The winery is owned and operated by Moshe and Anne Celnicker, and as the name suggests, the winery was once located in Yaffo. From there it moved to the basement of the Celnicker home in Ramat Hahayal, and finally to Neve Michael where the winery’s vineyards are located.

I only found out about the Yaffo Winery last year while compiling my wineries map, and I was able to sample their wines for the first time this past summer at the annual Israel Museum wine festival .

Last week I received a mailing from Yaffo announcing the release of their 2009 Carignan and I decided that it was definitely time for a visit.

Carignan is a much maligned grape in Israel, owing to the the large quantity of poor quality wine made from this grape in years past. Once quality wines started being produced here, many Carignan vineyards were pulled out and replanted with more “serious” grapes, and some were just neglected and became overgrown with weeds.

A few years ago, someone (I have no idea who) discovered that the old Carignan vines yielded grapes that produce remarkably good wine. I have had very good Carignan from the S’de Boker, Somek, Vitkin, and Kantharos Wineries, and now I am pleased to add Yaffo to the list.

The Yaffo Carignan is medium bodied and fruity, with soft tanins. I enjoyed it rather much and Dina liked it even more. This wine will go very nicely with Italian food, not-too-spicy chicken, curry, and many kinds of cheeses.

We also tried Yaffo’s other wines including their 2009 Merlot Syrah, 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2008  Heritage – a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Shiraz. I won’t try to describe all of these, but suffice it to say that I didn’t have a wine I didn’t like.

Moshe and Anne were wonderful hosts and made us feel quite at home.

In a couple of weeks Yaffo will be releasing their 2010 Chardonnay, and that is certainly excuse enough to go back for another visit.

Yaffo Winery
054-4523201
http://yaffowinery.co.il/
info@yaffowinery.co.il

Kadma is located in Kfar Uriya, where the wine making tradition dates back to biblical times, as evidenced by the ancient stone hewn crushing floors and wine storage pools that can still be seen throughout the area. When they decided to establish their winery, winemaker Lina Slutzkin and her extremely supportive husband Vlad wanted to include ancient wine making elements in the process. From her childhood in Soviet Georgia (Gruzia) Lina remembered local wines being made in huge clay vessels, and she decided to look into it. I won’t go into the whole story, but the bottom line is that Lina and Vlad decided to use these kinds of vessels, they call them earthenware tuns, for their winery. Acquiring the tuns was no mean undertaking, as such vessels are only made in Georgia, and only by a very few people.

Kadma held their festive grand opening last Thursday evening and I was privileged to be invited. While Lina greeted and chatted with guests, Vlad gave tours of the winery and described the production process of both the tuns and Kadma’s wines.

After crushing, the grapes and juice go into the tuns where the fermenting takes place. The inside of the tuns are coated with beeswax, which minimizes seepage, and which also helps keep the wine fresh due to its antibacterial properties. Curiously, and fortunately, the beeswax does not inhibit the activity of the yeast.

After the tour, there was a screening of a movie all about the winery, followed by a few words of thanks by Lina to everyone who helped with the design and construction of the winery, and with the winemaking process. When planning the winery, Lina and Vlad put emphasis on making it ecco-friendly. The roof is covered with solar panels that produce more electricity than the winery uses. In addition, the walls are well insulated, the exposures minimize heat buildup inside, and climbing vines cover the southern walls to shade them from the sun.

Also to speak were Dr. Arkadi Papikian who provided consulting services and support throughout the winemaking process, and Moshe Dadon, mayor of the Matte Yehuda Regional Council.

The 2010 vintage is Kadma’s first, and there are three wines: a varietal Sangiovese, a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, and a sweet desert wine made from Sangiovese and Petit Verdot. All of the grapes are from vineyards in the north, though I do believe Kadma plans to use their own grapes once the vines they planted are sufficiently mature.

Of the three, I enjoyed the Sangiovese the most. I don’t know if fermentation in the earthenware tuns has anything to do with it, but this wine tastes significantly more mature and integrated than I would expect from such a recent vintage. On the other hand, the color and flavor of the Cabernet Sauvignion attest to its youth and while it is certainly approachable now, I suspect I will enjoy it more in a year or so. The desert wine was very flavorful, but as with most such wines, too sweet for my taste.

