Yossie's Corkboard

#263 – February 7, 2014

After a six-week hiatus and with the Gregorian year of 2013 now solidly in the bag (and then some), I wanted to take this opportunity to look back at the last 12 months and discuss the occurrences and trends that impacted the wonderful world of Israeli and kosher wines (“KIWW”). While Jane Austin’s philosophy of “think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure” is a valid one and I usually try to focus on the positive aspects of the prior year, the KIWW of 2013 suffered from a number of negative trends from which a lot can (and should) be learned, especially if we want the massive improvements in the KIWW of the past few years to continue.  This newsletter is the first in my annual three-part Year-End Series, which also includes the best wines of 2013 and my predictions for next year (both of which should come within the next week or so).  For those interested in review (and score-keeping), feel free to check out my end-of-year newsletters for 2012 including the “Best Wines of 2012”, a look back at the year that was and some predictions for 2013).

There are two major issues I have not covered in this newsletter – price and storage, mainly as they deserve a newsletter of their own.  With the increasing visibility of kosher wines, Israel is going to have to figure out a way to be competitive on the lower end of the scale.  Outside the kosher wine world, once you cross the $200 threshold, you enter a substantially better realm of quality wines. For the kosher wine consumer this number if much, much closer to (if not over) $30 and there are barely any high quality kosher wines under $15.  The other issue is one I have been discussing for years, but recently seems to have been noticed by a growing number of individuals.  Many wines that are imported, primarily from Israel, taste markedly different in the US than they do in Israel.  While I believe this is a worldwide issue relating to shipping/importing in general and not limited to kosher or Israel, it is more highly visible with Israeli wines for a simple reason.  Israel is one of the only wine-growing regions with a relatively large number of wine drinkers sampling the same wines in both the country of origin (Israel) and export (the United states).  Due to its unique place in the Jewish world, Israel has a hugely disproportionate number of wine drinkers visiting it annually and bringing wines back with them.  I have received over a hundred emails this year from different readers complaining that wines they enjoyed in Israel tasted differently when they were purchased here in the US (not always necessarily worse, but certainly different).  As I said, to be discussed soon in a separate newsletter and now onto this week’s topic!

More Wine, Better Wine & New Drinkers

A positive trend that has been relatively consistent for the last few years is that more and more kosher consumers are “getting into” wine.  As the sophistication of the kosher consumer continues to develop, we are witnessing unprecedented interest in higher-quality, more interesting and typically expensive wines from a much broader audience of consumers than ever before.  The industry is rising to the occasion and providing these consumers with new wineries, wines and labels which seem to be popping up left and right, making this writer’s job even more difficult.  If historically one could theoretically taste every new kosher wine from every vintage, every year, these days it is a nearly impossible Herculean task.  In addition to the proliferation of wines and wineries, recent years have shown a massive increase in private label wines made by wineries or individual winemakers for different interests and adding to the confusion are the “relabeling” efforts many wineries are undergoing.  Relabeling typically occurs in connection with revamped efforts at export (discussed in detail below) or in connection with a rebranding – an exercise most wineries seem to enjoy throwing money at every few years in an effort to boost sales (for less-than-great wineries, it is sometimes beyond me why this money and effort isn’t simply utilized towards making better wines).  As such, there are individual wines from a few wineries that are bottled under three to five different labels – but are exactly the same wine.  Tracking down the wine and producer of many of these private label wines (most of which end up for sale in some capacity or another) is not always an easy task.  While I make a valiant attempt to taste all the new wines including visiting almost every kosher winery every other year, in recent years I find that I invariably miss a few here and there.

The flip side of all these new potential customers is that many of them aren’t interested in complex dry wines but rather the sweeter semi-sweet wines that seem to have taken America by the storm and heavily contributed to it being the largest wine-consuming country in the world. Presciently forecasted back in 2007 by Gary Vaynerchuk while tasting the Herzog Jeunesse Cabernet Sauvignon, this segment has exploded in popularity, comprising a substantial part of newbie drinkers’ increased consumption.  While I am happy people are drinking more wine, these aren’t the wines I am hoping for.  While bone dry and acidic wines can take some getting used to, there are many wines that provide a soft, supple and fruity drinking experience that is an easier entrée into the wonderful world of “real” wine and semi-sweet Cabernet Sauvignon isn’t going to get you there.  Additionally, and as discussed in detail below, with the somewhat wretched 2009 and 2010 Israeli vintages, many of the dryer and more complex wines have taken on an overly sweet flavor profile that will be easier to swallow (no pun intended) than in the past.  As such, when you encounter newbie wine drinkers looking for recommendations, gently remove the blue bottled abomination or Jeunesse from their clutches and suggest they pick up a bottle of Recanati Petit-Syrah/Zinfandel, Dalton Petite Sirah or even the Capcanes Peraj Petita instead.  They will be in your debt forever.

The Year(s) the Weather beat the Winemaker

As discussed in detail in my recent vintage-related newsletter, after many years of relative consistency across Israeli vintages, 2009 and 2010 were relatively bad vintages in Israel in which the weather showed man whose boss.  While these vintages are already a few years “old”, 2013 was the year in which the vast majority of better wines on the market were from these vintages (as you know, the better wines typically require more time in the barrels or bottles before they are ready to be released to market).  After many years in which upstart wineries and less talented winemakers where able to produce high-quality wines (“anyone can make good wine in a great vintage”), the difficult seasons stymied many wineries (including some of Israel’s best) and resulted in a large number of sweeter and “structurally confused” wines.  Despite some discernable trends among regions that were harder hit than others, wineries with a “riper style” like the Golan Heights Winery suffered more from the hotter and riper vintages that wineries focused on subtler wines including Castel, Tzora and Flam who are all located in the Judean Hills, which seems to have borne less of the brunt than Israel’s Northern wine-growing regions.  Additionally, the latter wineries are all smaller wineries and it is easier to control the winemaking process with a smaller portfolio and substantially lower production

Besides the obvious problems with a slew of relatively poor and uninspiring wines being unleashed on the market, I believe that damage was done to Israel’s reputation as a quality wine producer.  After many years of upward trajectory in quality, where wineries across the board where creating better and better wines, utilizing innovative techniques and experimenting with more and more grape varietals better suited to Israel’s Mediterranean terroir, the downward shift with these vintages has put a damper on the party.  Happily this downward shift ended with the 2011 vintage which was more of a mixed bag, with many of the country’s better winemakers churning out the high-quality and interesting wines we had become accustomed to in recent years.  2012 and 2013 were even better and are already spoken of in nearly the same reverent terms as the mythical (and unfortunately for many) Shmittah year of – 2008. Based on the my own barrel and advance tastings of many 2012 and 2013 wines, all this lavish praise may actually be insufficient, as we are looking at a large number of very special wines.  Besides the boding of general good fortune for all us oenophiles, personally it is sweet music to my ears, as it is my youngest daughter Ariella’s birth year and I am looking forward to drinking some amazing 2012 wines over the years at her future (B”H) smachot (life-cycle events).

