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David Perlmutter

David Perlmutter

David Perlmutter was born and raised in the US and moved to Israel as a young adult. Before becoming a tour guide David farmed an avocado grove when he was a member of Kibbutz Einat and served in the Israeli Defense Forces..

David has been guiding since 1988 and specialized in private tours since purchasing his first off-road vehicle in 1993. From hiking, mountain biking and off-road trips David has acquired an intimate knowledge of Israel’s different geographical areas and enjoys sharing outdoor experiences with his clients.

David Perlmutter began visiting Israeli wineries when the wine revolution of Israel was in its infancy. Over the years, David’s knowledge of wine and Israel’s wine industry has grown through both experience and formal training. David is recognized as an expert on Israeli wine by  fellow guides, winemakers and other members of the wine industry who regularly turn to David to consult about wine tourism. David has taken a number of formal courses in wine and recently completed the prestigious Wine and Spirits Educational Trust Level 3 Course in Wine and Spirits with Merit.

David is happily married to Tamar and is a father to four teenage boys. David and Tamar are building their home in the new community of Eliav located in the Lachish region of Israel. David is an active volunteer with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national Emergency Medical Service  both as a first responder and crewing ambulances at the local station.

Culinary Tours

Israel’s Mediterranean Fusion is an explosion of flavors based on the high-quality fresh produce that is readily available year round prepared with influences from the classic French kitchen as well as different cuisines absorbed by the chefs in their mother’s kitchens in this nation of immigrants.
Our culinary tours will take you to the local markets where you can sample the wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables. In recent years our markets have undergone an additional revolution with young talented chefs opening new restaurants in the markets with the menu influenced by the market traditions and infused with fine dining traditions. No tour of the market will be complete without sampling from these new restaurants.
Israel is a virtual wonderland of artesian producers of breads and cheeses as well. Throughout the country we find small sheep and goat farms that produce hand-crafted cheeses. Not long ago the only cheeses available were soft white cheeses. Today there are many fine aged cheeses being produced in small dairies spread out in the Israeli countryside. No culinary tour to Israel is complete without a visit and tasting at the best of these dairies and an opportunity to meet the cheese-makers.
Israel is where olive oil originated in our historical past. Today we have many talented producers of excellent olive oil, with the best oil produced by variety. Besides the indigenous varieties of Souri and Nabali often unknown outside of Israel, many popular varieties from France and Italy are also grown here. The olive harvest takes place in November and early December. Any olive press visit at this time will be enhanced by seeing the oil produced.
Your culinary tour of Israel can include workshops in preparing the new Israeli cuisine with leading chefs. These workshops will  begin with choosing the products in the market before returning to the kitchen to prepare a meal under the guidance of  a well-known chef. Then you can relax and enjoy the meal accompanied by one of Israel’s fine wines.

Matei Yehuda Wine Event

Opening Event of the 15th Annual Matei Yehuda Wine Festival. Held for the first time in Mini Israel, a roomier venue, this evening marks the beginning of a month-long festival where the wineries of Matei Yehuda open their doors to the public.

The festivities include a 5k and half-marathon race through vineyards Merutz Hayekevim, mountain bike tours between wineries that visit ancient wine presses and modern vineyards with Trail Head, and weekly guided tours of the wineries in the region.

 

The New Israeli Wine Guide

Two years ago Israel’s best-known wine critic Daniel Rogov passed away. In 2005 Rogov, who was Ha’Aretz newspaper’s restaurant and wine critic, wrote his first Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wines. This comprehensive guidebook to Israeli wines was based on Rogov’s tastings of wine at the wineries. By visiting each of the wineries he wrote about, Rogov was able to include barrel tasting of wines not yet released as well as wines ready for the market. Daniel Rogov was the first wine writer to use a 100-point scale in rating Israeli wines. His scores are still proudly quoted by the wineries who achieved above 90 points.

