When 78-year-old Yitzchak Herskovitz is not busy in the courts trying to regain his Jerusalem property on which Arabs have squatted for the past 17 years, he’s making wine in Beit El – but not always in the customary manner.
True to his spirit of adventure, the man who calls himself the “old winemaker” decided to try something different this year. He obtained wild-growing grapes from a town in the Be’er Sheva area in the Negev, from a vineyard that had apparently never been fertilized or sprayed with insecticides. But, he was taking a chance: The vines had not been properly irrigated, causing them to produce less than half of what they could have given otherwise.
On the other hand, as an experienced hand in winemaking, Herskovitz was also in possession of the common knowledge that some of the best wines come from water-stressed vines. So he decided to go for it.
There was another problem: The harvest began late in the season, about three weeks ago, meaning that many of the grapes had already dried out and become juice-free raisins. But this, too, did not stop Herskovitz – and in fact, there was a “sugary” lining to the raisins.
Herskovitz's Secret
The must (unfermented grape juice) at the time of the grape-crushing was 26% brix (a measure of sugar content), he says – but the very next day, as the fermentation continued, it shot up to 32%. “This was because of the sugars from the raisins on those clusters of grapes,” Herskovitz explained to Israel National News.
After about a week of fermentation – sugar becoming alcohol – the process stopped when the alcohol level in the must reached 12.5%. This left 7% brix in the must.
“This is the usual scenario of Botrytis grapes,” Herskovitz says, “which these grapes look like.”
So what was the final output? “That part’s a secret,” says Herskovitz with a shy, sly grin. “But I can tell you that it’s going to be a very rare wine - a light, port-style wine made from Merlot grapes. It will be a sweet wine with no addition of sugar or alcohol, with an extended maceration process [the steeping of grape skins and solids in must, extracting their color and aroma – ed.], giving the wine the beautiful, deep purple color of the grape skins.
The wine will now go into storage for aging and clarification, for as long as Herskovitz feels it needs. “It could be a year, two – or more,” he says. “Just recently I distributed a batch of wine of 2001 vintage.”
His Other 'Hobby'
This Land of Israel-based vocational hobby helps occupy Mr. Herskovitz when he’s not busy with another, less pleasant one: Doing all he can to make sure that a Jewish-owned plot of land in Jerusalem does not fall into Arab hands.
In brief, the story – which has been widely and almost exclusively reported by Israel National News – is that both the Magistrates and District Courts of Jerusalem have ruled that the contested land in the Givat HaMatos neighborhood of southern Jerusalem belongs to Herskovitz, and that the Arab clan squatting there must vacate it immediately.
The rulings have not been enforced, however, and the case is now in the Supreme Court. “The Arabs have tried every trick in the book,” Herskovitz says, “and they seem to have endless money as well. Most unfortunately, the legal system has allowed them to get away with it. But the bottom line is that two courts have ruled that they are lying, and I am anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling as well.”
Meanwhile, the scheduled court date – November 26 – has been postponed yet again, and the case is now set to be heard on December 17.
One Man's Historic Struggle
“We expend national efforts to retain every inch of the Land of Israel for the Jewish People,” said one person close to the case, “yet here is one man fighting almost totally by himself to retain an entire property. If he fails, Heaven forbid, not only will we lose the property, but the entire area around it will be developed by the Arabs of nearby Beit Tzafafa. This is a historic struggle being waged by one man.”
He can be reached at Yitzchak.Herskovitz@gmail.com.