At the “bar” Vlad was pouring shots of his grappa (or grape vodka as he calls it), made by distilling the grape skins after fermentation. At 45% alcohol, the grappa is powerful, but much smoother than the proof would suggest. This grappa goes down very easy, and I admit that I had more than one shot.

In addition to the information on their website, there is an interesting article about the Kadma winery (in Hebrew), as well as a youtube clip  of a TV interview with Lina (also in Hebrew).

Kadma is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays and I strongly recommend paying them a visit. As with all small wineries, please call in advance.

Kadma Winery
http://www.kadma-wine.co.il/
054-9195156

The Judean Hills Wineries Fair on Thursday night, the Wineries Run on Friday morning, and Sommelier this week. It wouldn’t be so “bad” if I didn’t have to go to work along the way. And to top it off I’m fighting a cold. Well it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it.

So yesterday I left work (Herzlia) shortly after 15:00 expecting to get to the Nokia Stadium, where the Sommelier event was held this year, in about 20 minutes. Just my luck that the Ayalon was backed up most of the way, and it took me much longer to get there. At least parking wasn’t a problem.

Inside, a number of wineries’ tables were set up around the perimeter of the stadium floor, with quite a few more spread around the mezzanine area.

As usual, I tried to skip wines and wineries that I know, and as usual I failed. After the first few tables, most of which had quite good, but in my opinion overpriced wines, I fully intended to skip the Saslove table. But then I saw that Roni was there, and it would have been rude not to stop and chat. Roni went off to Australia to study winemaking a number of years ago, and now she and her father Barry are Saslove’s winemaking team. In particular, I wanted to talk  to Roni about an idea I have for another wine shirt, as I understand she has some friends who might be able to help me with the graphics.

I also planned to skip the Gush Etzion table, but there were tastings of their outstanding Cabernet Franc, and I couldn’t resist. Asaf Rosenberg, son of owners Shraga and Tamar, asked me to stay a while as I was singing the praises of the Cabernet Franc to anyone who was willing to listen.

Gush Etzion was the last table on the stadium floor, so I headed up to the mezzanine where I found the Tepperberg table and winemaker Olivier. I had not met Olivier before, but we spoke on the phone last week when I called to ask where I’d be able to taste their Malbec, about which I’d heard so much. Olivier told me I’d be able to try it at Sommelier, so I made that a priority. Looking over my notes now I see that I failed to record my impressions for this wine, but I do remember that it was quite different from the few Argentinian Malbecs that I’ve had, being a good bit lighter in body. For me this is a good warm weather red, of which I have not found too many that I like. I also ran into Tepperberg’s chief winemaker Shiki, so of course I asked him when they’ll be opening their new visitor’s center across from Kibbutz Tzora. He told me it would be another two years. I wonder why it’s taking so long.

And then I reached the Barkan table. Normally I wouldn’t stop at Barkan as I am familiar with many of their wines and I was trying to pace myself. But then I saw that Ed Salzberg was there and I had to stop. Ed is the chief winemaker at Barkan, but I met him back in the late 1980s when he was the winemaker at the Tishbi Winery (when it was still called Baron Winery). I have not seen Ed in well over ten years and we took a few minutes (turned into more like half an hour) to catch up. Ed introduced me to Barkan’s new Assemblage line of blends. These wines are priced somewhere between Barkan’s Reserve and Altitude series. Of the three, my favorite was the Reichan 2009, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. The most interesting of the series is called Tsafit, and it is a blend of Marselan (which the internet tells me is a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache), Caladoc (a cross between Grenache and Malbec), Carignan, and Pinotage. I think it’s great that Barkan is experimenting with new-to-Israel grape varieties, and I am looking forward to more new and interesting wines in the coming years.

After a few other minor stops I made it to Chillag to be greeted by Orna Chillag and her winemaking sidekick Yariv. I have tasted Chillag’s wines both at the winery and at the Israel Museum’s wine festival this summer, and I thought I had tried all of their offerings. I was wrong. At Sommelier, Chillag was offering tastings of a Carignan that I’d never seen or heard of before. With the exception of a wine still in barrels, this Carignan immediately became my favorite Chillag wine. Full bodied, complex, soft tanins, long finish … just perfect. I have no idea how much it costs, but I must get some.

