Tzora Vineyards’ owner Nathan Hevrony and I are speaking at a JNF Wall Street event March 18.

The re-emergence of the Israeli wine world parallels the re-birth of the nation of Israel.

And great Israeli wine represents the very civilized, progressive place that Israel is today.

I hope you will join us for the tasting OR at least join me for supper in NYC afterwards!

Tweet This Post

Here’s the deal…

If wine that happens to be kosher sucks it’s not because it’s kosher that it sucks it’s because the winemaker, the winemaking or the grapes suck.

It really is that simple.

And if a kosher wine is delicious it’s not because it’s kosher it’s because the winemaker, the winemaking and the grapes are good.

Diet Coke and Cheerios are not good because they are kosher (though they are). Bananas are kosher but that’s not why I add them to my protein shakes every morning along with blueberries and almonds, which also are kosher!

There is nothing in the basic kosher winemaking process that turns out sucky wine.

And believe it or not most of the wines I import from Israel (and most of the boutique Israeli wines) are not kosher at all.

(mevushal kosher wine – requiring the boiling or flash-pasteurization of wine – is another story for another post)

If you need an amazing wine from Israel, the Judean Hills in fact, that tastes like the place it is from – all smooth fruit-herby goodness – one that just happens to be kosher for Passover then ORDER TZORA SHORESH 2006.

Sh9resh has been kicking the cracker jacks out of Napa Cabs and other Israeli Cabs in blind tastings for months…wines MUCH more expensive than it is at $39/bottle from us.

This is a single-vineyard wine (Shoresh is the name of the vineyard – the word means “root” in Hebrew) made by UC Davis-trained Eran Pick. I have only around 600 bottles left of this wine in the US.

Tweet This Post

Founded in 1989, Margalit is the super-small producer leading the region in age-worthy wines. They don’t irrigate their vines, driving the roots down deep to pick up all the site-specific nutrients and smells and flavors from their 2 vineyards in Kadita and Binyamina.

Yair Margalit kindly sent me verticals (multiple vintages) of several of his wines so we could hold tastings in the US demonstrating the high quality of premium wine from Israel and how these beauties just keep getting better with age!

My friend Joe, proprietor of The Bottle Shop in Wilmette, IL, and I are co-hosting at his cool place the first US vertical tasting of Margalit wines.

ONLY 13 people can attend. And I want you to be one of them.

Go HERE to learn more and register.

Be a part of the re-emergence of the Israeli wine scene internationally.

We will be drinking 10 Margalit wines together along with premium cheese and bread. Attendees can order Margalit wines at a discount during the event, too.

See you there!

Tweet This Post

A 1,400 year old wine press was recently discovered in Israel, large and advanced and likely used for producing wine to export to places like Egypt or Europe.

It’s pretty common to find even much older wine presses in contemporary Israeli vineyards. The land there has been wine-ing for a long, long time. There is a 3,000-year old wine press at Clos de Gat winery in the Judean Hills.

Tweet This Post

It’s not every day that you get to taste wine with a Master Sommelier – and even less common to taste with a female Master Sommelier since as it turns out there are only 16 of them in the entire world.

I have been interacting with Master Sommelier Laura Maniec on Twitter for a while now.

She’s the Wine & Spirits Director for B.R. Guest Restaurants, based in New York.

This Thursday evening, February 18, at 8pm ET, Laura and I will be tasting 5 small-production wines from Israel I import.

I sent her 10 bottles to try and we’ve agreed to break the group up into 2 sets of 5 and get to them all over time.

We’re starting with premium Israeli Reds that represent Israel’s 2 best winemaking regions – The Judean Hills and The Upper Galilee:

Tzora Shoresh 2006 (single-vineyard Cab)

Flam Superiore Syrah 2006

Pelter T-Selection Cabernet Franc 2007

Flam Cabernet Reserve 2006

Margalit Enigma 2006

I’m doing this tasting “virtually” (I will be in my home in Chicago and she will be in her office in NYC) in part since one of the projects I am working on is the development of a virtual trade wine tasting platform that fits the economic realities of a small supplier/importer who must be targeted, efficient, and take responsibility for generating demand “direct to trade”. In the new world of wine small suppliers will have to learn to step up and interact a lot more directly with consumers and trade buyers.