Daniel Rogov’s guidebook was subsequently released annually, getting thicker each year as the number of wineries included in the guidebook increased with the growth in the Israeli wine industry. The 2012 edition of Rogov’s book was published as the Ultimate Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wines as it was the last edition published.

Following the untimely death of Daniel Rogov, wine enthusiasts interested in Israeli wines had to work hard to learn about new wines. This task was even more daunting for the English speaker since most of the articles written about Israeli wine appear in Hebrew.

No new guidebooks were written about Israeli wines although Eliezer Sachs released an updated version of The Wine Route of Israel and a new map of the wineries. Sachs’ book is essentially about the wineries and the people associated with the wineries-owners and winemakers. Israeli wines are not rated in The Wine Route of Israel.

Understanding the void left by Rogov’s untimely departure, two Israeli wine professionals took upon themselves to produce a new guide to Israeli wines. Yair Gath, who writes about wine in the Israeli daily newspaper Yisrael Hayom and Gal Zohar, sommelier, IWC judge and wine consultant. Gath and Zohar’s New Israeli Wine Guide will hopefully fill the gap left with the loss of Rogov while being very different in its orientation and the way wines are judged.

First of all, for now The New Israeli Wine Guide will not appear as a printed book. Rather it will be published as an e-book. While the guide will be published in both Hebrew and English, the focus is on foreign markets with an emphasis on kosher wines. Unfortunately, until Israeli wines find themselves on geographic display in wine shops outside of Israel (maybe Eastern Mediterranean Wines?) they are usually found on in the kosher wine section. This is due to the fact that the major market for Israeli wines overseas is still the Jewish market, particularly in the US. For those of us in Israel who fervently believe in the quality of Israeli wines, we continue to hope that Israeli wines will break through the stigmas of sweet sacramental wine, something that characterized Israeli wines until the wine revolution of the 1980’s.

The biggest innovation of Gath and Zohar’s new book is that the scores were all given in blind tastings. Rogov scored his wines knowing exactly what he was drinking and his affinity for people and wineries were worth extra points. The lack of bias in the blind tasting is clearly shown in the relatively low scores given to the top 20 Israeli wines in the preview edition of the New Israeli Wine Guide. The scores are all in the 87-90 range.

Yair Gath with Ha’aretz food writer Ronit Vered revealing wines after blind tasting

You can receive a free copy of the preview edition of the New Israeli Wine Guide by emailing israel70wines@gmail.com.

You can keep up to date with the release of the New Israeli Wine Guide on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NewIsraeliWineGuide.

Beit El Winery

Carignan almost ready for harvesting.

Outside of the international consensus but deep in the Biblical heartland of Israel, lies the settlement Beit El. Beit El is mentioned many times in the Bible. Beit El is where Jacob dreams of the ladder that reaches into the heavens, with angles ascending and descending. And in his dream God promises Jacob to give him and his descendants the land on which he lays. When he wakes up, Jacob says, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it”.

Beit El Winery vineyards on the ancient terraced slopes.

Vigernon and winemaker Hillel Manne in his vineyards.

In 1996 Hillel and Nina Manne settled in the modern community of Beit El. For Hillel there was nothing more natural to express his connection to the land than planting vineyards on the ancient terraced slopes, full of archaeological remnants from Israel’s ancient wine industry.

The vineyards are reminiscent of the Song of the Vineyard that appears in Isaiah 5:1-7. Here we see the remains of the winepresses and towers described in the scripture.

Ancient watchtower in the vineyard.

Hillel describing ancient wine making techniques at a 2,000 year old wine press.

Four years later, with his first commercial harvest Hillel decided to produce a low-cost simple wine that he could sell to his neighbors for sacramental use. Unfortunately, this was an economic disaster and Hillel began his quest to produce quality wines from these ancient hilltops.

Beit El is blessed with favorable terroir for wine grapes. The soil is terra rossa and the diurnal temperature differences are favorable for ripening the grapes. The Cabernet Sauvignon does not receive any irrigation.

