Why does the old wine adage exist of choosing a white wine to match white meat and a red wine to match red meat? Frequently, adhering to that generalization can prove disappointing, or at least deprive the diner of some food and wine pairings that are magical.  White wines tend to be lighter in weight or body than red wines. White meat, such as chicken and fish, tend to play a role in lighter dishes, and red meat such as beef and lamb tends to be the base of heavier dishes. Lighter wines match better with lighter dishes and heavier wines with heavier dishes so that the food and wine are in harmony with each other and neither dominates. So it’s a weight issue and not any color coding that’s important.

For instance, a heavier tuna steak or salmon filet should be better suited to match a heavier white wine like a Chardonnay from the Castel or Lewinsohn wine boutiques or a Viognier from Yatir or Yarden wineries, but would overwhelm a lighter Sauvignon Blanc from Gush Etzion or Galil Mountain that is ideal for lighter white fish such as haddock, denis (sea-bream) or flounder. Also, a lighter red like Pinot Noir has proven to be a classic match for heavier fish dishes like salmon and Ahi tuna, so much so that sushi restaurants could be considered negligent if at least one Pinot Noir doesn’t appear on their wine list. Pinot Noir also crosses the color line to fly in formation with chicken, duck and turkey. That same Pinot Noir from Yarden or Vitkin wineries might go nicely with a lean cut of beef, but be overwhelmed by a more marbled cut that would play better with a tannic Cabernet Sauvignon from Barkan or from the boutique Margalit and Saslove wineries.

Additionally, one should take into consideration how the dish is being prepared when considering the wine. Boiling or sautéing for instance is a lighter method than grilling. The sauce and seasoning also play a dramatic role. Barbecue sauce could and probably would overwhelm many white wines whether on chicken or beef, so a big and bold fruity wine like Binyamina’s Shiraz or Carmel’s Petite Sirah or a Zinfandel from Dalton should stand up to a lot of outdoor grilled entrees, and often-present notes of black pepper would marry well with barbecue sauces, grilled meats or vegetables.

Once you master the matching of the weight and flavors of a dish to a wine, there are other elements to consider. Acidity is a key component in wine and it is what makes a good wine taste vibrant. When matching a dish with high acidity to a wine, you should attempt to pair the dish with a wine known for high acidity lest the wine comes off as flabby. Sauvignon Blanc is a great choice for a white wine to match many puckering vinegar dressings on salads. Most offer a base of citric flavors and crisp acidity and often are complemented with grassy herbs and even green pepper.  A Cabernet Franc from Recanati, Psagot or Tanya wineries can be a great red alternative as it is known for its acidity and herbal nuances.

On the other hand, matching spicy food with wine can appear to be trickier than it really is. Most hosts will give up after a few tries and settle for a beer or soft drink Two good rules to follow when the dish is spicy hot are to find a wine lower in alcohol and higher in sugar. If you have a higher alcohol beverage with a spicy dish the alcohol tends to amplify the hotness and it is like putting fuel on a fire. Sweeter wines, like a semi-dry Riesling from Carmel or Gewurztraminer from Tishbi, typically have lower alcohol than most table wines because the sweetness comes from residual sugar that wasn’t fermented. Additionally, sweet and spicy are great flavor matches often found in sauces from Mexico, Thailand, India to Japan.

Another clue to good food and wine pairing is to match wines or the wine grapes from certain regions themselves with the dishes from those regions, with the previous rules in mind. Most wines are developed hand-in-hand, with foods from that region. As an example, when trying to find a match for pasta in tomato sauce you might choose a wine made from the red Sangiovese grape. It’s the principal red grape from Italy’s Chianti region, and Chianti wines are a staple of Italian restaurants worldwide. The Gamla and Teperburg labels provide two popular examples.

Last but not least is matching a wine to go with dessert. Too often it’s an afterthought. The simple rule here is to match a wine that is sweeter than the dessert, much like matching an acidic wine with an acidic dish, so the wine doesn’t taste flat. A common violation of this reliable rule is matching a dry Champagne with wedding cake. It’s a waste of expensive bubbly when a less expensive sweet Moscato, often half the price or less, will do a better job. Dalton, Tabor and Teperburg offer affordable and delectable Moscatos that are up to the task. Sweet red dessert wines from Tishbi and Odem Mountain would pair well with red and black fruit based desserts as well as chocolate treats. White dessert wines from Yarden and Tzuba would aptly accompany white fruit desserts as well as vanilla and nutty-flavored fare.