Rise of [Potential] Conflicts

As discussed in depth in last year’s newsletter, the passing of Daniel Rogov left the kosher wine consumer with no widely known and accepted professional critic.  While there are many wine writers writing about Israeli wines, there are less than a handful (including yours truly) who write in English and an even lower number who cover kosher wines outside of Israel.  Additionally, many of these writers are hobbyists (like myself) or involved in the industry in one-way or another.  While we have discussed the potential benefits of losing the strongest voice in the room (many of which have come true), one of the downsides is the increasing importance of the industry’s voice.  With no impartial and universally accepted critic, people in the wine trade are gaining substantial influence with the ordinary consumer.  This list includes wineries, winemakers, retailers, distributors, importers, wine waiters, sommeliers and marketing folk.  While this list includes many with extensive and impressive wine knowledge (especially winemakers and sommeliers), each have commercial interests that may influence their opinions with respect to which wines they recommend.  With more and more people seeking advice on how to advance their wine knowledge (and consumption), advice and recommendations are taking on ever increasing importance and having someone who opinion you trust is more important than ever. Winemakers may know a ton but they are obviously biased with respect to their own wines (and that of their competitors) and (as discussed in depth below) restaurants have commercial interests in the wines they chose to serve, making the Sommelier less than a fountain of unbiased knowledge with respect to the quality of the wines on his list (how do you think the “wine of the month” is typically chosen?).  Before my sommelier friends jump down my throat and never speak to me again, this is a generalization and there are plenty of great sommeliers out there whose greatest pleasure is to introduce you to a their favorite wines.  My point is not that a commercial interest in the wine industry automatically renders you unable to give an honest opinion but merely lamenting the fact that the majority of people given their opinion these days have apotential conflict of interest and, as always, caveat emptor.

As I have discussed in-depth in the past, there will not be an all-powerful and market moving successor to Daniel Rogov. The world and kosher wine market has simply changed too much for one person to have that much influence, especially in the world of Israeli and kosher wine in which the primary consumer think he or she knows better than everyone else.  That said, in addition to yours truly, there are a few others who write about kosher and/or Israeli wine on a somewhat regular basis and multiple Israeli wine writers who write in Hebrew.  Ha’Aretz recently appointed someone to write about wine, there are a number of Israeli wine-focused wine publications in the works (books and magazines) and, with the ever-increasing interest, this will continue.  As always, find a writer or critic whose palate agrees with yours and continue to drink and enjoy the wines you like, not the ones someone else tells you that you should like.

Increasing Importance of Restaurant Sales

As many of you know, in addition to being the home of the vast majority of quality kosher wine being produced today, Israel is also at the forefront of another, no less important revolution – that of a quality dining experience.  Other than folks who limit themselves to only Glatt kosher establishments, Israel plays hosts to the largest concentration of high-end and terrific kosher restaurants in the world.  As such, after a tough day of winery visits and barrel tastings I usually seek solace in one of the many incredible dining establishments the country has to offer.  One observation I have from my last few visits is that more and more Israelis are drinking wine with their meals than I have ever seen before.  Nearly every Israeli restaurant I have visited over the last two years has a decent wine list, many with surprisingly respectable pricing – a pre-requisite for growing wine sales and encouraging a non die-hard drinking public o consume more wine.  As discussed in more detail below, due to the unfortunate constraints relating to [perceived] requirement for mevushal wines, this trend hasn’t yet materialized in the United States but the increasing availability of higher quality mevushal wines (more on this below) will hopefully help in this regard (a silver lining if you will).  Partially as a result of this increase, restaurant sales provide a substantially increasing percentage of a wineries revenue, further increasing the importance of wine buyers and sommeliers (both from direct sales from the winery and also in their capacity as ambassadors of the winery to the public (as discussed above).

Reverting to the Mainstream Consumer

After a few years of positive progress towards more subtle wines, many wineries seemed to have reverted back to bigger, bolder and sweeter wines. Whether this is merely a reflection of the last few overly sweet vintages or a shift in philosophy remains to be seen but in my opinion, it is a little bit of both.  There are certainly wineries and winemakers who have made a conscious decision to cater to the mainstream market by making more fruity wines but others have simply gotten there as a result of the harvest.  With the large influx of newbie wine drinkers, many wineries have made a business decision to cater to these consumers and sell them the wine they like.  While wineries are obviously a business first and need to sell wine, I am somewhat disappointed that what I perceived to be a hugely positive trend has had the proverbial wind taken out of its ales.  While many wineries like Tzora, Recanati and Flam seem to be sticking to their guns, others have “jumped ship”.  Obviously, the larger wineries that have to sell millions of bottles of wine every year are more susceptible to this pressure than those making 100,000; I believe that the trend of educating the consumer is an important one.  Hopefully, with the vastly improved vintages of 2011, 2012 and 2013, wineries will regain their confidence and reverse the trend.  Thankfully the other side of the same coin – the continued growth of varietals such as Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Roussanne, Marselan, Touriga National, Carignan, Petite Sirah and GSM (Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre) blends over Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and Chardonnay continues to gain momentum with many new varietals and vineyards expected to come online in the next year or so.

Lack of Strong Israel Advocate & Strong Headwinds

While the lack of an all-powerful trendsetter has some positive aspects, many of which I have discussed on these pages, the Israeli wine industry is certainly suffering form the loss of its loudest and most prolific cheerleader – Daniel Rogov.  While he may have also benefited from his tireless promotion of Israeli wines on both the local and international stage, it is undeniable that Israel is suffering from the lack of a fearless promoter of its wines (unfortunately the government cannot seem to get its act together on this front, despite wine having the potential to improve Israel’s economy, diplomatic standing and general well-being in one fell swoop).  With the ever-increasing importance of export facing the increasingly challenging aspects of the high cost of Israeli wine, Israeli wine could use a promoter now more than ever.  Additionally, along with the increasing calls for “economic disengagement” from Israel as a whole, recent months have seen the left-wing vitriol against wines and wineries from Judea and Samaria rise to unprecedented levels.  The worst part being that a substantial amount of negativity is coming from within Israel’s own boundaries.  This is a problem that we should help fight by voting with our wallets (especially since so many of the Shomron region wines are awesome).  Tongue-in-cheek, this works for me as it leaves more incredible wines from Gvaot, Psagot and Shiloh for me…

More Israeli Export and the Rise of Mevushal Wine

Despite the increasing consumption of the Israeli mainstream market, it is insufficient to support the continued production growth of Israeli wineries whose reliance on export continues to grow.  More and more wineries are targeting increased exports as a significant part of their projected growth.  Some wineries like Montefiore are targeting 75% of their production for export.  While such a high percentage s a relative outlier, 40% continues to be a recurring number I am hearing, a substantial increase from the 15-25% of the last few years. While the main driver for this initiative is providing additional (and more high-end) options for restaurants and caterers, I believe that these wines will be highly sought after by the more observant crowd (an increasingly discerning group of kosher wine consumers) for home consumption.