Then just when I was thinking that I had really had enough and it was about time to start heading home, I came across the Ramot Naftaly table and owner/winemaker Yitzhak Cohen. My friend Steve and I were in Ramot Naftaly in August (visit described in the posting I never wrote), where we visited the 3 Vines and Na’aman wineries.  We did want to visit the Ramot Naftaly winery too, but they were closed that day so I was especially pleased to find them at Sommelier. Having more or less reached my limit by that time, I tasted only two of Ramot Naftali’s wines, their Malbec 2008 and Petit Verdot 2009. I won’t go into much detail, just suffice it to say that these wines are absolutely fantastic, and far superior, in my opinion, to many wines costing much more. At NIS 120, these are still above the NIS 100 limit that I try not to exceed too often, but I tasted quite a few wines last night that were more expensive and nowhere near as good. If you’re anywhere in the area it’s worth going out of your way to visit the wineries in Ramot Naftali; they are all good and the winemakers are all very friendly.

Next to Ramot Naftaly, was the Na’aman Winery and owner/winemaker Rami Na’aman. From the names of his wines – Pink Floyd (rose), King Crimson (Cab-Merlot), and Deep Purple (Cab-Merlot-Cab Franc), it’s not too hard to guess Rami’s musical taste. Having tasted Na’aman’s wines at the winery, I didn’t try any at Sommelier, but I can tell you that Rami also makes an excellent Petit Verdot, of which I bought a bottle in the summer. Apparently the climate in Israel agrees with the Petit Verdot grape, because there are a number of excellent Petit Verdot varietals here from both the Judean Hills and Golan Heights regions. I have seen Petit Verdot from other areas as well but have not tried them.

That’s it. There were lots of wineries and wines that I didn’t mention, like the port style wine from the Har Bracha (Mount Blessing) Winery, which was made from grapes harvested at 35 brix! I didn’t know the sugar content could get so high.

As I was leaving I saw that Clos de Gat had a table hidden away up some stairs, but there was an announcement over the PA system that the event was closing and asking everyone to leave. I have been wanting to try Clos de Gat’s wines for a long time, but I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer.

So after spending over five hours at Sommelier (I have no idea where the time went) I can offer the following advice: If you have a cold, and if you are a wine enthusiast, just go to a wine event like Sommelier, and you’ll forget all about your cold. At least I did.

And to top it off, I discovered four new wineries (Dadah, Sassy, Shamayim, and Shoshana) which I will soon be adding to my wineries map.

On the way out, I passed the Saslove table again and “complained” to Roni that there was too much wine. “No such thing” she said, and I realized that she was right. There isn’t too much wine, there just isn’t enough time!

As a kid I was quite asthmatic; I couldn’t exert myself very long without wheezing and losing my breath, so I didn’t much like sports and I almost never ran.

But this was a wineries run and I wanted the shirt.

About a year ago, Dina & I started on an LCHF regime, significantly lowering the carbohydrates in our diets and increasing natural saturated fats. This is a rather controversial practice, but it is gaining popularity, and you can’t argue with the results. We both lost a bunch of belly fat and started feeling more energetic without ever being hungry.

With all the extra energy, we decided to start doing some jogging. Actually, Dina decided to start doing some jogging, and good sport and loving supportive husband that I am, I agreed to go along. The more we did it, the more Dina enjoyed it and the less I did. Never mind.

Recently I worked my way up to about 5 km (while Dina stayed home working on her LCHF blog), so I figured why not do the 5k wineries run, and I signed up.

Friday morning I managed to get up early, even though I had been at the wineries fair the night before (see previous posting), and we drove to the kickoff point by Kibbutz Nachshon.

First I went to the signup table and got my number and shirt. I actually thought about leaving then since I already had the shirt, but that wouldn’t have been very honorable.

After we waited around for a while and did some stretching, Moshe Dadon, the head of the Matte Yehuda Regional Council, said a few inspiring words followed by a toast with Nachson’s triple vintage Syrah (see yesterday’s posting). Then the 265 participants in the 18k run gathered at the starting line; the horn sounded and they were off.

Ten minutes later it was our turn. The horn sounded again and we 5k runners (there were just 49 of us) followed in the wake of the 18k’ers.

