Israel Wine Company

Jewish Vintners Trail

2009-06-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

July 26th from 1:00pm until 6:30pm

We will be pouring the best Boutique Israeli wines on the wine trail in Napa Valley. Come join us and try some great wines at Judd's Hill Winery. We will be offering a free bottle of wine ($1) for each new wine club member and 10% off for all purchases at the event!

We will also be serving Pita with Humus, Tahina, Zatar, olive oil and Harissa!!

Jewish Vintners Wine Trail Website

Health Secrets of Red Wine Uncovered

2009-06-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Health Secrets uncovered

Cafe' VeIvrit with Israeli wines

2009-06-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Come join us tomorrow, June 11th at 8PM for Cafe' Veivrit at the JCCSF 3200 California St. San Francisco. We will be talking about the Israeli wine industry and pouring some great Israeli wines! See you tomorrow...

Thank you Israel in the Gardens!!

2009-06-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

Did you come to San Francisco this Sunday? If not, you missed a great festival and a great concert. Lots of people and pure fun! Thank you our new wine-club members and all of the friends that came to support...

Ella Valley Merlot at the Ivry Lider's party

2009-06-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

Ella Valley Merlot was offered at the Ken Fulk Design party for Israeli rock star Ivry Lider. The most amazing loft I've ever seen, and what a party!! Here are some of the photos...

Thank you Kehillah supporters!!

2009-06-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Kehillah Jewish High School together with the Israel Wine Company hosted an Israeli Wine Festival and a tasting at the beautiful Jennings Pavilion of Helbrook-Palmer Park in Atherton, CA. More then 150 wine lovers came to taste some of the best Israeli wine available. The wineries that participated include: Yatir, Ella Valley Vineyards, Domine du Castel, Yaffo Winery, Bazelet Ha-Golan, Hamasrek Winery, Tavor Winery, Rimon and Teperberg. Only the high-end wines of each winery were offer at the event.

A special thank you for our new wine-club members!

See you all, this Sunday June 7^th at the Israel in the Gardens Festival in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens.

Upcoming Events!- June is a Busy Month (including wine for famous Israeli singer Ivry Lider!)

2009-06-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's going to be a great week here in San Francisco!
We are going to pour some of the best Israeli wines at the 'Kehillah Israeli Wine Festival' this Thursday July 4th.
We will pour Israeli wine at the reception for Israeli singer Ivry Lider in the San Francisco 'Loft', Saturday night June 6th.
Come by to say hello at our booth in SF 'Israel in the Gardens' festival, Sunday June 7th and at the Israel in the Gardens After Party taking place at the Mezzanine - SF.
Take a look at our events list and at our facebook for more details...

Looking forward to see you there!!!

Thank You to Night at the Museum!!

2009-05-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all that participated and especially all our new Wine Club Members from the Rotary Event at the Aerospace Museum at Mather AFB (now Park). Here are some photos from the event!!

Night at the Museum

2009-05-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Come join us today, at the Aerospace Museum of California, at McCellan Business Park! We'll be pouring Israeli wine together with some other local wineries and restaurants...
The event starts at 7 PM
/Night%20at%20the%20Museum%20Flyer%202nd%20annual.pdf

Israeli Wine Tasting in San Francisco

2009-05-12T07:20:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all of you who came out to the wine tasting at the San Francisco JCC on Mother's Day!

A special thanks to my colleague Richard Shaffer at Israeli Wine Direct for organizing the event! His efforts to raise money for the amazing organization 'Save a child's heart' are to be commended.

It was a great success with lots of fantastic, boutique, Israeli Wines!!

Join Israel Wine Company Facebook Group!

2009-05-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

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Jewish Heritage Festival and Bnai Israel Food and Wine Charity Auction

2009-05-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

We poured wines at two great events last weekend. Over 3,000 people came to the Capital Steps to celebrate the Jewish Heritage, Israel Independence Day and try some Israeli Wines!!

Israeli Wines in Texas!!

2009-05-12T06:42:00.001-07:00

Israeli Wines are getting a big welcome in Texas! Israel will be launching a marketing campaign in Texas this June.
Check out this article and video on the Texan, ABC local news!

ABC Eyewitness News Article in Houston

Free Rimon Dessert Wine for Mom!!!

2009-05-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

Get a free bottle of Rimon Pomegranate Dessert Wine in a velvet box for your Mom ($50 value) when you join Israel Wine Company Today!!! Join Here.

We will ship it overnight to your Mom today. You must order by 1:30pm PST for the free gift!

Israeli Wines For Easter!!!!

