Tzora Winery Archives - Israel Wine Tour

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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Tzora Winery Remains Judean Hills’ Best of Breed

Barak Yitzhaki — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 10:59:03 +0000

It has been a while since we wrote about Tzora Winery. The cliché thing to say would be that the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is tough to keep up when you are considered “best of breed” by fellow wineries in one’s region.

Rare 2007 Misty Hills

These days, Eran Pick is not only the winemaker at Tzora, he is also the CEO. The winery continues to employ former Petrus Wine Maker Jean-Claude Berrouet and his son Jeff as consultants to the winery and has added Maayan Koschitzky of Atelier Melka and formerly of Screaming Eagle as a consultant for the 2015 – 16 harvests as well.

As for the wine, Tzora has released their 2015 Whites in June and has claimed for the 3rd year in a row the title “Best White Wine” in Israel by the New Israeli Wine Guide for their Shoresh Blanc 2015. We were also pleasantly surprised by Judean Hills Blanc 2015 which this vintage seems to be even more on the mineral side and has a fantastic flavor of white peach.

While hosting a friend from the U.S last week, we booked a tasting in Tzora. At the end of the tasting, we were offered a tasting from a 2007 Misty Hills. This bottle for some reason was open and available for tasting. This is a bottle which has not been available for purchase for several years now and continues to be sold out. This was most certainly a lucky break. The wine was velvety in texture, deep in flavor and could still remain in the bottle for some time to come. Beautiful!

Tzora wines can be found at Derech Hayaeen stores all over Israel. High end restaurants carry Tzora. In Tel Aviv these restaurants include Taizu, Yafo Tel Aviv, Toto, Kitchen Market and many more.

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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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Chocolate Workshop – Great Part of the Judean Hills Wine Tour

Barak Yitzhaki — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 11:35:41 +0000

Much like Tzora winery was a dream come true for the late Ronnie James, Galita Chocolatier is a dream come true of Galit Elpert, a young woman who has spent 3 years in Belgium studying chocolate and ice cream making. After returning to Israel and producing chocolate Pralines at home for her friends and even selling them in pop up stores around Tel Aviv, Galit stumbled across her old business plan from the time she was still studying to become a chocolatier.

The plan was to create a magical chocolate farm that will include a Café, a chocolate workshop area and a small movie theater. Today the plan has become a reality with 2 beautiful branches located in Kibutz Tzuba, close to Jerusalem and well within the Judean Hills and in Kibbutz Degania right by the Sea of Galilee on the Kinneret. The chocolate farm on the Kineret has been open since April 2007.
The Judean Hills branch of Galita Choclates is one we visit more often than the original store by the Kineret and is certainly a stop that our guests, both young and old appreciate a great deal.The “chocolate farm” as it is referred to by Galita employees, serves as a decadent Café, a chocolate and Praline shop and a chocolate workshop where both kids and adults can complete different project suited for their age and abilities. The Farm has a movie theater where kids learn about how chocolate is made, an outdoor sitting area for the Café and a work space that can accommodate up to 60 guests.

The nice thing about doing a chocolate workshop as a part of a wine tour in the Judean Hills is the fact that everyone can participate. Children have several options of which project they choose and the staff at the farm is more than happy to help along. Adults get to choose their projects as well, guaranteeing a great time and a sweet souvenir to take home.

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Wineries on the Road to Jerusalem

Barak Yitzhaki — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:44:58 +0000

Marcel and Eliane Gottlieb heard about Israel wine tour about a year ago from a friend in Rio de Janeiro.
While Eliane is a Professor of Economics at the university, Marcel is importing wines from Argentina and gives his own lectures about pairing wine and music! (Very interesting topic on its own right)

The Gottliebs requested a tour that would begin in Tel-Aviv and end in Jerusalem as they wanted to spend time in the holy city.

We left Tel-Aviv in the morning and drove through a road less frequently traveled which overlooks the vineyards of the central plains (Shimshon Region) and climbs through the vineyards of the Jerusalem Mountains. Our first stop was at the Clos de Gat Vineyards, a beautiful spot with a lot of history that many romantic couples have good memories from. After a short photo opportunity and explanation about the vineyards, we went to pay a visit to one of Israel’s most promising winery, “Tzora Vineyards”. With a knack for recognizing great wine, the couple did not miss any tasting glass they were offered.

Starting with the Shoresh Blan 2009 (85% Gewurztraminer & 15% Chardonnay), moving to the Judean hills 2008 (91% KS, 9% Syrah) and ending the visit with the amazing Shoresh 2007 (85% KS, 15% Syrah.) Since the Dessert wine “Or” 2008 is not being offered for tastings and only 1200 bottles were made (the sold-out 2006 got 92 points from Robert Parker) the couple insisted on buying some to take home with them. Vary satisfied from their first boutique winery experience we drove to meet winemaker and owner Shuki Yeshuv at Agur Winery. Shuki who calls himself a master blender is a very interesting and colorful person who makes excellent wines. Knowing that his visitor’s time is limited, Shuki never wastes a moment. Upon entering the visitor center he hands us each a glass of white wine (“Blanca”) and takes us outside to sit at his beautiful porch.

While talking about every possible subject in the world, he pours his excellent Rose (Rosa) “Kesem” and the “Special Reserve 2007” which is one of the best value-for-the -money wines in the market today. With this wine in our glasses, the Gottliebs and their new wacky friend are making their way to the cellar for a barrel tasting treat. As Marcel was asking about the Kashrut supervision in the winery Eli the Mashgiah (kashruth supervisor) fills their glass from one of next year’s reserve wine barrels.

Getting closer to Jerusalem, our final destination of the day was an ancient winery that has been “out of service” for over 1600 years. Good walking shoes are needed for the five minute walk that puts you in front of this ancient phenomena; In between young olive trees rests an ancient wine press dated to times when the Second Temple was standing. The press is impressive due to its simplicity and the way it was preserved.

The Gottliebs had a lot of fun, as did I. I look forward to showing them and their friends around Israel Wine Country!

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