The European women’s magazine marie claire suggests a great Christmas gift: pomegranate dessert wine from Israel’s Rimon Winery. This healthy drink, available in Europe (including the UK) and the United States, is a great holiday gift from the Holy Land.

Key ingredient to healthy new wine? Pomegranate

The healthiest red wine on the market is set to hit shelves in the build up to Christmas: Pomegranate wine, made from 100% pomegranate fruit and with no added sugar, will put your guilty conscience at bay over the festive period…well, possibly.

Produced at a winery in the north of Israel, Rimon Winery Pomegranate Dessert wine, dry white wine and port have already received worldwide accolades, thanks to their key ingredient.

The superfood fruit has long been recognized for its wide-ranging health benefits: packed with antioxidants to help blood circulation and prevent heart disease, the wonder fruit also boasts high levels of vitamins A, B and C, plus other essential minerals including iron and calcium.

Described as a full-bodied tipple, with a smooth palette that slips down easily, now you can sup on a glass of vino after work, safe in the knowledge that the ingredients are working wonders on your health and wellbeing. Just remember, everything in moderation…!

Unlike Beaujolais wine, the Binyamina B is made of one-hundred percent Carignan grapes and has twelve percent alcohol content. This grape originates in Spain and has a rich purple color. The grapes were hand harvested from old vines. It’s just one of many enjoyable and unique Israeli wines, available only in Israel.

There are millions of wines from around the world. Even the best critics don’t know about most wines. Yet, very few of them are in the top 100. However, according to this year’s Wine Spectator, an Israeli wine has made their list of the best 100 wines.

Along with the best old world French chateaus, new world California Zinfandels, Napa Cabs, and Argentinean Malbecs, is an Israeli Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2004 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Golan Heights Winery, scored a 90 in the Wine Spectator’s tasting and is listed as #91 of the Wine Spectator’s 100 best wines of 2008!

If you haven’t tried it, ask for it at your local wine shop. If they don’t have it, they can get it from Yarden Inc., the U.S. distribution arm of the Golan Heights Winery.

If you can’t get it in your local shop or prefer to order it, numerous online wine retails carry it including Queen Anne Wine or SkyView in New York and KosherWine.com in Illinois.

Here are the top 5 blogs:

1        Vinography
2        Wine Library TV
3        Dr Vino
4        The Pour
5        Fermentation

Our good friend Richard’s Israeli Wine Direct blog, about his important business of bringing Israeli wine into America, ranks number 18. Only a few spots down (and after a month in which, I admit, I’ve been a bit negligent updating) is us, HaKerem, at 24.

Thank you, keep reading, and let us know your thoughts about Israeli wine.

As every November, tomorrow dozens of wine stores from Paris to Rio de Janeiro will celebrate the first wines of the 2008 Beaujolais harvest.

Beaujolais nouveau, a red wine, is the most popular vin de primeur, fermented for only a few weeks before its release on the third Thursday of November, known as “Beaujolais Day” or “Beaujolais Nouveau Day.”

The Beaujolais nouveau tradition has also flourished in Israel in recent years, with wines from the region in France being celebrated along with homegrown varieties.

This year, Joseph Drouhin’s Beaujolais-Villages line and Louis Jadot’s Beaujolais Nouveau will arrive in Israel, the former introduced by importer The Scottish and the latter by Derech Hayain.

Joining these are local wines Gamay Noir from the Golan Heights Winery, as well as Binyamina Wines‘ “B,” a brand made from young grapes of the Carignan variety.

The celebration in wine stores will begin in the evening, with tastings of a variety of local and imported wines and the traditional opening of the Beaujolais Nouveau bottles at midnight.

Entrance at some locations is free, while others charge a nominal fee. Wine lovers who wish to sample Beaujolais Nouveau can do so at “The Scottish” boutique in the Tel Aviv Port starting at 21:30, and at the Tel Aviv and Savyon branches of Derech Hayain from 22:00.

Hinawi Wine and More is also staging an event to mark the harvest at its Tel Aviv and Rishon Letzion branches, as is Avi Ben in Jerusalem.

Israel’s only Beaujolais-style wine is the Golan Gamay Noveau. The Golan Gamay Noveau is the Golan Heights Winery’s first red wine from the 2008 vintage.