There are books full of more specific suggestions, but this expansion of the basic pairing premise should provide you with a much wider array of opportunities to try wines and dishes in a more favorable light. On their own, a great meal or a great wine can be delightful but paired properly together they can portray a tiny slice of heaven.

David Rhodes is a consulting sommelier & wine educator living in Raanana. You can contact him with your questions about wine at israeliwineguy@gmail.com

Carmel Winery has launched a new prestigious, limited edition, ‘wine finished’ brandy in memory of Daniel Rogov, z”l, who passed away recently. Daniel Rogov was Israel’s most celebrated wine critic, the voice of the Israel wine revolution and a strong advocate for Israeli wines. For nearly thirty years he was Israel’s most famous writer on both food and wine.

Rogov Brandy was distilled mainly from Colombard grapes. It is made up of components of 10, 15 and 27 year old brandies, matured separately in Carmel’s 120 year old cellars. The blend was then ‘finished’ in a used wine barrel. Although ‘wine finished’ whisky is a popular trend, to produce a ‘wine finished’ brandy is rare. However it is considered particularly appropriate in honor of a wine critic.

The individual components celebrate different stages in Daniel Rogov’s career. The 27 year old brandy represents the early 1980’s, when Rogov began to write on food and wine in Israel. The 15 year old brandy represents the 1990’s, when Rogov, writing in the Jerusalem Post, became established as Israel’s most prominent food and wine critic. The 10 year old brandy represents the 2000’s, when Rogov, by now writing for Haaretz, cemented his international reputation, and received international recognition as the world’s leading expert on Israeli and Kosher wines.

Rogov Brandy is rich, very fruity, with a warm, rounded middle palate and long lingering finish. This special and unique brandy comes in a numbered bottle, in its own gift box. Only 300 bottles were produced. It will only be available at the Carmel Wine & Culture Shop, Winery St., Zichron Ya’acov.

Carmel Winery stated producing brandies in 1898 to use excess grapes. The winery has won many trophies and gold medals for its brandies over the years. Rogov Brandy joins the other quality Carmel brandies:

Carmel 100 Brandy

This was created to celebrate Carmel’s 100^th anniversary.

Carmel 100 Brandy won the ultimate award for a brandy at one of the world’s most prestigious competitions for spirits:

Winner of ‘The Oude Meester Trophy for Best Brandy Worldwide 1998.’(IWSC*, London)

Carmel 120 Brandy

This was a limited edition brandy released to celebrate Carmel’s 120^th harvest. Only 2,000 bottles were produced. This brandy received rave reviews, including from Daniel Rogov himself. He regarded it as Israel’s finest brandy.

“The newly released Carmel 120 Brandy raises Israeli brandies to a new level, one frankly that I had not thought possible in the past. This one comfortably earns 95 points.” Daniel Rogov

* The International Wines & Spirits Competition in London.

]]> http://www.israeli-wine.org/2012/01/06/rogov-brandy/feed/ 0 http://www.israeli-wine.org/2011/09/19/corkage-saving-money-on-wine-restaurants/ http://www.israeli-wine.org/2011/09/19/corkage-saving-money-on-wine-restaurants/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:54:15 +0000 David Rhodes http://www.israeli-wine.org/?p=2396 The following is from ESRA Magazine and reprinted with permission of the author.

As Israeli wines and even its restaurant scene have improved dramatically it’s only natural that his reputation and stature have improved as well. It’s almost as if you were selling people on Yugo’s and Yugo’s all of a sudden (or over 25 years) started to make a product that competed with BMW and Infiniti, they’re bound to take someone more seriously or even just take more notice of the guy who was speaking about the potential of Yugo’s all along. Not that his reputation has depended strictly on the performance of Israeli wines, he also has a small apartment in Paris and Florence that allows him to travel and write about European wines for other publications. As much as he’s tied to Israel, he grew up speaking Russian, English and Yiddish, three languages not too uncommon for a kid being raised in the 40′s in Brooklyn, New York.

