The last fifteen years has seen an amazing turnaround of the Israel wine industry. It is therefore interesting to analyze the situation of Israel wines in 1989 and then fast forward to 2004. During these fifteen years a revolution took root and Israel began to produce world class wines.
Wineries
In 1989, the leading wineries & the amounts of wine grapes they harvested were as follows:
Carmel Mizrahi - 26,679 tons
WEST/Stock – 4,302
Eliaz - 1,802
Golan Heights Winery – 1,202
Efrat Winery – 968
Tel Arza – 818
Shimshon - 748
Carmei Zion/ Askalon – 748
Latroun - 316
Baron – 210
Since then, there have been many changes. One of the most immediately obvious of these has been the change in name of many of the most prominent wineries. Carmel Mizrachi, Eliaz, Carmei Zion / Askalon & Baron are now better known as Carmel Winery, Binyamina, Segal & Tishbi respectively.
There have also been changes in the fortunes & ownership of certain wineries. WEST – the winery arm of the brandy & liqueur producer Stock, went bankrupt, and was reincarnated under new owners as Barkan. The Segal family sold their Carmei Zion/ Askalon operation to Barkan, who are in turn were sold to Tempo Beer Industries – Israel’s largest brewery. Binyamina went through a few owners before being bought by Los Angeles filmmakers.
The biggest change has been the new pursuit of quality. Efrat & Eliaz/ Binyamina were two wineries selling mainly sweet wines to an almost exclusive religious clientele in 1989. Today they are producing quality table wines. Carmel has also gone through a transformation. Its quality wines are some of the best in the country. In 1989 Golan Heights was the only Israeli winery producing international class wines and winning gold medals in the major international competitions. By 2004, more than ten Israeli wineries had won gold medals in the competitions that matter.
Today there are five large wineries producing over two million bottles a year:
Carmel Winery – 24,498 tons harvested in 2004
Barkan – 8,894
Golan Heights Winery – 6,082
Efrat - 3,987
Binyamina – 2,713
A further five wineries, which produce over 500,000 bottles a year, are:
Tel Arza – 1,394
Tishbi – 1,057
Galil Mountain - 844
Dalton Winery - 685
Recanati - 544
These ten wineries control maybe 95 % of the Israeli grape harvest, which in 2004 was 53,500 tons.
In 1989 there was one large wine company – Carmel, which dominated the industry. Their Rishon Le Zion & Zichron Ya’acov wineries were the two largest in the country and Carmel had 70% of the total harvest. By 2004, Rishon & Zichron were still the two biggest wineries, but the Carmel’s percentage of the harvest had shrunk to 46%. However there are now three very large wineries in the country, not just one. Barkan & Golan have become very big, commercial wineries by any standards.
In the last six years, the big three wineries have all invested in new wineries. Carmel built boutique wineries at Ramat Dalton, Zichron & Yatir. Barkan built a new winery at Hulda, next to the largest vineyard in the country & Golan Heights Winery moved to the Upper Galilee, building a winery called Galil Mountain at Kibbutz Yiron.
Boutique Wineries
There were two boutique wineries in 1989. Meron Winery was Israel’s first, started by two partners in Mitzpe Harashim in the Upper Galilee in 1988. Margalit Winery was founded in 1989. Yair Margalit was a pioneer, producing some of Israel’s finest wines & acting as consultant to new wineries as they sprung up like mushrooms.
In the 1990’s there was an enormous growth of small wineries. Some like Castel gained a worldwide reputation. Others like Dalton & Tzora started small & grew very fast. By 2004, there were more than 150 wineries, but the true number may be nearer to 200. There are too many to accurately count as a large proportion of them are tiny, domestic producers.
Wine Regions
In 1989 the Shomron was by far the largest wine growing region. The main concentration of vineyards was in the valleys surrounding the towns of Zichron Ya’acov & Binyamina. The Shimson/Samson region, comprising the cental coastal plain & Judean foothills, was the next biggest region. Since then most of the new vineyards planted, have been on the Golan Heights & Upper Galilee.
The Galilee, Golan Heights and Samson region today account for over 70% of the country’s vineyards.
In 1989, the Golan Heights was gaining its reputation as outstandingly Israel’s best wine growing region. Today, the Upper Galilee & to a lesser extent, the Judean Hills, have joined the Golan in being regarded as Israel’s best regions for production of quality wine. There have also been new pioneering efforts in the Negev desert – at Ramat Arad, Sde Boker & Mitzpe Ramon.
Grape Varieties
The main varieties harvested in 1989 were:
Carignan 17, 579 tons
French Colombard 5,938
Petite Sirah 2,792
Semillon 2,239
Emerald Riesling 2,194
Chenin Blanc 1,800
Cabernet Sauvignon 1,560
Sauvignon Blanc 1,486
Muscat of Alexandria 1,003
The total harvest of wine grapes in 1989 was 38,668 tons and 7,361 tons of table (food) grapes were added – probably for production of grape juice or distillation to brandy (then Stock 84 and Carmel Brandy 777 were far bigger brands than today.)
By 2004 there was a sharp increase in the so called ‘noble varieties’:
Carignan 13,386 tons
Cabernet Sauvignon 8,300
Merlot 7,860
French Colombard 4,836
Emerald Riesling 3,496
Sauvignon Blanc 2,275
Shiraz 1,040
Chardonnay 1,038
In 2004, Carignan & French Colombard made up only 34% of the harvest compared to 61% in 1989! Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Shiraz amounted to 32% of the harvest in 2004, as against 4% in 1989. This shows more than anything the change in focus to quality. The amount of table grapes used in 2004 was minimal.