Due to the continued (and incessantly frustrating) refusal of mainstream US kosher supervising organizations like the OU and OK to allow non-mevushal wines to be served in restaurants, the primary options for the kosher wine consumer in restaurants has been the wines of Herzog andHagafen, with the entry-level Barkan Classic wines providing some uninspiring at best Israeli options (my go-to wine has traditionally been Herzog’s Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley ).  Recent years have seen the wines from Shiloh added to that list as the winery slowly shifts towards a largely mevushal US-portfolio and a few wines from Spain’s Elvi. As part of the efforts to increase (US) exports, many of the major US importers have convinced their Israeli winery clients without any mevushal wines in their portfolio to create one or two higher-endmevushal wines, which are intended primarily for export.  Among the first to jump on this trend was Recanati, with a mevushal Shiraz in their “Diamond” series.  In the last year or two, the list has grown to include the Quadro from Bravdo (a blend similar to their Coupage with the addition of Merlot), Capcanes’ Peraj Petita and Peraj Ha’Abib, Psagot’s flagship Edom blend and their Cabernet Sauvignon, among others. The common denominator of these wines is that, as opposed to the wines from Shiloh, Hagafen and others, these wines are made as non-mevushal and only undergo flash-pasteurization process at bottling which typically results in a lesser, but certainly different wine.  With bothmevushal and non-mevushal versions of the same wines available, consumers should be aware of which wine they are purchasing (especially since some of these wines can be purchased non-mevushal at your local wine shop and mevushal at your favorite steakhouse).  I have conducted side-by-side tastings of all these wines, comparing the mevushal and non-mevushal versions and in every single case, there are discernable differences between the two, with the non-mevushal version being the superior wine in almost every single case.

General Wine Developments

Another year went by and there have been many upheavals and changes, with wineries being sold (Carmel and Saslove), wineries becoming non-kosher (Israel’s Midbar and California’s Agua Dulce), other wineries close up shop (Bashan and others), new wineries open (Kishor, Rota, Tamir, Abuhav, Dubkin, Shoham, Zimbalista, Pasco Project & Jezreel Valley – most worthy of your attention) and others become kosher (wineries like Dadah and Trio or specific kosher wines like Pelter).  Covenant Wines added a “Landsman” wine club and will have a number of additional exciting changes coming soon as well.  Many new wineries are being imported into the United States including Yaffo, Montefiore, Pasco Project, Ben Haim, Agur, Ramot Naftaly and Gat Shomron; with nearly every other non-importedwinery looking for importers as well. Many wineries are ripping out vineyards that have been affected by viruses, which is going to result in some old favorites no longer being produced – stay tuned.

2013 was also loaded with personnel changes at many of the wineries including Binyamina (which lost Assaf Paz who replaced Avi Feldstein at Segal – and I just heard Sasson as well) and Ella Valley seems to have become a revolving door with Lin Gold being the only remaining person there (hopefully she will continue as winemaker and they won’t make her CEO).  On the commercial side, kosherwine.com was sold and Internet sales continue to represent a rapidly growing percentage of sales within the kosher wine market.

Yossie’s Corkboard

After the longest period of non-writing I have experienced to date, I expect Yossie’s Wine Recommendations to continue on its regular, more-or-less, weekly trajectory and hope that you continue to enjoy them.  As always, please feel free to add anyone you think might enjoy to the mailing list (either by signing them up directly or sending me their contact information).  To the extent there are specific topics, questions or inquiries you would like to see covered on these pages, please let me know.

As a reminder, I am fairly active on Twitter, where I provide current information on trends, wines and wineries throughout the day, including many informative articles beyond the scope of this newsletter.  If you don’t already do so, I’d appreciate you following me there, where I also respond to specific requests for information and recommendations.  With the continued lack of alternative English-language information about Israeli and kosher wines coupled with the increasing interest by the kosher consumer, I expect the subscriber growth of the past year to continue and look forward to continuing to share this journey with you.

This newsletter is the first of my annual end-of-the-year three-part series on the wonderful world of Israeli and kosher wines.  As the Gregorian year comes to an end, I like to look back at the last 12 months and discuss the (hopefully mostly positive) changes that the delightful world of kosher wine underwent, with a natural focus on the Israeli wine industry (which still produces the majority of kosher wine).  I also get to see if I was right with any of my predictions last year (for those interested in checking themselves, my end-of-year newsletters for 2011 included the “Best Wines of 2011”, a look back at the year that was and some predictions for 2012).

This week’s edition deals with some of the more material events and trends we experienced over the past year.  The next two editions will include my list of the top wines of 2012 (and the most “interesting” wines that didn’t make the list but were (and remain) well-worthy of your attention) and a look forward to 2013, in which I peer into my crystal ball and try to predict what 2013 may look like (guess is more appropriate terminology, but predicts sounds better).

While the wine world experienced many upheavals and transitions over the past twelve months, from a personal perspective, the biggest event of the year was the birth of my fourth child – Ariella Naomi, six months ago yesterday.  While wine is a delightfully enjoyable thing and a somewhat engulfing hobby that takes up far too much of my free time, family is paramount and nothing is more pleasurable than spending time with my kids.  That said, I continue to work diligently on my children’s wine appreciation skills so I can combine the two…

With that mushy and personal reflection safely out of the way, I present some of the bigger events and trends in the kosher and Israeli wine world over the last 12 months – enjoy.

Robert Parker “Sells Out”

With the obligatory end-of-the-year postings looming for writers and bloggers, many jump the gun and publish such articles a bit too far in advance, risking having important events occur after the fact.  A few very recent events (i.e. in the past week or so) are helpful reminders on why it pays to hold out on these as long as possible.  The first item, while not directly tied to the Israeli or kosher world of wine, was easily one of the most important wine events of the year and has the potential to impact the world of Israeli and kosher wines as well.

Last week Lettie Teague of the Wall Street Journal broke the story that Robert Parker (easily the world’s most influential wine critic, despite a waning of influence over recent years) was selling a majority stake in the Wine Advocate for approximately $15 million to three investors from Singapore (the lead investor has been identified as Soo Hoo Khoon Peng, formerly of the wine importing company – Hermitage).  To qualify such news as a bombshell would be an understatement, exacerbated by the fact that only a month ago Parker had professed publicly that he had no such intentions.  As would be expected, the announcement created a huge brouhaha and much speculation and analysis.  The uproar included an “amendment” to the initial article in the Wall Street Journal after Parker took to Twitter to “clarify” a number of points in the original article with which he curiously disagreed (after apparently providing the Wall Street Journal with the initial information).  If you somehow missed all of this, I have included most of the relevant links here (and you obviously don’t yet follow me on Twitter)

While the Wine Advocate doesn’t review or score a lot of kosher or Israeli wines and Mark Squires (as opposed to Parker himself) is the writer tasked with covering Israel (in addition to Portugal, Greece, Lebanon, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania) does the tastings (Parker himself covers primarily Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley); the unparalleled prestige of the Wine Advocate (mostly based on Parker’s reputation) provides unparalleled marketing opportunities (and hopefully corresponding sales growth) for those lucky wines viewed favorably by Mark Squires (a highly talented and respected wine writer in his own right who is starting to have a greater understanding of Israel’s unique terroir now that he has a number of years of tastings under his belt) and showcased in the Wine Advocate.  While Parker’s influence has been waning for some time, these changes have the potential to further erode the relevance of the publication (decreasing the benefit of achieving high Wine Advocate scores).  Additionally, having the epicenter of the publication potential shift to Asia makes me wonder how much effort and resources will continue to be diverted to Israel, a country with little of the prestige so important in many Asian wine-drinking countries, the current ‘darlings” of the high end wine industry.