Daniel Rogov at a cafe on Basel Street in Tel Aviv

Having moved to Israel, Christmas Day, 1976 he got to Israel well before the wine revolution started in Israel. He started to write about food and wine in Europe before starting to write in Israel in 1982 (just as vintages were being picked would find their way into game changing Golan Heights wines and soon after Tishbi wines). These two wineries started the dry wine revolution against kiddush wine and insipid bulk wine that then dominated the Israeli wine marketplace.

So, he has much perspective about Israeli wines as almost anyone having tasted each of these wineries evolve, older wineries revamp and newer wineries emerge. Yet, he’s a very controversal figure in Israeli wine. Why, well to start he’s a critic and critics give their opinions and the better the critic the more opinionated they might be.

Now opinions are subjective in nature even if some criticisms are more fact based than others. But additionally, the taste of food and wine is subjective as well, and rating the service or atmosphere of a restaurant maybe even more so. Having expressed his opinion thousands of times over almost three decades he’s had the opportunity to engender praise and gratitude for positive reviews as well as scorn and antipathy for negative reviews. After 27 years he might even have several generations of families who love him or hate him but if you’re in either the restaurant or wine business it’s difficult to ignore his influence.

That being said, I have had the recent opportunity to debate Daniel Rogov on a few issues on another site about various issues about Israeli wines. It shouldn’t have come to my surprise that he, like me, has a background in philosophy. Criticism is actually, like logic, a common theme in philosophy and our arguments online were poignant yet often dialectic. I can’t say if either of us ever convinced the other of our views but we drew a lot of other parties into the discussions and at least brokered some debates that were interesting to follow and participate in (one was about the quality and perceived quality of mevushal wines and another was about whether a site promoting Israeli wines or Israeli wine writers should review Lebanese wines since they’ve been at a continuous state of war with Israel since 1948). I won’t say who was on what side and how the discussion played out (so as not to rekindle the same debate) but the views others brought to it and their reasons were as much as interest to me as of Rogov’s and mine but it’s his participation in debating the merits of food and wine issues that gives a certain gravitas and magnitude to these discussions for his articles in newsprint cause people to stand up and take notice.  Agree with him or not, I don’t think Robert Parker is spending the time online engaging his readers the way Rogov does.

With my only contact at this point with Rogov (as he often signs his correspondence) being online, it was a result of a cancelled meeting one day in Tel Aviv recently that I followed up on an opportunity to meet this iconic figure in Israeli food and wine.  We met at a local coffee shop on Basel Street (or Bazel Street… Tel Aviv maps and street signs are infamous for having multiple inconsistent English spellings of the same street on different street signs… I think Ibn Givrol might be the worst offender). Of course he preferred sitting outside, he’s a reknowned smoker (more about that later) though it was a dripping hot sticky humid summer day. We sat for about an hour with Rogov interviewing me at first as much as I interviewed him.

Daniel Rogov and David Rhodes at a coffee shop in Tel Aviv: Where’s the wine at?

Although he is incredibly active on various internet sites, he says it’s disturbing how anonymous some people remain in discussion forums and how cowardly it is to attack others who post their real identity while the attackers often hide behind screen names. So I guess, the fact that I not only posted my name and my contact information and that in our online discussions/debates my opinions may have seemed less based on conjecture than others, he agreed it would be good to put a face to who we were talking to online.

Now that being said, I was innately curious about how the meeting might progress. I had mentioned to him about how I had wanted to interview him for this site but I thought by our discussion on the phone it might be a pre-interview introduction more than anything else. Yet, the casual get together quickly gave way to the give and take of an interview and he was very careful to say what was on the record and what was not for publication. He often would interject with personal anecdotes that made for a quicker sense of familiarity than otherwise might have happened at our first meeting and made for a less stuffy start to my afternoon.

Rogov has a certain charm about him that is disarming even though he can’t seem or doesn’t care to censor his comments for effect on how it might offend others. For instance, when I made contact with him and I asked him where he lived, he responded with “the Holy City”, (then a pregnant pause) Tel Aviv. Now I thought it was funny but he didn’t know me and I could see how it could offend others the wrong way and maybe as someone who’s been a critic for decades his work and habits of expressing comments and opinions have given him a poetic license to always say what’s on his mind. Friends of mine may say that I might exhibit a similar trait but maybe that’s why writers need editors.  In fact, some of his most vocal critics seem to be religious Jews living in Israel who wished he would refrain from reviewing non-kosher wines and non-kosher restaurants.Maybe his new book about strictly, the best kosher wines in the world will be seen as an act of contrition to the kosher consumer. With over 1300 kosher wineries in the world (there’s only about 2-300 Israeli wineries many of them which are non-kosher) writing about world-wide kosher wineries might be even a more daunting task than writing exclusively about Israeli wines and Rogov does propose that he has probably tasted more kosher wines than anyone else in the world.

