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Friday 31 March 2017

The Judean People's Hills

Judean Hills tasting

- Are you the Judean People's Front?
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Watch the clip here


Ever had an Israeli wine?

These wines from the Judean Hills are superb - deft, harmonious, complex wines with a European style and, even, aging potential.

The rocky Judean Hills - up to 1,000m altitude and around 50 miles inland from the Mediterranean sea - have the soil type, altitude and climate to make great wines. What they don't have is any brand awareness - of Israeli wines, of the Judean Hills area or of the four wineries that make up the Judean Hills quartet.

These are not volume producers, but small-scale, quality-led wineries. In that respect their challenge us similar to what Austria faced in the 90s - at best nil brand recognition, with low volumes and high quality.

The best advice I can give them would be to have a long chat with Willi Klinger, Head of the AWMB that has done so much to raise the profile and value of Austrian wines globally.

The quality of the wines is not in doubt - the challenge is more in raising awareness of why spending £30+ on a wine you have never heard of and that looks more like a mid-teens wine would be money well spent.

The four wineries are:

Tzora
Sphera
Castel
Flam
Detailed tasting notes to follow.

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