One other potential impact could be the rise of other competing wine publications including Wine Spectator and the Wine Enthusiast.  Any such increase in prestige and exposure could benefit Israeli wines; given the increasing exposure such wines are receiving in both these publications.

Real World Recognition

While the potential upheaval at the Wine Advocate may have some negative impact on Israel’s recognition as a quality wine-producing region, so far so good and Israeli wineries are doing just fine, thank you very much.  Leading the pack is Israel’s top winery – the Golan Heights Winery. After being the first Israeli winery to ever win a top award at the international Vinitaly 2011 Wine Competition in Verona as the World’s Best Wine Producer last year, they were awarded New World Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine.  While every reader of this newsletter already knows that Israel is capable of producing world class wines and that “kosher” is neither a region or varietal; the fact that Israeli wineries are competing head-to-head with “mainstream” wineries and coming out ahead puts a well needed (and deserving) spotlight on Israel’s wines, enabling them to be recognized outside their core market of the kosher consumer.  While I don’t place much stock in awards, medals or competitions in providing meaningful information with respect to the wine’s quality, they are important from a marketing and sales perspective and create publicity, recognition and awareness, all sorely lacking for Israeli wines.  With Israel’s limited domestic consumption (a problem all onto itself – see below) and rising production, export remains a crucial component for the success of the Israeli wine industry and enabling Israeli wines to be marketed and sold under an “Israel” label as opposed to a “kosher” one is paramount to these efforts.

Winds of [Mediterranean] Change

Continuing last year’s trend, (which I expect to continue and be exacerbated by the changed at the Wine Advocate discussed above) wineries continue to focus more on food-friendly wines, with less [over-]ripe fruit, higher acidity levels and less pronounced oak exposure.  More and more Israeli wineries are experimenting with this style, with Recanati, Tzora, Carmel and others leading the charge.  As most wine is enjoyed with food, this is certainly a welcome trend but one onto which the average Israeli wine has not yet latched.  With the need to sell wine justifiably paramount over all other, many wineries continue to produce the big wines consumers love, many a times by over-oaking them.  Others, the most prominent of which is the Golan Heights Winery, continue to make big, bold and fruit dominant wines (which, at least in the wines of the Golan Heights Winery, are tempered by elegance and impeccable structure and balance) that consumers want.  While I believe the trend will continue, until the path of the Israeli wine consumer crystallizes (see below), this trend will continue to remain very much in flux.

The Fall of the Dominant Wine Critic

As discussed in both my 2011 year-end newsletters in depth, last year’s biggest event was the passing of Daniel Rogov, which I expected to have far-reaching implications for our little world of Israeli and kosher wines.  I am not going to repeat that analysis and you can reread my thoughts on this here and here.  While some of the changes will take a few years to permeate, I have noticed a few substantial trends over the past 12 months that can certainly, at least partially, be attributed to his passing.

·         Rise of the Consumer:  While slightly less prominent in the Israeli market due to the existence of other established wine writers, there was a definite correspondence between Rogov’s scoring of wines and sales volume.  Especially with the expanded marketing of his book, wines that scored highly were sought after by many consumers and those that he panned were left to gather dust on the shelves and required heightened marketing efforts by retailers to push them onto consumers.  With Rogov out of the picture, the consumer is left to fend for himself.  While this impact also carries with it some negative aspects, the upside is that the consumer is no longer “forced” to drink wines enjoyed by one individual palate and is freer to make decisions about the wines they like or dislike without being tethered to wine scores.  While this has resulted in increased sales of what some could call inferior wines, consumers are certainly drinking more of what they like as opposed to what people think they should like (see the most popular and top wine lists put out annually bykosherwine.com as a good example).  While the need for wine writers and critics remains and there are other wine writers who cover Israeli and kosher wines in both English and Hebrew, none of them have anywhere near the gravitas that Rogov did, which frees consumers to drink what they like.  One unfortunate downside is that the few kosher wine consumers who don’t yet subscribe to this newsletter are left at the sometimes ignorant (or worse – unscrupulous) hands of retailers who will push wines on them that are simply better left unmade, or at the very least on the shelves (or the $5 bin).

·         Hidden Gems:  Rogov made a serious attempt to visit nearly every “commercial” winery in Israel (or have a broad sampling of their wines) every year or two, at most.  Given his standing, these tastings nearly always included barrel tastings and advance tastings of too-be-released wines, for which he published his detailed tasting notes (and scores) shortly after tasting (usually the same day).  For those who participated in his forum, this was a great opportunity to get a sneak-peak at some of the great wines coming to market and per-emptively reach out to your favorite source to secure some bottles.  While there are many wine writers who cover Israeli wines (in English and Hebrew) and a few that also cover global kosher wines, nobody comes close to tasting as many wines as Rogov or making the same effort to actually visit all the wineries.  Given the sheer number of wines produced annually by Israel’s more than 300 wineries and the fact that it is nearly impossible to survive solely as a wine writer (in Israel and globally), most writers primarily rely on samples, major tastings (such as the Sommelier Expo and IsraWinExpo I have attended and written about in the past which are akin to Royal’s coming Kosher Food and Wine Experience) or special press events when wines are “unveiled”.  While these writers help the consumer ferret out some of the great wines coming to market, the sheer number of Israeli and kosher wines produced annually ensures that not every wine is going to be tasted and reported on – including many “worthy” wines (until they are randomly tasted and provide a Eurekamoment to someone determined to let the world know).  The upside is that these undiscovered wines tend to avoid the hype over-pricing (e.g. the Recanati, Mediterranean Reserve, Wild Carignan, 2009); the downside is that these wines remain undiscovered…

·         No “Must-Have” Wines:  As with the “Rise of the Consumer” discussed above, I view this as an extremely positive development. Despite my personal dislike of scores (evidenced by the fact that I don’t score wines – the issue has been discussed in depth multiple times on these pages), consumers’ love of scores is only surpassed by the affection bestowed upon wine scores by wine retailers, distributors and producers (i.e. wineries).  While most other wine writers score wines, with Rogov gone, no other wine writer covering Israeli or kosher wines is a king maker – with the ability to bestow instant cult status on any particular wine (akin to what happened to the 2006 Yarden Rom from the Golan Heights Winery when Rogov ultimately gave it a 96 – the highest score he ever granted an Israeli wine).  Such status results in making the wine a “must have” and selling out nearly instantly, subject to severe rationing by the winery and retailers (only to be resold by some wine stores at exorbitant markups, mostly preying on well-heeled but unsuspecting tourists).  One example of this phenomenon is the release earlier this year of one of Israel’s greatest wines of all times – the Katzrin 2008 from the Golan Heights Winery.  The wine is simply amazing and one of the best I have tasted with tons of development ahead and aging ability of 20 years.  If Rogov were alive, I’d guess I would have scored a 94 at least, maybe even a 95 which would have resulted in it selling out right away.  While the wine justifiably reigns as the best Israeli wine and sells out pretty easily every year, without a hyped up score from Rogov, the wine is still pretty easy to find at its release price of ~$100.  While the fact that 2008 was a Shmittah vintage does put a slight damper on its “acceptability” for certain segments of the kosher oenophilic population, this has become less of an issue in recent years (the sarcastic part of me thinks it might have to do with the superiority of the 2008 vintage).

