HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog

If you use Facebook and love Israeli wine, then check out the new “Israeli wine” page on Facebook and become a fan.

Help spread the word about this blog and about wine from the emerging eastern Mediterranean country of Israeli via viral Web 2.0 methods! Check it out!

We all know that wine has many health benefits (in moderation). It’s long been known that red wine can be good for the heart. But apparently, it’s also an effective remedy against food poisoning.

According to research, first reported in October 2007, conducted at the University of Missouri, red wine “appears to act as a natural anti-microbial in our intestinal tract.” The wines that exhibit this most strongly: Cabernet, Zinfandel, and Merlot.

Red grape juice produced similar results but this was not found in white wine.

Unfortunately, after eating some falafel last week at a falafel stand on Rehov Bezalel in Jerusalem, I came down with a horrible case of food poisoning over Shabbat which – while improved from the situation over the weekend – has still not completely disappeared. I haven’t tried the wine yet (and, opened up a bottle of white wine over Shabbat – which I couldn’t drink due to the poisoning) but I think a glass is worth a try.

An article about Israeli wine is in this month’s Decanter, the UK’s finest wine magazine. For copyright reasons, I’m not posting it but it can be purchased via Decanter’s website.

In addition, there will be an article in next month’s Wine Spectator, expected to hit newsstands in late June.

It’s great to see Israeli wine get noticed! We’re on the way up!

Thanks! We’ve hit over 10,000 unique hits in just about 6 months! It’s great to know that there are so many fans of Israeli wine and a market for news about Israeli wine in English.

Keep reading, keep linking, and please encourage others to read, link, and drink Israeli wine!

And if you have comments or thoughts about ways to get even more people to read or things you want to see drop me a line! What’s missing in the Israeli wine world?

But thanks for the 10,000! ‘Til 120,000!

I want to point out a little-known feature of this blog – the store. Yes, one of the important functions of HaKerem is not merely a list of wine essentials – from books, DVDs, and accessories like stemware and wine fridges – but also the opportunities to order them online via Amazon.com.

I want to just quickly highlight a few offerings, but I strongly encourage you to check it out and make a purchase. If there are products you think are missing, let me know.

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Check out this new article by Adam Montefiore on the history of Israel wine since independence.

As Israel celebrates Yom Hatzma’ut – Independence Day for the 60^th time, I have been given the task to look back and select a wine to cover each decade. This is not necessarily meant to be a list of the best wine, but the one that best represented Israel at the time, particularly overseas.

1948 -1958

This is a difficult choice. The main brands that continue from pre-state until today are not wines but brandies: both Carmel Extra Fine Brandy and Stock 84 have survived the 60 years of statehood and are still on the shelves. However, if I had to choose a wine to be representative of the period from 1948 to 1958, it would have to be a sweet wine, which is what people then drank. Then there were wines sold by names which have since been protected, like Port, Sherry, Malaga & Tokay. A big seller representing Israel overseas at this time was Palwin (short for Palestine Wine) – Israel’s oldest wine brand, but this was exclusively sold in Britain. So my choice would be Alicante, which was then a sweet red wine made by the Alicante Grenache variety.

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Check out the new page I just added on “WINE TASTING”

Pay attention to the do’s and don’ts and check out the video at the end!

Happy wine tasting!

In addition, in response to popular request, I’ve added a table of some of Israel’s more popular wines with some basic information on them, including when they were founded and whether or not they are certified kosher.

Today is Yom Ha’atzmaut — Israel’s 60th Independence Day. What are you drinking on this miraculous and glorious day? Wherever you are in the world today, pick up a bottle of Israeli wine in celebration!

Carmel: