I spent some time recently chatting with winemaker Eran Pick, the UC Davis-trained winemaker producing serious hand-crafted terroir-driven wines in the Judean Hills. A couple weeks ago, one of Eran’s wines (Tzora Shoresh 2006) was chosen as best in a trade panel blind tasting against other Israeli and California Cabernets). And earlier this month, Tzora Vineyards was selected by JNF as their first-ever exclusive winery partner. We donate $1 for every bottle sold to JNF’s projects helping the people of Sderot.

I Want to ORDER Tzora Wines!!!

What was the best wine you ever tasted?

I had many “Best Wine” experiences. It was not always due to the wine, but to the atmosphere. I’m a big fan of Bordeaux wines, and to me, the most unusual experience was to drink Chateau Lafite 1990 at Lafite’s manager’s private home during dinner.

The wine that impressed me the most was a 1997 Brunello from Soldera Case Basse tasted in the winery’s cellars. It was such a velvety and delicate wine with wonderful aromas. Wine like that is not made. It is clearly a creation of “God”.

Do you remember a moment you fell in love with wine?

I owe my first love to wine to a German Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese. During a vacation in Germany, a friend suggested we visit a small winery in the Mosel. At the winery, we were offered a TBA from the 60s. When the wine was poured into the glass, the wonderful flowery aromas filled the entire room. A true love from the first smell.

What’s unique about Tzora Vineyards?

We want our wines to reflect the Judean Hills unique Terroir. In order to achieve this goal, we make wine only from our estate’s fruit, grown in three vineyards. We work very hard in the vineyard and do minimal intervention in the winery.

We are the only winery in Israel that focuses on Single Vineyard wines.

Is it difficult to grow grapes in Israel? What makes the process different from anywhere else in the world?

I think it is difficult to grow good grapes anywhere in the world. You need to work very hard to achieve greatness. Every place has different problems according to its terroir. In cool climates, wineries are struggling to reach ripeness of sugars, and have horrible, rainy vintages from time to time. In warm climates, like Israel, the biggest challenge in the vineyard is to reach sugar ripeness, phenolic maturity and good flavor profile at once. In some vintages sugars come too fast without total phenolic ripeness.

What is your strategy of vineyard management?

We are looking to find the correct balance for each plot in the vineyard. We grow 80 acres in three vineyards of different Terroirs. In order to achieve this balance we use two main tools: Selection and Differentiation. We select merely the best fruit by shoot thinning, green harvest etc… We also grow each plot differently, according to its needs. For example, plots with high vigor we perform the shoot thinning late so the berries won’t get to chunky. In low vigor plots we perform an early thinning. We also learned that by leaf pulling near the grape bunches, we can slow sugar ripening and increase the rate of phenolic maturity.

Tell me about terroir. what is terroir? Can you really translate your country and region into a bottle of wine?

To me Terroir is the most interesting and important concept in wine. Without it, wine would be just a beverage. Wine of Terroir (not all wines show their terroir) must reflect their time (vintage) and place of origin (Terroir).

When you spend time in the vineyards, it is obvious to notice that some plots produce better fruit then other plots constantly, year after year. The only difference among the plots is the total environment of vines; soil and climate.

My goal as a winemaker, together with our vineyard manager, is to bring the unique environment of the vineyard into the bottle. To find the right balance for the vines. All our work is focused on this goal.

Do you think Tzora Vineyards wines are best described as Old World or New World wines?

I’m not a big fan of these definitions. I don’t think they will exist much longer.

Our wines reflect their origin, which is an “Old World” concept. However, we don’t like faults in the wines that were once attributed to terroir, a “New World” concept.