2009-04-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Israel Wine Company is mentioned in San Diego Examiner article about Easter Wines!
We need more articles like this:

Examiner.com

Article about Israel Wine Company (and Ari) in the Newspaper

2009-04-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Recent article about Israel Wine Company in the March edition of the 'Jewish Voice'
/Jewish%20Voice%20Article-%20March%202009.pdf

Stanford Israeli Wine Tasting

2009-03-04T09:19:00.001-08:00

Thank you to Stanford Hillel, Tal Kapulnik and Carmit Becker for a fantastic tasting of Israeli Wines. It was very much appreciated by all...

Wines tasted at Stanford, March 3rd (all high quality Kosher from Israel):
Ella Valley, EverRed, 2004
Dalton, Estate Shiraz, 2006
Ella Valley, Chardonnay, 2004
Tabor, Merlot, Chalk Soil, 2006
Tzora, Cabernet Sauvignon, Givat Hachalukim, 2005
Rimon, Pomegranate Dessert Wine, 2005

Passover is coming up! We will soon be offering a wide range of high-quality Israeli wines for you Passover Seder. Check back with us next week for some great wines!!! Click here to check out our new selections for Passover

Food And Beverage Article about Israeli Wine

2009-02-23T16:45:00.001-08:00

Food And Beverage Magazine just came out with a great new article about 'Israeli Wine on the Rise'

I am including the link here:Food and Beverage Magazine: Israeli Wine on the Rise

/Israeli Wine on the Rise.pdf

Around the World in 80 Sips a big success!!!

2009-02-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

Around the world in 80 Sips put on by Bottlenotes at CrushPad Winery in San Francisco was a huge success!!

We poured several Israeli wines as well as Erle Sauvignon Blanc and Erle Syrah. There were over 700 people in attendance and many were very interested to hear about our wine club.

Photos from the beginning of the event (was too crowded to take photos in the middle):

Around the World in 80 Sips at CrushPad in San Francisco, CA

2009-02-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

Around the World in 80 Sips. We will be pouring Israeli wines including the new Erle Label! Come join us to try some great wines!!!

Enter the promo code IWC and get $10 off your ticket. www.bottlenotes.com

Taste wines from California, Italy, France, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and many more as Bottlenotes takes you Around the World in 80 Sips™! Join us and over 600 fellow Bay Area wine enthusiasts at Crushpad, San Francisco ’s very own “urban” winery, on Thursday, February 19th, from 6-9 pm. Enjoy 80+ wines plus food from Bay Area chefs for just $40 in advance, $60 at the door. Tickets are available for purchase at www.bottlenotes.com/80sips

Thursday, February 19, 2009
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Crushpad
3573 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA

4th Quarter Wine Club Shipment

2009-01-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

Tabor Winery:

Amid spring-filled wadis, Tabor winery and vineyards stretch along the foot of Mt. Tabor. Mt. Tabor is a unique mountain at the Western edge of the Jezereel Valley. It is at the crossroads of the ancient trade routes north to Damascus and East-West routes through the Jezreel Valley. It had a lot of strategic significance and was the border between the Naftali, Issachar and Zebulun Hebrew tribes during biblical times. The mountain itself is geologically a 'horst' (a raised fault block) and juts out of the middle of the valley like a big, round point. The site is quite breathtaking. Besides being a fantastic place to grow grapes with four uniquely different soil composites, Mt. Tabor is a great place to visit to enjoy the natural beauty and experience its historical significance.

In the 19th century, the French baron Edmond de Rothschild was taken by the unique setting of Mt. Tabor as an ideal place to cultivate grapes. Since then, for over 120 years the village’s residents have grown quality grapes for the wine industry and marketed their produce to other wineries.

In 1999, four families decided to embark on the independent production of wine. These families have built this winery to one of Israel's growing medium-sized wineries.

I have chosen two wines from their 'Adama' (soil) collection to be included in this shipment. They are bottled from different vineyards on unique soil types in order to accentuate the differences in the wines’ tastes that the soil makes in the final wine.

Tasting Notes:

Tabor, Adama, Volcanic Soil, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006: Dark, red color, Violet aromas, raspberries, cranberries, graphite, blue cheese. Decent structure, with high acidity. Very low tannins. Retail Price: $24.99

Tabor, Adama, Chalk Soil, Merlot, 2006: wet, red stones, metallic, cinnamon sticks, menthol, with bright, acidic mouth, very light tannins. Retail Price: $24.99

Tabor Website in English

Dalton Winery:

The Dalton Winery overlooks Mount Hermon near Kerem Ben Zimra, in the beautiful green mountainous country of the Upper Galilee, five kilometers from the Lebanese border.

