The Israel Museum recently hosted an Israeli wine festival showcasing Israel’s finest vintners and their vintages, for some of Israel’s finest tasters, as well as local Jerusalemite enthusiasts.



In addition to the flavorful assortment that Israel’s wineries have to offer the public, are unique and powerful narratives, often connecting modern vineyard techniques to their location’s biblical past.



Winemakers, some looking like they came from northern Tel Aviv and others looking like they came from a windswept hilltop waxed poetic about the local soil, time of harvest and strain of grape – and how all contributed to the bouquet of flavor encased in the bottles in front of them.



Downtown Jerusalem's skyline in the background as wine enthusiasts mill about the pedestrian mall filled with wineries' booths.
Efrat winery, located in Motza, at the approach to Jerusalem, offers tastes of their wines.
Efrat winery offers kosher cheese together with its wine.



Although much of Israeli society has moved away from agriculture, the global demand for kosher wine has breathed new life into one of the most indigenous practices of the Land of Israel. Producing kosher wine, by definition, necessitates not only Avoda Ivrit (Hebrew labor) - that Jews perform every step of the process – but that the winemakers be intimately in touch with the soil, rainfall and topography of their vineyards.



Each Israeli winery has a story and is fiercely proud of its region and methods of fermentation and storage. The Tishbi family began its wine story in 1882, when Malka and Michael Chamilnetzki made Aliyah to the Holy Land from Russia and settled at the foot of Zichron Yaakov, in the village of Shefeya. They adopted the name Tishbi, which is a Hebrew acronym for "resident of Shefeya in Israel." They produced grapes for Carmel Winery, Israel’s largest winery, now its neighbor in Zichron Yaakov. Twenty years ago, though, Jonathan Tishbi, whose black and white photo graces the labels of Tishbi's prize wines, decided to open his own winery.



Jonathan Tishbi and his wife are depicted atop the label - seen enlarged in the background.



"Israel has undergone a wine revolution," Or Leshem of Tishbi Winery said after swishing the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon he was showcasing at the Israel Wine Festival in Jerusalem this week.



Initially using grapes from the area, Tishbi now sends Or Leshem to taste and test grapes all across Israel, searching for the best fruits for their wine. The 2003 Cabernet was made using grapes from both Kfar Yovel, in the north, and Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.



Or Leshem (center, in green) travels Israel's hills and valleys examining and tasting grapes and soil.



Tishbi's white wines featured a new innovation, showcased at the festival though not yet available to the wider market: screw tops instead of corks. "People generally think wine with a screw-top is of less quality," Leshem explains, "but in fact, for white wines and young red wines, the only way I can be certain that they will taste exactly the way it tasted to me immediately before bottling is with the screw-cap."



According to Leshem, research on alternatives to corks has been underway for a long time. Traditional corks allow a certain amount of oxidization to occur which results in changed taste in almost 10 percent of bottles. However, to change the common perceptions of the public, Leshem believes the industry must undergo a marketing effort to rid screw-caps of the low-quality stigma before they are used widely.



Though years ago Israeli wines all shared the stigma of being sweet Kiddush wine, they are now present at wine competitions across the globe and take home medals against the best French and Italian wines. The drastic improvement is due, in no small part, to the influx of French Jewish immigrants to Israel in recent years, in addition to the increasing demand for fine kosher wines.



The Yogev Winery, a subsidiary of Binyamina specializing in blends of diverse grapes.



Kfar Tabor Winery offered the festival-goers its 2005 Sauvignon Blanc, which is a dry white wine, yet tastes quite sweet. "It is a completely dry wine," insists the winemaker, "not semi-dry, but dry. There are less than 2 grams of sugar, but the flavors of caramel and honey, which come from the unique soil of the region, manifest themselves strongly.”



The winery is located on the African-Syrian Fault Line, resulting in a unique phenomenon whereby four unique kinds of soil are present in the region: clay, chalk, volcanic and terra rosa (red soil). Each of the soils gives unique qualities to the grapes grown upon it. "Chalky soil gives the grapes acidity, fruitiness and a mineral quality," the winemaker explained. "Terra rosa gives warmth, richness and the flavors of tobacco, blackberries and plums; clay makes the flavors even more extreme and volcanic soil makes for smooth and light wine."



