Let Them Drink Wine
 21.08.2010
 

Mr. Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel, recently spent a day visiting the Upper Galilee Wine Region, the northern and higher altitude part of the Galilee. It was the first time people could remember that there was a Presidential visit devoted only to wineries and vineyards. During a very full day, President Peres was able to review all aspects of the wine business: touring vineyards, harvesting grapes, visiting wineries, being received at visitors centers, participating in an event showcasing the wines of the Upper Galilee and along the way, sampling the occasional wines too.

The occasion was the launching of a wine route in the Upper Galilee. President Peres visited the Ramat Dalton Industrial Estate, and specifically Dalton Winery and Adir Winery’s Visitors’ Center. He also visited Miles Winery’s vineyard at Kerem Ben Zimra, where he even took part in the harvest, picking a few bunches of grapes. He then visited Ramat Naftaly Winery, and finally went to an evening event held at Carmel Winery’s Alma Vineyard. There, he saw an exhibition of a further 20 Upper Galilee wineries with stands, showing their wines. He took time to talk to the winemakers, growers and winery owners and taste their wines.

In his speech to assembled guests, President Peres complimented all the wine growers and winemakers, remarking that it was praiseworthy to consider their success in a place where there was once nothing. He also complimented them on the quality of the wines they had produced.

The Upper Galilee has become the most remarkable new wine region, in the quality revolution that has taken place in Israel. Most of the developments are comparatively recent. Fifteen years ago it was thought the Golan Heights was the only premier wine growing region in Israel. Today it is rivaled by the Upper Galilee.

The Upper Galilee is a mountainous area of forests, plunging peaks and stony ridges. It is without doubt Israel’s most beautiful vineyard region, and may be regarded as the Tuscany or Provence of Israel. The soils are heavy, but well drained. They tend to be a mixture of volcanic, gravel and terra rossa soils. The Kedesh Valley, Naftali and Dishon vineyard areas are 350 to 450 meters above sea level. They are close to the northern border with Lebanon, not so far from the Bekaa Valley, the heart of the Lebanese wine industry. The vineyards of Kayoumi, Kadita, Ramat Dalton and Ben Zimra, nearer Mount Meron, range from 650 to 1,000 meters above sea level. Most of the vineyards in the Upper Galilee were planted only since the mid to late 1990’s. The annual precipitation in the Upper Galilee is from 800-1,000 mm. Winter temperatures can be from 0-15 0C, whilst in the summer the range is from 12-30 0C. The higher peaks will have snow in the winter.

The most prominent wineries in the Upper Galilee are Dalton Winery, Galil Mountain, Kayoumi Winery, owned by Carmel and Saslove Winery.
Dalton Winery was founded in 1995 by the Haruni family, which came to Israel from England. It is situated in the Ramat Dalton Industrial Estate. Dalton were the pioneers of the Upper Galilee. In 2009 Dalton harvested 881 tons of grapes, making it the 9th largest winery in Israel. The winemaker Na’ama Mualem, is internationally trained and one of the most prominent woman winemakers in Israel. Their flagship wine is Matatia, a red Bordeaux style blend, which is rare and strictly allocated. Dalton’s visitors’center is well worth a visit.

Galil Mountain is a joint venture between Yiron Kibbutz and the Golan Heights Winery. It is situated at Yiron, right on the Lebanese border. Founded in 2000, they harvested 1,064 tons of grapes in 2009, sourced from five different vineyards, which makes it Israel’s 6th largest winery. The winemaker is Micha Vaadia and both the managing director and marketing manager of the winery are women. Their leading wines are blends called Yiron and Meron, which are known for their quality and value, being priced very reasonably. The winery is very stylishly designed and very suitable for visitors who want to see and understand the complete winemaking process.

Kayoumi Winery, also at Ramat Dalton, is a technologically advanced custom crush facility, owned by Carmel. It is used primarily for fermenting red wines and pressing white grapes from Carmel’s Upper Galilee vineyards and works in association with Carmel’s Zichron Ya’acov Wine Cellars. However, it receives between 1,200 to 1,400 tons at harvest, making it the largest Upper Galilee winery. Carmel, which built the Kayoumi Winery in 2004, has the leading vineyard presence in the Upper Galilee. Their flagship wine, Limited Edition, Kayoumi Single Vineyard wines and most of their regional Appellation wines, are sourced from Upper Galilee vineyards. The Kayoumi Cabernet Sauvignon and Kayoumi Shiraz are regular award winners.

