‘Handcrafted Wines of Israel’ is a consortium of Israel’s finest boutique wineries founded in February 2004 and launched internationally at Vinitaly.The wineries represent the very best of Israel winemaking and both the quality and variety of Israel’s different wine growing regions. The purpose of the group is to advance Israel’s image as a quality wine producing country.
In the first six months of operation , the consortium has sold to seven new countries: England, Canada, France, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland; invited a succession of famous wine writers or buyers to Israel and conducted professional tutored tastings in many of the quality wine importing countries of the world.
The wineries are:
Amphorae Vineyard, Makura Ranch on the Carmel Mountain Range. The winemaker of this privately owned winery is U.C.Davis trained Gil Shatzberg and he makes wines from the Upper Galilee and Shomron regions. Ranked as Israel’s no. 3 winery by Hugh Johnson.
 Bazelet ha Golan, Moshav Kidmat Zvi, Golan Heights. The owner is Yoav Levy whose vineyards are from the volcanic soil, high altitude Golan Heights. Winemaker is Australian trained Tal Pelter. A moshav is a co-operative farm.
 Chillag Wine, from the central coast. Orna Chillag is one of Israel’s very few women owner winemakers. She trained in Italy and worked with Antinori. Her grapes come from the Upper Galilee.
 Domaine du Castel, Ramat Raziel, Jerusalem Hills. This is a family estate winery ranked as Israel’s number one winery by Hugh Johnson. The owner is Eli Ben Zaken who is a Francophile. The winery has received worldwide recognition – and has been invited to the Decanter Fine Wine Show. Wines come from the Judean Hills region, in the mountains west of Jerusalem.
Flam Winery, Ginaton, Samson region. Two brothers own this winery. The winemaker, Golan Flam, trained & studied in Italy. The winery’s grapes come from the Upper Galilee and Samson regions. The winery had three wines in the ‘100 Most Exciting Wine Finds’ in the World Wine Report 2004.
 Hamasrek, Beit Meir, Jerusalem Hills. Home based winery run by two brothers. One of few boutique wineries to be kosher. Wine growing region is the Judean Hills.
 Margalit Winery, Hadera, Sharon Plain. This is a father & son operation. The father Yair Margalit is one of Israel’s most famous winemakers having written internationally distributed text books on winemaking. He studied in California and his vineyards are from the Upper Galilee & Shomron regions.
 Saslove Winery, Kibbutz Eyal, Sharon Plain. Winemaker is Canadian born Barry Saslove who studied in California. His vineyard is in the Upper Galilee. He has received gold & silver medals in the International Challenge du Vin in Bordeaux.
Tzora Vineyards, Kibbutz Tzora. A kibbutz winery ( a kinbbutz is a collective farm) with vineyards in the Samson region and the Judean Hills. The winemaker has 30 years experience of viticulture but is self taught. One of their wines finished first in a recent tasting of Israeli wines by Jancis Robinson MW.
 Yatir Winery, Tel Arad, north east Negev. Joint venture between Carmel & local vineyards. Winemaker a graduate of Adelaide University. Vineyards are from high altitude Yatir Forest in southern Judean Hills.
The Handcrafted Wines of Israel are marketed worldwide by Carmel
Winery.
For more information speak to Oded Shoham on telephone
+ 972 546 458 788 or email oded@carmelwines.co.il
|