·         Rise of the Amateur:  Despite the expectations of many, no replacement Rogov has appeared and folks need to realize that therenever will be such a replacement.  Without taking anything away from his knowledge, incredible writing ability, palate and dedication, much of his dominance can be tied to being in the right place at the right time.  He was basically the only quality game in town during the emergence of the Israeli wine industry and indispensable in its promotion.  These days, Israeli wines win accolades around the world, the world’s best known publications (including the Wine Advocate , the Wine Enthusiast and the Wine Spectator) regularly cover Israeli wines and grant them good scores and a multitude of wine writers have sprung up to cover Israeli and global kosher wines.  It is no longer the one-man show it was ten years ago and the sheer number of Israeli and kosher wines make it virtually impossible for one man to cover them all.  As a result, many other wine writers and bloggers have gained more recognition, prominence and exposure, both in Israel and abroad.  Additionally, many wine lovers who didn’t actively participate in public discussions on Israeli and kosher wines (primarily on Rogov’s wine forum), partially due to Rogov’s dominance, are now much freer with their opinions and tasting notes (usually with positive effect), leading to more democratic discussion and sharing of ideas and opinions which is always a good thing and a proliferation of publicly available comments on many wines.  I expect this trend to continue to the benefit of all Israeli and kosher wine lovers.

Quality in Addition to Israel

While Israel still produces the majority of kosher wines, the numbers continue to shift rapidly with more and more quality offerings being produced in various countries across the globe.  Over the past year I have tasted many new quality offerings hailing from diverse places as Argentina, France, Australia Spain, Italy and California.  Many of the wines are not [yet] commercially available in the United States but this will hopefully change and, as the wheat is separated from the chaff, expect to see some high-end (and hopefully decently priced) offerings from currently unknown global producers.

All that said, after Israel, California continues to reign supreme as a producer of quality kosher wines and the various wineries out there continue to improve and innovate their offerings, with an understanding that in this rapidly changing and highly competitive world, staying still is no longer an option.  Some recent California examples include Covenant’s new “Landsman” wine club which included a top-notch Pinot Noir, Herzog’s new vineyards and the addition of a Cabernet Franc, Brobdingnagian’s White Grenache (which I haven’t tasted yet) and Carignan, one of the best wines I have ever tasted from Four Gates winery and increased production by the Weiss Brothers at their Shirah Winery.  Craig Winchell, formerly of Gan Eden, is also contemplating a return to the world of kosher wine and his individualistic winemaking skills are sure to provide new and creative wines for us to enjoy.  All is all – things continue to improve for the kosher wine consumer.

Of course, while all this increased competition is music to our ears, winemakers need to work harder and have a somewhat new reality to deal. Wineries producing high-end (read expensive) wines, can no longer rest on their laurels and count on their legions of loyal fans to continue to buy all they offer at any price.  As internet wine sales proliferate and antiquated related legal stumbling blocks continue to crumble, consumers have more choices at better prices than ever before and will spend their dollars where they get the most bank for the buck  These days, if you can produce real QPR wines, you are golden and if not, you may be in trouble.

Odds and Ends

As always, people come and go and the past year was no exception with many comings and goings at a multitude of wineries.  Among many other changes, Ella Valley’s longtime winemaker – Doron Rav Hon – was replaced at Ella Valley by Lin Gold, Tamir Arzy was replaced at Tulip Winery by David Bar-Ilan (under less than perfect circumstances) and Binyamina continued its management shakeup with longtime CEO Ilan Hasson leaving and senior winemaker Sasson Ben-Aharon being promoted to Executive Manager.  Another welcome change was the return to Israel of Lewis Pasco, formerly of Recanati, who is in the process of starting up another winery.  His innovative Petit-Sirah/Zinfandel blend was an early favorite of mine and I look forward to seeing what he does this time around.

Other changes are in the wind as the cooperative that owns Carmel Winery is looking to sell approximately 30% of the winery to outside investors, creating some drama among the cooperatives numerous grower owners.  I have also heard from numerous wineries that are looking to raise substantial amounts of new capital for a multitude of planned improvements, with new and attractive visitor centers heading the wish list for many wineries.

While not something that is discussed much outside Israel’s borders, the Israeli wine industry and its varied proponents including wineries, wine writers and others, are grappling with the need to raise domestic consumption and awareness of Israeli wines.  Despite a robust domestic production of high quality wines, Israel imports a substantial amount of foreign wines, which find many takers.  I am not referring to the high end offerings from Burgundy, Bordeaux and Tuscany which are high-quality wines enjoyed around the world by sophisticated wine aficionados, which Israel has a plenty but rather about the cheap plonk that you can order by the glass at many restaurants or buy on sale in a supermarket, many a time for under $10.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, this is a feat which is still somewhat difficult for Israeli wineries, whose wine doesn’t carry the still existing cache of being imported.  With a growing production, a multitude of new vineyards coming online and a global economy still reeling, increasing domestic consumption of Israel’s wines is increasingly important for an industry still going through some growing pains.

Yossie’s Corkboard

The past year saw a number of changes for the newsletter including more than doubling the number of subscribers and adding a number of helpful pages to the website including an interactive map of Israel’s more than 70 kosher wineries with tasting notes, detailed information for most and links to related articles.  Other added pages include wines only available in Israel (a list that continuously shrinks [and becomes more obscure] as more and more kosher wines are being imported into the United States), a list of Recommended Retailers with special discounts,ageable and cellar-worthy wines (a list that continues to grow as Israeli wines get better and better).

I have also become more active on Twitter, providing many links to interesting wine articles, tasting notes and other items of interest in the oenophilic world, all at only 140 characters a pop (the most concise medium in which you will ever read me).  For those who don’t want to read each carefully curated “tweet”, I also summarize the best items from each week on Monday which can be found on the “Best of Twitter” page.

The past year also saw my first visit to the West Coast wineries.  While I have been tasting and writing about the delightful Napa Valley kosher wines for years, this was the first time I actually got to visit the stunningly beautiful Napa Valley and surrounding areas.  Spending quality time with the folks from Herzog, Hagafen, Brobdingnagian, Hagafen and Four Gates was great and stay tuned for detailed reports and tasting notes from the visits.  For those who haven’t been, it is an incredibly highly recommended trip!

I have many new things planned for the website in 2013, much of which I will discuss in my 2013 Crystal Ball newsletter, coming in the next couple weeks – hope you enjoy and please continue to let me know of any ideas, suggestions or critiques you may have that help Yossie’s Wine Recommendations continue to improve!

