I've really been enjoying the Wine Enthusiast lately. They've got some of the best coverage from a mainstream wine magazine of Israeli wine representing where the Israeli wine market is today. Particularly, I should add, on their social media channels. So, I was pleased to see a blog post?dispelling?the famous kosher wine myth in the post...

[I plan to write much more on this next week, but here is a post that I wrote on Daniel Rogov's forum] In response to the discussions [on Rogov's forum] about blogging and the wine industry, I just found out that Lift9 (a social media marketing agency – I have no affiliation with them nor this

(The following is a guest post from Irene Sharon Hodes, reprinted with permission) I had the opportunity to taste a wine that is new to me,?Vitkin?s 2006 Petite Sirah. A friend brought the bottle to the?vegan dinner party I hosted last Friday (an exceptional experience I really need to get on to blog about).? She knew

Israwinexpo is coming back! This biennial professional Israeli wine event first occurred in 2006, then again in 2008, and is now coming back to Tel Aviv. Israwinexpo, along with Sommelier, are the two top wine events in Israel. Open to the public only on February 10-11, 2010 from 16:00-22:00 (4PM-10PM), the Israeli wine tasting will be

It's not my practice to post kosher wine events on this Israeli wine blog, since kosher wine and israeli wine are different — not all kosher wine is Israeli, not all Israeli wine is kosher, but of course many Israeli wine is kosher and the best kosher wine comes from Israel. So, I thought my readers

A unique gathering of international chefs came together in Jerusalem to cook a Gala Dinner, to honor Chef Shalom Kadosh. Two hundred people paid NIS 1,800 (nearly US$ 475 each) for a ticket for this unique and prestigious event. The proceeds went to Beit Issie Shapiro in Ra?anana, which cares for children and adults with

In honor of New Year's Eve, this is a repost of a post from earlier this month about Israeli sparkling wine. I'm drinking the Carmel Selected Sparkling Wine for New Years. What about you? Sparkling wine is the wine of fashion and celebration. Whether on New Year?s Eve or at a wedding, it remains the classic

I've written about Israeli wine from Biblical Times until the 1990s. Here's Israeli wine from the last decade: Now is the time to look back at the 2000?s, as the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close. It was a very good decade for Israeli wines. The boutique boom that began in the

Israeli TV has a new piece on Daniel Rogov and Israeli wine. It's in Hebrew so – ?learn Hebrew! I probably don't have time to add subtitles to the video.

I just discovered 1337wine via Twitter and it appears that he just discovered Israeli wine. In his video wine show (episode 101 and counting), Mark Fusco is introduced to Israeli wines with tastings of the: Barkan Chardonnay Galil Mountain Yiron Ella Valley Syrah As someone very knowledgeable about Israeli wine (and Israel, in general, having li...

Every year a new wine festival opens in Israel, from the southern tips of Eilat to the northern tips of the Golan Heights. But it is no exaggeration to say that Israel's most important wine festival is Tel Aviv's?Sommelier. This giant Israeli wine festival has now been held for several years, with wines from Israel and

Wherever Jews have resided, there has always been home based wineries making wine for the Kiddush sanctification of the Sabbath. For the required blessing, grape beverages are necessary. Apart from a regular wine, either raisin wine or even grape juice is also suitable according to Jewish traditions, being regarded by Jewish law with the same

My Israeli wine buddy Richard Shaffer of Israeli Wine Direct has just placed Israeli wine in my favorite city and hometown: Washington DC Watch his video

Rogov?s Guide To Israeli Wines 2010 has been launched. This is the sixth edition of the book which has become a fixture in the wine libraries of wine lovers, connoisseurs and wine professionals alike. The launch party was an intimate gathering of the main wine personalities of Israel, including all the major wine writers and critics

I plan on posting more over the next week about the launch of Daniel Rogov's Launch of the Guide to Israeli Wines 2010 and his new Guide to Kosher Wines (Disclosure: I received an invite to the launch party and copy from Toby Press, the publisher). In the meantime, however, here is a video from my

I've previously blogged about the Jerusalem Wine Festival but I haven't yet had a chance to attend the Tel Aviv Wine Festival which is held at the Tel Aviv Eretz Yisrael Museum, near Tel Aviv University. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera and my cell phone had one indicator left, so I didn't want to waste

Unfortunately most Israelis associate sweet wines with Kiddush and religious ritual, and therefore the very word ?sweet? has connotations of a cheap and nasty wine. Something which is to be avoided, at all costs. However some of the world?s most sought after and expensive wines are sweet, pudding wines. An Eiswein or Trockenbeerenauslese from Germa...