Next to its booth lies samples of the soil in Har Tavor (from left to right) - chalk, terra rosa, volcanic and clay.



The Ella Valley Winery is located near ancient winepresses in the Gush Etzion-Beit Shemesh region. It is seven years old and the winemaker said it takes four or five years for grapes to reach a maturity necessary to produce wine. In any event, according to Jewish law, fruit of the tree and vine cannot be used in the first three years as it has the Biblical status of orla.



A depiction of the region's ancient wine-presses appears on the Ella Valley Winery's labels.



The Tanya Winery is truly a return to the roots of Biblical Jewish wine making. Wine was a crucial part of the services and sacrifices in the Holy Temple and the regions north and south of Jerusalem were covered with vines and speckled with wine-presses. Winemaker Yoram Cohen, born in the Negev development town of Netivot, was one of 17 children. He was "infected with the wine bug" after helping his father produce wine from grapes harvested by local Jewish farmers in the southern Hevron Hills.



Cohen left his work as a photojournalist to pursue his true passion - winemaking - in the hills of Samaria.
Yoram Cohen of Tanya Winery demonstrates his manual bottle label applicator.



In 2000, Cohen decided to close his photographic news agency due to what he calls a "lack of chemistry" with the world of global media. He then began to concentrate on producing the ultimate Jewish wine. He says he believes in "minimal intervention in the growing process," a philosophy he says he applies equally to his own children as well as the grapes. "They both should be allowed to grow up by following their hearts in a loving atmosphere," he says.



He established the winery in 2001 in the Binyamin region town of Ofra. He has no employees and aims to produce 40,000 bottles of wine a year together with his wife and their seven children (one of whom shares her name with the winery).



The grapes used by Cohen were grown in the Hevron Hills and Gush Etzion, as well as the Samarian towns of Dolev and Har Bracha - with the latter being the main source of grapes for the winery. The vines in Har Bracha are on the side of the highest mountain in the region, overlooking Shechem and Joseph's Tomb. The grapes are all harvested at night to ensure that the fermentation process does not begin prematurely.



"Where is Ofra?" asked an excited attendee of the festival after tasting the wine. "

“In the area of the tribe of Binyamin,” he answers.



The man’s eyes lack a look of recognition until Yoram says, “near Ramallah,” and he looks surprised as he asks for a taste of the Cabarnet Savignon.



Another winery whose popularity has taken the market by storm by proudly marketing its location in the center of the Biblical heartland is the Noah/Hevron Heights Winery. The winery is the brainchild and inspiration of a group of dedicated and committed French Jewish immigrants to Israel - to bring kosher winemaking back to the original site of Jewish habitation in the Land of Israel.



A representative from Hevron Heights Winery pours a glass of his favorite.



The winery produces wines with names like Isaac’s Ram and Makhpelah Special Reserve,” made with grapes grown near Hevron’s Makhpela Cave of the Patriarchs, where the Jewish patriarchs are buried.



Hevron Heights Winery's Isaac's Ram Cabernet depicts the ram sent by G-d to Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac.



Further south, in Judea, is the Yatir Winery, which uses grapes from the Yatir forest – Israel’s largest man-made forest, located on the southern edge of Judea bordering on the Negev desert.



The Binyamina Winery, founded in the 50s, has produced much of Israel’s wine ever since then. It, like Tishbi, is experimenting with screw-caps on wines such as its Gew?rztraminer, which tastes like the essense of summer fruits.



The Binyamina Winery display includes barrels used to age the wine.
Chen, who lived on a hilltop in Gush Etzion, explains the virtues of Binyamina's wines to the author.



The Dalton Winery, located in a northern Moshav by the same name, produces a wide array of wines, including a white and red marked for export to the US under the name Canaan.



The Recanati winery produces 30% of its 650,000 bottles a year for export, “to Japan, France and the United States,” says the producer.


The Israeli wine revolution continues and is strengthening, crossing political lines and geographic terrain in search of depth of taste and, “preparing for the day that wine libations are once again offered in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem,” as one man blessed Yoram Cohen before booming, “L’Chaim,” and drinking up.



Click here to listen to Israel National Radio's Walter Bingham's coverage of the wine festival



Click here to read Arutz-7's coverage of the Tel Aviv wine expo last month.



(Photos: Josh Shamsi, Arutz-7 Photojournalist)