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From Battle To Bottle

MARY STEWART KROSNEY

SHARE YOUR SIMCHAS WITH YOUR FRIEND

Celebrate all the joys of your life at
Congregation Beth Shalom

• Beautiful Sanctuary
• Social hall can be sized
to meet your needs, features:
stage, p.a. system, piano
• full-service kitchen for
qualified kosher caterer

• Small Chapel for intimate
family ceremonies
• meeting rooms seat
up to 60
• newly-remodeled bride's room
• reception lobby

"The Best Kept Secret in Town"

Congregation Beth Shalom, 14601 W. Lincoln, Oak Park, 547-7970

CONGREGATION

BETH ABRAHAM HILLEL MOSES

You Should See Us Now!!!

VITAL — VIBRANT — WONDERFUL

2 Ballrooms
2 Bridal Rooms
2 Sanctuaries

WEST BLOOMFIELD'S NEW HEADQUARTERS
FOR SUCCESSFUL PARTIES!

Simple or Sumptuous • Organizational or Private

40 people or 400 people

LET OUR STAFF HELP YOU WITH
ALL YOUR PARTY PLANS

CALL DETH ADRAHAM HILLEL MOSES AT 855-6880
5075 West Maple Road, W Bloomfield, Ml 48033

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P-32 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Merom Golan, Golan Heights
— In and around the Valley of
rIbars, the scene of one of the
fiercest tank battles ever, hun-
dreds of rusting Israeli and
Syrian tank carcasses have
been cleared away and replac-
ed with thriving vineyards pro-
ducing a wine which rivals the
best French and California
products.
The quality of the new kosher
wine has been confirmed by
judges in the 1985 Interna-
tional Wine and Spirit Corn-
petition in London, which this
November awarded Yarden
Sauvignon Blanc, 1983, a
bronze medal.
"This is only the beginning,"
said Shimshon Weiner, the
energetic manager of the pro-
ject, who complains that
winemaking in Israel until now
has been "old fashioned" and
likens the excellent grape-
growing conditions of the Golan
Heights to those of California's
Napa Valley.
"A grape grown under the
right conditions is the basis of
a good wine," he says. Next
comes sophisticated winery
equipment from Italy, oak bar-
rels from France for aging and
an authentic vintner from
California. These are the ingre-
dients which are making wine
experts take notice of the new
Israeli sauvignon blanc; until
now when experts and wine
lovers thought of kosher Israeli
wines only the sweet products
made for religious ceremonial
use came to mind.

Making a Better Wine

Back in 1972, California wine
expert Cornelius Ough saw how
well Shimshon Welner's apple
orchards were doing in the
Golan Heights, an area. Israel
had taken over from Syria in
the 1967 Six Day War. He ad-
vised that grapes be planted
there. The rocky, volcanic soil
combined with the cool sum-
mers and plentiful sunshine
provided perfect conditions for
an excellent wine grape, he
said. Weiner, together with a
group of kibbutzim (communal
farms) took the advice.
By 1981, using sophisticated
agricultural technology in-
cluding drip irrigation, they
started looking around for a
way to turn their bountiful
crops into wine.
The first efforts were
discouraging, if not disastrous.
Large Israeli wine consortiums
refused to pay a premium price
for the grapes and so Weiner at-
tempted to have the grapes
made into wine by a little-
known vintner here. The
result? It tasted pretty bad.
Some professional tasters
doubted if it was wine at all.
It was then that professional
California wine consultant,
Peter Stern, entered the pic-
ture. He was hired by the group
of collective farms in the Golan
area who also sunk $100,000
and a $1 million Israeli govern-

ment grant into the best Italian
wine-making equipment and
the salary of a Fresno-trained
wine-winemaker Philip
Steinschriber.

The Yarden Sauvignon Blanc
was blended with 23%
semillion grapes and aged
briefly in French oak barrels.
The almost colorless wine was
packaged attractively in a clear
bottle with a simple and
elegant white and gold label
displaying an ancient oil lamp
in colored mosaic tile. The label
on the back tells the drinker
that the wine is pressed from
grapes early in the morning
and cold-fermented to add com-
plexity but to retain the
"elegance of fruit," and aged
briefly in French oak barrels.
The results this time were more
than encouraging. Reviews
were enthusiastic. Yarden, they
said, could compete with the
best California and European
wines. Said Los Angeles wine
writer Nathan Chroman,
"What makes this wine ex-
citing is its clean fruit
character with solid sauvignon
blanc aroma that are un-
characteristic for Israel and
reminiscent of better European
and California bottles. There is
virtually no trace of the heavy,
lackluster tastes associated
with wines from some of
Israel's hot and arid growing
regions."

Going Concern

Today 230 acres of vineyards
supply the raw material for
Yarden and several other wines
appearing under the name
Yarden and Gamla. Weiner
manages the operation, consul-
tant Peter Stern, who visits the
Israeli winery three times ???
and sales abroad. The first in-
residence vintner was 24-year-
old Andrew Starr, who received
his degree in enology
(winemaking) from the Univer-
sity of California at Davis.
Starr was hired by Peter Stern
because, "We needed a Jewish
winemaker," says Stern, who
himself isn't Jewish. "In order
for the wine to be strictly
kosher, it must be overseen by
a Jew. And since there are on-
ly about 10 Jewish vintners
known to us, it wasn't easy"
Starr was at first put off by
the prospect of managing an
unproved winery located in the
rough and rocky Golan Heights
on Israel's Syrian border.
Andrew Starr, however, was
not allowed to touch his own
winemaking equipment or
wine before bottling. He may be
a Jew, but he was not religious-
ly observant, and so he gave
orders to religious orthodox
Jewish winery workers, many
times in sign language since he
was not fluent in Hebrew.
Starr's kosher diet in Israel
didn't seem to affect the effi-
ciency of his professional palate,
which he exercised some days
as many as 74 times to taste
wines in various stages of
fermentation (poured from the
fermentation tanks for him, of
course, by a religious worker.).