You may recall that there was quite a downpour on Thursday night. Consequently there some very muddy spots along the way. Not that I mind mud, but this was the thick gooey kind and the buildup easily added up to a kg to each shoe (at least it felt that way) until I managed to scrape most of it off. There were also several large and deep puddles on the route, and we had to detour through some heavy rushes to get around them. A machete would have been handy.

I’m not really complaining. It was fun (kind of), though it was harder than I expected and I had to stop to walk a bit a few times (I wasn’t the only one), before I could get my legs working properly again.

Bottom line is that I managed to finish, and not in too shabby a position either. I was 24th out of 49 overall, and 11th out of 15 adult men (many were a good bit my junior).

Guess I’ll have to train better before next year’s run.

24 of the Judean Hills wineries were in attendance, and I sampled the offerings of about 12 of them. I intentionally limited myself this time since I wanted to get enough sleep, and not imbibe too much alcohol, before the Judean Hills Wineries Run in which I planned to participate the next morning (see next posting). Still, I tasted 20 or so wines, though I did spit out more than usual.

As with last year’s event, the wineries were set up at tables around the perimiter of the tent, and there were small tables with bar stools and comfortable chairs spread around the center. There was also a very pleasant jazz band playing not too loudly throughout. All in all a very enjoyable and relaxing atmosphere.

Many of the wines were as I expected, but there were some very pleasant surprises, starting with Nachshon’s Pushkin, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Shiraz. Aged in oak for half a year, this wine is quite dry with not too much fruit, medium to full bodied, and has a surprisingly long finish. At just over NIS 50, this is a wine I will probably acquire when there’s room on the shelf.

Nachshon also had a very interesting triple vintage Shiraz, blending 2005, 2006, and 2007 vintages in a single wine. Apparently this had something to with renovations at the winery that prevented earlier bottling of the older vintages. Be that as it may, this is a marvelous full bodied shiraz with lots of flavors and a long peppery finish. The bottle hadn’t been open long when I tasted the wine, so I expect it would have opened up and been even better had it been given sufficient time to breathe.

The Nevo winery is a relative newcomer to the Judean Hills Wineries Club, but the winery and owner/winemaker Nevo Chazan already have a reputation for producing high quality wine. Located on Moshav Mata, Nevo has access to grapes from the Mata vineyards, which are some of the best in the area. Specifically, Mata is known for its outstanding Petit Verdot, so it’s no surprise that the wines currently available from Nevo are both Petit Verdot blends. Tonight Nevo was offering a 2009 Petit Verdot – Merlot blend (60/40) called Tura. For a wine so young, it was very mouth filling and I enjoyed it very much.

At Seahorse I was greeted by owner/winemaker Ze’ev Dunie, with the wonderful news that he has started making his Zinfandel based Take Two wine again, and that it should be ready by Pesach. In the past, the Zinfandel was blended with Petite Sirah and Carignan, and the result was one of my very favorite wines. Needless to say I was just a bit disappointed when Ze’ev stoped making it a few years ago, and I am delighted that it will be available again.

What I tasted from Seahorse is the 2010 James, which is a varietal Chenin Blanc. James is Seahorse’s first and only white wine, and it is named after Ronnie James, who was a pioneer winemaker in Israel, and winemaker of the Tzora Winery. I have had the 2007 James, which was the first vintage and which was exceptional. I can only say that the 2010 is even better. Chenin Blanc is one of those under appreciated grapes, like Carignan, that is making a comeback now that the growers and winemakers are learning how to get the best from it.

At the Soreq table I tried the 2009 Petit Verdot. Soreq’s Petit Verdot grapes also come from Mata, and this is a delightful wine. Before Pesach Soreq was selling this as a future wine (it hadn’t been bottled yet) and I bought a half dozen. I guess it’s time to go pick them up.

A wonderful surprise was Tzafririm. Owners Lori and Shaike Lender are terrific people, but in the past I wasn’t so excited about their wines. I’m glad to say that has now changed. At the fair I tried their 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz blend. Last year Rogov reported on this wine saying that it has “notes of spicy cedar wood and fruits … bittersweet chocolate and tobacco.” I don’t know about that, but I do agree with his score of 87.