The wine, just like those in the Beaujolais region of France, comes from 100% Gamay grapes, that came from the Tel Fares vineyard on the Golan Heights. The Tel Fares vineyard has the unique conditions of the Golan Heights: cold climate, volcanic soil, and height. The wine is recommended with foods such as a rich pizza, hamburger, grilled or broiled fish with lemon juice and sea salt. It’s recommended to serve cold (perhaps 13-16 degrees Celsius).

Like every year, the bottle for the Gamay Noveau is fashionably styled. This year has the date of the release - November 20, 2008, when it is released at midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. It is only available in Israel and retails for 33NIS-36NIS.

Daniel Rogov’s tasting note follows:

Golan, Gamay Nouveau, 2008: Made, as are the wines of Beaujolais by the process of carbonic maceration and entirely from Gamay grapes this super-young wine, released only weeks after the harvest, offers up a generous dose of raspberry, wild strawberry and grapey aromas and flavors. Dark black cherry toward purple, light, round, super-fruity and fun. Not to be taken with the least bit of seriousness but great fun to drink, especially when well chilled and consumed in large gulps. NIS 33. Score 86. K

The Golan Heights Winery has already released their 2008 Moscato, a light and fizzy wine. This is Daniel Rogov’s tasting note:

Golan Heights Winery, Moscato, Golan, 2008: Oh what a lovely little wine. Made in the style of Moscato d’Asti entirely from Muscat Canelli grapes, with generous sweetness set off nicely by lively acidity and a light fizzy nature. Nothing complex here but delightful aromas and flavors of wild flowers, green apples, peaches and passion fruit and minerals. Light- to medium-bodied, low in alcohol (6%) and remarkably refreshing, as good as an aperitif as a dessert wine with fruit-based pies, tarts and mousses. An ebullient wine to drink as well chilled as you would a Champagne. Drink now. NIS 40. Score 87. K

In addition, the Golan Heights Winery is releasing their annual Gamay Noveau, which is the only Israeli wine that is done in “Beaujolais-style.”

Tishbi Winery is also releasing their Tishbi Junior and Binyamina is releasing their Binyamina B. Here is Daniel Rogov’s tasting note for the Binyamina ‘B’:

Binyamina, “B”, 2008: Whether this super-young wine is meant to be referred to as “B”, “BB” or “Baby” rather eludes me. Although relying on carbonic maceration as do the young wines of Beaujolais, this local version relies entirely on Carignan grapes. Whatever, dark black cherry in color, light, round, and easy to drink with strawberry, red currant and raspberry fruits. Nothing serious here but a nice little wine. Drink well chilled. NIS 30. Score 85. K

This influential guide dedicates about as much space to Israeli wine as it does to well-known wine regions like Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and Central Europe. Actually, it devotes more space to Israeli wines than South Africa!

My contacts in the wine industry tell me that, as a result, Israeli wine is finally getting the attention that it deserves … maybe even that’s how you found this blog. But, either way, if you like wine, explore Robert Parker and Mark Squires’ recommendations in the new Parker Wine Buyers Guide.

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Nevertheless, the Israeli food portal Bakbuk was there and covered the event. Most importantly is a video of part of Rogov’s address.

Rogov releases his annual Israeli wine guide

Since Daniel Rogov first arrived in Israel in 1978, he’s been tasting wine. In the past thirty years, he’s seen the dramatic rise of Israeli wine as – well – something to avoid to today, where wines from Israel are getting international recognition from the world’s best critics. For the past five years, his guide has served as the encyclopedia for hundreds of Israeli wineries and thousands of Israeli wines. This year’s guide is over 520 pages – the biggest yet.

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The 2009 edition includes tasting notes for 2,350 wines (from several vintages) including over 700 new wines. It ranks an additional 21 new wineries. It also features an expanded section on how to taste wine. It even includes a new cover design.

New wineries include Asif, which I’ve seen a lot of bottles in Jerusalem lately, Three Vines, Trio, and more. What’s new in it? Simply new wines. More wineries. It shows more and more how Israeli wine has undergone a radical transformation and the Israeli wine world is serious and will be a major player in the years and decades to come.

If you want to know if a wine is good or not – this is the book to get.