I’m inviting YOU the Public since I want to take you behind the scenes with me as we hear from one of the top wine experts in the US. “Trade Tastings” like this happen all week long behind closed doors. I want you to get a glimpse!

Honestly, I am just super-excited to have someone with Laura’s knowledge and skills tasting with me. I told her I want The Truth as she sees it about these wines. Her frank feedback will be invaluable. I am honored Laura is taking the time to try these wines she can’t try from anyone else (I’m the exclusive US importer of all these wines) and certainly not from large traditional distributors.

I will Tweet and message everyone with links to the ustream site where we will be tasting LIVE over the next couple days. I hope a lot of people will join since we will all very likely learn a lot from Laura. No doubt, she already knows a couple textbooks more than I ever will about Israeli climate, soil, terroir!

You can ORDER the set of 5 wines we will be tasting. If you would like to taste along with us, consider UPS 2nd Day Air to have it arrive on time.

Cheers!

Tweet This Post

I love the vibe in this old building. And the crowd keeps it real and fun. I loved the people I met at the event, too. Except maybe for the one guy who poked me in the chest as a way to get me to pour him more wine…Ummmm this is not a recommended strategy !

And Mike and Ian, the wine director and owner, have done a superb job of going out of their way to bring you wines that stretch you to visit new parts of the wine world you may have never traveled to before. (I actually think they were pleasantly surprised about the number of people who came by and the excitement these wines generated, too).

One of the surprise wines of the evening was Trio Spirit 2007. You can ONLY order this Cab blend directly from me by calling me at 866-469-8708. It is not online. You can find a couple bottles at Proof Wine Bar in DC but that’s about it. I only imported 20 cases into the US and most of them are long gone. CALL ME if you want some. These people are making this juice in their basement! Less than 5,000 bottles annually, in fact. Get it.

Tweet This Post

I was again amazed by the overwhelmingly positive response top these wines from the great people of Houston.

We have (as I had hoped) gone well beyond a Jewish audience with these grand wines,

I focused on very basic talkpoints as usual (as Winnie the Pooh said, I have a small bear brain!).

Like the fact that wine was born in Israel.

And that Israel is smaller than New Jersey but long and narrow like Chile or California or Italy and therefore contains within itself multiple microclimates, the best of which for wine grape growing are the Galilee and the Judean Hills.

Or the fact that there are today more than 250 wineries in Israel, while 20 years ago there were a mere 20 wineries there.

Towards the end of the event, Charles and I held a blind tasting of 8 wines, 4 from Israel and 3 from California and 1 from Washington state.

People tasted them all and ranked them.

Here are the rankings…

(And listen to me – NONE of these wines were “bad” – I thought all of them were “good”)

The punch-line of all this is that Israel took 3 out of the top 4 places in the competition!

WINNER: Tzora Shoresh 2006 (Israel)

2nd Place: Amavi Cellars 2007 Walla Walla WA

3rd Place: Margalit Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 (Israel)

4th Place: Flam Cabernet Reserve 2006 (Israel)

5th Place: Lail Vineyards Blueprint 2006 (California)

6th Place: Pelter T-Selection Cab Sauv 2007 (Israel)

Tied for 7th: Cloverdale Ranch Cab Sauv 2005 (California) and Volume 2007 Cab Sauv (California)

The best part of pouring great Israeli wine for people is the look of surprise and discovery.

I can’t wait to come back to Houston again soon!

Tweet This Post

We’ve sold A LOT of Flam Classico 2006!

In fact we have only 71 bottles left at last count this afternoon.

And it’s time to make room for the 2007. Which is what I am drinking right this moment as I sit in bed and write this brief post.

A lot of you have ordered Flam Classico 2006 from me.

If you like fruit and Mediterranean herbs, you love this wine. Period.

Winemaker Golan Flam trained in Italy then brought back to his estate winery in the hills outside of Jerusalem all that earthy-chewy-barnyard-sage goodness he’d learned how to create while in Italy.

