Episode 187: Wines of Israel (featuring Golan Heights Winery)
The November Regional Rap features the wines of Golan Heights Winery by Victor Schoenfeld. These brands include Mount Herman, Gilgal, and Yarden. Many thanks to our friends at Gregory + Vine for sending them! *
Also in this week’s episode: the difference between kosher and mevushal wine, and an animated account of thousands of years of grape growing and wine making.
*Sponsored Content
In the Glasses (0:50)
This segment stretches throughout the show, but we do offer commentary and tasting notes along the way.
Mount Hermon White 2016 is a blend of Muscat Canelli, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier (SRP: $12.99). Mount Hermon is one of Golan Heights Winery’s brands.
Mount Hermon Red 2016 is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, and Petit Verdot (SRP: $12.99)
Gilgal Syrah 2014 (SRP: $16.99). Gilgal is a US-only brand from Golan Heights Winery
Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 their flagship wine (SRP: $34.99). Yarden is another brand in the Golan Heights Winery portfolio.
Golan Heights Winery (2:42)
The winery was founded in 1983 and helped put modern day Israeli wines on the world wine map. The Head Winemaker for Golan Heights Winery, the talented Victor Schoenfeld, is a pioneer for Israeli wine. The winery is a leader in quality, technological innovation and new variety development.
The major wine regions of Israel (4:09; 10:45)
The most northern region, Galilee, as well as the Golan Heights region, is briefly discussed first. The other regions are chronicled after we taste the Syrah (wine number three) around 11 minutes in.
Please go to http://winesisrael.com/en/3318/the-israel-wine-map/
Israel’s wine map (15:20)
We should mention that in a recent interview with Forward.com, Victor Schoenfeld, who made the wines we tasted in this episode, stated that winemakers are taking steps to develop a more modern wine map to use “as a tool for explaining about the different wine regions in Israel” (Flateman, 2018). However, this current map is the one upon which we based this episode.
*We recommend reading this May 2018 piece by Sadie Flatemen titled, Why Israel Needs A New Map – For Wine for a different perspective, and insight into the political and historical context that we are not, surely, adequately equipped to address in this podcast.
Wine production overview (17:00)
As of this recording, there are over 320 wineries in Israel, and the top 12 wineries account for 95% of the market. Golan Heights Winery is one of the biggies, the others are Barkan, Carmel, and Teperberg.
The USA leads the export markets, followed by France and the UK.
Kosther and Mevushal Wine (21:18)
95% of Israeli wines are kosher according to the winesisrael.com website.
Mevushal means cooked. So this type of kosher wine is heated to 180 degrees F for less than a minute and then cooled down very quickly (aka flash pasteurization). It is often served at events where non-Jews will be pouring wine for Orthodox Jews. We bring this up because the bottles we are drinking today from Golan Heights Winery read “The wine is not mevushal”.
They are, however, kosher wines and the signature of the rabbi is on the label. Kosher means that the making and handling of the wine, from crushing to bottling, must be done by Shabbat-observant Jews.
Another interesting fact is that although most kosher wine is made in Israel, almost every wine producing country can make kosher wine (IWPA, n.d.), and there are small wineries in Israel that do make non-kosher wine.
Read more: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ask-the-expert-mevushal-wine/
Grapes & styles (24:35)
International grapes lead the plantings:
Red: Cabernet Sauvignon is king (or queen!), followed by Carignan, Merlot, and Syrah
White: Colombard, Muscat of Alexandria, and Chardonnay
Local Varieties: Argaman (a cross between Souzão and Carignan), Baladi, Dabouki, Jandali, and Marawi/Hamdani
Israel produces a range of styles from bulk wine to world class, international style wines.
Thanks to the wine revolution of the 1980’s, and producers like Golan Heights Winery, Israel now produces beautiful, sophisticated, premium wines as well as affordable, everyday wines.
Thousands of years of wine history in under four minutes (28:19)
Oh yes we did! This animated account of the wine making and grape growing origins that precede Europe by thousands of years to the revolution of the 1980s brings us full circle to Golan Heights Winery.
We begin in the stone age (8000 BCE) and finish in the 1980’s with the 1983 Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, released in 1984. No glasses were knocked over during all the hand-waving that happened during this segment.
Resources
Begos, K. (2018). Tasting the Past. Chapel Hills: Algonquin Books.
Robinson, J., & Harding, J. (2015). The Oxford companion to wine (4th ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wines Israel: http://winesisrael.com/en/
Israel Wine Producers Association (IWPA) http://iwpa.com
Israel Wine Experience http://www.israelwinexp.com/
The Jerusalem Post: 70 Years of Israeli Wine! https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Wine-talk-70-years-of-Israeli-wine-549666
Israel’s First Master of Wine https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/08/proust-qa-eran-pick-mw/
Wine Two Five interview with Kevin Begos, author of Tasting the Past, Episode #174
Cremisan Cellars http://www.cremisan.org/html/history.html
NY Times article : Israel Aims to Recreate Wine That Jesus and King David Drank https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/world/middleeast/with-indigenous-grapes-israel-breaks-new-ground-in-wine-industry.html?_r=0
Forward.com: Why Israel Needs a New Map – For Wine https://forward.com/culture/401586/why-israel-needs-a-new-map-for-wine/
Wino Radar (36:40)
Three Days of Glory is a documentary about Burgundy’s devastating Spring frost in 2016, and the three days every November of raucous celebration. Official release date is 16 November.
SOMM 3 documentary – The 3rd installment is here! Jancis Robinson is in this one! Screenings started in October, and digital release on iTunes is planned for the end of 2018.
Shoutouts! (37:21)
- Patricia Clough – Director, Strategic Communications for GREGORY + VINE https://www.gregoryvine.com/
- Golan Heights Winery http://www.golanwines.co.il/en/The-Winery
- Kern and Stub from One Bourbon, One Chard, One Beer. Yes. This happened.
WTSO is our Podcast Sponsor! (38:51)
WTSO has top quality wines, like this week’s sexy Vacqueyras, at flash sale prices.
When you join their email list, there’s no commitment and you get to shop at your own pace. The good deals come to you, and you decide.
Go to your very own listener page at weeklytasting.com/W25 to sign up and get started!
Or just click on the WTSO logo on the top right of this web page.
Follow them on Instagram, FaceBook (where they recently gave us a lovely shoutout!) and Twitter and see what’s new and good!
Big Patreon Love (39:22)
Thank you to our patrons who support us on our Patreon crowdfunding platform!
*We do read all the names on the show, and feature the list on our Support page.*
Connect (40:49)
Between each weekly chat you can find us on the social spaces @WineTwoFive, and play in our private FaceBook group called Wine Two Five Community!
Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and everywhere else as @VinoWithVal.
Steph is in all the social spaces as @TheWineHeroine.
Reminders
- Remember you can always leave us a question or comment via Speakpipe. We’ll be doing an entire show on Burning Wine Questions next month.
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