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On Thursday, April 1st, 2010, I met the Allen family at Tishbi Winery for a hearty breakfast of shakshuka, salad, cheese, wine jellies and maztah. Along with breakfast I treated them to a tasting of Tishbi's 2009 semi-dry Gewurztraminer, 2009 dry Sauvignon Blanc, 2009 young Merlot, 2006 aged Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 sweet Muscat dessert wine, and to top it off the 2006 Barabara-Zinfindel Port-style wine.

Somehow, after all that wine, the Allen family was still standing and able to take a nice tour of the Tishbi winery facilities, including the oak barrel room and Alembic Distillery which makes their brandy.
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We then drove up to Ramat HaNadiv and enjoyed a stroll along the botanical gardens. Because it was during passover, and most of Israel is on a vacation, there were lots of children running around and families enjoying the day together.

Our next stop was Somek Winery, where Barak, the winemaker, who is also the farmer, showed us his ancient pressing machine and French oak barrels.  The Allen family tasted the 2007 Chardonney oaked for 12 months, 2005 Carignon oaked for 24 months, and the blend Bakat HaNadiv (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 15% Petit Syrah).
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During Passover the town of Zichron Yaakov holds a festival where over 80,000 people attend. There are food stands, musicians, artists and many things for kids to do.  We walked through the crowds so the Allen family could get a taste of the European feeling in Zichron Yaakov from the First Aliyah in 1882.
 


Comments

Barry Allen link
04/04/2010 13:51

Esther:
My family really enjoyed our trip to the Tishbi and Somek wineries, the pleasant stop at the Rothschild botanical gardens, and the wall to wall tourists in Zichron Yaakov. Your planning enabled us to see a big winery (Tishbi, 1MM bottles per year) and compare it with a small winery (Some, 10K bottles per year), which gave us all a good picture of the diversity of the Israeli wine industry. We also got a real taste of the difference between American Oak and French Oak casked wines. The food at Tishbi was excellent, as were the wines in both locations. You were kind enough to answer all our questions, and to make sure the tour was unhurried, educational, and fun. Thanks for making this part of our trip to Israel such a success.

Barry Allen

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