New vines on ancient terraces

Hillel studied at the University of California, Davis. Unlike most Israelis who studied there, he studied field crops as part of his preparations in moving to Israel in the late 1970’s. These studies in agriculture, did however give  Hillel the necessary background in sciences that help him in his wine making.

Realizing that quality wine begins in the vineyards, Hillel began to cut back on the yield in his vineyards to produce better wines. Beit El Winery grows three varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carignan with yields of about 500-600 kg. per dunam (or 5 tons per hectare). With better grapes, Hillel succeeded in making better wines.

The view from Beit El’s vineyards, almost unchanged since Jacob was here.

Realizing that he needed more help in improving his wines, two years ago Hillel turned to Lewis Pasco as a consulting winemaker. Lewis Pasco who studied wine-making at UC Davis and was the founding winemaker at renowned Recanati Winery. Lewis Pasco’s help, Hillel has improved the quality of his wines.

Beit El Winery

With the 2013 vintage, Hillel has made for the first time wine that is worthy of maturing in oak barrels. The decision to oak or not will be mainly economic. Maturing in bottles requires a significant investment of about 600 euros per 250 liter barrel as well as delaying the income from the wine for at least the time spent in barrels.

The 2013 vintage near the end of the fermentation.

In 2012 Beit El winery exported 240 cases of wine to the US. All of this shipment was sold out. Beit El wines will sell for $20.00 – $24.00 in the US when the next shipment arrives.

Hillel Manne enjoying the 2012 vintage, almost ready for bottling.

I can’t wait to return to Beit El Winery sometime in about two years to taste their first wines that are aged in French oak barriques!

 http://www.beitelwinery.com

Israel-Jordan Jeep Tour

Our Nabatean Adventure begins in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. We begin by heading south  to Israel’s Negev Desert. Here we will learn about the challenges facing Israel’s Bedouin as they integrate into a Western 21st Century society while trying to preserve their rich cultural heritage.

We will visit women’s initiatives that provide employment in a way acceptable to the very traditional Bedouin society and provide both empowerment and education for Bedouin Women.

Traditional spinning of wool

Traditional spinning of wool

Next we’ll visit the only sustainable  Bedouin village in the Negev  where an entire clan has adopted an environmental friendly orientation and welcomes tourism as a way to help preserve traditional lifestyle.

Grinding Wheat in the Traditional Bedouin Mill

Grinding Wheat in the Traditional Bedouin Mill

Avdat is next on our itinerary. Avdat was the capital of the Negev for the Nabateans as well as an important center on the Petra-Gaza Incense Route. During the Byzantine Era, Avdat grows and becomes an important agricultural center in the desert. See the remains of early churches from the Fifth Century and commercial wine presses that produced wine that was exported as far as Gaul!

bat hamidbar-2

We’ll spend the night in a hotel in Mitzpe Ramon, or if you chose one of the interesting B&Bs along the Negev Wine Route.

Our second day begins with a view of the Ramon Makhtesh, one of the unique erosion crates of the Negev Desert. Next we descend into the Makhtesh for an off-road adventure that includes a Nabatean Caravansary and watch towers, as well as chances to see the varied wildlife that includes gazelles, ibex and hyraxes.

A Nubian Ibex

A Nubian Ibex

Nabatean Incense Route

Nabatean Incense Route

When we reach the Arava Valley we’ll drive to the Rabin Border Crossing and enter Jordan. We’ll spend the night in Aqaba on the Red Sea. After dinner at the Royal Yacht Club we’ll tour the lively market that is open late because of the hot daytime temperatures.

On our third day we’ll get a late departure from the hotel to enjoy the Red Sea before we head for Wadi Rum. T.E. Lawrence described this wonderful desert as “in childhood’s dream. In his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence wrote of Rum:

Later , when we were often riding inland, my mind used to turn me from the direct road, to clear my senses by a night in Rumm and by the ride down its dawn-lit valley towards the shining plains, or up its valley in the sunset towards that glowing square which my timid anticipation never let me reach.

