Avi Ben Shlomo: Heritage and Innovation at Halom Winery in the Judean Hills

What if the rich history of winemaking could be captured in a single bottle? That’s the journey Avi Ben Shlomo embarked on, blending the elegance of European viticulture learned in Burgundy with the innovative vigor of Napa Valley. In this episode, Avi shares his fascinating path from the vineyards of France to the sun-drenched Judean hills, where he established Halom Winery. Born from a passion ignited by his family's love for wine, Avi's story is one of dreams fulfilled and heritage honored, offering listeners a unique glimpse into the world of Israeli winemaking.

We then explore the rebirth of Israel's wine industry, a tapestry woven with cultural influences spanning millennia. From its ancient roots to its current acclaim on the global stage, Avi discusses how Israel's diverse history has shaped its contemporary wines. With a focus on boutique creations like the Halom Reserve Syrah, listeners will discover how Avi balances tradition with innovation, emphasizing the unique terroir of the Judean hills. The combination of old-world techniques and modern practices is exemplified in his distinctive blends, which reflect a dedication to quality and a deep respect for his heritage.

As the episode unfolds, Avi reflects on his personal connections between wine and cultural identity. He shares his unique practice of fasting on Rabin's Memorial Day and discusses the inspiration behind the name Halom Winery, symbolizing a dream realized through dedication to both craft and ancestry. Join us as we celebrate the art of winemaking and explore the profound ties between heritage, history, and hope.

Chapters

• 0:09 A Winemaker's Journey
• 12:57 Revival of Israeli Wine Industry
• 19:47 Reflections on Heritage, Wine, and Dreams
• 36:14 Prayers for Soldiers and Hostages

Transcript

Solomon Simon Jacob: 0:09

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir. I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Before we get started, I ask that, wherever you are, please take a moment and pray for the safety of our soldiers and the safe return of all of our hostages. Avi Ben Shlomo, a winemaker from Israel, is a fascinating character. He was born in Israel in the early 70s to a family with deep ties to academia and an appreciation for the arts. Ties to academia and an appreciation for the arts. His parents, first-generation European Israelis, had a modest but cherished wine cellar where he was introduced to the diversity of wines from around the world. Avi's father, a literature professor, often spoke about his connection to the land of Israel, planting in Avi deep seeds about his Jewish heritage.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 1:09

Avi decided on an education abroad and attended UC Berkeley where he initially studied environmental science. But a semester abroad in France kindled his love for viticulture and winemaking. He extended his stay to work in a vineyard in Burgundy and he fell in love with the hands-on experience, learning techniques from traditional winemakers who impressed upon him the importance of terroir and respecting the land. After returning to the US and completing his viticulture degree, avi worked as an apprentice winemaker in Napa Valley. Yet the pull towards Israel remained strong. In his mid-twenties, he made the decision to return home, moving to Israel with a dream of establishing a winery that would honor both the terroir of Israel and the methods he had acquired and admired abroad. Join me for a thoughtful and often emotional conversation with Avi Ben-Shlomo. Avi, I'd like to welcome you to The Kosher Terroir.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 2:18

Well, it's a pleasure. Thank you, Simon, for having me.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 2:21

It's really a pleasure to have you Tell me a little bit about your background? How did you end up in San Francisco?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 2:27

Well, it's kind of an interesting journey. My parents were born in England and decided to move to Israel just because they felt this was home. And you know, they're Jewish and they are very devoted. So they came here, you went to.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 2:42

UC Berkeley. Yeah, and studied environmental science, Wow Well.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 2:47

I regret that every day of my life, not because of the environmental science, but because the politics that UC Berkeley have taken recently, Wow, and I really really do not like the direction that they went. But it was a good school, you know, as far as study.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 3:03

So then, that led you to France, to well, not right away, I became kind of like. My parents had the wine cellar at home and they were into wine. They were not big experts or anything like that, but they liked wine and we had wine all the time and I grew up with wine and we had wine all the time and I grew up with wine. So from a very, very young age, I started to appreciate and I learned to appreciate wine and so, after my school time in UC Berkeley, I decided that this is what I really wanted to get myself into and, although you know, california has Napa and I could have stayed there, but France felt right because it had a tradition and I wanted to, and this is also what I do today I wanted to combine. That's the way I wanted to. This is what I do.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 3:55

I always had the feeling that, you know, wine is more than just a technique thing. You need to put your heart into it and you need to put your passion into it and you need to bring a love into this. And because I'm Jewish and because I like wine and because you know, overall, wine had been produced here in Israel forever, I, from pretty much a very, very young age, I kind of like saw myself making wine here. But I wanted the full education. I wanted it and I already know what I was doing and I wanted to bring myself into this dream that I had. That's also what I call my winery dream Chalom.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 4:48

It's been my dream forever.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 4:51

So when you moved back to Israel, you went directly to the Judean hills. Wait, wait, wait, that's not so fast.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 4:57

I had a long journey before I came to. Israel. Okay, so after UC Berkeley I went to France and I worked there as an assistant winemaker Actually, not only assistant winemaker, you were a schlepper Exactly, I was there. I started at the very, very bottom, you know, working in a vineyard and learning about the different vines and the different varieties and characters, and all this, and slowly I worked myself up until I felt that I was a little bit more ready, and then I went back to California.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 5:39