Srigim was another very welcome surprise. When Dina and I visited the winery a couple of years ago we didn’t really enjoy the wines, though we did have an enjoyable visit. At the fair I tried two of Srigim’s wines, their 2007 Barrique, a blend of Cabernet Suvignon, Petit Verdot (also from Mata), and Cabernet Franc, and their 2007 varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, and I enjoyed them both. The former is a medium to full bodied bordeauxish style blend with a long finish, and the latter is very fruity, with astringence suggesting it can be kept for at least another year or two – probably a good bit longer. As with most of the wines at the fair, these would probably have been even better after airing longer.

There are lots of wines that I didn’t taste since I already know them. I did make an exception for the La Terra Promessa 2007 Rubino Reserva limited edition Cabernet Sauvignion – Merlot (60/40) blend. Dina & I both love this wine, and we bought a few bottles at the winery a few months ago when the new vintage was released. The Rubino Reserva is barrel aged for 36 months, which can be too long for many wines, but is apparently just right for this one. The tanins are smooth and gentle and the flavors are complex and mouth filling. I just couldn’t resist having a (small) glass. Only 586 bottles of Rubina Reserva were made in the 2007 vintage, and I believe a good many were sold at the fair. In short, if you want some, now’s the time.

I did manage to resist having more than a symbolic taste of the Katlav and Yehuda wineries’ offerings, which was quite an act of restraint as I like both of their wines very much.

It was about 22:30 when Dina & I said our goodbyes to our growing group of winemaker friends, and we actually got home in time for me to get a decent night’s sleep.

The winery is owned and operated by Nir Lilach, who established it after returning from studies in Italy. Nir uses only organically grown grapes from his own vineyards. Along with Merlot and Petit Sirah, Nir is also one of just a few in Israel who grows Sangiovese, no doubt influenced by his time in Italy. He is also planning some additional plantings, possibly with grape varieties that are not common in Israel.

With annual production of about 900 bottles, Lilach makes six wines. We were able to try three – all Merlots in one form or another.

The first was a “regular” varietal Merlot that was anything but typical. The wine had none of the aromas and few of the flavors that I associate with Merlot, and if this had been a blind tasting I’d never have guessed it was a Merlot. Medium to full bodied with soft tanins and a pleasant medium finish, this is a wine that would go well with food but is quite nice on its own.

Next we tried a port style wine, also made from Merlot. The flavor was strong and raisiny, but it was too sweet for our taste.

The last wine we tasted was also a sweet desert wine, but this one was made using hot maceration in which the grapes are heated before pressing. This process, which Nir told us is sometimes used in the French region of Cahors, extracts more color and nuances of flavor from the skins, and this was immediately evident in the deep dark almost black color and complex aromas of the wine. In the mouth, this is a heavy, viscous and butterscotchy wine with vanilla overtones, the latter no doubt owing more than a little to the influence of the small American oak barrel in which it is aged. This wine is still a work in progress and I will be curious to try it again once Nir has decided when it’s ready for bottling.

Along with the three we tasted, Lilach also makes a Merlot rose, as well as Sangiovese and Petite Syrah varietals. There was no Petite Syrah available to buy but I did take a bottle of the Sangiovese. The price was quite reasonable and I am looking forward to trying it.

Nir was a wonderful host, and his passion with winemaking was evident as he told us about his grapes and wines. Visitors are welcome but please call or email in advance.

For the last <insert number here> months I’ve been constructing a map of wineries in Israel using Google Maps. After many setbacks, including a few problems and delays by Google, the map is finally ready to use. Click on the picture of the map below or on this link to see the map in all its glory.

The idea behind the map is to make it easy to find which wineries are nearby whenever we wine enthusiasts are gallivanting around the country, and to provide contact information at the same time. Each winery has a place marker on the map showing its location. Just click on a place marker, either on the map or on the list at the left, to see contact information. Clicking on the Directions link in a winery’s information box will bring up GPS coordinates on the left and you can even get directions courtesy of Google Maps. Markers with a dot in them are pretty accurate, but those without a dot are approximate, and sometimes just randomly placed around the correct town, since I couldn’t find exact addresses or coordinates. In any event it is always a good idea to call ahead, especially when visiting small wineries, for exact directions, and to make sure it’s a good time to stop by.

Kosher wineries have light blue markers. The yellow markers are for wineries for which I still need to find email addresses and/or phone numbers.

