It's been a very long time since my last blog post (June 2020) and when I sat down to write an entry for Passover wine, I looked at last year's pre-Passover post and in this year of pandemic bans on travel, and the fact that I haven't been browsing in a wine shop for a year, I don't have a lot to change or add. I was able to figure out a way to continue facilitating wine tastings, with home delivery of internet sales of wine, and with the help of several good friends. I've done 3 events that were six weeks in length and about a dozen that were 3 weeks, where each week we opened two wines. I'll highlight one or two wineries here, while re-posting last year's entry below.
I think the Herzberg Rose is sold out for this year, but I remain a fan of this small family-run Moshav-based winery in Sitria, not far from Ramle or Rehovot. I've recently been drinking the varietal Malbec, which has an initial harshness that mellows in a couple of hours (open at least two hours before drinking) and I'll say that the Herzberg Village blend, a blend of the 3 grapes Max Herzberg grows, each making up a third of the blend (Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec) was truly a fan favorite of this years' tastings.
I've also found my friend Yossi Yitach's Katlav wines for sale at a very reasonable price lately (in the low $30 range). Yossi's wines usually sell in the much higher premium level of $50-$75, so I bought a Nes Harim and a Wadi Katlav or two, and we'll open those for Seder. I'm also still very fond of the Shiloh wines from Amichai Lourie; his Secret Reserve Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc sell in the mid-$40's are outstanding, can be expected to cellar well for more than 10 years. Amichai and his wines don't disappoint.
Last year's post, which holds up well:
Despite all the upheaval and social
distancing, Passover will soon be here, and with it, our need for wine to
celebrate the holiday. While I hope you have a neighborhood wine shop to
support with a great variety of kosher for Passover, Israeli wines, you may
want to order from online sellers who will deliver directly to your door given
our circumstances and I can recommend two I regularly do business with,
Kosherwine.com (with by far the largest selection) and IsraeliWineDirect.com
with a smaller but delightful boutique selection but also representing some
Israeli wineries without kashrut supervision, so you want to carefully watch
what you order. I’ll be highlighting
wines from both of these sources below.
The availability of great Israeli
wine offers an outstanding opportunity to provide economic support to Israeli
businesses while buying something you need anyway. I regularly visit wineries throughout Israel,
spending time in the vineyards and wineries and I’m happy to share some of what
we’ll be drinking at our Seders this year.
The revival of Rose as a popular
choice, has not been ignored by Israeli producers, and if you enjoy flavorful
options, I have a few to recommend. At
the top of the list (and their wines rise to the tops of most lists) is Matar
by Pelter. You won’t go wrong with any
wines by Tal Pelter, but Matar is his kosher label and his Rose 2018, made from
85 % Grenache and 15 % Counoise grapes is among the best available. Another unusual offering, in you can find it,
is the Galil Mountain Rose, usually containing at least 85% Sangiovese
grapes. This delicious deep pink Rose is
moderately priced, but quickly sells out when supplies reach the US. The
boutique Agur Winery makes a pastel pink, light Rosa, which also sells out
quickly. A lesser known winery from central Israel, Asaf Paz’s Vitkin winery in
Kfar Vitkin (on the coastal plain) also makes a lovely, moderately priced Rose
from a combination of 90% Grenache Noir and 10 % Carignan. I recently found
this in a DC area wine department and have really been enjoying it.
White wine production in Israel
continues to mature and develop. Some of my favorites are from the Galilee
region: The Dalton Chardonnay (Unoaked) from the upper Galilee is light and
citrusy Chardonnay and a Seder favorite with fish or poultry year in and year
out. If your budget allows a few extra
shekels, and if it can be found, Jeff Morgan’s Covenant Blue C, a Viognier made
in the lower Galilee is an outstanding wine and consistently wins praise on the
competition circuit. It runs in the
higher price range for Israeli whites at $25-$32. A new wine from an established wine family,
the Ben Zaken family, owners of Castel, one of Israel’s most acclaimed wineries,
has released a lower priced line (but to my palate, not lower quality) the
their 2018 La Vie Label. The 2018 Blanc
du Castel is a very enjoyable light white, a more typical Israeli white blend
of Sauvignon Blanc (50%), Chardonnay (45%) and Gewurtztraminer (5%).
I need to walk back a sweeping
statement I’ve made at my tastings over the years, when I said “if you like
Pinot Noir, buy if from France or the Pacific Northwest. Israel isn’t producing any great
Pinots.” That’s not true anymore. I tasted two outstanding Pinot Noir offerings
from Israel this summer, which I’m happy to recommend, to pair with either
roasted poultry or beef (they may not stand up to lamb). The first is from the aforementioned Vitkin
Winery. Their 2016 Pinot Noir was
sourced from grapes grown on the slopes of the Ela Valley (south of Beit
Shemesh, where David slew Goliath) and it is a great Pinot. The best I’ve had so far comes from the small
village of Rechellim in the Shomron region, the family-owned Tura Winery. I visited with Vered, the business manager
and wife of the wine maker Erez Ben Sa’adon in August and tasted several of
their wines. While they have great
Chardonnay, Cabernet and Shiraz offerings, their Mountain Vista Pinot Noir
stands out as a great example of a very special Israeli wine. [Update: Tura was one of the first wineries to sign a sales agreement this fall with the UAE]. Also in the higher range ($26-$38), the
Merlot and Estate Syrah from Tulip, in Kfar Tikvah are also crowd-pleasers.
The
Kishor GSM, a bit harder to find, is a delicious wine made by a winery
employing adults with developmental challenges. For a more modest budget I
recommend the Psagot Sinai blend, reformulated in 2018 from their earlier
combination of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz to now include Merlot (about a
third each). This is one of my go-to wines
for brisket, the other being any of the red blends from Galil Mountain (in
ascending order, Ela, Alon, Meron and Yiron) ranging in prices from $16-$35.
Whatever your taste preferences or
budget, there are great Israeli wine choices for the novice or experienced wine
drinker. You just need to experiment to
find what you enjoy. Chag Kasher v’sameach, and l’chayim!
Steve
Kerbel is a Jewish Education Consultant in the Washington, DC area and a
lifelong Israeli wine hobbyist, having visited over 130 of Israel’s wineries
since 1985.
