Strat's Place - Daniel Rogov - Israel - Israeli Wineries and Their Wines

Daniel Rogov's
Israeli Wineries and Their Wines

This Page Was Updated on 26 March, 2003

For many years, I tended to place Israeli wineries into one of two broad groups - large wineries and boutique wineries. The last two years have seen dramatic changes in the local scene, for in addition to the opening within the past year and half of three new medium sized wineries, several wineries once justifiably in the boutique category have become medium sized producers and a host of small wineries, some boutiques, some garagistes (or, if one prefers, micro-wineries), have appeared. What you will now find on this page are brief descriptions of Israeli wineries in three separate categories - major wineries; medium sized and small wineries; boutique wineries and garagistes. That there is no shame to be attached to any of these classifications is clear for within each group there are those producing excellent and often exciting wines.

To see the reviews of I have written of the wines from these wineries, click on the hyperlink at the name of the winery or, if you are curious to see my reviews of all Israeli wines of the last five - six years, click here.

The Major Wineries

The Golan Heights Winery:

Be there no question but The Golan Heights Winery was and remains responsible for placing Israel on the world wine map and talented and enthusiastic senior winemaker Victor Shoenfeld and his American-French trained staff produce wines that are often excellent. With a state-of-the-art winery, with fine vineyards on the Golan Heights and in the upper Galilee over which they exerts high levels of quality control and with an enthusiasm that cannot help but delight, the winery produces wines in three regular series, Yarden, Gamla and Golan. During vintage years considered exceptional, the winery has released wines in the "Katzrin" series (red Bordeaux style blends in 1990, 1993 and 1996 and Chardonnays ever year from 1995).

The winery, which owned by the kibbutzim and other cooperative farms that supply them with grapes now produces close to 5.0 million bottles annually and is currently increasing their output by about 20% annually. Regularly released varietals are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Johannisberg Riesling, Muscat Cannelli and Gewurtztraminer and experimental plantings have been undertaken that include Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and others.

The most serious and more full bodied of the reds are the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot. The reds known as Har Hermon Adom and Golan Village are fruitier and meant to be consumed younger. The most notable whites from here are the Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc, both of which are crisply dry and make for excellent drinking, and two playful wines, Moscato (made much in the style of Moscato d'Asti) and Heightswine (an obvious but fun play on words on "Ice Wine. Also worthy of note are two sparkling wines, "Blanc de Blanc" and "Brut", both of which are made in accordance with the traditional method of making Champagne, and two dessert wines, "Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc" and "Muscat", neither of which need make any apology for their smooth, rich sweetness.

Carmel-Mizrachi:

Even though their control of the local wine market has dropped from well over 90% to somewhat under 50%, Carmel remains the largest wine producer in the country, currently producing in excess of 13 million bottles annually. Now in their 118th year, Carmel produces three series that will be of interest to sophisticated drinkers. The most prestigious and often best wines of Carmel are those in the Private Collection series. A certain confusion is noted here, for there are actually two similarly named sub-categories, those wines labeled simply "Private Collection" and those that carry the multi-faceted "Private Collection - No. 1 - Ramat Arad" label. Included among these are some high quality Cabernet Sauvignons, Merlot, Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnay and Emerald Rieslings.

The two major wineries of Carmel are found in Rishon le Tzion and Zichron Ya'akov, and the winery receives grapes from virtually every area of the country, including their own advanced vineyard at Ramat Arad in the Negev Desert. Carmel's more reasonably priced Selected" series offers wines of the same varietals as well as a red Petite Sirah and whites such as Chenin Blanc, Emerald Riesling and French Colombard. In the "Vineyard" series one finds, among others, Dry Muscat, an especially pleasing crisply dry but remarkably fruity white. The winery also produces a Sparkling Chardonnay, a white Muscat based sweet dessert wine and "Hiluleem", young, fun and fruity red and white wines that are always among the first wines to appear after the grape harvest. The most exciting Carmel venture at this time is part ownership in the small "Ramat Arad Winery". Although this small winery has yet to release its first wines, barrel tastings show that these may be among the most exciting in the country.

Barkan Wineries:

The second largest winery in the country and many speculate that they are well on their way to becoming number one, this winery has undergone a metamorphosis in recent years and is now producing wines of ever increasing acceptance and popularity in the country and abroad. With a new, ultra modern winery located at Kibbutz Hulda and with vineyards under their control in virtually every part of the country, including to the surprise of many, highly successful plantings in the Negev Desert.

This winery, now the second largest in the country is increasing their level of sophistication every year and now produces interesting wines in both their "Barkan" and "Reserved" series. Their semi dry Emerald Riesling is often the best wine of this varietal produced in the country and their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon often earn high scores. New varietals recently added to the Barkan line are Pinot Noir, Syrah, Gewurtztraminer and Muscat Cannelli.

Segal Wineries (Carmei Tzvi):

For six generations, this winery was in control of the Segal family. Several years ago the company was sold, and in 2001 was sold again and is now a quasi-independent daughter-company of Barkan wineries. For several years, the quality of the Segal wines seemed to be dropping but now developing major vineyards in several of the best regions of the Upper Galilee and with operations having moved to Barkan's modern facilities at Hulda, there seems to be hope that some of the wines will return to their once honored place.

