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Adam S. Montefiore
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HELPFUL NEW GUIDE

A new book has been launched about Israeli wine. It is called The Comprehensive Guide To Israeli Wines. It is a partnership between three, very respected figures in the wine trade: Sagi Cooper, Yair Kornblum Koren and Haim Gan. Sagi Cooper is an experienced wine critic, wine judge and he now has his own popular website, The Daily Spittoon, which I follow religiously. He uses his knowledge to give a great analysis of wine usually expressed with pithy comments, which are always interesting to read.Yair Kornblum Koren is an experienced wine judge in international competitions, including even the main wine tasting competitions in Italy & Germany. He is the most prominent wine broadcaster on the radio and has written for Wine & Gourmet Magazine for many years.

Haim Gan is a charismatic wine educator. He is the owner of Ish Anavim, (The Grape Man), in Jaffa, which is the center of wine culture in Israel. There, they hold tastings, courses and wine events. I first met Gan in the early nineties when he worked in restaurants. Even then he was showing a professionalism of wine service and knowledge, rare amongst his contemporaries of the time.

Since then, he has become the leading entrepreneur and pioneer in Israeli wine. The first international wine and olive oil tasting competitions were organized by him; The first professional wine auction; The first international wine exhibitions; Wine events, festivals, wine tours. The list is endless.These days, Terravino remains Israel’s only international competition and the White Festival has become an annual fixture at the Herzliya Marina, which is eagerly looked forward to by wineries and thirsty wine lovers. Now he has the Comprehensive Wine Guide to add to his impressive career record of achievements.

Together these three musketeers, wielding bottle openers instead of swords, have combined for this impressive production. They have many years in wine, each with different experiences, so they complement each other wonderfully.

The book is tastefully presented. It is in a handy, small paperback style, easy to read and convenient to carry and it is full of information. The three authors tasted 650 wines from 100 wineries. No small feat of organization and logistics. There is information on the wineries, tasting notes and scores.

I personally hate scores. It seems crazy to give a finite score to any art form. We don’t give scores to paintings, plays, concerts or even to meals in restaurants. So why do we feel it is necessary for wine

The answer of course, is that the wine loving public demand it. Of course, with my other hat on, representing wineries, I am always the first to celebrate and shout about a good wine score. However I believe putting a score to a wine does not do justice to how it changes and varies in the glass and over time. Despite this, I am aware of the world we live in. Scores are expected, and the book provides them.

The guide also gives details on wine regions, kashrut, matching food and other helpful information.

A few snippets to whet your appetite; The highest scoring wine in the book is the Castel Grand Vin 2013, which received 94 points. It was followed by the Margalit Enigma 2014 with 93 points. The leading dry white wines were the Carmel Kayoumi Vineyard Riesling 2013, Sphera White Signature 2013 and Tzora Judean Hills 2014, each scoring 91 points. The best sparkling and dessert wines were respectively the rare Yarden Katzrin Blanc de Blancs LD 2000 with 92 points and Yarden HeightsWine 2014 with 91 points.

The winery that performed the best across the board was the Golan Heights Winery. The boutique winery that outperformed the others was Sea Horse. Seven wineries excelled by being awarded the maximum five grape clusters. They were: Amphorae Vineyard, Domaine du Castel, Flam Winery, Golan Heights Winery, Sea Horse, Tzora Vineyards and Yatir Winery.

I applaud that they have published it in English as well as Hebrew. Once, when I apologized for my bad Hebrew, a past boss said to me, “don’t worry. Hebrew is basically just spoken between Hadera and Gedera, whilst English is the language of the world.” He was so right. It is vitally important for Israeli wine that there are books and information on Israeli wine in English. It is always amazing to me why so many Israeli wineries and public relations companies ignore the English media.

The pilot Michael (Mimi) Ben Joseph wrote the first serious book on Israeli wine in English in 2000. He had written his first book on wine in 1990. It was in Hebrew. This was watershed book that attracted many Israelis to become wine lovers. I can’t tell you how many people I know who say their first interest in wine stems from this book. He followed this by another book in 1997, this time about Israeli wine. Then he published the English version called ‘The Bible of Israeli Wines’, published by Modan.

