Soon the 2004 vintage will begin and Carmel Winery expects to harvest 26,000 tons of grapes. This will include a 20% increase in quality varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon , Merlot & Shiraz from areas such as the Upper Galilee, Northern Golan Heights, Zichron Ya’acov, and Judean Hills.
The grapes will this year be received for the first time at four wineries: Rishon Le Zion & Zichron Ya’acov – Israel’s two largest wineries; also at Yatir Winery at Tel Arad in the Northern Negev in the south & at a new winery at Ramat Dalton in the Upper Galilee in the north.
Carmel’s policy has been to build boutique wineries close to quality vineyards. The Yatir Winery was launched this year, the Zichron boutique was built in time for the 2003 vintage and the newest addition to the family is the Ramat Dalton facility, which will be in operation in time for this harvest. Carmel’s three boutique wineries at Zichron (on the coast), Ramat Dalton ( in the north)and Tel Arad ( in the south), have dual functions: to make the finest wines they can from their nearby vineyards and to act as a quality station or contract winery for the best wines sold under the Carmel label.
The new additions to Carmel’s winemaking team include four new young winemakers who studied in Australia or New Zealand and two more who studied in France but have work experience in Australia. They will be guided this vintage by Californian Peter Stern, Carmel’s new winemaking consultant, who used to work for Mondavi & Gallo. Peter Stern joined Carmel at the beginning of 2004 after 20 years as consultant to the Golan Heights Winery.
July 2004
