The morning of April 28th I met the West family and their friends in Tiberius for a day tour of the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee Wineries.

We started on the South tip of the Golan Heights at Château Winery and met with Uri Hetz, the head winemaker.  We tasted their Eliad flagship wine, went into the cave that holds all their oak barrels, and enjoyed bread, olive oil and many of their delicious wines.

We then drove North on the Golan Heights to Pelter Winery and met Tal Pelter, the wine maker and owner, in his garage, where we tasted the famous Trio, semi-dry Gewurztraminer,  crisp Sauvignon Blanc, a rich yet balanced Cabernet Franc and many more wines.

We crossed the beautiful Hula Valley and drove to Ramot Naftali hills where we met Rami, the winemaker of Naaman Winery.  Rami was a film maker in Tel Aviv for over 30 years before him and his artist wife retired to the Upper Galilee and decided to have a more relaxing lifestyle as a winemaker and decorator.   At Naaman we tasted his Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.  Rami names his wines after the Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and other music legends.

Our third winery was Galil Mountain Winery where Shiri gave us a private tasting of their Chardonnay, Viognier, flagship Yiron, Meron, and Avivim as well as their Barbara and Shiraz.

The last winery was Adir Winery were we enjoyed being spoiled by Zvi, a wine expert from Brooklyn.  Zvi gave us tastings of both their Kerem Ben Zimra and Plato as well as their Port style wine and dessert wine.

We completed all 5 wineries from 10am to 5:30pm.  The families enjoyed the beautiful views, explanation of each winery and the history of Israeli wines, and most importantly the wines themselves from their superior terrior of the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee Regions.