This week’s newsletter discusses Yaacov Oryah, a winemaker of incredible depth and talent who, after years of personal and professional trials and tribulations, is currently making wine at three different wineries. While I didn’t actually meet Yaacov in person until January 2014 during the Sommelier Expo in Tel Aviv, I first encountered Yaacov’s wines in […]
#311 – February 16, 2016 With this newsletter I am finally dealing with a serious lacuna in my wine coverage. After nearly a decade of tasting and enjoying the lovely wines made by Dr. Moises Cohen under the various Elvi labels (and enjoying his delightful company on many occasions), I finally made it to the […]
#286 – February 26, 2015 Tabor winery is located in Kfar Tavor, a village founded by Baron Rothschild in the shadows of the famed Tabor Mountain (from which the winery derives its name) which featured prominently in the biblical story of Debora the prophetess and Sisra and later on in Napoleon’s famed battle (and was one of […]
#298 – July 9, 2015 After a short[er] newsletter last week, this week’s missive details the wonders of another boutique California winery – Shirah and as a result, is once again [ever-so-slightly] longer than usual. Hopefully you will persevere as the story behind Weiss Brothers and their wines are well worthy of your attention. My […]
#299 – July 19, 2015 After first seeing the wines at someone’s house I reached out to Elena Zimbalista in order to coordinate tasting her wines at the Sommelier Expo two years ago (given that she wasn’t an exhibitor, we met outside of the Expo at a nearby coffee shop were we tasted through her […]
#299 – July 19, 2015 With the amazing things happening at Recanati (stay tuned for an updated newsletter soon), it shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that the winery is blessed with one of the deepest “benches” of winemaking talent among Israeli wineries. Assisting über-talented chief-winemaker Gil Shatsberg are two folks, both talented winemakers in their […]
#299 – July 19, 2015 Including Lewis Pasco in a newsletter about new and unknown wineries may seem inconsistent to anyone who has been following the Israeli wine scene for more than a few years. However, despite making quite a splash on the local scene during his seven vintages at Recanati, he disappeared from the […]
#293 – June 1, 2015 (Evolution of a Giant / Tales of Brobdingnag) It was nearly five years ago when I first wrote a brief newsletter about Jonathan Hajdu and his first two wines, getting the word out on his incredible new winery – then known as Brobdingnagian. The talent was apparent with the first […]
#278 – September 23, 2014 Despite the fact that the Pelter Winery has been non-kosher since its first vintage in 2002, anyone even slightly involved with Israel’s wine industry has not only heard of this boutique winery, but is also aware of its ranking near the upper echelon of Israeli wineries. While the fact that […]
#279 – October 3, 2014 As I have lamented here in the past, one of the problems in writing a weekly (or in my case, an “almost-weekly”) newsletter as opposed to a daily one, is that you have only so much real-estate to dedicate to any particular wine or winery. With nearly 100 kosher wineries […]