AESTHETIC DERMATOLOGY

Rosh HaShana

Pleasant Palate

Phyllis Fine R.N.
& Associates

Quality Israeli wine continues to forge ahead
at home and abroad.

ERIC SILVER
Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem

Iff artin Gerstel, a high-

flying company execu-
tive from Silicon Valley,
and his Israeli wife
Shoshana, wanted to refurbish a his-
toric old house in Jerusalem's Ethiopia
Street. So they installed a wine cellar
and shipped in 30 to 40 cases of
Napa Valley's choicest.

l

Thousands of aspiring connoisseurs
each year are taking courses at the Tel
Aviv Wine Academy. Every Israeli news-
paper worth its "Style" supplement runs
a regular wine column. There are two
Hebrew magazines devoted to the
grape. Every city boasts at least one
well-stocked wine store. Tasting clubs
flourish in the suburbs.
Tamar Porat, a 25-year-old sabra,
works in Avi Ben's Jerusalem shop
where my friend bought his Merlot.
"Things are totally changing," she

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A decade later, he restocks with the
fruit of the vine, Israeli style. "The
quality here has improved greatly over
the last 10 years," he says, "particular-
ly the reds. I find them just as good as
we had in California. Some of the
smaller Israeli wineries have good and
bad years, but Golan's Yarden has
excellent quality every year.
To prove the point, a veteran jour-
nalist colleague, an Englishman with a
French wife, recently took four bottles
of Yarden Merlot back home to
France after sipping the velvety red
during a visit to Israel.
Forget the sweet and sticky kid-
dush wine of yesteryear. Israeli wine is
on the map. And Israelis are drinking
it too. The Promised Land is going
yuppie.

"

#00A //ealag /3"ett-oto /Vete yam

Somerset South • 1st Level •

Kiddush wines are no longer Israel's major wine export.

DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS

tIN

says. "It's trendy to drink wine. It's an
OK thing to do. People don't think
it's an affectation. Young Israelis travel
more, they're exposed to good wine in
other countries, and they're demand-
ing it here too." Over the past 15
years, Israeli wine producers have
begun to give it to them. Adam
Montefiore, Golan's international
marketing manager, was a professional
wine buyer in England before making
aliyah 10 years ago.
"Wine from Israel," he shudders to
remember, "was pretty terrible. I used
to wonder if it was made from
grapes." Golan, with its California
know-how, led the revolution, but
others have been quick to follow.
Alongside the established compa-
nies like Carmel, Baron and Barkan,