Wine Adventure Day 2 - Thursday, Aug 4 - Upper Gallilee

So, if you have ever been on vacation, and met someone more or less by accident, and started spending time with them and liked them a lot, that's what happened to us in the small Upper Gallilee village of Ramot Naphtali.  The small, mountaintop community, overlooking the Lebanese border, may have some of the most beautiful scenery in Israel.  It is also the most organized village I've visited.  The signage is terrific, there is a detailed map at the Village gate to show where everything is, guest houses, wineries, crafts people, clinics and things were very easy to find.  The village is surrounding by prime vineyards and in a small community, it hosts 4 wineries, two with well developed visitors' centers.

We happened by the Ramot Naphtali Winery, but alas, the winemaker Itzik was in Tel Aviv, so other than just seeing what a great job he's done in building, we weren't able to meet him or taste his wine.  Next we called 3 Gefanim (3 Vines) and spoke with Yossi Ben Barak; we asked him if there is a place to get coffee in town, and he invited us over.  Yossi, and his wife Ainat were amazing hosts, served us coffee and cookies (Ainat is a special ed teacher, so we had stuff besides wine to discuss) and we talked for about 45 minutes before we even began the discussion of their wines.  Yossi grows concord (the first I heard of in Israel and the first grape I ever plucked from a fine during my childhood in Rochester, NY) grapes in his front yard, a very small amount he uses in his blends.  He is primarily a Karem, a vineyard grower, but also makes about 8,000 bottles a year.

We stayed with Yossi and Ainat for half a day!  That clearly had not started as our plan, but we so enjoyed their company and their wine, we couldn't pull ourselves away.  It meant not getting to one of my goals/favorites, and Galil Mountain Winery at Yiron with its breathtaking view, but now I have several new reasons to visit the region again soon.

Here is what we tasted:
1.  From the barrel, a 2009 Cab Sauv blended with just a bit of Petit Verdot and Syrah (amazing, flavors of coffee and chocolate)
2.  From the barrel, 2010 Barberra (delicious, but young)
3.  A 2007 blend of Cab Sauv (75%) Merlot , Shiraz and 3% concord, a light red with negligible tanins)
4. 2006 Emek Kedesh (where the vineyard is, just below his home) blend of Cab (70%) Merlot (15) and Shiraz (15) - I bought one of these.
5.  2007 Kerem Naftali blen of Cab Merlot (nearly 50-50)
6.  2005 Cab - drier, bolder, ready now with a great steak
7  2004 Cabernet

We also tried his grappa (a distilled grape liquoer).  No wonder we stayed 4 hours.


3 Vines Winery



After this great introduction to the region, we went in search of just the GPS coordinates, but then we met Rami Naaman at his winery, Naaman, and though he was imminently expecting the arrival of a group, he invited us in.  He has a lovely visitors center on the front edge of the village facing the Hula Valley, and he is a big music fan, so many of his wines have a musical name (his Rose is Pink Floyd, a red blend Deep Purple, you get the idea).

Rami makes 8 wines - I liked his Rose - very dry, his Deep purple and King Crimson red blends were excellent.  He makes a varietal Cabernet that is excellent, a Petit Verdot the Yossi fell in love with (I liked it too) and a Cabernet Franc that I particularly liked.  His wines are priced in the normal boutique range of 80-120 NIS (about $26-$38, more or less).

After finding the remaining winery for GPS purposes, we headed down the mountain to visit Dalton, where we had an invitation, due to their appreciation of Yossi's wine map.  There Edna took very good care of us and we tasted some terrific wines, most of which are available in the US.



At Dalton, by my count, we tasted 8 wines, 3 whites and 5 reds.  The Alma White is 2/3 Chardonnay and 1/3 viognier and I really liked it .  I already knew I liked the wild yeast fermentation viogier from 2009 and the Sauvignon blanc also was light with a crisp finish.  My favorite reds were the Zinfandel, which I think would go great with grilled fish and the Alma Red with 2/3 Cabernet, about a quarter Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc.

At this point, I was curious about Adir, in the same Industrial Park as Dalton, but I'd tasted too many wines in one day. We stopped by and tasted a couple of wines but i couldn't tell you what.  It's a very polished center, the have very nice cheeses as well, but I'll have to go back - I can tell you their wines were pricey.

And it was evening and it was morning on day 2