Photo courtesy of Psagot Winery Photo courtesy of Psagot By Hillel Kuttler Photo courtesy of Yatir Winery 22 SUMMER 2014 he late-morning spring revelation, wherever the grapes are Hills. In the olden days, this used sun enveloping central grown and the wine produced. to be the wine land,” says Yisrael Israel means that life is According to “The Wine Route Flam, founder of Flam Winery, as Opposite: The fields of Yatir Tgood for those on Karmei Yosef of Israel,” a comprehensive coffee- he motions toward his fields. Winery’s vine- Winery’s pavilion. It’s Friday, the table book of Israel’s 12,350 acres Two key factors are at play, too. yard in Tel Arad, start of the weekend for most of wine grapes, an estimated 4,570 One is that the area, referred to Israel. Israelis, and for some, that means (or 37 percent) are in central Israel’s by the shorthand “Judean Hills,” vineyard-hopping—much as Judean Hills, foothills and plain. possesses the ideal topography Americans might do on weekends That constitutes “one of the pre- for growing quality wine, with Inset: Grapes in the northern California and mier wine-growing regions in Israel,” its altitude, hot days and cool on the vine at central Virginia wine countries. said Joshua Greenstein, the executive nights. Another is the care taken Psagot Winery. On this day, 10 women sit at vice president for sales and market- by several of the region’s fledgling a long picnic table, their wine ing for the Israel Wine Producers vintners to do things right, for Below: Yisrael glasses filled red, baskets boasting Association. The group represents 19 example, studying and appren- Flam, founder fresh bread and serving contain- brands, which constitute 70 percent ticing at European, Australian of Flam Winery, ers sporting salads and casseroles. of Israeli wines, said Greenstein, who and other foreign vineyards. The stands in front Their conversation is animated, is based in New York. knowledge gained is then applied of barrels of his their mood relaxed. Central Israel might be better back home. product. Across the pavilion, three men known for the Armored Corps stand at a circular bar, slicing Memorial Site and Museum at cheese to blanket their crackers Latrun, the site of key battles in and to accompany their wine and 1948 and 1967, and for Mini their shmooze. Israel, which draws tourists to a The setting includes a rocky scale model of the country. The path winding through a series of area’s large towns—small cities, fields leading to this spot. What’s actually—are Modiin and Beit unexpected—to those only some- Shemesh, easily accessible to both what familiar with Israeli wines— Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. David is its location in central Israel, just defeated the Philistines’ king, west of Jerusalem, rather than in Goliath, in the nearby Elah Valley. the more celebrated wine regions The region’s history includes of the coastal plains south of Haifa winemaking going back millennia, and the mountainous Galilee and as indicated by scores of ancient Golan Heights. wine presses unearthed on the While those vineyards are grounds of several contemporary better known, central Israel is vineyards. rapidly expanding its reputation That background, say Israeli for delicious yields. Not surpris- vintners and those who love their ingly, almost all of the wines are wines, helps account for the area’s produced under the strict rules outstanding wine today. of kashrut. To some, the variety “The [wine] tithing brought to By Hillel Kuttler of brands and types may be a the Temple came from the Judean Winery Photo courtesy of Flam B’Nai B’rith 23 Below: State-of-the-art equipment at Yatir Winery. Some of the world’s most is Castel’s 2008 Grand Vin, which, became the chief winemaker after respected wine critics are credited at $50 a bottle retail, “is not an serving a one-year apprenticeship with putting the Judean Hills inexpensive bottle, by any means.” in Carpineto, a Tuscan winery. on the wine map more than a Castel is just one of several Their sister is a full-time pediatric decade ago. Among the first was outstanding wineries clustered psychotherapist but works one Serena Sutcliffe, who is Sotheby’s in the Judean Hills, a group day a week to expand the winery’s international wine specialist. that includes Flam, Tzora, Clos strategic partnerships with Israeli “The first Israeli wine that de Gat and Psagot. Even Yatir, restaurants. really impressed me was Castel, located south of the hills at the Her name is appropriate for which I found stood out from edge of the Negev, is a burgeon- someone in this business: Gefen