The legendary wine critic, the late Daniel Rogov wrote his Rogov’s Guide To Israeli Wines, which was published by Toby Press annually from 2005 to 2012. He gave scores to individual wines and maintained the book as a data base of past scores too. This book was a great representative of Israeli wine as it was sold in book shops around the world. However he sadly passed away in September 2011, before the final book was published, and since then has not really been replaced as the guru of Israeli wine.

A current wine book is The Wine Route of Israel edited and published by Eliezer Sacks, the owner of Cordinata Publishing. There is also a Hebrew version Shvill Hayayin.The latest edition in English was published in 2015. However it is more about wineries and the Israeli wine industry than a guide on wines.

Another current wine guide is the The New Israeli Wine Guide. This is a private initiative by two very well respected wine people. It has been published annually since 2014. It is written by Yair Gat, wine writer for Israel Hayom and Gal Zohar, an international sommelier and wine consultant.

We are a tiny country in wine terms, but not so small as not to have our own wine literature. No-one owns the truth, each critic or guide has its own style and views are always subjective, however professional and objective the critic tries to be. The way it works is that you follow the critics you trust and admire. No-one yet in Israel is a Hugh Johnson or Robert Parker, or even a Daniel Rogov, so there is room to taste & sample what is available. Look around, don’t be afraid to be critical of the critics. (Maybe we should give them scores!) Take time to find the one you like. Whom you decide to follow may be the one who provides the sort of information you are looking for, or the one with a similar taste to your own. Or alternatively, you might like to read them all like I do!

Certainly this new wine guide is a most welcome initiative. It professional, a good read and has bags of information. Israeli wine has been slightly bereft of wine literature for a few years now, but this is an excellent gift for those interested to learn more about Israeli wines from overseas. The Comprehensive Guide to Israeli Wine costs 119 ILS. It may be found in wine shops, at wineries, on the websites   www.thewines.co.il

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A blend of wine, Judaism and Zionism

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MED WINES WITH A FRENCH ACCENT

Netofa Winery beats the drum for wines of the old world. The name of their one of their labels, Domaine Netofa and the growing region written on the label, Basse Galilee, give a clue. There is a French connection here somewhere.

Of course when you meet the winemaker, Pierre Miodownik, all becomes clearer. He was born to parents of Polish origin. That explains the name. They came from Lublin and settled in France way before the Holocaust. They lived in the Languedoc in a place called Beziers. Now this is a big wine producing area which produces more wine than the whole of Australia together.

Here the young Pierre learnt his winemaking as an apprentice, ‘on the job’, by helping out at the wineries around him and he fueled his Zionism, by working on a kibbutz. Gradually, he was able to find a niche making much needed kosher wine at non-kosher wineries, but as he became more knowledgeable and experienced, it frustrated him that kosher wine was not better quality.

He received his opportunity when Baron Edmond de Rothschild (grandson of Hanadiv – The Known Benefactor), decided to make kosher wine. He needed a religious winemaker. Miodownik fit the bill. Together they made the first quality kosher wine in France in 1986.

Then, Royal Wine, the world’s largest importer & distributor of kosher wines, thought if he is good enough for Rothschild, then he is good enough for us. He had made wine which they had sold previously. For the next 28 years, Pierre Miodownik became the European winemaker for Royal Wine making kosher wines in France, Spain and Portugal. He helped make kosher cuvées at some fairly famous wineries including Bordeaux Chateaux Giscours, Léoville Poyferré, Pontet Canet and Taylors Port in Portugal.

After becoming the main figure of Kosher winemaking in Europe, he then decided to conquer Israel. Pierre combined his winemaking skills, with his Zionism and religion by founding a winery in Israel. He made aliyah with his wife Corinne and seven children. Knowing the most important thing in a winery is the vineyard, he first planted a vineyard in the Lower Galilee.

Netofa Winery has 120 dunams of vineyards which are lovingly grown with great expertise in the Ein Dor area, in the foothills of Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee. The first vintage was 2009, and first complete vintage was 2010. They now already produce 75,000 bottles a year.

The winery has a dream team. Apart from Miodownik’s winemaking skills and French charm, the winery has a sharp, savvy wine knowledgeable CEO, Yair Tebboulle, who was born in Israel, but his father was from Bordeaux. Then there is Yitzhak Tor, a man of the soil, who has a lifetime experience in vineyards and Israeli agriculture.