So that is a quick summary of the wine related highlights for 2012.  Hope you enjoyed as much as I did and I look forward to a bigger and even better 2013 (my predictions for which we will discuss in a coming [very] shortly newsletter).  Given the length of this newsletter, no tasting notes this week but stay tuned for the Best Wines of 2012 coming next week!

Following on last week’s newsletter with my best wines of 2014, this week’s newsletter takes a good hard look at the past twelve months of the wonderful world of Israeli and kosher wines (“KIW”) and discusses some of the trends and occurrences that I have witnessed over the past year (along with some color commentary and analysis). Obviously this newsletter is a precursor to next week’s in which I will peer into KIW’s crystal ball and make some predictions for the coming year of 2015 (which is a Shmittah year for Israeli wines). As we are taking about the world of wine, things move along at an only-very-slightly faster than glacial and many of the trends and occurrences discussed in connection with 2013-2014 are still very relevant for 2014-2015 (including some trending overlap between the annual summaries and Crystal Ball newsletters).

More & Better Wine; Oenophile Growth

A positive trend that has been relatively consistent for the last few years is that more and more kosher consumers are “getting into” wine (this general trend is the main driver behind many of the trends discussed below and in next week’s Crystal Ball newsletter). While Israeli wine consumption has unfortunately remained relatively stagnant, US kosher wine consumption is on the rise and most Israeli wineries realistically view much of their potential future growth in the export market, the largest and most important of which is obviously the United States. In Israel, the rise in popularity of Scotch and other spirits (to some degree driven by the reduction in [still egregiously high] import taxes) has eaten into wine’s potential growth, while US kosher consumers have been drinking Scotch for decades with wine a relatively latecomer to the kosher booze-fest. As a side note, despite the importance of the US market to the Israeli wine industry, the Israeli obsession with Chul is spilling into the wine industry, with wineries touting the multitude of countries to which they export. I mean seriously – who cares that you sold four cases of wine to Tanzania and 100 bottles are now in the possession of some importer in Uzbekistan? Even selling to Costco in Japan isn’t all that important and none of these occurrences should be touted as important events…

Happily, this increasing desire to consume good vino is being meet with creativity, experimentation, innovation and growth and we are rewarded with new wines and wineries all the time (well, not always rewarded, but they are always there). In what may be characterized as “first world problems”, the proliferation of wines can actually wreak havoc with one’s decision making process, leaving the consumer with too many choices and not enough tools (beyond this newsletter of course) to sift through what is worth spending hard-earned cash on and what is not. Thus, an unfortunate byproduct of this embarrassment of riches is that consumers sometimes revert to the tried and true and miss out on some of the most exciting wineries, wines and varietals. Another “negative” of all these wines is that it makes this writer’s job even more difficult. If in past years, one could theoretically taste every new kosher wine from every vintage, every year; these days it is a nearly impossible Herculean task (compounded by the different labels for the same wine discussed last year). While I make a valiant attempt to taste all the new wines including visiting almost every kosher winery every other year, in recent years I find that I invariably miss a few here and there (though I still managed to taste nearly 1,500 wines in 2014 with still too many not being worthy of included on these pages).

An easily identifiable area of growth is the Mediterranean varietals. While I have been touting Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Carignan as potential “soul mates” for Israel’s terroir for years (in addition to Viognier and Petite Sirah), recent years have seen a number of additional varietals join the fold, many of which show great promise. Among others, this list includes Grenache, Marselan, Roussanne, Marsanne, Chenin Blanc and Mourvedre, with Recanati and Domaine Netofa leading the charge in this regard (among the kosher wineries). Given the success California-based Hajdu has had with Grenache Blanc, I hope to it added to this list in the near future.

Another great phenomenon resulting from wine’s popularity growth is the increasing number of wine bars and tasting rooms that typically offer a large number of wines by the glass (usually from special dispensers that prevent oxidation and allow bottles to be “open” for a much longer than usual time) and allow the consumer to sample a multitude of wines in a single setting. While nearly all such Israeli options offer plenty of kosher wines (and many even have kosher cheese and/or meats), none of these places are certified kosher, preventing the kosher wine lover from truly experiencing these locales in the manner in which was intended. Hopefully Israel will have a quality kosher option in the near future (in the US It will unfortunately take much longer, mainly due to the stranglehold certain bodies have over the industry preventing the option of having non-mevushal wines served at kosher certified eateries (another topic to be copied in depth soon)) with the ability to enjoy the terrific wines alongside the incredible cheeses Israel has to offer. In addition to these “static” wine tasting opportunities, there has been an incredible growth of “wine festivals” providing tasting opportunities up and down Israel over the course of the entire year. While many of these are private tastings or limited to the “trade” (like the top notch Sommelier Expo) and the sheer number of events (coupled with high participation cost to the wineries) reduces the number of wineries participating at many of these festivals (in addition to limiting the wines poured to the lower and mid-range wines for the most part), there is usually plenty of wines to go around and some great festivals with a very reasonable entry fee in which many wines participate. Most of these festivals recognize that not everyone is a wine lover and that usually also provide some vittles besides the now-usual olive oil, chocolate and jams in order to satisfy the “other half” of the couple or group that somehow has better things to do with a lovely Israeli evening than sample 10 or 20 fine wines. Some of the better events include the Judean Hills Wine Route Festival, Avi Ben’s summer festival in the Israel Museum and the kosher-only “Wine Jerusalem” festival put on by Jerusalem wine store A.A. Pyup.

However, this growth of wine consumers carries with it certain quirks that need to be recognized. While the vast majority of kosher wine consumers are Orthodox Jews, the recent explosion of oenophiles has come from the more stringently observant Orthodox, a previously untapped market with money to burn. However, much of this market prefers mevushal wine (for many reasons to be discussed in a future newsletter) which, usually, results in a lesser wine than its non-mevushal counterparts and the wine importers are having their wineries create more and more mevushal options (a trend discussed in last year’s missive and which continues today). Another unfortunate aspect of the exploding growth of kosher wine consumers is the reversion to the “palate mean”. By this I am referring to the unfortunate aspect of wineries catering to these consumers by producing “new world” wines with lots of oak, sweeter fruit notes and less acid and subtlety (I don’t really blame them as they are a business and need to sell the wines they make, merely bemoaning the impact on the wines I enjoy). While this philosophy has guided the Golan Heights Winery successfully for over 30 years, most wineries don’t have the ability, vineyards, technological expertise or discipline to create well-made wines with the riper fruit required by such a philosophy (and even the Golan Heights Winery suffered more than many from the two hotter/riper than usual vintage years of 2009 and 2010). While a number of wineries have maintained their philosophical independence and continue to create wines for the more sophisticated consumer (like Flam and Recanati), others have either continued with the sweet and ripe or worse, abandoned the subtle and gone back to that style of wines after making great strides in this regard (you guys know who you are). Just to be clear, I am not talking about a stylistic preference for slightly riper and sweeter wines. There are many terrific wines out there with higher than average AbV, more fruit forward flavors and plenty of oak that are well balanced and simply delightful – these are great wines (even if a certain snobbish oenophilic crowd treats them derogatorily). I am talking about wines without proper balance (or structure), where riper fruit and oak-aging become a liability (the recent off vintages “exposed” many wines and wineries for what they really were – lesser quality).