Now with only an hour or so for our first meeting (and I hope one day I’ll be able to sit and actually drink wine with him instead of meeting over coffee) there was a lot of questions left unasked for another day but Rogov was good at cutting to the chase. In explaining what he saw as the role of the critic, he asserted that a critic should write “what you perceive as the truth.” This opened up to the disclaimer that “…critics are not always right. We make mistakes. We’re human”. Yet, he proclaimed his “only boss is the readers” of what he writes.

This article was first written on Travelujah and reprinted with permission.

As Levi writes:

Unlike venture capital, the Israeli wine industry has adopted a bottom-up approach.  A few individuals are helping introduce the Israeli Wine “brand” to an international audience. In particular, there is Daniel Rogov, author of Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wines, and Adam Montefiore, Wine Development Director for Israel’s largest winery, Carmel and Yatir.

Rogov, as he prefers to be known, is someone who I first made acquaintance via his original Israeli wine forum, in which Rogov – who calls himself a curmudgeon and is no technoevangelist practices the most important rule of social media and content marketing (not sure he would appreciate that compliment, though!) which is simply to be open, accessible, informative, and welcoming. This premier critic always answers the questions of his forumites, always is available for tasting notes, and usually shares his views. More importantly, a man of integrity, he calls ‘em as he sees ‘em and doesn’t let his personal opinions get in the way of his tasting notes. Originally from Brooklyn, Rogov has lived in Israel for several decades.

Rogov helped popularize Israeli wines for a global audience. Now prominent wine critics Robert Parker, Hugh Johnson, Mark Squires and Oz Clarke feature sections about Israeli wines in their books. Even web sensation Gary Vaynerchuck tasted Israeli wines with Rogov on Wine Library TV.

The other important figure mentioned is Adam Montefiore, currently the Wine Development Director at Carmel. Since the 1980s, Adam has been marketing Israeli wines (not just Carmel and his former employer, Golan Heights Winery, but really promoting the entire industry) to a global market.  As a marketer myself, Adam has taught me a lot about marketing – notably the first rule: be responsive to your customers. I first met Adam having criticized something at Carmel (since changed and now at world-class standards) and since then he has truly become a mentor . A true man of integrity and Zionist, Adam cares about the whole wine industry and really helping to promote the real Israel to the global audience — a true passion of mine as well.

“My career and hobby is the same- advancing Israeli wine”, says Montefiore. He contributes the Israeli wine section for several of the most famous wine guides and writes about Israeli wine for the Jewish Chronicle (UK) and Jerusalem Post.

“The best resource we have is the wine itself. Doing tastings- with sommeliers, wine press, retailers- is the way to get the message across. While the symbol of Israel was once the Jaffa orange and the kibbutz, today it is quality wine and high-tech. We want people opening a bottle of Israeli wine to think of ingenuity, climate, technology and Mediterranean sunshine. Our industry can symbolize all that is good about Israel.”

For more about Rogov and Montefiore, read the article.

The whole Mount Carmel area has been under international focus since the fierce fires devastated Carmel Forest, the Carmel National Park and the surrounding area.
Mt. Carmel is the north east extension of the Shomron mountains. It is a place where the mountains and the Mediterranean meet. The mountain range rises to a height of 1,800 feet overlooking Haifa Bay, and peters out at Binyamina, where it merges into the Sharon Plain. It is one of the most beautiful places in Israel. The Carmel National Park is the largest in Israel and has become a wildlife refuge. Carmel Forest covers a large area and is made up of oak, pine, olive and laurel trees, many of which were destroyed in the fires. Mount Carmel was a place famous from Biblical times. It was where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal. It was an area of wine and olive oil production and many old presses have been discovered by archaeologists. In those days the slopes were covered by terraced vineyards and olive groves. Wines named “Sharon” and “Carmel” were well-known in the period of the Second Temple.