Israeli wine has gone global. Yarden, Inc., the American importer of Golan Heights Winery (Yarden, Gamla, Golan) and Galil Mountain Winery, was at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Incidentally, I discovered this via Yarden's inactive Twitter account (I am on Twitter @hakerem)

Twenty years ago there was a large market for Israeli brandies. Stock 84 and Brandy 777 were big domestic brands. In the 1990?s Carmel & Tishbi brandies won major international recognition at the very highest possible level. Yet high domestic taxes and the fact that brandy just drifted out of fashion, have contributed to an

From Daniel Rogov's forum: Wine and Gourmet Magazine will be holding its 12th wine tasting event at Museum haAretz in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday, 21 and 22 October. A small change this year, for whereas in the past the event featured only Israeli wines, this time imported wines will also be offered for tasting.

Daniel Rogov's Guide to Israeli Wine is coming out in a few weeks for 2010 (How did that happen?). He's been publishing this annual guide to Israeli wine for the past several years and it keeps on getting bigger and bigger. One of the most interesting sections of Daniel Rogov's Israeli wine tasting guide is his

It's almost the end of 2009 and so the young 2009 vintage wines are soon coming out. While it's traditional for the boujealais Gamay to be the first of the harvest, young white wines are sometimes also released aroudn the same time. Golan Moscato 2009 is a white dessert wine, young, fresh, and light to drink.

Decanting Israel, which I spoke about previously, seems to be trying to channel Gary Vaynerchuk with their second video: Gvaot Herodion Cabernet – Merlot 2006, which is a wine that I've found to be quite enjoyable too.

How much beer does it take to make wine: A Visit to Dalton Winery The following is a guest post by Alex Aizenberg about his recent visit to Israel. Alex is a lover of Israeli wine and public relations guy. If you are interested in writing a guest post for HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog, please e-mail

I'm not the only enthusiast for Israeli wine here in the Holy Land. And apparently someone's a bigger fan of Gary V than myself (personally, I want to be the next Daniel Rogov or Robert Parker). Mitch Scheider, who has connections in the kosher wine world, has started Decanting Israel, which is a video show featuring

by Amos Ravid Amos Ravid is Wine Education Manager of Carmel Winery. This article first appeared in Wine, Gourmet & Alcohol and Wines Israel. Although Israel has a long history of winemaking, the country does not have its own indigenous grape varieties. The Ottomans, when in control of Palestine, virtually only permitted the planting of vineya...

Wine Spectator is currently holding its 2009 Video Content and 9 finalists have been announced. Among the video finalists is a little known wine critic named Daniel Rogov talking about wine from a little known wine region called ISRAEL. Unfortunately, I can't embed the video but it's available here. After watching Daniel Rogov, as the old...

Jerusalem.com has an interview with Dan Vered, owner of the Jerusalem Wine and Art store in the Old City in Jerusalem, which is a new wine shop in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. While Israel's "wine revolution" only took place in the last few decades, as we've said before, Israel has been making wine for thousands of years. Dan...

Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year, is this weekend. What are you drinking? I'm thinking of the Binyamina Carigon and the new Yiron Meron. Good choices? How about you?

In honor of Gary Vaynerchuk's appearance in Wednesday's New York Times, I've compiled my own Top 10 Reasons Why I love Gary V! 10 Reasons why I love Gary Vaynerchuk 10. Gary V reminds me a little of myself. Gary Vaynerchuk turned his father's Shoppers Discount Liquor into the $60 million a year Wine Library. My father also...

The Wine Spectator has its latest review of kosher, Israeli wines for the High Holidays. Wines tasted include: GOLAN HEIGHTS WINERY Gew?rztraminer Galilee Yarden Heights Wine 2006 Score: 90 | $23 / 375ml BINYAMINA The Cave Galilee 2005 Score: 89 | $65 CARMEI ZVI-SEGAL BROS. Cabernet Sauvignon Galilee Heights Segal's Special Reserve 2004 S...