Here’s what’s in it for you.

When you help me make room for the next vintage and order a case of the 2006 Flam Classico I sell it you for $250 – that’s 20% off of the regular price.

Good wine for a great price!

Thanks.

Tweet This Post

This allows you to make decisions about how to spend your time and money, and how to allocate attention.

What is it that you INTEND?

And how is what you are doing aligned (or more likely, not aligned) with your intentions?

There’s a big difference between thinking about what you’re making or selling or whatever and fully considering what you are trying to bring about in the world by making or selling what you make or sell.

I guess it’s sort of like the difference between “features and benefits” but on a MACRO level.

So, following that advice I have been reminding myself this week what it is I am trying to bring about in the world through my little (growing!) Israeli wine business.

I mean, there are more than 6,200 domestic wineries in the US – and the wines of thousands more imported wineries are also available to most Americans, too. How could we possibly need more wine in the country?!?!

Here’s The Big Thing for me, the Big Thing I am trying to accomplish:

I intend to use great Israeli wines and winemakers to broaden peoples understanding of what Israel is all about, hopefully shattering some assumptions in the process. The wine is a vehicle and a bridge and a translator of The Real Israel. I want to help re-frame people’s perceptions about Israel, the Birthplace of Wine and the Birthplace of much of our civilization.

I know, I know. Sounds way elevated and maybe even overly self-important.

I encourage you to make your Big Thing equally expansive and lofty and challenging and MACRO. There’s plenty of room for TACTICS (and they’re easier to figure out) if you get your Macro Intentions clarified and go back to that again and again.

How about you? Why do you do what you do?

Tweet This Post

Carignan, anyone?

Usually a sort of behind-the-curtain, high yield, nothing-special blending grape, tiny little Somek winery in Israel has elevated Carignan to fine wine in their 2004 showing.

Full Disclosure: YES, I import this wine! And I am totally biased in its favor or I would not have brought it at great expense across several oceans to bring it to you! Get over it

Led by husband and wife team Barak and Hila, Somek winery is located in the lovely little Mediterranean town of Zichron Yaacov. Their winery is literally a garagiste winery – it’s in a closet attached to the back of their house. Barak’s family has lived in this lovely home (it’s the one pictured on the wine label) since 1882 when they moved to Israel from Romania, subsidized by none other than Baron Rothschild himself, Jewish owner of Chateau Lafite, one of the most important wineries in the world. The Baron sought to re-ignite Jewish agriculture and winemaking in Israel and the Old Man put his money where his mouth was at the end of the 19th century after making several documented trips to Israel. Big Time.

This winery produces a mere – get this ! – 5,000 bottles of wine annually. That’s it.

I’m telling you that the big commercial wineries in Israel spill more wine than this little family winery produces all year long.

This varietal-version of Carignan is all smoky, chocolatey, dark-fruited juicy chewiness wrapped up in a very deftly applied oak wrapper that complements without stifling.

I want you to try it.

I want you to get over your hesitancy to try Carignan or any other grape that you ain’t had before.

So!

I’m offering you a case of Somek Carignan 2004 for $240 – and it’s regularly priced at $360/case.

And when you order a case of wine through us Ground Shipping is also included. All the time.

This wine is not for babies, okay? It’s not petite. It’s fireside. It’s Sasquatch. It’s the stretch some of you need.

Try it!

Tweet This Post

In a “vertical” wine tasting different vintages of the same wine type from the same winery are tasted in an effort to emphasize differences between vintages and also how aging affects the smell and flavor profile of a particular wine.

We generally do not see major vintage variation in Israeli wines given the fairly consistent weather there  (unlike, say, in France where vintage variation can be significant can drive massive price differences when vintages are released and scored). So, a vertical tasting of premium Israeli wines would demonstrate the ability of wine from the Original Wine World to just keep getting better with age.

No vertical from any other Israeli winery than Margalit would better demonstrate how great climate, great grape and great winemaking can come together to make juice that hums along and gets better with time in bottle.

