Showing posts with label Israeli Wineries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israeli Wineries. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Jacobs Dairy and Recanati Winery - Wine and Cheese in Central Israel



It was a beautiful sunny March day - about 23 C - so we decided to try a wine and cheese combination in the nearby Sharon Valley in central Israel.

Our first stop was Jacob's Dairy - a dairy farm featuring cow, goat and sheep products. The Dairy is a family run dairy, originally established in 1936. It is located in K'far Haroeh - about 20 minutes north of Ra'anana, right off of Highway 4 - at the Haroeh Intersection.

The store offers a wide variety of cheeses for tasting. We sampled some goat camembert, sheep roquefort, and a few other specialty cheeses. The dairy sells these cheeses by weight along with cream cheese products, yoghurts and some fruit and nut spreads. The cheeses were delicious.

The dairy shares the premises with Agadat HaLechem - the "Bread Legend" - which produces a fine selection of oven fresh breads and rolls, emphasizing whole grain and multi-grain products. Perfect accompaniment for the cheeses...

Jacob's Dairy is an ideal starting place for a wine and cheese trip - or to gather some of the ingredients for a picnic at one of the nearby hotspots in the Sharon Valley. www.jacobsdairy.co.il. K'Far Haroe, Hefer Valley. All of the products are Kosher.

From the dairy, it is about a five minute drive - one intersection north on Highway 4 - to get to the Recanati Winery. The signs to the winery are not well marked. The Visitors Center does not look like it has been set up to attract a high volume of traffic. The main winery sign is obscured - and entry to the center is by way of intercom buzzer.

However - Recanati produces some great wines. Established in 2000, Recanati is a growing winery that has been making highly acclaimed wines. The winery is rated as a four star winery by Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov, signifying consistently high quality wines. It currently produces more than 900,000 bottles of wine a year and continues to grow.

At the visitors center, we were greeted by a friendly host who was happy to offer freshly opened samples of almost anything we wanted. We tasted the winery's high end wine - the Special Reserve 2007 - a blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. We also tried a number of 2008 Reserve wines including the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petite Syrah-Zinfandel blend. All of the wines were quite good - though we particularly enjoyed the Cab Franc and the Cab Sauvignon.

The winery does not offer spectacular deals - the prices were competitive with specialty wine stores and other Israeli wine sellers - with only a 5% discount offered for purchases of 6 bottles or more. In fact, some of the wines are much cheaper at the Israeli duty free shop at the Ben Gurion Airport - which typically runs a "buy 3 get 1 free" special. Of course, that doesn't help much if you are limited to two bottles at your destination. Israeli residents are able to buy 4 - take two along - and leave 2 at the duty free shop for pick up on return.

The Recanati Winery is located at 217 Gesher Haetz Street in Emek Hefer, Israel. www.recanati-winery.co.il. The wines are all Kosher - though mainly not Mevushal - for those who might be concerned. Generally, quite a number of Israeli wines are produced under Kosher supervision though very few of the higher calibre wines are Mevushal - a par-boiling process that renders them fit for broader use within the very observant community.

These two stops can provide all the necessary ingredients for a great picnic - bread, cheese, spreads, great wine - all that is missing are some of the great fruit that are readily available at small booths along the way.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Binyamina Winery Tour


Having been inspired recently by the quality of Israeli wines at Dalton and Adir, we decided to visit the Binyamina Winery. The Visitor Centre is located just off of Highway 4 - about 10 minutes south of Zichron Yaakov in north-central Israel.

Binyamina is now described as Israel's 4th largest winery, producing somewhere in the range of 3 million bottles a year.

The Visitor Centre is housed in a circa 1925 building - that was used in the 1940s as a safe house and weapons storage facility for the Hagana (predecessor to the Israeli Army) before Israel was officially established.

The winery itself was established in 1952 though it has undergone a number of ownership and name changes - as well as rebranding. It now features a range of wines - from sweet, sacramental wine (used for "Kiddush") - to a complex line of high end wines that are aged in oak barrels in a special cave. The wines are all kosher but not "mevushal." (A technical term relating to its Kosher categorization).

We visited at a fairly quiet time. Busy season apparently runs from harvest time in August through to mid-December with the winery at its busiest around the time of Jewish holidays.

We were treated to an excellent tour with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic tour guide - who was fluent in English - as well as Hebrew. The winery has invested significantly in recent years in acquiring and maintaining up to date machinery - and the facilities were impressive. The tour (which runs 25 N.I.S. per person - about $7) includes a tasting of 4 or 5 wines.

The winery carries a Teva line - the wines of which are often sold in Israeli supermarkets. These are not usually used for the tastings - though they do come in many different varieties. We started with the next level up from Teva - the Yogev line of wines. We sampled a Muscat - which was tasty enough - though I'm not that much of a sweet wine drinker.

We then moved up to the Reserve line - the next line up from Yogev - and tried a surprisingly full bodied 2007 Chardonnay.