In 1989 Cardonnay & Merlot had barely arrived to Israel. By 2004 there was also Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Gewurztraminer, Muscat Canelli, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Pinotage, Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, White Riesling, Viognier & Zinfandel.
Winemakers
In 1989 only the Golan Heights Winery had internationally trained winemakers. These initially were Americans, who studied at the University of California at Davis. They also imported expertise by using California based Peter Stern as a very active wine consultant.
By 2004 most of the commercial wineries & the better small wineries had internationally trained winemakers. Not only this, but they were all Israelis, who have traveled abroad to study & gain experience, before returning to contribute to the local wine industry. Another difference is that the place of study is not only California today, but also Australia, France & Italy.
Wines
In 1989 all the main wineries apart from the Golan Heights Winery sold sweet wines, spirits & liqueurs as well as table wines. A major change is that Carmel have stopped producing spirits, liqueurs. They started in 1990 to enter the gourmet market primarily with olive oil & wine vinegar, but have now put a stop to this too, in order to concentrate on wine. Efrat & Binyamina used to concentrate mainly on kiddush wine for a purely religious market. Both are now focusing on table wines for a more quality conscious customer. Newer wineries such as Recanati, Galil Mountain, Dalton only produce table wine.
The big brands in 1989 were Carmel Grenache Rose, which was beginning to decline, & Selected Emerald Riesling, which quickly replaced it as the country’s biggest selling wine. 75% of the wines sold were white wines, mostly semi dry. Sweet kiddush wines were still popular. Today the reds of Carmel Selected, Yarden Mount Hermon & Segal have taken over as the best selling brands. More than 60% of the wines sold are red and an increasing number of religious families today make kiddush with grape juice rather than sweet kiddush wines.
Wine Stores
In 1989 most of the country’s wine was sold in supermarkets and dusty kiosks. The shelves were untidy and old vintages of oxidized white wines could be seen even in the most busy supermarkets. There was no sense of any quality control.
There were a few pioneers though – SuperDrink in Ramat Hasharon, Avi Ben in Talpiot (opened in 1989) and Israel Assayel’s shop in Rehovot were real wine stores and forerunners of the many to follow.
In the 1990’s Derech Ha’Yayin opened, and now it seems as though every medium sized town has its own wine shop. Many have more than one!
With wine stores came wine accessories. In 1989 a wine lover would have to purchase wine accessories abroad. Today there is a proliferation of wine accessories, from Riedel glasses downwards. The Israeli wine consumer does not want for anything which is available abroad but not in Israel.
Imports
There were barely any imports in 1989. The wines that did arrive were almost exclusively for duty free or diplomats. Big international brands like Barton & Guestier and Mateus Rose were amongst the few names sold. However there was little imported wines in restaurants and none in supermarkets.
By 2004 between 20-25% of the market was imported wine. Many of the world’s most famous international brands were sold in Israel. The main imported wines were from France & Italy followed by Chile. The proliferation of imported wines extended to supermarkets which sold only Israeli wines in 1989. In 2004 the supermarket shelves are groaning with kosher wine imported from countries like France, Italy, Chile & Argentina.
Restaurants
In 1989 there was one famous restaurant with a truly international wine list. This was Moise Peer’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim Restaurant in the Yemin Moshe district of Jerusalem. He had a proper wine cellar containing many of the world’s most famous wines. The next most famous restaurant was probably the Hilton Grill Room in Tel Aviv.
By 2004 there were numerous quality restaurants with telephone book size wine lists, bulging with imported & Israeli wines. Many of them have wine waiters & either wine fridges or temperature controlled wine rooms – a far cry from 1989.
Wine Courses
In 1989 the main wine courses were held by Kobi Gat, winemaker of Carmel Mizrahi. Though now retired, he still gives regular courses at Carmel’s Rishon Le Zion Winery. Other pioneers with winemaking courses were Effi Winter & Israel Assayel.
In the 1990’s courses were held by people like Barry Saslove & Yair Margalit. Today almost every serious wine shop offers tutored tastings. By 2004, the Tel Hai wine education program was started. This took Israeli wine education onto another level.
Communication/ Media
In 1989 the main communication about wine was via the PR & marketing departments of the individual wineries. There were occasional articles in the press – usually written by food writers.
Fast forward to 2004 and the picture is totally different.
There is a wine magazine in Ivrit – Wine & Gourmet & an Israeli Bon Appetit which also features wine, Al Hashulchan. There are internet sites like Israelwines and active wine forums like those of Daniel Rogov & Israel Preker. Thanks to Michael Ben Yosef, Daniel Rogov & publishers Cordinata, there are quality books in both Hebrew & English about Israeli wine currently available in Steimatzki – Israel’s main book shop chain. So the wine lover has a surfeit of information that just was not available previously.
Quality
The most important change is left to last. Quality! There is arguably not one winery in Israel that is not making better quality wine today than fifteen years ago. Furthernore all the additional wineries that have been founded since then, specialize in table wines – not spirits, kiddush wine or grape juice - and pursue quality in every aspect of wine production. So the last 15 years has been a period of growth (consumption was then 3.5 liters a head and is now thought to be 7 liters a head), but also there has been nothing short of a revolution in the quality of the product in the glass.
