Month: August 2018

In 1986, in a giant step for quality kosher wine production, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the grandson of the Hanadiv – ‘the Known Benefactor’, insisted on producing the first quality Bordeaux wine for Jews observing kashrut. This was a milestone in kosher wine production, because the Rothschilds were always regarded like the royal family of the Jewish community. The original Baron Edmond de Rothschild had founded a modern wine industry in Israel. Furthermore, the Rothschilds were not only famous in the world of finance, but were also arguably the most famous wine family in the world.

For Israelis embarrassed that all we have is international grape varieties like every other wine producing country, we now have some new local varieties that are creating a noise amongst the wine intelligentsia.
First there was a tasting of Israeli wines by Jancis Robinson MW. Surprisingly, the best scoring white wine was a Hamdani Jandali blend from Cremisan Monastery. Then Recanati Winery came out with a white wine called Marawi. It gained worldwide attention. Now wineries like Feldstein, Jezreel Valley, Gvaot have also come with wines from varieties like Dabouki and Jandali. It is a new world…or rather an old world.