Established in 1995, the Dalton Winery started in the back yard of the Maman family in Moshav Kerem Ben Zimra. They started with less than 1,700 cases and now make over 58,000 cases of wine. Between that time, the Haruni Family, immigrants from London, invested in the winery and helped establish it as one of the fastest growing, high-quality, Kosher wineries in Israel.

The vineyards of Kerem Ben Zimra reach an altitude between 2,600 and 3,000 feet above sea level. Combining high altitude and optimum soil conditions, this volcanic plateau is a unique climate that provides the ideal conditions for growing grapes in Israel.

The winemaking team at Dalton includes full-time winemaker, Naama Mualem and consultant, John Worontschak. Na'ama grew up in the north of Israel and comes from a family with close links to the wine industry. Na'ama joined Dalton in 2002 after graduating from the world famous Roseworthy faculty at the University of Adelaide, Australia. She completed her work experience at the Navarro winery in Mendocino California, with Jim Klein, formerly of Golan Heights Winery.

Tasting Notes:

Dalton, Canaan Red (Cabernet 60%, Merlot 30%, Shiraz 10%), 2007: Sage, violet, lemon grass aromas. Sweet, cranberry taste. Smooth and balanced with good acidity to clean the palette. This wine is the best Mevushal wine that I know. It is suitable to bring to Ultra-Orthodox for dinner! Retail Price: $18

Dalton, Shiraz, 2007: rosemary, lemon grass, bramble wood, raspberry aromas. hi-tone mouth feel, nice tannic finish.
Retail Price: $24.83
Wine Spectator Score: 89

Dalton Website

Teperberg 1870 Family Estate:
Teperberg is the oldest modern winery in Israel. The winery was originally established in 1870 by Avraham Teperberg from Odessa, Russia. Teperberg was first named Efrat Winery and was built within the walls of The Old City of Jerusalem. In 1964, it was moved down the hill to Motza, and has remained there until recently. Many, who have traveled to Jerusalem, may remember the big, white tanks right after the dangerous Motza turn on the road to Jerusalem. Efrat and Teperberg have always been owned by the Teperberg family (now 5th generation), but Efrat produced primarily sweet, sacramental wines for the Ultra-Orthodox community. Recently they built a brand-new state of the art facility on Kibbutz Tzora (same as Tzora winery that we had last quarter) and will soon be opening a visitor center and restaurant. Along with the name change and new facility, Teperberg has improved the quality of their wines dramatically and are positioning themselves as another of the leading Kosher, medium-sized wineries in Israel. Since 2002, Shiki Rauchberger from CA and Olivia Prati have made up their stellar winemaking team.

I was pleasantly surprised by these wines and expect that more great, Kosher wines will come from Teperberg in the next several years.

Tasting Notes

Teperberg Silver, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007: Purple liqueur aromas, caramel, brown sugar, strong oak notes, menthol taste and smooth mouthfeel.
Retail Price: $24.50

Rogov’s tasting notes and score (leading Israeli Wine Critic)
Garnet to royal purple, medium- to full-bodied, with silky tannins and a generous sense of spiciness. An appealing melange of black and red fruits along with light notes of tobacco and chocolate. Drink from release. Score 86. K

Teperberg, Meritage (Cabernet 70%, Merlot 25%, Cabernet Franc 5%), 2007: dark red color. Aromas of deep blackberries, raspberries and twizzle sticks, black pepper, coffee and red soil, grainy, short mouthfeel.
Retail Price: $21.00

Teperberg Website in Hebrew

Israeli wines that aren't kosher?

2009-01-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

One of the myths about Israeli wine is that all wine from Israel is kosher, and that if you aren't an observant Jew, than wines from Israel (whether kosher or non) hold no interest for you.

FALSE!!!!

Israel is making great wines, both kosher and non. Wine is kosher if it's been handled only by strictly Orthodox Jews – but this doesn't affect the taste. But, of course, not all Israelis are observant, and thus not all winemakers make kosher wine. Gary Vaynerchuk, of Wine Library TV fame, tried out a few in a WLTV episode from a few months back.

While he checked out Flam, Pelter, Karmei Yosef (kosher as of the current 2007 vintage), and Meisher, one of the wines he misses out on is Clos de Gat. Available in the United States for a few years now and sold by the Israel Wine Company, Clos de Gat is one great example of awesome non-kosher Israeli wine.

