Dear Israel,
It has been almost two years since I organized an Israeli Wine Festival in Vancouver, the first of its kind in Canada. Thank you again for publicizing it on the Israel Wines website, which I believe you did as a result of information you received from Jonathan Livny. It was wonderful to have Jonathan in Vancouver, and he worked so hard for Israeli wine when he was here – at the wine festival dinner, the wine festival, and at the trade tastings and radio interview that I arranged. I am pleased to report that we did have a very successful Israeli wine festival and, as of last week, we have Israeli wine available here!
The idea to organize an Israeli wine festival in Vancouver came to me from a conversation over lunch in the Carmel Winery in Zichron Ya’akov in 2005. In addition to the objective of having a celebratory community event that would help to build the Israel collection of the local Jewish library, my objective was to promote Israeli wine in the local wine trade with the goal of one day having Israeli wines available in an “Israel” section of BC liquor/wine stores. To that end, I promoted the wines before, during and after the Israeli Wine Festival in 2006 to the local wine trade.
Following those initiatives, an agent who represented Golan Heights Winery many years ago but was not at all interested in importing Israeli wines again changed his mind. This happened as a result of very positive responses to some of the wine festival wines from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB), both during the festival and after it at one of the additional tastings I arranged. With the commitment of the agent and the BCLDB, we now have ten beautiful Israeli wines available in new “Israel” sections of BC Liquor stores all over British Columbia. The wines arrived in twenty-three stores on December 14th, and eventually they will also be available in some private wine stores and restaurants.
I am very happy that I have been able to be the catalyst, along with the caliber of the wine itself of course, in what I hope will be a very successful venture for the Israeli wineries and Israel, for the agent – International Cellars, the BCLDB, the Jewish community and for everyone in BC who loves good wine.
To help with the launch, I sent emails that reached a few hundred people. One of the responses I received was from a friend who is the owner of the Jewish newspaper here, saying that she wanted to “break” the story and put it on the front page of the newspaper. She wrote a wonderful story. Another response was from the director of the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) who wanted to do a press release. He sent information to 2,000 people in politics, media and business; and within an hour after he sent the email, one of the popular radio stations in Vancouver announced the arrival of Israeli wines in their radio program every half hour while people drove home from work. So the publicity through my emails has reached thousands of people, with a little help from my friends! The CIC was a supporter of the 2006 Israeli Wine Festival and I have kept them updated since then regarding Israeli wine in Vancouver. The responses I have received from people have been very enthusiastic!
The wines that are available here are from Galil Mountain Winery, Golan Heights Winery (Yarden) and Dalton Winery. I visited Galil Mountain twice when I was in Israel in 2005 and it is the winery I most wanted to see here. There may be a few more wines available here following the next shipment. The current shipment filled a 40-foot container, the result of the commitment and work of the wineries, the agent and the BCLDB.
My work to create the wine festival, to promote having Israeli wine here and the recent publicity for the wines has been as a volunteer – a “labour of love” to do something that would promote the Israeli economy and Israel in a very positive way and be good for the local community as well. >From now on, the quality of the wines themselves and the promotional programs of the agent will drive wine sales, and I am now focusing on the next Israeli Wine Festival for May 2008.
Israel, after I send this email I will forward the media release that CIC sent last Thursday. At the end of that email is a link to the article in The Jewish Independent newspaper. If you would like to receive a copy of the newspaper, please send me your mailing address.
I understand that there is to be an Israeli wine expo in Tel Aviv at the end of February, and I am planning to be in Israel at that time and to attend the expo – to meet some of the people I have dealt with for the Vancouver Israeli Wine Festival, to get some ideas for the next one and of course to enjoy the wines!
Thank you again for recognizing the 2006 Vancouver Israeli Wine Festival on your web site, Israel.
Regards,
Rochelle Golumbia
Chair, Vancouver Israeli Wine Festival
ragolumbia@shaw.ca
December 26 200
Israeli Wines in British Columbia