Shahar Marmor is the viticulturist managing the Netofa vineyards. He is from one of the founding families of Tabor Village. He studied winemaking in Margaret River, Australia and is young, good looking with some experience at Carmel & Amphorae wineries. He is undoubtedly a great asset to Netofa, because he understands better than most, the difference between growing grapes and growing wine.

They make the wine at Or Haganuz Winery. There is nothing wrong with that. There are many negociant wineries and negociants who make their wine at another winery or at what is known as a ‘custom crush facility.’ As Or Haganuz has the quality equipment and the capacity, why not It certainly makes good sense financially.

The Israeli wine revolution was made with Bordeaux varieties. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc were the first Israeli wines to be noticed for quality. However, today the worm is turning. Mediterranean varieties are in and Netofa is one of the new wineries leading the way.

Pierre Miodownik selected grapes which are Mediterranean in origin and considered more suitable for the Israeli climate. These include Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Roussanne from the region where Pierre cut his winemaking teeth. To these he has added a touch of Spanish & Portuguese planting Tempranillo and Touriga Nacional.

He loves Chenin Blanc and this is where his main focus on whites. He had experience of this making wine in the Loire Valley. He likes this variety, its quality, the way it develops all the time and its ability to age. Chenin is the comeback kid of Israeli wine and there are few wineries that swear by it. Certainly it is something different from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay all the time!

I drove north to Mitzpe Netofa to visit the winery, and instead was welcomed to one of the most luxurious wine rooms in the country. Firstly it is slightly secret and secluded. It may be found in a side entrance to a rather grand synagogue building, which already gives an expectation of quality. Netofa’s wines are good, but with divine assistance as well, they are even better!

You enter a heavy sliding door, unmarked from the outside and imagine you have gone into a gentleman’s cigar club in the West End of London. The room is plush and exudes quality. You are in a wine den, with low lighting. There is a chunky table surrounded by eight easy, plush leather armchairs. Sit in one of these, and you don’t want to move. Then there is a display of bottles with lighting and mirrors that gives a feeling of wow.

Here they hold workshops at different levels. These range from the most basic wine tasting to a picnic, with wine of course, where you can inhale the Galilee air and enjoy the beautiful views. Their wine room is certainly a comfortable place to taste wine. I would book just to sit in one of those chairs again!

The wines I tasted which are all kosher, are as follows:

Domaine Netofa White 2014
Unoaked Chenin Blanc with herbaceous notes. I got cut grass. It was harvested at the end of July to preserve the freshness and acidity. It is sharp, in a good way, refreshing and is a great advertisement for Chenin Blanc in Israel. I preferred it to the oak aged version.
Price: 65 shekels.

Latour Netofa White
A varietal Chenin Blanc aged for 8 months in old oak barrels. The wine has a straw color, a whiff of wet hay and melon. It has a good minerality with long length.

Price: 85 ILS

Netofa Tinto
A blend of Spanish and Portuguese varieties. The 40% Tempranillo and 60% Touriga Nacional combine with 10 months aging in large barrels. The wine is full of sweet, ripe fruit with a fat juicy flavor.
Price: 75 ILS

Domaine Netofa Red 2013
A blend of Syrah and Mourvedre aged seven months in barrel. The wine is fruit forward but not jammy, light to medium bodied, with a meaty mouth feel and a refreshing finish.
Price: 65 ILS

Latour Netofa Red 2012
An elegant blend of Syrah and Mourvedre aged for 13 months in French oak, 50% new. It has a delicate fruity nose, a great balance in the mouth with well integrated oak notes and a long finish. This was my favorite of the reds.
Price: 100 ILS

Netofa Tinto
A blend of Spanish and Portuguese varieties. The 40% Tempranillo and 60% Touriga Nacional combine with 10 months aging in large barrels. The wine is full of sweet, ripe fruit with a fat juicy flavor.
Price: 75 ILS

Netofa Dor
A limited edition production of Syrah aged for 15 months in barrel. This is a big wine. concentrated and oaky. If it must be said, slightly more new world in style, than the rest of the portfolio.
Price: 180 ILS

LBV Netofa
An outstanding port style wine made from 80% Touriga Nacional and 20% Tempranillo. It is a Late Bottle Vintage wine made in the classic port style. It is aged for four years in oak barrels. Sweet, rich and complex, full of ripe fruit but not lacking in an acidity which makes it far more drinkable than you would think. Very rare, but an experience. (There is a also less expensive Ruby port style wine which is also very good.)
350 ILS