tour. The owner, Barak Dahan is a 5th generation vintner.

His great – great grandfather arrived in Zichron Yaakov in 1882. Barak, along with his wife Hila, who studied wine making in Adelaide Australia, have opened a small “Old World” style winery. Somek winery uses a traditional basket press along with buckets and no pumps in an effort to preserve as much color and flavor as possible from the grapes. This effort which has been going on for 10 years now is paying off. Somek produces some of the best wines in Israel.

I am certainly not alone in making this rather large claim. Chef Alon Gonen [Head Chef of the Crown Plaza Hotel Group] recently conducted a blind tasting of Carignan wine. He claims that the Somek 2006 Carignan is the best to have ever been produced in Israel. This is the same Carignan our guests taste when visiting Somek. Other chefs agree with Chef Gonen, Meir Adoni [Head Chef of Katit & Mizlala- both prominent Tel Aviv restaurants] Have been buying wines directly from the winery for over a year.

Only a couple other restaurants in Israel carry Somek’s wine (Tapeo and Unami, again, best of breed restaurants in the Tel Aviv area).The reason so few carry Somek’s wine, is there is simply not enough of it to go around. It would be unjust not to mention in this post that in our opinion, Somek produces one of the best Chardonnays in Israel [currently sold out and only about 800 bottles coming out in the next batch]. Somek only produces 10K bottles a year and is not looking to grow. That is certainly rare for the Israeli wine industry.

The only reason I view this winery as an underdog is its neighboring wineries. Both Carmel and Tishbi, are within a 5 minute drive from Somek. Carmel produces 20 Million bottles a year and both buy grapes from the Dahan Vineyards on an annual basis. The sheer magnitude in which Carmel operates is intimidating to most wineries in Israel. This is not the case with Somek. Barak once told me that he wakes up at 4 O’clock in the morning each day. With a work ethic such as his and the level of wines he and his wife produce, there is no other way but to root for them.

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Lower Galilee and Carmel Regions Boutique Wineries Tour

Barak Yitzhaki — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:19:33 +0000

Dr. Harold Caballeros is the Rector of Universidad San Pablo Guatemala and his daughter Andrea studies at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Hertzelia. After spending few days on a business conference in Tel-Aviv, Harold decided to stay in Israel two more days and spend some time with his daughter. A fantastic way to do that is by touring the country and tasting some of the great wines it has to offer.

We left Tel Aviv in the morning and drove north about an hour toward Kiryat-Tiv’on. While driving we talked about Israeli boutique wineries – a recent phenomenon that has grown immensely in recent years. The two admired the changing view as we left the Coastal Region and entered the region of Lower Galilee. Our first stop was at the Tulip Winery one of the most interesting and award winning wineries in Israel.

Tulip is located in Kfar-Tikva (the “village of hope”) a beautiful Kibbutz – like community that serves as a home for two hundred developmentally and emotionally disabled adults. Tulip winery, which was established in 2003 by the Itzhaki family employs three of the residents of Kfar-Tilkva and the visitors have a chance to get to know the employees during their visit. As we pulled in to the small parking lot of the winery, Harold immediately pointed out the bountiful little vineyard at the entrance to the winery.

We were greeted by Itzhak Itzhaki (owner) and Natan (“The King”) a 65 years old employee at the winery. Following Itzhak we crossed the visitor center and entered the little production area (Tulip produces one hundred thousand bottles a year) where we could see the spotless clean machinery ready for the grape picking that starts this week. Next we entered the cellar, where an amazing smell of oak wood and wine along with cool temperatures makes everyone wish they could stay there for long time.

Getting back to the Winery’s visitor center, the time for the first wine tasting of the day has arrived. Out of the twelve bottles we could have tasted from we picked six (leaving some room of the other winery) Starting with the new 2009 Tulip White (30% Sauvignon blanc 70% Gewürztraminer), Tulip Just Cabernet Sauvignon (100% CS, Gold medal at “2009 best Value” competition), Tulip Mostly Cabernet Franc (85% CF, 15% CS. 3 Gold medals and one silver), Tulip Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (90 Points from “Wine Spectator Magazine”), Tulip Syrah Reserve (90 Points from Robert Parker and one of my favorite Israeli wines). The last wine tasted was the Tulip Port Esperansa a special dessert made in Remy Martin barrels! Such a good wine Andrea had to take a bottle home.

Understanding we needed a break from wine tasting, we left Tulip and drove to Zichron Ya’akov (30 min) to visit Barak Dahan at Somek Winery. Barak is a fifth generation of grape wine growers who along with his wife, Hila decided to open their own winery. Somek’s vineyards are all located nearby in Bik’at Hanadiv (Baron Rothschild’s valley) which makes this winery an Estate Winery. Barak and Hila pick all their grapes by hand and all the winemaking process is done manually with no machinery intervention [a rare occurrence nowadays] . Since it was a hot day, the Caballeros who usually opt for red wine were happy to taste Somek 2007 Chardonnay (100% Chardonnay, 1 year barrel) next on the tasting list were the 2005 Carignan, & the 2005 Bik’at Hanadiv (60% CS, 35% Merlot, 5 % Petit Syrah).

After a short lunch in one of Zichron’s memorable restaurants, the Caballeros were ready for their third winery of the day. We left Zichron Yaakov and drove north to the Moshave Kerem-Maharl where the Makura organic farm and Amphora Winery are located. The Amphora Winery is one of the most beautiful Wineries in Israel. Designed by and Italian architect and built in 2005 from local stone, the winery has a distinct European look. Amphora Winery was bought last year by a prominent Russian business man who decided to invest heavily in the winery with a goal of producing the best possible wine. One of the changes was to sign the world’s famous winemaker Michel Rolland as an advisor to the winery.

Harold and Andrea chose to start the visit by tasting some of the winery’s wines. They started with the Viognier (excellent and crisp) which was followed by the semidry Rose 08’ and the dry Rose 09 which was unlabeled due to the fact that it was bottled two days before. The Caballeros also tasted basic Med-Red, Rhyton and Amphora which used to be the premium line of wines. The surprise of the visit was the tasting of the fairly new ultra premium wines called Unica that were released early this year and that even the writer of these lines did not have the chance to taste. All the Unica wines were aged 28 month in three and five hundreds liter barrels and then aged in Bottle for another ten months. The first Unica tasted was a blend of Shiraz Merlot Cabernet (45% S, 35% M, and 20% C) such a good wine, Harold insisted on taking one home with him! The Second bottle we tasted was “Unica Merlot Barbera” (83% M, 17%B) this one was opened especially for us! [A big treat considering the price of such bottle (275NIS or 70U$)] The Caballeros did not miss out on the tour of the winery which ended at the very impressive cellar.

After tasting some sixteen wines or more (we stopped counting) the Caballeros were ready to go home.
One hour later we pulled into the hotel driveway. The Caballeros had an amazing day as did I.

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Barak Dahan Archives - Israel Wine Tour

Why We Love Taking our Guests to Somek Winery

Lower Galilee and Carmel Regions Boutique Wineries Tour