For the red wines, we began with a Yogev blend of a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot. It was not particularly impressive - having a slightly off aftertaste. That may have been due to the fact that we were using a sampling bottle that had been opened for too long. We also managed to sample a bottle from the "Chosen" line - a line of wines named after various semi-precious and precious stones. Here we tried the Sapphire - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and other grapes. These Chosen wines are Binyamina's second highest line. However, the Sapphire we sampled may have suffered from the same problem as our Yogev - having been opened some 5 days earlier, according to the notation on the bottle.

At this point, we were not exactly overwhelmed - but we managed to convince our guide to open a new bottle of the Chosen Syrah (Odem - or "Ruby"). This made the whole visit worthwhile. The wine was rich, complex and full bodied. It had numerous pleasant after-tastes which lingered nicely. The Chosen line of wines sell for 130 N.I.S. each at the Visitor Centre (about $37). We weren't able to sample any other Chosen wines (such as the pure Cabernet or the "Diamond" blend) (as hard as we tried to plead and cajole the management) but we were assured that they were comparable in quality to the Odem that we had so enjoyed. Surprisingly, the Visitor Centre was not willing to provide a discount on same day purchases - or apply the 50 N.I.S. tour fee that the two of us paid towards a purchase of a certain minimum amount (as other wineries will often do). So any purchases would have to be made at full freight.

Nevertheless - the Visitor Centre was worthwhile. Aside from the full range of Binyamina wines, it also featured a range of other products - including olive oil, skin products and liqueurs. The building and grounds were homey and well maintained and the tour was informative and fun. We can't say that all the wines we tasted were wonderful - but we look forward to trying the full range of Chosen wines and then reporting back.

Binyamina is not too far from Recanati, Tishbi and Carmel Wineries - all of which are future destinations....

For more information about the winery: http://www.binyaminawines.com/

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Winery and Sightseeing Tour in the Golan

The weather in Israel around Chanukah time can be hit or miss. Some years, it is rainy - with temperatures varying anywhere from 15 to 20 C or even as high as 24. Some years, you can simply have a streak of beautiful days - 20-25C and sunny.
This was one of those warm, sunny years. So with the beautiful weather - and my Dad visiting - our family set out to see some of Israel's fine wineries.

Our first stop was the Adir Winery. This is a family run boutique winery which produces some delicious wines. It is situated in northern Israel in the upper Galilee - not too far from Kiryat Shmona - off route 886. Established in 2003 - the winery uses grapes from vines that were first planted in the 1980s and 1990s. We were able to taste a number of Cabernets - from 2008, 2007 and 2005. We also tasted Shiraz, Merlot and one white wine. The wines were exquisite and we wound up buying our share to take with us.

The fun thing about the Visitor Centre at the Adir Winery is that it is a joint project with the Adir dairy farm - a goat dairy farm. Adir raises hundreds of dairy goats and produces a variety of cheeses, yogurts, ice creams and other dairy products. This makes for a fine combination when enjoying the wines. Kids can enjoy the dairy side of the visitor centre. Non-drinkers can get a coffee / cappuccino- or a yogurt while the others are sampling the wines.

Adir has been increasing its production though it is still relatively local and not yet widely distributed outside of Israel. http://www.adir-winery.co.il

From Adir - we drove over to Dalton Winery - which was very close by and stopped at the visitor centre. Dalton is a much larger winery with a wider selection and range of wines. Some of Dalton's wines - like the "Canaan" lines - in white and red - are easy drinking blends. But Dalton also has some much more complex, aged Cabernets - that you can taste in the visitor centre. The staff are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We worked our way up to some of the finer wines that Dalton stocks at the centre - and some of these complex wines were irresistable- such as the Cabernet - Meron - Single Vineyard. So we added some Dalton to our collection...Dalton is more widely available - sold in the U.S. and Canada as well as various parts of Israel. Dalton was established in 1995 and now produces more than 800,000 bottles of wine a year.
www.dalton-winery.com.

Both Dalton and Adir wineries produce kosher wines.

Two wineries were enough for this trip - though I could easily spend weeks visiting the various up and coming wineries that have been sprouting up in many parts of Israel. The quality of Israeli wine has been steadily increasing - as has the appreciation in Israel for these products.

While in the north - we were also able to try another exciting activity. We travelled to the Hula Nature Reserve - which is just south of Kiryat Shmona in the upper galilee. The Nature Reserve is a huge park - which includes an enormous bird sanctuary. Many different birds stop here in the course of their migratory routes. Some decide to stay though most are "passing through." We were able to see thousands of cranes - as well as many other kinds of birds.

To travel through the park - you can rent a 3 or 6 person bicycle, a golf cart - or you can use you own bike. We used two different 3-person bikes. So we were able to get some exercise, enjoy some nice weather and also pedal through the park enjoying the views. (Make sure to take your binoculars or rent a pair from the visitor centre). The best time to come is apparently early spring - particularly March or April - or early Fall - late September/early October - as these times are when you find the largest collection of birds.

December was also quite nice. In case you are wondering - we did not tour the wineries and the nature reserve - on the same day... That would not have been a good scene - given the number of wines we were able to taste. For more information about the park - http://www.parks.org.il/BuildaGate5/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~25~~355534781.

These three things are a very small sample of the activities in the Upper Galilee. We'll canvas some more shortly.