Appropriately the root of the word ‘Carmel’ is Kerem- El, meaning G-d’s vineyard. The area also carries a relevance to Israeli wine in modern times. Mt. Carmel is a sub region of the Shomron Wine Region. It is the historic vineyard area of Israel, being where Baron Edmond de Rothschild first planted vineyards in the 1880’s. For most of the last 100 years it was the largest wine region in Israel. Today, it is no longer the largest, but arguably the southern Mt. Carmel still has the greatest concentration of vineyards, particularly around the winery towns of Zichron Ya’acov and Binyamina.

Mt. Carmel Wineries The area of the southern Mt. Carmel is unique. Within close proximity it is possible to visit wineries from all stages of the development of Israel’s wine industry. Carmel Winery was built in the 1890’s, Binyamina was founded in the 1950’s, Tishbi in the 1980’s and both Tulip and Amphorae in the 2000’s. The region is very accessible for wine tourists. The southern Carmel lies midway between Haifa and Netanya. It is close to Route 2 (the coast road), Route 4 (aka ‘the old road’) and easily accessible from Route 6 – The Yitzhak Rabin Highway. For a visit to all wineries, including the bigger ones, it is advised to book in advance.

TULIP WINERY (Kfar Tikvah, Kiryat Tivon) is situated in Kfar Tikvah, a community which caters for people with disabilities. It may be found at Kiryat Tivon, which is to the west of Mount Carmel, and to the north of Yokneam. The winery was established by the Itzaki family in 2003 and has swiftly gained a name for quality and value. The Visitors Center provides an opportunity to taste wines in a particularly homey atmosphere. Tel. +972 (0)4 9830573.

AMPHORAE VINEYARD (Makura Farm, Kerem Maharal) is a very extravagantly built, technologically advanced winery in a beautiful setting, in the heart of the Carmel Mountains. Founded in 2000, the winery changed hands in 2008. They offer some quite expensive wines and it is also worth visiting the olive oil press, which is situated close to the winery. Tel. +972 (0)4 9840702.

CARMEL WINERY – ZICHRON YA’ACOV CELLARS was built by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1892 and remains the largest winery in Israel. It also houses a boutique winery with cutting edge technology and an experimental micro-winery. This is the historic winery of Israel, where it is also possible to see evidence of the more recent quality revolution. Carmel Wine & Culture (Winery St., Zichron Ya’acov) is an innovative and unique center for wine culture which combines wine tourism with wine education. It offers wine workshops, and tutored tastings.  Both specialized and personalized tours of the winery may be arranged. The shop contains a selection of bin end wines and magnums unavailable elsewhere. Tel. +972 (0)4 6391788 or wineculture@carmelwines.co.il

SOMEK WINERY(16 Herzl St., Zichron Ya’acov) is a new ‘garagiste’ producing six thousand bottles a year. It is owned by a vine grower, Barak Dahan, whose family were planting vineyards for Rothschild in the 1880’s. His wife, Hila, studied winemaking in Australia. Tel. +972 (0)4 6397982. TISHBI WINERY (Industrial Zone, Binyamina) lies in between Zichron Ya’acov and Binyamina. It was founded in 1985 by Yonatan Tishbi. The present generation’s great grandparents, arrived from Russia in the 1880’s to settle in the tiny village of Shefaya, north east of Zichron. They also became vineyard owners with the sponsorship and encouragement of Rothschild. The Tishbi Winery Visitors Center provides tours, tastings, and a selection of foods, wines and olive oils. Worth seeing is the Alambic Still for distilling brandy, purchased from the Cognac region of France. Tel. +972 (0)4 6288195.

BINYAMINA WINERY is situated in the picturesque town of Binyamina. It was founded in 1952 and was then called Eliaz. It is the fifth largest winery in Israel producing nearly 3 million bottles a year. In 2008 the winery changed hands, and the new owner has invested heavily in new technology. The Visitors Center sits in an old preserved building, surrounded by spacious grounds. The shop offers Binyamina wines and wine accessories. Tel. +972 (0)4 6388643/2 or visitor@binyaminawines.com

OTHER LOCAL WINERIES include:Levron – a domestic winery in Haifa.The Cave – Binyamina Winery’s boutique wine, with barrels aged in a real cave.Smadar, Poizner and Efrati – family wineries in the center of Zichron Ya’acov.Salomon – small family winery in Amikam Moshav, west of Zichron.Alona – a family winery at Givat Nili.Each are making wine with character and passion and are well worth a visit.