the rest. That first wine was the ing winery in Israel. Of those, all is Hebrew for vine. Cabernet Sauvignon,” Sutcliffe but Clos de Gat are kosher. They “She was born in the vintage, recalled in an e-mail, referring to are all small “boutique” opera- when the grapes ripen and the Domaine du Castel winery. tions—hardly the behemoths, we pick them [in April]. My Sutcliffe, who is based in like Yarden and Carmel, based in wife said, ‘What better name England, said that Judean Hills’ Israel’s northern region. is there for the daughter of wines “have gone on improving For more than 30 years, Flam a winemaker than Gefen?’,” all the time.” was employed by Carmel, includ- Yisrael Flam said, sitting on the Adam Morey, a buyer for ing 15 years as its chief winemaker. vineyard’s veranda, just north Empire Wine, based in Albany, In 1998, while still with Carmel, of Beit Shemesh. N.Y., said that wine drinkers he started his own company. One of his workers can be seen talk, and recommendations drive Flam took his wine seriously, below, pruning a vineyard that sales. All it might take, Morey first apprenticing at a South Afri- was planted the previous sum- said, is a label’s mention in Wine can winery and earning a degree mer. After the biblically man- Spectator magazine or The New in enology, the study of winemak- dated three years of lying fallow, York Times to prompt a run of ing, at the University of Cali- he says, “Thank God we’ll start orders on his shop, which stocks fornia-Davis. When he started picking” from that field. 6,000 wines and spirits. Flam Winery, his sons joined The modern wine-producing “[One that] I’ve been asked the family business; Gilad is now period began in the late 19th about a number of times,” he said, the winery’s director, and Golan century, when, Flam explains, the land “renewed itself” fol- lowing millennia of neglect. In the hills, though, apples, pears, plums and apricots used to dominate but required far more water to grow. Not until the late 1980s was a more concerted effort made to exploit the soil for winemaking. Another decade or so passed before the high-quality wines started getting bottled— and noticed. Photo Winery courtesy of Yatir A short ride east of Flam, along Route 395, lies the Domaine du Castel winery, headquartered in a series of pastel-painted structures that once were barns on the land’s moshav, Ramat Raziel. In 24 SUMMER 2014 The Ben Zaken family: Eli, Illana, Eytan and Ariel of Castel Vineyards. the winery’s tasting room, Chief Rabin’s head- Marketing Officer Stav Avrahami quarters when he opens “Hugh Johnson’s Pocket commanded the Wine Book 2008.” She points to Harel Brigade the British wine maven’s issuing in crucial 1948 of four stars to Castel, the first battles. time he had placed it among the The “clos” of world’s elite wineries (it would the company’s not be the last). In the 2008 name is French edition, Johnson rated Castel’s for an encircled Vineyards Photo courtesy of Castel Grand Vin among his 200 favor- vineyard, in this ite wines in the world. case formed by cacti, and gat is of those is Yaron Fueredi. A vice In 1988, Ben-Zaken, Cas- Hebrew for wine press. Gideon president of business develop- tel’s founder, said, he owned a White, who handles marketing ment for Red Sea Hotels Ltd., restaurant in Jerusalem and was and sales, dutifully leads a visitor a Tel Aviv-based investment dissatisfied with the quality of to an ancient stone press that’s company, Fueredi was one of the Israeli wine. So, he decided to reached by stepping past the Cab- three vineyard-hopping men at plant vines in his front yard. ernet Sauvignon vines and over Carmei Yosef Winery on a gor- Ben-Zaken didn’t set out to some brush. geous March day. put the Judean Hills on the The French and the Israeli He’s made enough rounds global wine map, but that’s words work together, White on Fridays to receive invita- precisely what’s happened. The explains of the vineyard, which tions from several vineyards to quality of the vines’ yield, he produces 90,000 bottles annually exclusive tastings. One invitation says, “was destiny, luck.” on its 50 acres. was to Sphera, a new vineyard Now, Castel is a 50-acre “The Chardonnay performs in the Judean Hills producing operation that produces 100,000 beautifully here on plots of exclusively whites: Chardonnay, bottles of wine annually, 30,000 limestone and chalk,” White says Sauvignon Blanc, White Signa- of them white—all Chardon- in the British accent he inherited ture and one it calls First Page. nay. Like Flam, Castel is a family from his England-born father, Sphera was launched by Doron business.