Month: November 2018

My personal infatuation has always been with the wines of the Eastern Mediterranean. I believe the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the most interesting and fast developing wine regions. The wines of Lebanon and Israel are so different, yet complimentary. The wines of Cyprus, Greece & Turkey are more exotic because of the prevalence of all their indigenous varieties. There is something intoxicating about the high-altitude vineyards, poor stony soils and Mediterranean climate that make this region a wine haven. Certainly, it is a winemaking paradise and the wines have improved no end.

Menahem Israelievitch is the flying winemaker of the kosher world. A Michel Rolland (the world’s most famous consultant winemaker) with a kippa if you like. He makes wine in three countries, mainly France but also Spain and Portugal, with a smile, a great nature, but also with a passionate desire to make the best kosher wine possible. I have noticed he has a special quality; He is never satisfied with doing the minimum when he can do the maximum. Not a bad attribute for a winemaker. He runs his empire, producing roughly 500,000 bottles a year for Royal Wine Europe, which is the French wine making arm of the Royal Wine Corp. / Kedem, which revolutionized kosher wine over the last 35 years. Much of Menahem’s work is from the car and his cell phone is the dashboard through which he communicates, organizes, and makes wine at some of the most famous wineries there are. He has five regular workers and employs up to forty during harvest.