I fondly recall sitting on the back porch with Yair Margalit drinking a bottle of Margalit Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 – after uncorking the bottle the entire porch filled with the smell of wild strawberry fields. We all noticed it at the same time, looked at each other and broke into smile as we toasted the land and the hand that had together created something so delicious.

Well………….

Yair and Asaf have kindly sent me vertical selections of several of their wines and I will be gathering small groups of 14 (plus me to facilitate!) in target cities across the US!

Want to participate?

Seats will be around $125 and get you access to 9 wines + premium cheese/breads/fruits + a 10% discount on available Margalit wines ordered during the event. The discount will pay for your seat!

Let me know if you are interested!

Looks like our first event will be in NYC soon.

Here are the wines!

Margalit Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006

Margalit Enigma 2004, 2005, 2006

Margalit Special Reserve 2006, 2007

Tweet This Post

No one seriously disputes that Margalit winery, founded by father-son winemaking team Yair and Asaf Margalit in 1989, changed the face and raised the bar for all time of the Israeli wine scene. Up-and-coming boutiques benchmark themselves in many ways against the standard Margalit has set.

I have always admired their commitment to producing Israeli wines that are also adamantly NOT kosher, intended For The World.

Their fierce devotion to making high-quality, age-worthy wines, and Yair’s deep personal commitment to training a Next Generation of Israeli winemakers set them apart.

I have no fonder memories of being in Israel than times on their back porch over supper and good wine from around the world and of course their own wine and the good conversation.

I am honored to have a handful of their wines available in the US today – and hopefully more in the future.

Israel’s leading food & wine critic Daniel Rogov sat down with them today for his annual visit and wine tasting and released a reporthere.

I have included his notes in their entirety (I don’t think Rogov will mind…and anyhow I think it’s his turn to get lunch at a place in Tel Aviv with cute waitresses next time I am in town!).

Several days ago, I received a phone call from Yair Margalit suggesting that it was time for me to visit the Margalit winery not far from Hadera. That Margalit was calling from Antarctica where he is currently cruising was quite enough to impress me that something important might be happening. A quick follow-up call on my part to Assaf Margalit indicated that the 2008 wines are just now being bottled and that it would indeed be wise to pay a visit before those wines went into bottle shock. 

Truth be told, I rarely dedicate a day to travel to a winery to taste merely five wines but in the case of Margalit, now the oldest boutique and most assuredly one of the very best wineries in the country, my decision to visit was based as much on excitement as on dedication.

Margalit was among the very first boutique wineries in the country, and was indeed the first to capture the imagination of sophisticated wine lovers. Founded in 1989, the winery was first located on Moshav Kfar Bilu near the town of Rehovot, and since 1994 has been set near the town of Hadera, at the foothills of Mount Carmel. Father and son team Ya’ir and Assaf Margalit are most renowned for their Bordeaux-style reds that are released in both a regular and a reserve series. In his role as a physical chemist, Ya’ir Margalit has published several well-known textbooks. Assaf, now as senior winemaker studied in the agriculture faculty of Hebrew University at Rehovot and also trained in California, is now firmly placing his own mark on the wines. Happily, the passing of the baton from generation to generation shows as fully successful as one could hope for.

Margalit’s earliest release, in 1989, was of 900 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. More recent releases, including Cabernet, Merlot, Petite Sirah and Syrah, are made primarily of grapes from their own vineyards in Kadita in the Upper Galilee, while the Cabernet Franc is grown in their Binyamina vineyard. The winery offers three series, the top of the line Special Reserve and Margalit, and, starting with the 2003 harvest, Enigma, a Bordeaux-style blend. All of Margalit’s wines are meant for cellaring. Current production is about 20,000 bottles annually.

The 2007 vintage was a good but not exciting one for Israel. Despite that, the Margalit winery produced wines that were consistently excellent, the releases earning scores of 92-94 points. 2008 on the other hand, is proving to have been a superb year and the soon to be released Margalit wines of that year reflect that in every way. My tasting notes follow. My thanks to Assaf and to those at the winery for a warm reception (including it should be noted a generously sized and great fun to eat schnitzel sandwich on a baguette) and, of course, for a fine tasting. I will, of course, re-tasted each of these wines again in my own tasting room after their official release. And then again every two years after that. 

