South Africa has no shortage of spectacular wine routes. Wine farms across its mountainous and hilly landscapes – particularly in the verdant Western Cape – are producing superb varieties that even I can buy at my local liquor outlets, a continent away, in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv. However, if South Africa has over 300 years of winemaking history, the Jews of Israel have over 3000 years.
“Read all about it!” – it is all there in the Bible!
Uncorking the Past
If one goes from reading the ancient texts to perusing local tourist brochures and menus, one can understand that the Holy Land, once described as ‘The Land of Milk and Honey’, is today more thought of as ‘The Land of Cheese and Wine’.
While Israel is renowned today for its popular variety of cheeses, it is in the area of wines that the country has in recent years conquered the discerning palates of connoisseurs and consumers. This should hardly come as a surprise, as the People of Israel have been harvesting grapes to make wine from time immemorial. There are not too many industries in the world that can boast 3000 years of experience!
Stretching from the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea to the foothills of the Jerusalem Mountains, the Judea region is as rich in history as is its fertile soil. It was in this region that young David slew Goliath and where Samson wooed Delilah – or was it the other way around? – but where today, there are some 40 boutique wineries, producing some of the nation’s best wines. Ideal for touring, the Judean Hills is believed to be the most organised wine region in the country, with its own wine route and where the estates are marketed as a group, known as the Judean Wineries.
Katlav Winery
Vine Your Way
The Judean wine route takes you on an adventure along hillsides and deep valleys with picturesque landscapes and panoramic vistas. This is one of the most scenic routes in the country where visitors can wind their way through forests and vineyards, while at the same time sip award-winning wines and enjoy exquisite cuisine in a country atmosphere. “Each of the wineries has a different story to tell, stories with different tastes and bouquets,” Yossi Itach, Chairman of the Association of Judean Wineries and founder of his own winery Katlav Winery told the writer in a 2013 interview. Itach’s own story is a case in point. His winery is located in the same village he grew up in Ness Harim Village near Jerusalem. As a child, the young Yossi soaked in all the stories and local traditions of his village so it was natural that when he decided to make wine, he would plant his vineyards in the very valleys and meadows he played in. His “romance with wine” as he calls it, began with his meeting a Persian family that had escaped Iran during the downfall of the Shah and who taught him their unique way of making wine. In 1998, he began planting vines and only four years later, at a wine festival in 2001, he launched his first 1500 bottles under the label Katlav Winery – named after the river running at the bottom of the village and the red trees growing in it. Since then, coupled with “good reviews”, production has grown and his selection includes Cabernet Sauvignon and Mertot, as well as blends such as ‘Adi Katlav’. Ask Yossi which is his best, he has an immediate response: “All of ’em.”
Like Katlav, all the wineries in the region are unique. They exude charm, “and tell stories,” says Yossi, “that arise not only from the location of the vineyard, its exposure to sunlight and the composition of the earth, but also because of the personality and philosophy of each of the winegrowers and winemakers.” Katlav’s Visitor Center is open to the public on Fridays for a free tasting.
Agur Winery
Down to Earth
Agur Winery is situated near Agur Village in the heart of a region full of ancient winepresses, at the border of Britannia Park. “Winemaking is a craft, and I am a craftsman,” says owner and winemaker Shuki Yashuv. He began in 1996 with three barrels in a cooled container, “and the wine came out magnificently.” Since then, “the wine chose me, I didn’t chose it,” and today he produces some 40,000 bottles of kosher wine a year. “We’re a winery with an opinion,” say Shuki who believes that “while great wine begins with our luscious Judean Hills grapes, the juice needs to be molded and sculpted by the winemaker.” It is his special ‘molding’ and ‘sculpturing’ that have won his wines a number of prestigious awards. “We’re closely in touch with our agricultural roots,” says Shuki. “We’re proud that that our wine is served in elegant restaurants and in nice homes across three continents, but we never forget that all this pleasure starts with a grape that is grown in soil. We like to get our fingernails dirty.”
Latroun Winery
Monk’ey Business
The Latroun Winery – belonging to the Latroun Monastery – is the oldest in the Judean area, over 100 years, and one of the largest, producing over three hundred thousand bottles annually. According to the beliefs of its Trappistes monks, they are obliged to make a living from their own labor without donations or financial support. They are doing a superlative job and have built up an impressive clientele. There are 20 types of vines spanning over 400 dunams – all hand-harvested. The winery products can be bought at the Monastery store, except on Sundays and Christian holidays. Despite the abstinent lifestyle of the monks, the message that is bottled with their wine is that winemaking is an endearing as much as an enduring enterprise, as rich today as it was in biblical times.
