In 2006, nearly 3,000 tons of grapes were harvested by wineries under the ownership of the Shor family. This was over 6% of Israel’s total harvest of wine grapes in that particular year. To put this in perspective, if the combined Shor wineries were taken together, only Carmel, Barkan, Golan Heights, Teperberg and Binyamina wineries would be larger! In most years the Shor wineries take about 3% of the harvest, but the higher amount in 2006 does draw attention to these little known but historic wineries.
There are three Shor owned wineries: Arza, Zion and Hacormim. On 2006 harvest statistics alone, Arza is the 6th largest winery in Israel, Zion 10th and Hacormim 14th. However, the statistics are misleading because much of their production is for grape juice and Kiddush (sacramental) wine. Their relative size would be smaller if production of just table wine was the criteria. However they still form a rarely discussed part of the Israeli wine industry, supplying a niche market, where issues of price and the importance of the kashrut certificate are usually more important than quality.
They are often bracketed together as the ‘Jerusalem wineries’ and ignored in fine wine sectors, but they remain important in the Haredi (ultra orthodox) market, where the strict observance and tradition, encouraged a certain loyalty. The owners and managers of each of these wineries all descend from the Shor family, Hassidic Jews from the Karlin sect, which opened the first recorded winery in Palestine in 1848.
Remember 1848 was the year of revolution throughout Europe. The year the Second Republic was formed in France. It was eight years after the restoration of Turkish rule in Palestine. It was the year the English philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore made his third trip to Jerusalem. It was before Jews first settled outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time, before the First Aliyah and before Herzl and Zionism. It was the year a small, almost insignificant, family winery stated operating in the holy city of Jerusalem.
The story began when Rabbi Mordechai Avraham Galin made aliyah to Israel, in approximately 1835, from what is now Belarus. After a few years in Safed, he was appointed Head (Rosh Yeshiva) of The Tiferet Israel Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem. In those days the Jewish population within the walls of the Old City was very religious but also very poor. There were moves by many, such as Moses Montefiore, to encourage Jews to learn a trade to supplement their studies.
For this reason, his son Rabbi Yitzhak Galin, decided to open a winery in order to to gain an income. Wherever there are Jewish communities, there has always been home-based winemaking, since wine is essential for practicing Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak correctly judged there was a market supplying the community resident in the Old City. He married the daughter of Aaron Shor, the owner of a wine store and decided to adopt her surname in order make use of the permit they had from the Turkish authorities, allowing him to open a winery. The winery was known as ‘Shor Brothers’. It was situated in a cellar in Haggai Street in an alley backing on to the Western Wall, near the Mosque of Omar. The alley led from the Damascus Gate – one of the entrances to the Old City. Family members today relate that a row of wine barrels were placed along the part of the Holy Wall adjoining the winery, so that forgetful workers would not touch it by mistake!
The family operated freely for nearly 80 years along with other small wineries in the Old City, but apart from the Shors and Efrat, all have long disappeared. Efrat, owned by the Teperberg family, was initially a retailer and distributor of wines and spirits, but later became a winery. Today it is the largest family owned winery in Israel and the fourth largest overall.
In 1925, the British Mandate, having taken over Palestine from the Turks, decreed that all industry had to move out of the Old City. The Shor Winery then moved to Beit Israel, an area near Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. The new winery was built above a reservoir, which was turned into a large wine cellar.
They supplied sweet, mainly red wines, to the locals. In the 19th century wine was made from table grapes purchased from Arab growers, with whom they always had good relations. By the 20th century, wine grapes were used. These were mainly Alicante (Grenache) and Carignan, in particular from Bethlehem and Hebron vineyards.
In 1940’s there was an edict that businesses could not be called after a family name. At this time the winery was managed by two brothers Avraham and Moshe. This was the first time the name Zion Winery (Yikvei Zion) became used, but to the loyal consumers, the winery was still referred to as Shor. However in 1947/8 as production grew and the next generation of the family wanted greater involvement and to be more independent, they decided to split the business. Avraham Shor stayed in Beit Israel, agreeing to produce mainly wine and grape juice. Moshe Shor and his son Yitzhak formed a company in Tel Azur, in the outskirts of Jerusalem (near Atarot), focusing on the production of spirits and liqueurs. The Tel Azur business later divided into two and Hacormim Winery was formed in the late 1950’s.. There was a fourth family winery, Shimshon, from the Avraham side of the family, which has since been sold.