Binyamina Wineries:

This is a winery that has undergone a major transformation in recent years. When they were known as "Eliaz" they produced wines that had little interest but now, with their name change they have acquired new winemakers and modern equipment and have begun to buy higher quality grapes. The first wines from the renamed winery came from the 1994 harvest, and even though these were not overly sophisticated they were a quantum leap in quality above wines of earlier years. Unfortunately, the wines are far from sophisticated and at least for now seem "stuck" in place, no real quality progress having been made in the last few years.

Galil Mountain:

With the potential for eventually producing a million and a half bottles of wine annually, this is one of "new boys on the local scene", the winery having released its first wines, from the 2000 Vintage in August of 2001. With vineyards located in the Upper Galilee, the winery is a joint venture between the Golan Heights Winery and Kibbutz Yiron. Even though the five vineyards are now in full production, the winery itself has yet to be built and the wines are currently being made by winemaker Gaby Sadan at the Golan Heights Winery in Katzrin. Three hundred thousand bottles of wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot and a Chardonnay made up the first releases. Wines from the 2001 Vintage, including Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay and others, represent a major step forward and this is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Recanati:

Located in Emek Hefer, the new Recanati Wineries is owned in part by Lenny Recanati and Dr. Shlomi Ben-Ari and has American born and University of California at Davis trained Lewis Pasco as their winemaker. The first wines, 170,000 bottles of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot of Recanati were released to market in August of 2001 and 130,00 bottles, most of red wines have been set aside for further aging in oak before final blending and release in a Reserve Series in 2002 - 2003. The goal of the winery is to produce one million bottles annually by 2005. First releases were acceptable but not exciting, but wines, including regular releases, reserve releases and special reserve releases are indeed exciting. Another of the wineries definitely worth watching.

The Medium Sized and Small Wineries

Castel:

Until a year ago, this winery would have fallen into the boutique rubric, but now producing well over one hundred thousand bottles annually must be taken out of that category. That change in category is no problem for wine lovers however, for owner Eli Ben Zaken continues to produce some of the very best wines in the country. The physically beautiful winery, located in Ramat Raziel, in the forests not far from Jerusalem, gives us Grand Castel, an often exquisite Bordeaux style blend with distinct Italian overtones, and a second wine, Petit Castel, which is also excellent. Also from Castel comes "C", what may be the most exciting Chardonnay produced in the region.

Chateau Golan:

With its first releases from the 1999 and 2000 harvests now on the shelves, it is a bit early to say very much about this still new winery. What is clear to many, however, is that even though the first releases can easily be categorized as good to very good that there are a great many pretensions here and that high prices are so far preventing this winery from penetrating the market. That the potential is here is undeniable but at this stage a wait-and-see attitude is definitely in order

Dalton Wineries:

With a state-of-the-art-winery located in the Upper Galilee in a new winery and with ownership and control of several of the best vineyards in the country, the wines of this now 7 year old family owned winery are improving from year to year. The winery produces good to very good varietal wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (including a Sauvigon Blanc Fume).Best wines are in the Reserved Series and many concur that the winery's Sauvignon Blanc Reserve is the best of its varietal in the country.

Tishbi Winery:

Located in Binyamina, this relatively small but highly respected family owned winery gives us wines in three series. The top series is that Jonathan Tishbi Special Reserve and that is followed by Tishbi Reserved, The Cellar of Tishbi, and Baron. Until recently the winery has been strongest in white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Emerald Riesling, but lately has been producing Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots of interest. The winery also makes a sparkling wine in the Champenoise method.

Tzora:

Located on Kibbutz Tzora, not far from Jerusalem, and now in its ninth year of production, this is another winery that has moved from the "boutique" to the "small" category. The winery produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and other wines in a regular "Tzora" series and a "Special Collection" series, many of which are a strong reflection of specifically Israeli terroir.

Kfar Tabor

With many positive signs and now producing increasingly interesting wines, this young mid-size winery is now establishing itself as one well worth watching.

Ephrat Winery:

For many years this winery specialized in sweet wines for the kosher market. With some new equipment installed and a new winemaker assigned especially to produce a series of dry, high quality varietal wines, the winery is now striving, but not yet fully successfully towards breaking into the upswing quality wine market.

Boutique Wineries and Garagistes

In recent years, the country has also seen the growth of boutique wineries - small wineries that produce wines that reflect the personalities of their owners and winemakers. Although the wines of the major wineries are all kosher, many of those of the boutique wineries are not. Recently, a great many people who formerly made wine as a hobby have decided that they too should be categorized as "boutique wineries" and have released their wines to the market. The simple truth of the matter is that while several of the true boutique wineries are producing wines of great charm, sophistication and interest, others are producing wines that range in quality from the out and out banal to the "sometimes" good - depending not so much on the quality of the harvest but on the talents of those who have chosen to themselves winemakers.

Another simple truth is that because of the few really excellent boutique wineries, such as those of Flam, Amphorae, and Ramat Arad and the young winemakers who are doing very exciting things, Israeli is on the verge of a mini-wine revolution, as these wineries, along with those of Castel and Margalit are producing wines that will stand comfortably alongside the best of many other regions of the world.

Following, in alphabetical order is a list all of those small wineries whose wines I have tasted. Those noted with two asterisks (**) are wineries that despite their size are world-class in their production. Those noted with a single asterisk (*) are wineries I currently consider worth taking seriously. Those without special notation have yet to prove themselves.