Mt. Carmel Vineyards In the little closed valleys of Shefaya, north east of Zichron, or the flatter Hanadiv Valley, south of Zichron, it is possible to see many vineyards growing all the main grape varieties. Some of the younger vineyards are trellised to allow for mechanical harvesting, but many of the older vineyards are in bush-vine style, close to the ground. The most successful variety in this area is Carignan, which was first planted in 1882. For many years it was used for cheap blended wines, but is lately producing excellent quality wines from low yield, old vine vineyards.The elevation of the vineyards is up to 150 meters above sea level. Soils range from calcareous clay, terra rossa, limestone to chalk. The climate is Mediterranean. Winters can be cool and rainy and the summers are hot and humid. Moist westerly winds from the Mediterranean provide a cooling influence. The slopes provide a windbreak to protect the vineyards, many of which are situated in little valleys to the east of the hills. Annual precipitation is about 600 mm.A vineyard is the perfect place for a picnic, especially with a bottle of the locally grown wine.

Mt. Carmel Winery Restaurants

If visiting wineries and vineyards makes you hungry, there are some good restaurants situated in the wineries themselves. They offer the opportunity to eat whilst absorbing the winery atmosphere and tasting wines produced closeby to where you are sitting.

TISHBI COFFEE HOUSE, (33 Hameyasdim St. Zichron Ya’acov) is housed in one of the original buildings on the ‘Founders Street’ owned by the Tishbi family. This is an ideal place to begin the day with an Israeli breakfast. Tel. +972 (0)4 6290280.

TISHBI WINERY VISITORS CENTER (Industrial Zone, Binyamina) includes a diary restaurant which is kosher. Here it is possible to sit under the trellised vine to enjoy local cheeses and a glass of wine. Tel. +972 (0)4 6288195.  
BISTRO DE CARMEL, (Carmel Winery, Wine St., Zichron Ya’acov) is situated in the ‘Winemaker’s House.’ Today it is a restaurant serving a Mediterranean style, kosher dairy menu. The restaurant is made up of a number of small rooms, suitable for intimate VIP dinners, a balcony overlooking the winery and a large attractive deck pateo, suitable for larger groups or parties. For bookings: Tel. +972 (0)4 6290977 
BINYAMINA WINERY VISITORS CENTER (Hanassi St., Binyamina) offers a kosher meat restaurant in the building originally founded in 1925 by Rothschild as a perfume factory. It may also be hired for events, summer functions, business meetings etc. The steaks and salads are recommended. Tel. +972 (0)4 6388643/2 orvisitor@binyaminawines.com

Ramat Hanadiv Memorial Gardens and Nature Park A visit to the southern Mt. Carmel wine country would not be complete without visiting Ramat Hanadiv. Baron Edmond de Rothschild was known as the ‘father of the yishuv’ by David Ben Gurion. However of all places that he helped, it was Zichron Ya’acov and Mt. Carmel that had a special place in his heart. He purchased land in the area between Zichron Ya’acov and Binyamina, which came to be known as Ramat Hanadiv (‘Hill of The Benefactor’) and requested to be buried there. In 1951 the remains of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and his wife were interred in a specially constructed mausoleum. This is the place for a hike or picnic. Apart from the opportunity to pay respects to the founder of Israel’s wine industry, there are beautiful gardens, a nature park and a short film about Ramat Hanadiv. There are also archaeological and historical remains, including an ancient wine press. Tel. +972 (0) 4 6298111 or www.ramat-hanadiv.org.il
Visit the wineries and vineyards of the southern Mount Carmel and the beautiful town of Zichron Ya’acov and you experience nearly 130 years of Israeli wine culture. You may then agree with Rothschild that this is the Tuscany or Provence of Israel. It remains the heart of Israeli wine.

Sparkling wines have become very popular almost overnight in Israel. The number of imported sparklers, mainly Cava from Spain or Prosecco from Italy, has increased dramatically. The trend is led by the young adults, in particularly women. They may be heard ordering a ‘glass of Cava’, when what they really want is any sparkling wine. It has almost become the new generic word in Hebrew, to cover anything sparkling!