Google Maps limits the number of places that can be on one map page to about 200. Since there are some 225 wineries (so far) on the map it runs over to two pages. There’s a link to the second page at the bottom of the list on the panel at the left of the map. The second page has wineries that are more or less in the southern part of the country, though there is some overlap.

I have plans to add custom place markers to the map indicating which wineries have restaurants or cafés, and even which are organic or use organic grapes. I will be pleased to hear ideas for other improvements.

This map is an ongoing project, and its usefulness is a function of its accuracy, which is just my way of saying that I need everyone’s help to fill in the missing information and correct errors. Please send me information about:

• Wineries that are missing from the map
• Wineries that are listed but are no longer operating
• Exact locations of wineries that are only approximately placed (GPS coordinates are good)
• Incorrect or missing contact information or websites

You can send me information either by posting a comment here on the blog or by sending me an email at ydwinemap1[at]gmail[dot]com (apparently writing addresses like that makes it harder for spammers to find them).

Please distribute the link to anyone who might be interested. For convenience, I’ve created an easy to remember link: tinyurl.com/yossiswinemap.

Enjoy

For example, last week Dina and I visited the Kantharos winery located in the basement of a private house in a quiet Rosh Ha’ayin neighborhood.

I tasted and enjoyed Kantharos’ wines at the recent Home Wineries fair (see my 29 April posting), but by the time I was ready to make a purchase (I prefer to do that at the end so as to avoid carrying bottles around), they had packed up and gone home. My fault since it was already way past closing time.

Since Kantharos has a Carignan that I particularly liked (not many of those around) I decided that I’d have to visit the winery in order to pick some up. So after having called in advance to coordinate, we stopped by. We were greeted at the door by Danny Lefen, who, with his partner Eytan Lifshitz, founded the winery in 2005 after taking wine making courses at the Soreq winery and the Tel Hai college.

Kantharos is a small operation, producing under 1000 bottles a year. At the moment they’re making two varietals – Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignion. The Carignan grapes are from the Givat Ada area near Binyamina (grown by a relative of Danny’s), and the Cabernet are from Kerem Ben Zimra and the Ella Valley. The wines are all aged in new and used French oak barrels anywhere from 1-1/2 to over two years.

At the Home Wineries fair I had tasted Kantharos’ 2007 Cabernet and 2009 Carignan, both of which I enjoyed very much. During our visit Danny gave us barrel tastings of 2009 and 2010 vintage Cabernets. I think the 2009 will be excellent, but I’m still not able to tell with a wine as young as 2010. I suppose I’ll have to go back next year to try it again.

As you can see in the picture above, the winery isn’t very large, and storage space is limited, so Danny and Eytan are keen to sell current stock to make room for the new bottlings. Prices are very reasonable, so I recommend scheduling a visit. If you’re lucky, you’ll also be offered a taste of Kantharos’ port style wine, which is aged in used oak barrels for a minimum of three years.

Call or email Danny or Eytan to schedule a visit.

Danny Lefen                            Eytan Lifshitz
(050) 432-2527                       (052) 521-2050
daniel@lefen.co.il                     eytan@kantharos.biz

And if you’re feeling under the weather, when he’s not making wine, Danny is a practitioner of Chinese medicine and he might just be able to fix you up.

Being exclusively for small home wineries, only those with an annual production of 5,000 bottles or less are invited to participate. While the proprietors of these wineries certainly don’t mind selling a few bottles, the emphasis is on exposure to the wine community and hearing the reactions of the attendees.

According to the list given out at the entrance, 26 such wineries were there this year. Even though I arrived earlier than in past years, I only managed to visit and sample the wares of 16 of the wineries, despite spending four hours and staying until there was almost no one left. While other people quickly taste a wine or two and move on the next table, I am interested in hearing about the wines, wineries, and winemakers, and the exhibitors are generally only too happy to indulge me. As a result, I ended spending an inordinate amount of time at each table.

A number of wineries I remembered from last year’s event participated again this year, and I was pleasantly surprised that some of the winemakers even remembered me. As I took along my notes from last year I was able to compare in those cases where the same wines were being presented. For one wine, a Cabernet-Merlot-Petite Sirah blend from the Sikra winery, last year I wrote “Needs more time,” and this year that wine is markedly more drinkable.