Trappists monastery in Latroun
In Memory of Mony
If as it is said that “96% of a wine’s quality belongs to the terroir from which it is born,” every sip of a Mony wine affirms this in-the-trade belief. Terroir – from the French terre, ‘land’ – means that the land from which the grapes are grown imparts a unique quality to the wine that is specific to its growing site. “The terroir here is special and very suitable for growing quality wine grapes,” say winemaker Nur Artoul who is an Arab-Christian and whose family winery, Mony, produces a large variety of wines. It is a fascinating winery to visit. Located in the grounds of a Christian monastery, for years the wine was produced by the resident monks of Dir Rafat, famous for its painted ceiling with the words ‘Peace’ written in hundreds of languages. The Artoul family worked in the winery until Shakib Artoul leased the land and established Mony in 2000. The winery is named after Dr Mony Artoul, Shakib’s first son who passed away in 1995. Taken in his prime, it is Mony’s prized grapes ‘taken’ too in their prime that’s paying tribute. What better way to honour the memory of ‘Mony’, knowing that folk every day are raising glasses in his name!
Clos de Gat Winery
“Joshua, Then and Now”
In 1998, in partnership with Kibbutz Harel, winemaker Eyal Rotem who learnt winemaking in Australia, began planting vines and building a winery on the land surrounding his house on Mitzpe Harel. The combination of a thin layer of clay on bedrock of limestone, together with a unique micro-climate, made it possible to grow grapes of outstanding quality. Not only possible! Clos de Gat have consistently won awards for its wines. The wines are not only rich in body; its vineyards are rich in history. Clos de Gat is situated in the foothills of the Judean Mountains, bordering Israel’s biblical Ayalon Valley, where Joshua defeated the armies of Five Kings. The region’s rolling hills and valleys have supported grapevine cultivation for thousands of years. An ancient “Gat” (Hebrew for wine press), pre-dating the Roman period, is located in the grounds of the modern winery. The old renovated stone house, now part of the modern winery, was one of the command posts used by Yitzchak Rabin – the late Prime Minister of Israel and Nobel Peace Laurette – during the War of Independence in 1948.
Ella Valley Wineries
Seek and Thou Shall Vine
A comprehensive way to visit many of the wineries is on an organized tour. Some like The Israel Wine Experience will collect you from your hotel either in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Tours to the wineries, can include hikes through vineyards, and meeting winemakers. In the heart of this region is Kibbutz Tzora, home to many former South Africans, who came in groups, graduates of the Habonim movement. A resident of this kibbutz for close to four decades and a co-founder of the first boutique wineries in Israel, Oded Shoham is passionate about his love of wine. “Our goal is to provide the visitor a chance to see, smell, taste, and visit our new generation of wineries which are literally grounded in an ancient wine tradition.” Conceivably the oldest wine making region in the world, Shoham’s tours of the Judean Hills will impart the history of wine making techniques from the past to present day. “It really strikes one when you marvel at a 2000-year-old wine press, and then shift your eyes and see a brand-new wine press recently imported from France.” A classic example of what Shoham is saying is evident in the story of Ella Valley Wineries, located at Kibbutz Nativ HaLamed Heh.
While the Valley of Ella has always been known as the site where a young David, with a sling shot, ended the life of the prized giant warrior, Goliath, what is less known, was that the ‘prize’ wines from this valley were no less victorious in conquering the taste buds of discerning wine lovers. In the area of its vineyards, archeological remnants of ancient vineyards and presses were found, confirming that in Biblical times the land functioned as an important winemaking area. The age-old tradition of vine cultivation and wine production – forgotten for centuries – has been revived.
Typical of the enterprising drama being played out in these picturesque valleys and meadows, the opening of Ella Valley Wineries over a decade ago brought back to the region, a wine culture that was thousands of years old, with the help of 21st century tools and skills. “The Ella Valley Wineries is considered one of the most advanced in Israel, with a production of over 200,000 bottles a year, all of which are premium quality wines. Approximately 40% of the production is exported,” says the winery’s Vice President, Ilan Bezalel.
Teperberg Winery
Love at First Sip
It’s been a long journey for Teperberg 1980 Winery on Kibbutz Tzora. Founded by Rabbi Avram Teperberg in the Old City in 1870, for most the last century, Teperberg produced mainly sacramental kiddish (blessing to sanctify the Sabbath) wines. Starting in 2002, under the supervision of California trained winemaker Shiki Rauchberger, the winery began producing wines destined to appeal to a more sophisticated consumer at their newly constructed winery on Tzora, and currently produces over four million bottles annually. Located in the valleys where Sampson and Delilah’s romance blossomed, for those today who too want “to let their hair down”, it may be worth visiting Teperberg to sample a vintage in the same tradition that ignited the hearts of ancient lovers!
Cheers
The first Biblical mention of wine in the Holy Land appears in Genesis 9. 20-21, where it says that Noah began to farm the Land of Israel and planted a vineyard. Clearly, he knew he was onto a good thing because only a few paragraphs later in Gen.9:21 it is written “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken.” When Jews began returning to the Land of Israel during the nineteenth century and resettling the land, the planting of vineyards was an important symbolic and agricultural development that helped the pioneering new immigrants build a sustainable and enriching way of life. Today, as Israel flourishes, the proliferation of boutique wineries in an area once the cradle of Jewish civilization is a testament to the success of the country, the entrepreneurial character of its people, and the enriching nature of the land itself. That’s surely worth a toast.
“Cheers” or as we say in Israel, “Le’Chaim!” (to life)
