Carmel Winery has survived under the rule of the Turks, the British and now the sovereign State of Israel. It has continued production without a break during two World Wars, five local Israeli Arab wars, two Intifada’s and two Gulf Wars. The winery, founded in 1882, has been operational in three centuries – the 19th, 20th and now the 21st.
The winery was founded by Baron Edmond de Rothshild, an owner of Chateau Lafite in Bordeaux and the Rothschild family owned the Rishon Le Zion & Zichron Ya’acov wine cellars until 1957, when the Rothschild family passed them onto the wine growers cooperative (Agudat Hacormim). The first electricity & telephone used in the country was said to have been at Carmel in Rishon Le Zion, and no less than two future Israeli Prime Ministers, David Ben Gurion & Levi Eshkol, worked in Carmel’s wineries & vineyards respectively. The history of Carmel really mirrors that of modern Israel.
Yet in the last few months the winery, Israel’s oldest exporter, has been confronted by a paradox. Very poor financial results have pushed the company to the brink – newspapers report losses of more than 80 million shekels in three years. Yet, at the same time, wine journalists are talking up the quality of Carmel’s wines for the first time in 25 years.
In the last two months, a new management team has now been appointed to steer the fortunes of Israel’s most historic winery. Israel Ivzan has been appointed Chairman of Carmel SCV (Societe Cooperative Vigneronne des Grandes Caves, Richon Le Zion & Zichron Jacob Ltd. is the full name of the cooperative). Moshe Meron has been appointed as Managing Director of Carmel Winery, which is often referred to by its traditional name of Carmel Mizrahi. The new management have moved swiftly to appoint new marketing, sales & finance directors.
The new team are focused on returning Carmel to profitability and a certain direction was reported in a recent article in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. Decisions to sell its olive oil interests, to stop production of spirits & liqueurs, to reduce the number of brands, to stop distributing wines from boutique wineries & to reduce export activities were intimated. The wish to focus on its core business of table wine, kiddush wine, grape juice and brandy makes sense, and it is undoubtedly reassuring that there is a united management, with a sense of mission, to ensure the 123 year old company becomes economically stable and suitably prepared to survive & flourish in the 21st century.
In terms of Carmel’s quality, the winery received a boost on the publication of Daniel Rogov’s new book on Israeli wines. Carmel was ranked amongst the ‘Ten Best Wine Producers’ for the first time and also for the second year in a row was ranked as the ‘Fastest Improving Israeli Winery’. Furthermore Yatir, a boutique winery 50% owned by Carmel, which was only launched in 2004, is already ranked as one of the top five wineries in the country. The company has enjoyed excellent reviews about its wine quality, particularly for the Single Vineyard (Kerem) wines, to a degree unheard of since the famed Carmel Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserves of 1976 & 1979.
This is an unbelievable turnaround, considering how the Israeli wine revolution of the 1980’s & 1990’s really left Carmel behind. Most of the credit for the improvement in Carmel’s image amongst wine professionals is due to David Ziv. The appointment of new winemakers & wine consultant Peter Stern, the building of new small wineries and the launch of single vineyard wines contributed to Carmel’s quality renaissance which occurred during his time as CEO from 2002 – 2005. Credit is also due to the previous CEO, Avraham Ben Moshe, who started the Ramat Arad project & the planting of new vineyards in the Upper Galilee.
However the current challenges are unavoidably financial. The objective of the new management is to improve Carmel’s image & results in financial circles and to hope that the benefits of the improvement in quality will trickle down to the general wine consumer.
It will be good for Carmel & the Israel wine industry, if the new financially prudent management team can run a profitable, stable company whilst harnessing the new quality of Carmel’s wines to ensure a successful future. Carmel, which operates out of the oldest industrial building in Israel still in use - at Rishon Le Zion - remains the cornerstone of the Israel wine industry and a symbol of Israel.
To paraphrase Mark Twain: “Rumours of Carmel’s death have been greatly exaggerated.” Without a doubt, Carmel wines will continue to be enjoyed on one hand by the Jewish world, and on the other by connoisseurs & wine lovers for many years to come.
September 2005