Best
Rogov

Margalit, Enigma, 2008: A full-bodied blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc reflecting its aging in barriques for 12 months with firm but not at all searing and almost caressing tannins and notes of spices and vanilla from the wood. On first attack raspberries and red plums, those yielding to blackcurrants, and notes of bitter-sweet chocolate. Rich and concentrated but not at all bombastic. Destined for elegance. Approachable now but best 2012-2020. Score 92. (Tasted 11 Jan 2009)

Margalit, Enigma, Special Reserve, 2007: The winery’s first release of a special reserve in the Enigma line. Unlike the regular Enigma release (see the following tasting note, tasted on return from my visit to the winery), this one was aged for two years in oak, that not so much adding a feeling of wood to the wine but allowing its elements to come together while still in the barriques, that affording a certain desirable level of micro-oxidation. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc (51%, 26% and 23% respectively), full-bodied with gently gripping tannins and notes of lead pencils and earthy herbaceousness and on the super-long finish a note of licorice. Give this one time to round out and it will develop a most welcome overlay of smoked meat. Best from 2013-2025. Score 94. (Tasted 11 Jan 2009)

Margalit, Enigma, 2007: Re-tasted this afternoon in my own tasting room after my visit to the winery. Developing very nicely. Full-bodied, with gently mouth-coating tannins and tantalizing hints of sweet cedar wood. On first attack black cherries, wild berries and black currants, those on a background of roasted herbs and a notes of both garrigue and fresh forest floor. Drinking very nicely now but best 2011-2017. Score 92. (Re-tasted but not blind 11 Jan 2009)

Margalit, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008: Blended with 10% Merlot, deep ruby towards garnet, full-bodied, showing its muscles but those in a gentlemanly manner, that is to say, powerful but full of grace. On the nose and palate black and red currants, blackberries and cigar-box notes, those complemented nicely by notes of white pepper and freshly picked herbs. On the long finish a tantalizing hint of porcini mushrooms. Drink now only if you must. Best from 2012-2018, perhaps longer. Score 93. (Tasted 11 Jan 2009)

Margalit, Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, 2008: Cabernet Sauvignon, as always blended with Margalit’s “special” and remarkably concentrated Petite Syrah, this year 88% and 12% respectively.
Intensely dark garnet, throwing purple, orange and green reflections, full-bodied and with spicy wood and still firm tannins just starting on the road to integration but showing fine balance and structure. On first attack traditional blackcurrant and blackberry fruits on a spicy background, the wine opening in the glass to reveal black cherries and then raspberries and espresso coffee. Nor is this the end for on the long, long finish tempting hints of black olives and saddle leather. Approachable by 2011 but best only from 2013-2025. Perhaps the best to date from Margalit and certainly one of the best wines ever produced in Israel. Score 95. (Tasted 11 Jan 2009)

Margalit, Cabernet Franc, 2008: Oak aged as are nearly all of the Margalit wines for 12 months, at this stage showing dark but bright ruby in color. Full-bodied, richly aromatic, rich and velvety, packed with plum, blueberry, cherry and exotic spices all on a softly tannic background and showing a tantalizing hint of garrigue. Blended with 7% Caberent Sauvignon a seductive wine that will be approachable early but will cellar very nicely. Best from 2011-2018. Score 94. (Tasted 11 Jan 2009)

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

And…I am honored to be able to report that an Israeli wine tasting we held in downtown Boston in February of this year with wines and winemakers from the  portfolio I import was named his Favorite Wine Tasting in all of last year!

Read all about it here!

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

I wanted to share how we introduced these wines (6 were sampled and 5 ultimately ended up on the menu at Zaytinya) as a cost-effective method I will continue to use (with some enhancements…stay tuned!!!) and recommend that other small wineries and importers consider experimenting.

Others have written and spoken more eloquently than I have about how small suppliers fare getting to markets they care about within our post-Prohibition “3-Tier” system,  now comprised of a smaller number of ever-larger wholesalers who in essence act as regional wine buyers (gatekeepers of sorts) for entire regions of our nation.