At most wine events, I try to try the whites first, but this year I didn’t find any. Rather a shame as the weather was hot and a refreshing white would have been most welcome.

While making my rounds I took notes and marked those wines I was interested in purchasing. Unfortunately, most of the wineries had packed up and gone home by the time I went back to buy.

Considering the legibility, or lack thereof, of my notes, I won’t try to describe the wines. These, in no particular order, are the ones I liked the most.

Zeev Winery – Alma 2009 – a blend of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot

Gatot Winery – Noya 2009 – a blend of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot

Domaine Herzberg – Reserve 2009 (K) - a blend of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec

Domaine Herzberg – Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (K)

Kantharos Winery – Carignan 2009

Kantharos Winery – Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Tamir Winery – Blend 2007 (K) – an unusual, unoaked blend of Sangiovese, Petite Verdot, Pinot Noir, and Merlot

Tamir Winery – Blend 2009 (K) – a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I must visit this winery.

Montag Winery – Shiraz 2009

A.G. Winery – Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2009 (K)

Araleh Winery – Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz 2009

As you can see, I was impressed by more wines this year than in the past, even though I missed quite a few of the offerings. Clearly Nir Shacham and the other teachers are succeeding in their training of new wine makers.

You can also see that there is an increase in the use of Petite Verdot, which is rather fortuitous for me as I am definitely a fan of this variety.

Most of the wines were reasonably priced in the NIS 40- 70 range, but some ran as high as NIS 100, which is too much in my opinion.

Major thanks and credit to Nir Shacham and his team for continuing to put on and improve this most enjoyable event, and for providing the very useful tasting notes cards, a welcome addition this year.

To find out about next years Home Wineries Fair as well as other events at the Soreq winery, visit Soreq’s website and send a message asking to be added to their mailing list, or send an email to winery@soreq.co.il.

The weeks preceding Passover are a peak season for wine sales in Israel, so the Har Adar Winery (along with many others) holds a major tasting and sales event at this time. This year owner/winemaker Yaron Rabanyan, and his partner David Sharon, released three wines from the 2009 vintage: a Merlot, a Merlot-Cabernet blend, and a Cabernet-Merlot-Shiraz blend called CSM.

This is the third vintage of Har Adar’s wines that I have tried and I am pleased to note that the wines are improving from year to year. From this vintage I enjoyed the Merlot-Cabernet blend the best, and I bought a bottle. The Merlot is also quite nice, but I think it will be considerably more drinkable in a year or so.

As in the past, Yaron’s wife, Maya, was offering her home made all natural (no preservatives) jams. Not surprisingly, her specialty is wine jam.

This year, Yaron also invited a local delicatessen to display and sell some fine cheeses at discount prices. There was a Swiss Gruyère that was an excellent match for the wine, but even with the discount it was out of my range. Instead I bought some Swiss Swiss (Emmental), a French goat’s milk Camembert, and some Kashkaval. Wonderful cheeses all.

Since this is my first posting about the winery, and as there is little or no information about it on the web, a little background is in order.

Yaron started making wine in 2002 after taking a winemaking course that was a birthday present from his wife Maya. The 2002 vintage consisted of just 30 bottles, which increased to 300 bottles in 2003. There are 2500 bottles in the 2009 vintage and that amount is being doubled for 2010. Along with increasing quantities, the winery is also broadening their range of grape varieties, adding Petite Verdot to the repertoire. As I am rather fond of this variety I am looking forward to sampling the results.

Yaron planned the winery when designing and building his home, so the basement is conveniently laid out to accommodate tanks and barrels, and there are even drains in the floor. Grapes generally come from the Judean Hills and from Ovdat in the Negev. The Ovdat vineyard is organic (no sprays or pesticides used) and is owned by Yaron’s cousin, making the winery an extended family endeavor.

In addition to the three wines just released, Yaron will soon be releasing two reserve 100% varietal wines – Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2009 and Merlot Reserve 2009. These wines have spent 17 months aging in French oak barrels, vs. 14 months for the “regular” wines.

The reserve wines will be launched at Har Adar’s Annual Artists Open House to be held this year on Friday & Saturday June 3rd & 4th. All five wines from the 2009 vintage will be available for tasting and sale.

Visitors are welcome at the winery other times as well. Please call Yaron or Maya at 050-6205078 to coordinate.