In the first 100 years of its existence, the winery and Shor family played an ongoing role in the renewal of Jerusalem. From 1848 they had helped cement an Ashkenazi Jewish presence in the Old City and after1925 they were part of the development of ‘modern’ Jerusalem. In 1948 Rabbi Elisha Shor even volunteered to fight for Jerusalem in the War of Independence by joining a Haredi unit, firstly in the Hagana and later the IDF. They also paid the same price as so many Israelis. Rabbi Elisha lost three members of his family to an explosion during the war, that killed two of his brothers and one nephew.
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the wineries moved out of Jerusalem due to increasing size of production, logistics and economics. They settled in Mishor Adumim, where they may be found today, each being situated in the same street, Rehov Haharuvim. Mishor Adumim, is an industrial estate near Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
The wineries are today managed by the seventh generation of Shors and the eighth generation is already working in the family business. Arza Winery is managed by Mordechai (Motti) Shor, the son of Yitzhak and grandson of Moshe. Hacormin is today managed by Yechiel Shor, another descendant of Moshe. His son Eli Shor is the winemaker. Three generations of the family currently work at Zion Winery. The Co-Chairmen are brothers Elisha, now over 80 and still going strong, and Peretz Shor. The manager of the winery is Elisha’s son Moshe Shor. Moshe’s son Yossi, is in charge of marketing.The winemaker is Zvika Shor, who was handed down the job by his father, the previous winemaker.
All the wineries now sell wine, grape juice and alcoholic beverages and each have their specialities. Arza, the largest business of the three, is mainly known for its grape juice and its table wines are under the Charisma label. The wines are light and easy drinking. Hacormin has the best known brands, Conditon and Kings Kiddush Wines and it exports more than its sister wineries. Conditon is a popular brand for the strictly religious – more for nostalgic reasons than quality. Zion is more wine and quality orientated than the others.
Each has tried to come to terms with modern needs. Arza employed Philippe Liechtenstein, an internationally trained winemaker, who graduated from Montpelier University in France. He was for many years the winemaker at Carmel’s Zichron Ya’acov Winery. Hacormim’s winemaker, Eli Shor, recently participated in the Cellar Master Program at Tel Hai College run by Yair Margalit. However the most progressive of the wineries is Zion Winery.
They have invested in new equipment including small temperature controlled stainless steel tanks, a pneumatic press and new small French oak barrels. They decided to purchase better quality grapes and employed Arkadi Papikian as wine consultant. Dr. Papikian worked for Carmel at Rishon Le Zion and was winemaker of Dalton for a few years. He is now the most prominent winemaking consultant in Israel, much in demand by both small & start-up wineries. He has found a ready and willing partner in winemaker Zvika Shor, who manages to combine all the experience he has gained with an eagerness to embrace new technology. Zion Winery also rebranded their labels and launched a series of very good value table wines under the labels Erez and Tidhar. They gained swift reward for their investment by winning no less than four gold medals at the Terravino 2007 wine tasting competition.
The Haredi market is undergoing many changes. Firstly the decline in the consumption of sweet red wine continues. Grape juice, regarded with the same reverence as wine in the religious community, remains constant. There is however a growth in the demand for table wines and a new, burgeoning interest in wine. It seems that the ultra orthodox community in Israel is undergoing the same change that the religious community went through in the 1990’s in the United States. There is an increased appreciation of fine wines, more collectors of prestige wines than ever before and quality wine shops are springing up in religious areas of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.
Ninety percent of the Israel’s wineries were founded in the last 15 years. Alongside this fact, it is difficult to absorb that it is no less than 160 years ago that the Shor family began to supply wine to the local community and they have continued ever since. They were undisturbed by the two defining revolutions of Israel wine. The founding of Carmel in 1882 by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, using French expertise, heralded the birth of a ‘modern’ Israeli wine industry. Then the founding of the Golan Heights Winery in 1983, using Californian expertise, was the dawn of the quality wine revolution in Israel. The Shor family’s steadfastness is a reminder of the importance of wine to the Jewish religion. They continue the traditions of their forefathers in the Bible and of great sages like Rashi in the Middle Ages, by combining a love and loyalty of Jewish tradition with the mitzvah (good deed) of making wine. One hundred and sixty years young - long may they continue!