Another happy development has been the return of kosher French “runs”. In past years the kosher consumer has been able to avail himself of premium kosher French wines that were typically made in limited runs. Some of the more famous names included Château Pontet-Canet, Château Léoville-Poyferré, Château Smith Haut Lafitte and Château Guiraud. While these wines were never the “same” exact wine as their non-kosher counterparts and nearly always carried a substantially higher price tag, they tended to be top-tier wines with great aging ability. As most French wine are blends, comprised of varietals that ripen at different times and across a number of weeks or months, the time frame in which a Château has to make a kosher wine is limited by the dates when the traveling mashgichim are “in town” (they travel throughout France’s wine-growing region visiting the different Château to ensure that the winemaking process is done according to Jewish law) and thus limiting both the varietals and the specific grapes the winemaker has to work with (if the “regular” version is comprised of 3-5 varietals picked from a multitude of plots, some of which are allowed to spend more time on the vine than others, the kosher version is limited to less varietals and those grapes which were picked within the time frame the mashgichim were on hand). These differences obviously result in completely different (if not necessarily inferior) wines (watch out for shelf-talkers quoting scores from renowned critics – many times these are for the non-kosher version of the wine which bears no resemblance to its kosher sibling). The Château does have a reputation to maintain and will typically ensure that it is satisfied with the quality and style, but that is different than it being the same wine). After a lot of overpriced production for the highly vaunted 2005 vintage sat on the shelves (coupled with a backlash against the French in general), the various producers sat on the sidelines for a number of years but have happily returned to the fold and vintage years 2011-2013 are looking very promising, with an increasing number of options – both new friends and old (some of which were mentioned in my “Best of 2014” newsletter).

The Rich get Richer

Despite the massive influx of new wines and wineries discussed above, the hard cold fact remains that, as in life, the rich get richer while the poor remain, well – poor. By this I am referring to the fact that the “top” wineries producing kosher wines are perennial contenders for the best wines produced each year with only a few outliers making the list each year. While there is certainly healthy competition and always room for newcomers (like Domaine Rose Camille) and more recent perennial participants (like Tzora and Gvaot), you can usually count on the Capcanes Peraj Ha’Abib, Yatir Forest, Covenant’s Cabernet Sauvignon, the Golan Heights Winery Katzrin and Elrom Cabernet Sauvignon and the Castel Grand Vin (with Flam’s newly kosher wines joining the club) to be on that list. Similarly to Israel’s political players, kosher wineries don’t seem to be able to take the long view and only the bigger and/or richer wineries make the investments necessary for long-term growth and improvement while others go for gold immediately and almost always crash and burn.

Growth of Wine Tourism

With the population of kosher oenophiles on the rise, parallel growth is evident in the tourism business; that is wine tourism. While I have been fielding winery visit-related questions for years, over the course of the past year I have answered far more such questions than ever before. Most of the questions relate to visiting wineries in Israel (the locale of the vast majority of kosher wineries) or California (with six kosher winery options), an increasing number of folks are making efforts to visit kosher wineries (or wineries producing kosher wines in addition to their non-kosher production) around the world including those located in Australia, Spain, South Africa and of course France. Wineries have recognized this increasing trend and are happily putting more time, effort and funds into their hospitality options including food (usually cheese and light fare, as only a few wineries like Tishbi, Adir, Gush Etzion and a few others have “real” restaurants) and lodging, while also arranging for a wider range of activities for the whole family, including those still in the dark who don’t like wine (yes, every family has one J).

Wine White Wine Rising

As discussed in depth in newsletter #271, recent years have seen a welcome increase in the consumption of white wines among kosher consumers, especially in Israel. With its Mediterranean climate this probably should have happened years ago but better late than never. While there are still plenty of professed white wine-haters out there, they are slowly coming around (and even if they don’t, it simply means more terrific whites for the rest of us) and the kosher wine industry is rising to the occasion with more quality and innovation than ever before. 2014 was especially blessed in this regard as it was the year that the wines of the incredible 2013 vintage (especially for Israeli white wines) appeared on the market, with some of the truly delightful wines including both white wines of Tzora (Judean Hills and Shoresh), Carmel’s Kayoumi Riesling, the Golan Heights Winery’s Yarden Sauvignon Blanc and Dalton’s Viognier (for a more complete list see #171 and my website). Alongside the increase in quality white wines from Israel, there are also an increasing number of good options from the other top kosher wine producing regions around the world including California (with Herzog, Hagafen, Four Gates, Shirah, Covenant and Hajdu all producing some great options), Spain (where Elvi’s InVita remains a delightful option), New Zealand (Goose Bay) and others. While there are some nice white wines coming out of France, there are far less options than in the past (both qualitatively and quantitatively); hopefully the “rebirth” of kosher French wine production (discussed above) will include some more quality white wines again.

The Hardship of Travel

Two of the issues reference above – the poor 2009 and 2010 vintage years and increased wine tourism to Israel, combined to highlight an issue I have been discussing for quite some time. While it is universally acknowledged that wines don’t usually taste the same once they are exported from their country of origin, a number of factors unique to Israeli wines have combined to make this taste differential more noticeable than with other wine-growing regions. In addition to the experiential reasons behind this phenomenon (i.e. you were on vacation and happy when you tasted it), the basic reason stems from the fact that wine is a living thing that us impacted by a multitude of things that occur when it is transported (heat, cold, temperature changes, vibration and sunlight to name just a few), before getting into things going “wrong” during transport and storage (traffic, strikes at the port, electrical failure, storms at sea and others) and I am not even going near the issue of shipping in climate-controlled containers (a/k/a “reefers”). Just try and get an answer about which wines are shipped how and you will be served with such story-telling it boggles the mind (if every wine claimed to be shipped in a reefer actually was, Israel would be the largest consumer of such containers in the region). While this is an issue for nearly every importer and wine-exporting region, Israeli wines have garnered more attention in this regard than others for one simple reason – there are more people to notice. Despite Israeli wines [relatively] tiny consumer base, the number of consumers who get to try the same wine in their country of origin (Israel) and export (the US) is far greater than nearly any country in the world. This is due to the quirky phenomenon of Israel being a Jewish country that enjoys ever-increasing numbers of visitors from around the world, more and more of whom enjoy wine (whether at the winery, at a wine store or festival or at a restaurant) and then go home to seek out a wine they enjoyed, only to find it tastes very different. I am sure French wines suffer from some of the same issues but how many folks taste the kosher wines of Château Léoville-Poyferré at the Château and also back in the United States? A minuscule number, especially when compared to the Israeli numbers. I also believe that the recent growth in folks noticing this issue was exacerbated by the 2009-2010 riper vintages, where the wines has less structure to maintain the trails and tribulations of travel (and were destined for earlier drinking and less ageability to begin with, before contending with the quickening of their maturity brought on by travel).

