I know there are some things I'm lucky about. I love my wife of 30 years, I have two spectacular daughters who have the misguided sense that I'm some kind of role model and they are both following my career path more than Judy's, I have a very cute dog who apparently is still looking for me after two weeks. I have parents who are good role models, and I have some amazing friends. Among my friends, perhaps the closest after 33+ years is Yossi David.
We don't have to plan to have a good time together. We can sit quietly each reading a book Shabbat afternoon satisfied the other is there. Other than planning to spend the day together, we had no specific plan. I wanted to head south (last year we spent 3 days in the north, but next week Yossi and Dina are moving so 1 day was all I could ask/expect) but other than that, we had so specific plan other than to look for small wineries that would be willing to have guests in the middle of the week (it's more of a weekend thing here, particularly Fridays) and worst case scenario was we would spend the day together and not find an open winery.
But, such was not the case. We hit gold with our first call, and reached Max Herzberg at his home winery in Sitra, near Rehovot. Max has his own vineyards behind his house where he grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec. Max is from France and makes his wine in a very French style. The winery is kosher, certified by the OU, and I thought his wines were fantastic. We drank a 2009 Malbec, spicy, plummy, 12 months in oak, a wine that was dying for some food to go with it. We tasted a Merlot, lighter, with a lot of minerally feel of tobacco and bitter chocolate, and a blend, his Reserve, of Cab, Merlot and Malbec. We passed a very pleasant hour, and I hope to make connections between Max and some American importers to get his wine in the US.
We struck gold again at La Terra Promessa at Kibbutz Gat. Yossi has known the winemaker, Sandro, for many years, and I had simply never made it down to see him - but I'll go back now. Sandro, an italian chef by training, makes amazing wines that I had tasted at Yossi's from time to time. they have a beautiful restaurant winery at the entrance to the Kibbutz. We tasted a very dry Riesling that drank like a Sauvignon blanc, light, grassy with a hint of citrus (grapefruit and lemon grass) and 3 delicious red blends: 2008 Primitivo with Zinfandel and something else I didn't write down (it wasn't listed on the bottle), the 2008 Le Crime Reserva, my favorite, a blend of Sangiovese, Syrah and Cabernet Franc, and mixed together at the time of the crushing (a very unique process - usually wines are fermented separately and only blended together later) and if had hints of coffee and spend 2 years in the barrels. What a wine! The last was a very pleasant Rubino, a Cab-Merlot blend (60-40) witha lot of blum and black cherry notes. It was really a lovely morning - and we tasted 7 wines before lunch.
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| Yossi holding tikki (short for Tikun Olam) |
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| Avshalom Beni with Serius (bought by MHF) in foreground |
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| Begal-D, bought by MHF in memory of Bill's dad | David, who is the king of the castle and the sweetest dog ever |
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| Ilsa, a Boston Terrier, who Abby once considered kidnapping, so this photo is for her |
The one meeting kind of driving the day's schedule was my desire to see Avshalom Beni of HAMA, during his break between therapy sessions between 2:15 and 3:15 in the afternoon. Avshalom, the master of animal assisted therapy, was at the Parent-child center in Nes Tziona and Yossi and I met him there. Two Persian cats, Tiki and Serius and 3 dogs, Ilsa, Gosha and Begal D. We had a great time catching up on needs and projects and interacting directly with the animal co-therapists and even a social worker at the center.
After our visit with Avshalom we headed south again for Kiriyat Malachi to visit the new winery of Meir Kfir. We are fb fridns, and i visited Meir about 4 years ago at his home in Gan Yavne, but it was time to reacquaint ourselves with his wines and his winery. We had a great visit in a nice wine bar in a weird industrial neighborhood (no foot traffic for a wine bar) just off a high way is a development town. Meir makes exquisite wines - i have notes on 2 whites a Gewirtztraminer, which is too sweet for my taste and a delicious chardonnay (which reminds me of Tsuba's, which is where he gets his grapes) even though I'm not a huge chardonnay drinker. I'm a minimalist when it comes to Chardonnay and oak, and Meir's wasn't too oakey - I'm a fan of Dalton's unoaked chardonnay for this reason.
The reds, in order, were his Leopon, a Cab-Merlot-Cab Franc blend which I enjoyed very much a Barbera that reminded me of sour cherries in a very pleasant way, a Malbec Cab Franc blend (also grown at Tsuba) and a 2005 Sangiovese Nebiolo-Zinfandel blend that is either past its prime or more likely, so just open too long. It turns out I enjoy Italian style wines, but on a day where I tasted 13 wines to be please by all but one is a damn good day. We ended the day with a brief visit to wine store owner Avi Ben in Mevasseret Tzion (he owns several stores and is a big deal in the wine industry in Israel) and he was really nice. We joined Dina for dinner in Abu Ghosh, where like I said I'm not happy about driving between the narrow steep winding roads and the crazy young careless residents, but I had a lovely steak at a great price and finished the day more than satisfied.
Score - I think I count 8 wineries so far this visit (and yes, visiting friends count) so Yehuda (2 times), Ben Hanna, Gush Etzion, Tsuba, Carmel, Herzberg, La Terra Promessa and Kfir. I don't think I've missed any.
I don't think I'll get all the way caught up to Thursday's USY group tonight. It took long enough to write about two days in one evening. Maybe before shabbat. and I'll be spending shabbat in a new location for me, so I'm kind of excited. Laila tov.
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