Sparkling wine is the wine of fashion and celebration. Whether on New Year’s Eve or at a wedding, it remains the classic wine to make a toast with. It is also symbol of success and happiness. Sparkling wines range from the classic Champagnes from France, which represent the ultimate of luxury, through to semi or lightly sparkling wines, like Lambrusco, at the other end of the price spectrum.

Sparkling wines make the perfect aperitif. They accompany most first courses better than most wines, are ideal with fish or smoked salmon and even go well with cold meats. No-one drinking a sparkling wine throughout a meal will be disappointed. A glass of dry sparkling wine is also very clean, refreshing way to finish a big meal.  Sparkling & semi sparkling wines are the fastest growing category in Israel.  Anything with bubbles is IN. To counteract the invasion, and for those that want to drink ‘blue and white’, Israel is today making an excellent range of sparkling wines that cover every style and at every price point. They can more than match up to the needs of any party, wedding or celebration. The best are as follows.

Golan Moscato, Young Selected Moscato and Carignano – all 2010 These low alcohol wines are light, fruity and sweet with a slight sparkle. The white Moscatos are made from the Muscat grape and the red Carignano from Carignan. These wines are versatile, being suitable for any occasion, and at any time of day. They are fun wines, not to be taken too seriously.

Selected Sparkling NV An ‘extra dry’ sparkling wine made from Colombard and Sauvignon Blanc grapes grown in the coastal regions of Israel. It is light, fruity with a delicate and not too obvious sweetness. The wine represents excellent value for money. It is proving especially popular for banqueting and events. Selected, produced by Carmel Winery, is the largest selling brand in Israel.

Tabor Pninim Tabor produce two semi sparkling red and white wines. The white is made from Gewurztraminer and Viognier grapes and the red is made from Merlot. The wines are lower alcohol (9.5 – 10%) than most sparkling wines. Both are semi dry, quaffable and may described as fun wines, to be enjoyed without pretension. The wines are produced by Tabor Winery, situated in Tabor Village (Kfar Tavor) in the Lower Galilee.

Tabor 652 Brut NV A new sparkling wine made by the charmat process. It comes in both a white and red version. The reason for the number is that Mt. Tabor is at an altitude of 652 meters. The red wine is the first genuine sparkling red wine in Israel and is made from Barbera grapes. It is fruity with a refreshing cranberry finish. The white is made from 80% Chardonnay and, unusually, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Both are refreshing and good value.

Private Collection Brut NV This sparkling wine is made by the charmat or cuve close method. It is made from Colombard and Chardonnay from the Judean Foothills. Five percent of the Chardonnay was fermented in small, French oak barrels. The wine is refreshing, with an aroma of lime, green apple, with hints of lightly toasted bread. The quality to price ratio is excellent, and it is as good as any Cava.

Tishbi Brut 2009 A bottle fermented sparkling wine made 100% from French Colombard grapes, grown in the Shomron Region vineyards, close to Binyamina and Zichron Ya’acov. This was a style of wine previously made by Tishbi Winery. They then stopped for a few years and have now decided to reintroduce it again. It is a clean, well-made wine with a good lemony finish.

Gamla Brut NV Gamla Brut is made by the traditional method from 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir, grown in the relatively cool climate Golan Heights. The wine is left to age for one year at least before disgorging. The wine is bone dry, with good berry aroma and refreshing acidity. This is made by the Golan Heights Winery, at Katzrin.

Yarden Blanc de Blancs 2005 Israel’s finest champagne method sparkling wine, made 100% from Chardonnay grapes grown on the high altitude northern Golan Heights. This is a vintage wine. The grapes are hand picked in whole clusters. The wine rests four years on its tirage yeast before release. The wine is delicate with tropical fruit notes, and a toasty backdrop. It is of the quality of the finest champagne and is made totally authentically, but is a great deal better value.

Pelter Blanc de Blancs NV A tiny production of traditional method sparkling wine, made from Chardonnay grapes grown in the Galilee and Golan. The wine rests for three years on its yeasts. The result is a fresh, aromatic and intense wine. Pelter is one of Israel’s best small wineries. The wine is rare, exclusive and very expensive.