Besides a few misconceptions about Israel (we're not sitting around fighting each other, we're too busy drinking wine and creating high tech innovation), Gary V has an interesting perspective on non-kosher wine from Israel.

Wine Advocate tastes and re-tastes Israeli wine

2008-12-30T04:10:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate has a new short tasting of Israeli wines by Mark Squires in the December issue. The Wine Advocate is continually paying continued attention to Israeli wine and, high-level sources have informed the Israel Wine Company, future tastings are planned. It's a bit of a strange potpourri of wines, from cru-level wines meant for long term storage to cheap supermarket wine (such as the Recanti Yasmine series) which are sub-$10 wines.

Here are Squire’s scores from the latest issue of Wine Advocate:

2005 Carmel Limited Edition 87
2006 Carmel Carignan Old Vines 85
2005 Carmel Shiraz 88 Early 30
2005 Carmel Gewurztraminer Sha’Al Vineyard 87
2007 Carmel Gewurztraminer Sha’Al Vineyard 88
2007 Carmel White Riesling 85
2006 Carmel Petite Sirah Old Vines 87
2005 Dalton Zinfandel 81 30
2006 Galil Mountain Avivim 86
2006 Galil Mountain Chardonnay 87
2004 Galil Mountain Syrah Yiron 87
2007 Galil Mountain Viognier 86
2004 Galil Mountain Yiron 87
2003 Golan Heights Winery Cabernet Sauvignon El Rom Vineyard (Yarden) 89
2004 Golan Heights Winery Cabernet Sauvignon El Rom Vineyard (Yarden) 88
2006 Golan Heights Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Golan 84
2004 Golan Heights Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (Yarden) 87
2005 Golan Heights Winery Chardonnay Katzrin Yarden 87
2005 Golan Heights Winery Chardonnay Odem Organic (Yarden) 86
2005 Golan Heights Winery Chardonnay Yarden 84
2005 Golan Heights Winery Gewurztraminer Heights Wine Late Harvest (Yarden) 91
2007 Golan Heights Winery Gewurztraminer Yarden 86
2003 Golan Heights Winery Merlot Yarden 86
2004 Golan Heights Winery Syrah Ortal Vineyard Yarden 88
2006 Golan Heights Winery Viognier (Yarden) 85
2007 Recanati Cabernet Sauvignon 80
2007 Recanati Chardonnay 86
2006 Recanati Merlot 82
2005 Recanati Merlot Reserve 85
2005 Recanati Syrah 82
Red Wine 2007 Recanati Yasmin 79
White Wine 2007 Recanati Yasmin 81
2005 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon 87
2005 Yatir Merlot Shiraz Cabernet 88
2005 Yatir Yatir Forest 90

Israeli Wine Route

2008-12-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

'Israeli Wine Route? What? Since when did Israel have a wine route? The last time I had Israeli wine, it was at bubbie's seder - perhaps Tishbi or Carmel, and I don't remember it being very good. I haven't seen any Israeli wine besides maybe one or two wineries. What is the Israeli Wine Route?' you may be thinking.

Adam Montefiore, the Ambassador of Israeli wine, dispels these myths in the video below. Israel has over 200 wineries, all improving, and the quality revolution is being led by the small wineries, including several available at the Israel Wine Company. Adam Montefiore is my mentor and teacher - now via the magic of YouTube you can learn from him.

Dalton Winery

2008-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Israel’s Upper Galilee is one of the best areas to make wine. Dalton Winery was founded in 1993 by Mat Haruni and is consistently making high quality wines at reasonable prices. In fact, Daniel Rogov writes that “Dalton has earned a consistently good name for high quality wines, providing excellent value for money.” It is also unique in Israel for having a female winemaker, Na’ama Mualem, who trained in Australia and California.

In February, I traveled up north from Jerusalem to visit the Dalton Winery. Situated in a small cabin, surrounded by its vineyards (the absolutely fascinating book The Wine Route of Israel states that it is one of the few wineries in Israel surrounded by its own vineyards.) This reduces time between harvesting and storage, preserving the quality of its grape harvest.

Among other wines, I had the Dalton Cabernet Sauvignon, Alma blend, and several other excellent wines (I didn’t take formal tasting notes, as I was too busy enjoying their wine!). For export, they also make a mevushal Canaan Red (the Israeli version is not mevushal), which is an excellent wine for kosher weddings and B’nai Mitzvot, or just everyday drinking. They also make an excellent single vineyard, Reserve, and regular line. Dalton is an excellent New World producer in Israel. If you haven’t opened up a bottle, now is the time.

(crossposted from an earlier post on HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog)