Can you imagine how different the wine world will be when we can do this for wine? OMG
I love finding ways to shrink the time between the Urge to Acquire something we value and the actual Ability to Acquire that something down to, well, nothing.
This starts to do that.
And you know Amazon is launching an online wine retail shop, right?
Hhhhmmmmm…
Good news!
Our next shipment of wine from Israel left the port of Haifa last week bound for California in a refrigerated container! A refrigerated container costs me A LOT more but it’s the only way to ensure the quality of the wine we bring to you. You should be asking other people you buy imported wine from if their wines are shipped in a “reefer”.
The shipper tells us the wine should arrive on or around July 26 into Oakland and then take a couple of days to clear Customs and get into the warehouse in Benecia, just south of Napa.
We intend to hold a series of New Wine Arrival Parties in cities across the US as soon as the juice arrives and settles. If you care to host one, please let me know.
I have had for some time now the great pleasure of knowing one of the front-line heroes pushing forward the re-emergence of the Israeli wine world in the US.
His name is Jim Veal and he is the Director of Trade and Investment Promotion for the Government of Israel’s Economic Office in Houston.
He works tirelessly to re-brand Israeli wines in the minds of everyone he meets. He understands the power of wine to bring people together from different backgrounds and countries.
I recently sat with him for an interview so you could get to know him a bit like I have. Here’s how our chat went:
Tell us about yourself… and the Israeli govt agency you work for… and your role there?
I came into my position with Israel after thirty years in the software business, the last few of which, I was fortunate enough to represent cutting edge Israeli niche software companies. I learned to love the spirit and drive of the Israeli people, and the determination to be the best at every endeavor, but it is their creativity and innovation that fascinated me the most, and as I worked in that environment, I learned many things most Americans are not aware of. For example, over 80% of the medical devices in use in American hospitals have an Israeli thumbprint on them somewhere. Most of us have a friend or loved one that was treated, perhaps even saved, by innovative Israeli technology. We need to all know that. We need to know that Israel is an integral part of our lives, on a day to day basis, in an extremely positive way, across many industries. In my role today as Director of Trade with the Israeli Government Economic Office, I am charged with the responsibility of developing cooperation and collaboration between American and Israeli businesses, where it makes sense, and where it is a win for all concerned. This is literally the most fun and most meaningful thing I have ever done in my life.
2) why do you care about Israeli wine? why should Americans care?
Israel make great wines, world class wines, but who knows this? Not many today, but that is changing. That creative and innovative spirit of the Israeli people has merged with the old world art of fine winemaking, and in a short period of time, the Israeli winemaking community has grown and improved dramatically, and they now pour wonderful wines, of many varieties, comparable in quality to the finest wines available. For me it is a very personal thing. I love wine. It starts there, but the importance of wine goes far beyond my personal enjoyment of its consumption! Wine is the only beverage that is alive in the bottle, that grows and changes over time, that truly has a spiritual significance. Wine originated from the area that is now Israel, thousands of years ago. In my Christian faith, it was wine that Christ said was his own blood. This was said at the last Supper which was actually a Jewish Seder. While skill and technology and love go into making fine wine, at the end of the day, the ultimate result of the winemaking process is controlled by the Earth and the Sky, not man. Wine links us all through history, Faith, friendship and fun, and in simple terms, “Wine brings people together.” Nothing is more important than that. Israelis, Americans and all people can benefit from coming together.
Who do you think is the audience for Israeli wines?
In the past, Israeli wine was linked to Religious services and the concept of Kosher, and this had given wines from Israel a negative connotation as far as the actual quality of the wine was concerned. Today there are many wonderful Israeli wines, some just happen to be Kosher, some aren’t. And to the serious wine drinker who is not Jewish, or does not keep Kosher, it makes no difference to the quality of the wine. If it is good, people will drink it. We have already proven this to be true, that these wines will have a broad and deep audience, from both the casual wine drinker, and serious oenophile. Monday, we filled the Reserve Room, at The tasting Room Wine Bar in Houston with 150 people to taste six Israeli wines, in what became one of the largest wine tastings in the history of what is the largest Wine bar in the world. The following night, almost 100 people attended a gourmet dinner at Carmelo’s, a fine dining restaurant, where the food was paired with four Israeli wines. The crowd universally praised all four wines. This has never happened here before, and both events were huge successes. This wine is outstanding. The market is there, we just have to get the wines in front of them.
How can we get more Americans excited about wine from Israel?
By doing what Richard is doing. Take the wine to the people. “It starts in the glass.” This my mantra. Tastings, dinners, everywhere, ten people, a hundred people. Whatever we can do to put Israeli wines in those glasses. The promotion of wine is viral. Word of mouth is vital. Then as demand is created, the distribution channel responds, and the wines find their way onto the shelves and wine lists. Then, it develops a life of its own. In my role with the Government, I want to use Israeli Wines to cross-promote other Israeli Initiatives. At “Bio-Atlanta” in May, the world’s largest trade conference for the Life Sciences, every country in the world with a Life Science industry presence had a pavilion. Every one of these countries with a wine producing region, was serving their wines at their pavilions, all week long! As I said, wine brings people together.
What are some of your favorite Israeli wines?
There are so many I have yet to try, but a few come to mind immediately. For a light crisp white wine, full of flavor and great for the summer heat, the Pelter sauvignon blanc is a delicious white wine. The Pelter Trio, a red blend, has a wonderful nose, and a complexity that is both delicious and friendly. Part of the reason I like it is not only because it tastes so good to me, but I watched a number of very casual wine drinkers enjoying it tremendously! The Tulip “Mostly” Shiraz, which was one of the wines at our dinner, was a big surprise for me, a great mouthful of smooth fruit and bold flavor that pairs well with food, but I’d like to take a bottle out on the deck in the evening and savor it alone! The Flam and Margalit cabernets are extraordinary by any measure, and beat two expensive, highly rated California cabernets, in a brown bagged, blind taste test, by very significant margins. In this blind competition, the sommelier who selected the California wines, picked an Israeli wine as his number one choice. That is powerful, and as he said later, “it was far and away the best.” These are wines I am happy to drink and proud to serve. You will be too.
Pic Credit: Ed Schipul - (Jim Veal is on the left beside me)
I am proud to have Israeli wines from our growing premium portfolio on the wine menus of 2 of the Top 50 Best New Restaurants in the US, according to the folks at Travel + Leisure.
This new site lets you search for BYO places in your favorite large city and bring your favorite bottle with you.
Here’s some basic BYO etiquette though:
1) it’s extremely rude to bring a bottle BYO that’s on the restaurant’s wine menu
2) it’s extremely rude to bring a cheap bottle in – No 2 Buck Chuck, No Yellow Tail
3) it’s proper to bring a decent bottle, something special and then share a taste with your server
It’s a good idea to order something unique directly from a special winery or your favorite importer and bring it in along with a good story to share.
Enjoy!
We hosted an Israeli wine tasting in Houston this week and nearly 150 people attended.
I brought to the party two wines we import that made it onto Israeli food & wine critic Daniel Rogov’s Top 10 Israeli Wines List last year:
Margalit Special Reserve Cabernet 2006
and
When I arrived to the event in Houston, I asked The Tasting Room’s top sommelier, Tony, to select what he believed to be the best comparable Cabs in his cellar and have someone bag all of the wines so that at the end of the evening he and I and everyone in the audience could taste and rank them blind.
Here are the 2 Cabs The Tasting Room picked for the friendly blind-tasting competition:
Stags Leap Napa Valley Cabernet 2005 and Rubicon Estate Cask Cab 2005
People: these are serious wines representative of the good quality Cabs Napa is producing. I did not pick these wines; The Tasting Room did.
It wasn’t close. The Israeli wines were overwhelmingly preferred by all of us that night.
Was this a scientific experiment? Ummm no, of course not.
Was it fun? YES
Was it meaningful and surprising? YES
What’s the message? The Original Wine World has re-emerged as a powerhouse wine producer and only a few people have noticed yet but that’s all about to change.
We’re going to keep doing more and more of these friendly blind tastings everywhere I go.
And they’re going to become more formalized and receive more attention.
I just bet the news of this one makes into the Houston Chronicle…..stay tuned….
This pic was taken by a cell phone camera so pardon the lack of clarity on some of the bottle shots.
This is a picture of 5 of the wines we import placed predominantly in a major retailer.
Anyone want to take a guess in the Comment section as to Where In The World this might be?
I love the big-hearted people of Texas.
I love their energy.
I love the way Texans approach the world in a BIG postive way and love to make BIG cool stuff happen, especially pals of mine from Houston like Maggie and Monica.
Recently, the Houston ABC News affiliate produced a great news piece on the re-emergence of the Israeli wine world.
It’s a testimony to the coolness of Houstonians that Houston will be a major part of the launch of Israeli wine in the US.
Date: Monday June 15
Place: The Tasting Room, Uptown Park location, Houston
Time: 5-9pm — come anytime during that time you are able!
Cost: $15 includes wine and appetizers
You can order the wines we are pouring for home delivery and sign up for our Proud to Pour Wine Club on the spot.
I hope to see you in Houston next week!
I’m offering a year’s Membership in our Proud to Pour Tour Level 2 Wine Club to the winning entry in this contest!
This Membership is a $300 value!
Your dad will receive 6 shipments of handcrafted wine from boutique wineries in Israel and invitations to attend live winemaker interviews and chats.
Your dad has gotta live in one of these states, ok? CA, DC, IL, NY, FL, GA, NC, OR, WA, OH, TX
Here’s all you have to do….
1) Tell us why your Dad deserves this Israeli wine club membership more than everybody else’s Dad in a text or video entry in the Comments section below
2) Tweet this post (just use the Tweet This Post button below) and/or link to it on your Facebook profile as follows : My dad deserves wine from @israeliwine a helluva lot more than your dad does
That’s it!
Good luck!
P.S. Contestants get added to our Israeli Wine Direct Newsletter which contains news and special offers.
We’re knee-deep now in all the details of readying our next shipment of several hundred cases of wine from Israel…label approvals and bottle-stickering, agreeing on payment terms and pricing with wineries, scheduling US visits from winemakers to support selling, negotiating pick-ups and all the freight forwarder details that need confirming.
The wines will ship in a refrigerated container (this is VERY important!!! and something I am committed to) out of the port of Haifa in Israel, exit the Mediterranean, cross the Atlantic Ocean, come through the Panama Canal and up along the California coast to settle in Oakland. There the wines will clear US Customs and be trucked to our warehouse in Benecia, south of Napa. It’s a 30-40 day trek from start to finish.
Here are the wines we expect to be on this next shipment, most of them new vintages of great wines we have had success with here in the US already:
Flam Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay 2008
Flam Classico 2007
Flam Cabernet Reserve 2005
Margalit Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Margalit Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Margalit Enigma 2006
Pelter Trio 2007
Pelter Unoaked Chardonnay 2008
Pelter Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Pelter T-Selection Cabernet Franc 2007
Pelter T-Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Tulip Mostly Shiraz 2007
Tulip White Tulip 2008
Tulip Mostly Cabernet Franc 2007
Tulip Syrah Reserve 2007
Tzora Neve Ilan 2006
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