We’ll see parts of Rum not seen by the average tourist as we depart Rum to the North to rejoin the Desert Highway and continue to Petra.

wadi rum 3

Petraglyphs in Khazali Canyon

Petraglyphs in Khazali Canyon

Lunch in Wadi Rum

Lunch in Wadi Rum

If you enjoy cooking, then we’ll have dinner at Petra Kitchen where Tareq, the Jordanian chef will help up prepare traditional Jordanian cuisine and we go home with  the recipes.

Cooking at Petra Kitchen

Cooking at Petra Kitchen

Dining at Petra Kitchen

Dining at Petra Kitchen

Our last day begins with a full day’s walking tour of Petra. We will enter the Siq, the narrow gorge that leads to the most famous monument, the Khazneh. Next we’ll tour the central part of the city. If you have the energy, we’ll walk up to one of the largest monuments, el Deir where we can enjoy a magnificent view of the Arava Valley.

Dijn Blocks

Dijn Blocks

First view of the Khazneh

First view of the Khazneh

El Deir

El Deir

 

 

In the late afternoon we’ll return to Israel to board a plane to Tel Aviv where this tour ends.

Wine Tours

Israel Adventure Journeys Ltd. offers wine tours of Israel like no other. All of our tours are guided by licensed guides who are certified specialists in wine tourism. We will custom design your wine tour to meet your needs and interests, from a one-day tour to a weeklong adventure exploring the different wine regions of Israel.

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Ella Valley Vineyards New Releases June 2013

Ella Valley Vineyards is an estate winery located in the heartland of Biblical Judea, literally only a stone’s throw away from where David fought Goliath. One of the advantages that EVV enjoys as an estate winery is total control over what happens in the vineyards. With all of the vineyards close to the winery, winemaker Lin Gold is able fine-tune the harvest time for different sections of the vineyards.

Ella Valley Vineyards strives to produce elegant, balanced wines that reflect the local terroir and their release events reflect the wine’s style. Today’s event took place in the shaded courtyard at the entrance to the winery and the tasting room. Live background music accompanied the event.

The three wines released are Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Cabernet Franc 2010 and Petite Sirah 2009. These wines are not the mainstay of EVV, their Chardonnay is their best-selling white and the two reds are released in only a few thousand bottles each. These wines do have a faithful following, the Cabernet Franc usually sells out long before the next vintage is released, and they add to Ella Valley Vineyard’s selection.

Ella Valley Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2012: Made of 90% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Semillon. The Sauvignon Blanc saw no oak; the Semillon was aged in old barrels. The wine has a high acidity, which is well integrated and gives a long aftertaste. The wine has nice aromas of peach, citrus with a bit of green grass. Lin achieved the high acidity by early harvest of some of the SB grapes, and filled out the aromas with later harvests from other parts of the vineyards. This is a nice refreshing wine for the Israeli summer when served properly chilled.

Ella Valley Vineyards Cabernet Franc 2010: If you don’t like the variety Cabernet Franc can be a bit rough for you. I like the variety. Cabernet Franc is used mostly for Bordeaux blends, but makes a nice varietal wine on its own. 2010 was a challenging vintage for Israeli winemakers; it was the hottest summer in years. The EVV Cabernet Franc has nice dark fruit aromas as well as characteristic greens of asparagus and green pepper and was blended with 4% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Ella Valley Vineyards Petite Sirah 2009: Petite Sirah is widely grown in California. DNA testing has shown Petite Sirah to be the French variety Durif, which is the result of natural cross between Syrah and Peloursin. The Ella Valley Vineyards Petite Sirah 2009 matured 16 months in barriques. True to variety, the EVV opens with aromas of dark fruit and almost overwhelming tannins. While strong, the tannins are integrated in the wine. This wine will be at its best in a few years; to drink now, I’d recommend letting it open up in the glass for a bit before drinking.

The Ella Valley Vineyard’s New Release Event was a resounding success. This was evident by the lack of parking space and the lines at the cash register. I look forwards to enjoying these wines with good company and good food-the best way to enjoy wine!