I have been conducting side-by-side tastings for years of the same wine – one version bought in the US upon release and stored professionally with the other purchased in Israel and “self-imported” in my luggage. While the difference between some wines is noticeable right away, the real difference is a few years in, with the US-labels nearly always shower greater maturity and being less enjoyable. I don’t know the root cause for the difference or whether there is actually anything to done in this regard (I am hoping with most 2009 and 2010 vintages behind us, the issue will be less noticeable than before), but the facts speak for themselves and it is definitely something to think about (as opposed to the unfortunate blanket denial practiced by many wineries and importers). Obviously I am speaking about trends and in general, as many wines are in no way impacted by this issue, and 2009/2010 certainly produced some world class wines who ranked among my Best of” in 2013 and 2014; including those from Castel, Gvaot Yatir and Flam.

The Decline of the Pen, Lack of Strong Israel Advocate & Strong Headwinds

With time, the influence (and memories) of Daniel Rogov continues to fade and the Israeli wine industry remains without a literary driving force. Despite the multitude of Israelis writing about wine in Hebrew (and a tiny number in English), with a number of them garnering decent readership, none of them have managed to assume the mantle of the all-powerful Israeli wine writer (despite many, sometimes desperate, attempts by a select few). For the many reason we have previously discussed, this will never happen and many of these reasons (lack of sufficient financial support, industry size, laziness, different market and industry than when Rogov started out) are inhibiting even a leader of the pack to emerge. In addition to the lack of internal gravitas from which the industry suffers, this translates into an unfortunate lack of national champion for the Israeli wine industry on an international level. While Israeli wines continue to garner prizes at international competitions and wine accolades from serious wine magazines; and Mark Squires, writing for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, continues to deepen his knowledge and understanding of Israeli terroir and its wines (resulting in increasing coverage and higher scores), the lack of a strong and recognized advocate for the industry is one of the multitude of factors holding back mainstream acceptance of Israeli wines (and the holy grail of being labeled, marketed and sold as Mediterranean wines instead of kosher), something sorely lacking.

With the ever-increasing importance of export facing off against the increasingly challenging aspects of the high cost of Israeli wine, Israeli wine could use a promoter now more than ever. Another exacerbating factor are the increasing calls for “economic disengagement” from Israel as a whole and the idiotic BDS movement, with the inane left-wing vitriol against wines and wineries from Judea and Samaria rising to unprecedented levels. The worst part being that a substantial amount of negativity is coming from within Israel’s own boundaries (there are a number of great eateries in Israel which refuse to stock wines made in the Judea and Samaria region). This is a problem that we should help fight by voting with our wallets (an issue made easier by the fact that so many of the Shomron region wines are awesome).

General Wine Developments

As with every industry and every passing year, there were many changes in KIW. This included ownership changes (Castel, Tulip) with many others on the block (including Binyamina which continues to suffer from upheaval more than most). A number of wineries stopped kosher production (including California’s Agua Dulce), others became kosher (like Midbar) and others closed up shop, some officially and others “unofficially (becoming “Zombie Wineries”). Covenant Wines opened its new facility in Berkley and added two lines of mevushal wines to its expanding portfolio – Tribe and Mensch, while Pelter’s new kosher winery – Matar – took roots. Many new wineries are being imported into the United States including Jezreel Valley which continues to gain ground (along with Montefiore whose 2012 wines show marked improvement); with nearly every other non-imported winery looking for importers as well.

2013 was also loaded with personnel changes at many of the wineries including Psagot, which gained the hyper-talented Yaakov Oryah as a winemaker (stay tuned for some special whites from one of Israel’s acknowledged white wine experts) and Dalton, which bid farewell to the talented Naama Sorkin (who will be managing one of the winery’s vineyards going forward) and welcomed US-trained Guy Eshel as her replacement. Ella Valley continues to undergo personnel and managerial changes, hopefully holding on to the delightful Lin Gold through the turmoil, with many other changes that are going to impact the wines going forward.

Yossie’s Corkboard

As membership passed 4,000 readers in 2014, I wanted to thank all my loyal readers for their support and hope that you continue to enjoy these missives. With work continuing to grab most of my time, it has been hard to maintain the desired once-a-week schedule, but I continue to try and will certainly do better in 2015. The calendar year of 2014 saw a few initiatives being added to the list of various Corkboard “Add-ons” (which already included the Leket Wine Club (now unfortunately defunct) and the wine buying opportunity group, among others). These initiatives included a 25-course wine pairing dinner, the proceeds of which benefited Leket Israel, with wines from my private cellar and the mouth-watering courses prepared by the incredible Epic Bites. There will be a few similar culinary adventures this coming year, so please let me know if you are interested in these types of events.

The other major occurrence this year was the entrenchment of regular meetings of the Rosh Chodesh Club and its major expansion both domestically and internationally. The Rosh Chodesh Club (“RCC”) was the product of a minor problem I have been faced with for some time.  On any given occasion when selecting wines to enjoy, I find myself putting many wines back in the cellar as a result of feeling that they would not be “proper for the occasion” or “properly enjoyed or appreciated by the folks with whom I was intending to share them”; leading many true treasures to languish on the shelves of my cellar waiting for “the right time”. One welcome solution to a similarly-driven problem from a few years back, was the invention of “Open that Bottle Night“, by the then wine editors of the Wall Street Journal, in which once a year, folks opened that special bottle of wine that never seemed to get enjoyed, effectively creating that “special occasion” everyone seems to be waiting for. While I have a fair amount of friends, the number of folks with whom I regularly socialize that are “wine nuts” is relatively limited. As a result, I decided to start the “Rosh Chodesh Club” in order to provide a monthly opportunity to get together with like-minded individuals who would appreciate the wines I have been saving. The idea is that, once a month, true wine lovers with great cellars get together to open, enjoy and share some really good wines in a relaxed, friendly and intimate environment. Over the last two years the group has enjoyed some truly remarkable wines (and some amazing food), sharing them with like-minding individuals with a true appreciation for the special stuff being opened. As Charles Caleb Colton stated “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and this past year saw the successful launch of three franchises (in Los Angeles, Westchester and Israel with at least two more in the works). To the extent you would like to start a Rosh Chodesh Club in your area, let me know and I would be more than happy to help out in any way I can (including by bringing together like-minded folks in your area and helping out with the logistical ideas / rules that have helped make these events so much fun).

As a reminder, I am fairly active on Twitter, where I provide current information on trends, wines and wineries throughout the day, including many informative articles beyond the scope of this newsletter. If you don’t already do so, I’d appreciate you following me there, where I also respond to specific requests for information and recommendations. If you enjoy reading the newsletter, please help spread the word by recommending it to friends, family and colleagues who you think may enjoy them (as opposed to forwarding them along). Folks can sign up directly on my website or you (or they) can email me and I will add them directly to the distribution list (stay tuned as we will be shifting from Google Groups to Mail Chimp (or a similar service) in the next few weeks). As always, please let me know any questions or inquiries you would like to see covered on these pages. With the continued lack of alternative English-language information about Israeli and kosher wines coupled with the increasing interest by the kosher consumer, I expect the subscriber growth of the past year to continue and look forward to continuing to share this journey with you.