Saslove Winery is a boutique, family winery, run by father and daughter, Barry & Roni Saslove. Following the Carmel / Kayoumi model, they have a new facility at Tsuriel for receiving and fermenting grapes close to their vineyards, but the barrel room and visitors center remain in the Sharon Plain at Eyal Kibbutz. Saslove decided to own its own vineyard and insisted on having the winery closeby. In 2009, they harvested 69 tons of grapes. Both Barry & Roni Saslove are born wine educators and Saslove Winery is one of the finest boutique wineries in Israel. The Saslove Reserved Cabernet Sauvignon is their leading wine.

Apart from these well-known wineries, there are scores of small boutique wineries which provide a lot of color and add variety to the region. Adir, Ben Zimra, Luria, Miles, Naaman and Ramat Naftaly, are just some of the small wineries created by individuals with love and passion. Ramat Naftaly Winery for example, is a winery founded by Yitzhak Cohen, veteran grower, who after supplying his precious grapes to larger wineries, decided to build his own winery. Founded in 2003, his winery produces about 10,000 bottles a year. However there are many more. For those looking for something more unusual, the area is also host to the Rimon Winery, a successful operation producing fruit wines from pomegranates, (‘rimon’ in Hebrew).

The most impressive newcomer may be Adir Winery, which is owned by two families of growers from the Kerem Ben Zimra vineyards. It is run in conjunction with their dairy. They have spared no costs in marketing with an original, eye-catching logo and label. They have also built a beautiful visitors’ center in the Ramat Dalton Industrial estate. Their investment was justified when their flagship wine, Plato, won the prize of Israel’s best boutique wine at the Terravino Competition.
The most eagerly awaited new boutique winery in the Upper Galilee is Shvo Vineyards. This is a start-up owned by Gabi Sadan, one of Israel’s finest winemakers, who has worked for both Golan Heights Winery and Galil Mountain. He has planted a vineyard with Mediterranean varieties at 800 meters altitude at Gush Halav. The first harvest was in 2009 and the first release, a rose, is due out soon.
However, the Upper Galilee is also not only home to wineries, but also to some of the finest vineyards in Israel. It is true that Carmel, Dalton, Galil Mountain and Saslove, choose to have Upper Galilee wineries close to their Upper Galilee vineyards. There are, though, many other wineries situated elsewhere in Israel, yet whose finest wines also come from Upper Galilee vineyards. These include wineries such as Barkan, Binyamina, Chillag, Flam, Margalit, Recanati, Segal, Tabor, and Tulip.
The first high quality wine to include fruit from the Upper Galilee vineyards was Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon. The Golan Heights Winery was launched in 1983 with vineyards in seven Kibbutzes or Moshavs on the Golan Heights. However the eighth partner was the Ramat Naftali Moshav in the Upper Galilee. Their vineyard was planted in 1976. For a long time it was said that the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the Yarden wine came from the Ramat Naftali vineyard! Winemakers like Avi Feldstein, of Segal Wines (now part of Barkan/ Tempo) and Yair Margalit were quick to see the potential of the Upper Galilee. Since their efforts in the mid 1990’s, many other wineries have followed suit.

Now, over 40% of Israel’s vineyards are in the Galilee and Golan Heights. In the 1960’s nearly all of the vineyards were in the coastal Mount Carmel and Judean Lowlands/ Shefela areas. Until comparatively recently, there were scarcely any wine grapes in the Galilee at all, apart from vineyards at Kfar Tabor, (Tabor Village), in the Lower Galilee and Kerem Ben Zimra and Ramat Naftali in the Upper Galilee. Today, the Upper Galilee lays claim to not only be arguably the best quality wine region in Israel, (a status shared with the Golan), but it is also the fastest developing region with new vineyards. It is the booming vineyard area, within a booming industry.
The President of Israel knows the Galilee well. He was a member of a Kibbutz there, which is from where he launched his long and successful career in public life. He is the only Israeli to have been both President, Prime Minister and to have held all the other most important offices of State, including Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance. He has also made the development of both the Galilee and the Negev a personal priority. This objective has been a constant thread throughout his life’s work. Therefore he made no secret of his delight at hearing about the successful wine industry in the Upper Galilee, sampling the quality of the Upper Galilee wines and seeing the beauty of the Upper Galilee vineyards.

During his speech at Carmel’s Alma Vineyard to the growers and winemakers, and many invited guests, President Shimon Peres chose to paraphrase Marie Antoinette, who, in answer to the shortage of bread, was infamously quoted as saying: “Let them eat cake!” President Peres said that in answer to Israel’s own water shortage, that he should say “Let them drink wine, instead of water”. (The words for wine and water, yayin v’ mayim, rhyme in Hebrew.) Now there is a good marketing slogan for the Upper Galilee wineries! The excellent advice for the Israeli consumer, from the President himself, appears to be: Drink Yayin, not Mayim!