If you happen to be near Jerusalem, this is an opportunity to taste a boutique winery near Jerusalem: For those of you who were not able to attend the Harvest Celebration at the Katamon winery, you'll have another chance as Avital has agreed to bring his wines to us for next Friday's tasting. Katamon Winery Just in time

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate has a new tasting of Israeli boutique and garagiste wineries by Mark Squires (who authored the first two reviews of Israeli wine in the Wine Advocate). While Squires's first review was widely received with several wineries receiving scores of 90 or above and the rest receiving scores in the 80s, today's tasting...

Israeli wine from the Golan Heights Winery: From the Grape to the Bottle

According to Daniel Rogov and his 2009 Guide to Israeli Wine, here are the Top Ten Up-and-Coming producers of wine in Israel: Pelter Tabor Assaf Odem Mountain Vitkin Savion Psagot Tulip Avidan Kadita addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.israeli-wine.org%2F2009%2F08%2F27%2F10-up-and-coming -wine-producers-in-israel%2F'; addthis_title = '10+Up-a...

I love how social media can be used to introduce people to Israeli wine. On my Twitter account (@hakerem – you arefollowing me, I presume), I found a wine blogger who was looking for some wine tips. Well, first we bonded over a few tweets about (the lack of) social media in the wine industry.

This article about Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book first appeared on wines-israel.com Hugh Johnson?s Pocket Wine Book 2010 is published already, even though it is only late August 2009. However early or not, it represents good news for Israel! No less than twenty six Israeli wineries have made this prestigious guide book, which is similar...

Israeli wine flows onto international shelves The following is from the Reuters wire service. Read the full article at Reuters JERUSALEM (Reuters Life!) – Israeli wine has long stirred up associations with the syrupy libations of religious rituals, but modern techniques imported from top winemaking nations are now helping it find space on she...

This is a guest post by Adam Montefiore, which was first published in www.wines-israel.com These were the words of an English wine journalist who visited Israel four times in the last 15 years and claimed to know to what was good for the Israeli wine industry. His parting advice was: ?Learn to love Carignan. Every

Galil Mountain Winery, one of the best new world wineries in Israel, has just launched a new wine, which is going to replace their Yiron Syrah. Called the Meron, it is a blend of 78% Syrah, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11% Petit Verdot. It is now available in Israel's best wine shops and, I hear, highly

Who are the top ten wineries in Israel? According to Daniel Rogov they are: Golan Heights Winery (Katzrin, Yarden, Gamla) Margalit Yatir Domaine du Castel Clos de Gat Flam Chateau Golan Carmel (Limited Edition, Single Vineyard, Appellation) Galil Mountain Pelter (This list is from Daniel Rogov's 2009 Guide to Israeli Wine) addthis_url = 'ht...

Much better than I could ever take, here are some photos of the Jerusalem Wine Festival held August 2009 at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (These beautiful photographs are courtesy of Jessica Korman, The F Stops Here) addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.israeli-wine.org%2F2009%2F08%2F10%2Fphotos-from-the- jerusalem-wine-festival%2F'; addthis_tit...

This week is one of my favorite wine events of the year (although as I recently moved to a suburb of Tel Aviv, I?m not sure if I?ll be able to make it)? the Jerusalem wine festival at the Israel Museum! From Daniel Rogov?s post: The annual wine festival held in the sculpture garden of the Israel

The Jerusalem Wine Festival starts tomorrow. Here's a teaser for an interesting video series that a fellow Israeli wine lover is starting. Since I am posting about the Jerusalem wine festival (which starts tomorrow) on the same day, here's a sneak preview: addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.israeli-wine.org%2F2009%2F08%2F03%2Fjerusalem-wine-f es...

Want to learn how to taste wine the right way? Well, apparently a new group of Tel Aviv sommelier's is hosting a new wine tasting class, probably one of the best Israel has to offer. I saw the following announcement: The Premier Cru Wine Academy is proud to present: The first complete wine course in Israel taught