For little suppliers like me, while some of these wholesalers may do a decent job FULFILLING demand already created, I think they tend to do an awful job GENERATING demand.

So we have worked hard (and fairly successfully) to pull together 3-Tier-compliant inexpensive clearing wholesalers to get wine to trade buyers after we have generated demand, usually, in the past at least, through expensive travel all over the country by yours truly.

It’s hard to make the math work (i.e., maintain margin) when you spend a lot of money traveling all over to make (sometimes modest) wine sales.

But wine is an experiential product that needs to be tasted by buyers before they will buy – especially when it comes to small unknown brands which can feel risky buys for trade buyers.

So….you have got to find a cost-effective way to get wine into the noses and mouths of trade buyers you care about, finding the lowest possible spending to get the highest possible selling.

I don’ think I was very good at this early on in my business, flying my ass all over the place regardless of outcome, then going back again!

Now, I need to work smarter, leveraging efficiency-delivering technology whenever possible to support selling.

Here’s how we sold 17 cases of wine to Zaytinya BEFORE I had ever made an expensive travel commitment to them at all.

I got to know Justin Ross, Zaytinya’s Wine Director, over phone and email. I wanted our wines to be on his menu because, in addition to personally liking the food and the Mediterranean vibe there, I know that the absolute best wine & food pairings are regional foods with regional wines. Israel is a part of the eastern Mediterranean and Zaytinya is a Mediterranean tapas-style restaurant so it just made good sense.

Justin was very open to my suggestion that I send him samples and then taste together OVER A CONFERENCE CALL. So that’s what I did. I still chuckle when I recall hearing over the phone all the slurping, sniffing and spitting coming from Justin and his colleague as they enjoyed the wines.

They ordered 17 cases in total of 5 out of the 6 wines.

Only then did I make a more expensive travel + training investment.

I offered wine samples at my expense; they reciprocated with time and attention.

They placed a sizeable first order; I reciprocated with a trip to support their purchase.

I hope to do more of this moving forward, using video platforms like Skype or UStream.

What do you think? Ever experimented with something like this in your business? What are the pros and cons?

Tweet This Post

Their kick-off event recently included 2 wines we import

Flam Classico 2007

and

Pelter Unoaked Chardonnay 2008

And now (I love this picture!) you can taste the Flam Classico on their Enoteca wine dispenser!!

Here’s what I love about Stephen’s approach to all of this…he understands more than most that Americans are hungry, in many ways for the first time in a long time, for food and wine that is MEANINGFUL – that connects people to Story and Place. And no food is more meaningful (to me) than great wine from the Birthplace of Wine.

Other wine regions don’t have the connection to the roots of our entire civilization like Israel does.

Hats off to Stephen and Rachel for encouraging their customers to expand their tasting experiences and travel the globe with wine.

As Stephen said to me when we spoke, “It’s all about creating entertainment and experiences for people.”

I plan to be in LA for events with Stephen and Rachel (and other partners) in early 2010.

Tweet This Post

@gapingvoid we have em here in Chicago, too in reply to gapingvoid #

Tweet This Post

Most people don’t realize that in many ways our entire civilization was born there, as well!

While great wines exist almost everywhere in the world, as we approach the winter Jewish and Christian holidays of Chanukah and Christmas there is no more meaningful place to drink wine from than Israel, the birthplace of so much that is important to so many of us.

I hope you will place on your tables and on the tables of friends and family wines I import from the birthplace of wine I know you will be Proud to Pour and Proud to Share.

In that spirit, I have set up a decreasing promo code starting today November 30.

From now until December 7 using the promo code israel gets you 20% off all wine in your order.

Starting December 7, and for about a week or so after, the holiday promo code reduces to a 15% discount, and so on as we approach the end of the month.

Support small, family-owned Israeli wineries and give a gift that means something this year, something that connects you to so much.

Thanks for your support throughout 2009…and beyond.

I could not have done any of this without all of you.

Richard

P.S. remember you can always call me on my cell 847-924-5523

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post