Okay, and worked in Napa, wow, for a couple of years as an amateur winemaker, and so you know French wines, with all its history and all its depth and all its heaviness, and California wine, with and the more modern, the more modern, yeah, and taste of them, and so this is an amazing combination.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 6:04

I thought and I wanted to take this, all the knowledge that I've acquired over the years, and come to Israel and combine it here, because here you have the history, here you have the tradition, not only the winemaking tradition, but also the Jewish tradition. That I'm very much, I appreciate it very much. You know, our ancestors back at the time made wine and drank wine from the Torah of Israel, and so this is what I wanted to do. So, now that I came to Israel, I purchased quite a big piece of land in the Judean hills, quite a big piece of land in the Judean hills and on old terraces that some of them archaeologists, tell me, have even a biblical history, that the origin of them, when they started to build them, it was around 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 7:00

Wow.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 7:10

And so there is so much depth to the ground, to the soil, because of that, and so the product, the grapes that are coming out of there, are very, very special. I did not taste grapes like this anywhere in the world, and you know that I've been around.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 7:20

Right, Wow. So tell me a little bit about the area and what's special about your area.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 7:30

specific area of the Judean Hills winters, not so much in the last few years but almost every year before, like up until about three, four years ago we had snow every year on on the mountains and that of course adds a very important flavor to the grapes. The terrace has already mentioned there are ancient terr. We know that our ancestors in biblical times, when they came to the Promised Land, they started to reclaim the forest that was naturally indigenous.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 8:20

You know this word, yes.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 8:21

Indigenously there You've been in. Israel for a long time. Oh yeah, there, You've been in Israel for a long time.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 8:26

Oh yeah, yeah, You've been in Israel for a long time, Well.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 8:29

I think you hear in my accent that I have a little bit of a lisp. Yeah, so it comes funny. Yeah, there are words that do not come very easily. Yeah, but you know, in the book of Yeshua there is a little story about the children of Israel. The tribes of Israel come to Yeshua and say to him we need land. And all this. There is no land, because all the flat land, all the valleys, is already inhabited by Canaanites. So what should we do? Where should we settle? And Yeshua tells them that's what he says Go to the forest, go to the hills, clear the forest and settle there. So we know from biblical information that all these terraces originally were created by ancestors at the time of Yeshua and a few generations after that when they started to settle the mountains.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 9:33

And it's a very interesting environment because the rock there, the nature rock, the bedrock, is limestone which creates a beautiful terra rossa. It's full of iron, so it creates a beautiful terra rossa soil. But there is also clay there and the clay mixes with it. It gives it a little bit of acidity which helps Express it in the wine. Oh, definitely expresses it in the wine. And because, you know, the slope is not even some areas are a little bit more slopping than others. You get different kind of soils even in the same terrace Right. So over the years I was able to analyze the soil in different parts of my vineyard.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 10:22

In a different plot.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 10:23

Yeah, and introduce what I thought the most suitable species, varieties to that area. So I have eight different varieties in a relatively small area, and each one is carried, you know, carefully, according to its needs and according to the environment that it uses.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 10:53

So one of the things that I read about with regard to the winery, with regard to the vineyards, where you're trying not to supplement the water, you're trying to be as sustainable as possible, you know, I was told a story long ago about how, on terraces, they dig a cave into the mountain and that brings the water that percolates down through the mountain out and it runs out of those caves. Do Do you use something like that?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 11:25

Yes and no. Okay, the aquifer. First of all, let's talk about the depth of the ground. You mentioned that I hardly ever use artificial irrigation because the terraces are so deep and the roots of the vines can go really deep into water sources. Now, the aquifer in the Judean hills is created by a layer of clay that is called by geologist Chavar Moza, and so rainfall that seeps into the ground stops at the Chavar Moza, at the clay layer, and actually spreads across, and so there is water available for the grapes if they go deep enough, and that's what we try to do. When we planted the vines, we dug for each one of them, we dug a very deep hole so water could seep through and come to its roots and the grapes themselves. They find ways to come to water, so I don't need to actually dig into the rock, because I do have this layer of water spread over the chavar motzah, over the clay, and that's the water that's available for my grapes, for my vines. Very cool.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:52

Very cool Any other historical. Have you seen any gats, any wine?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 13:01

presses oh yeah, we have all over, of course, okay. Wine presses oh yeah, we have all over, Of course, okay, all over. You know, the wine industry was very, very. What's the word? Abundant.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:17

It was all over the place, yeah.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 13:19

Me'od pa'il. Okay, very widespread. Not only, but all over the place.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:28

Yeah, it was important. There wasn't anything you could do in the Jewish religion that didn't require more.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 13:34

Yeah, but even after that, you know the country. When the Jews were sent to exile from this country, it fell into the hands of the Romans that also drank wine, and then the Byzantines, the Christians they also drank wine. So until 7th century, when this country was occupied by early Muslims, wine industry was spread over pretty much everywhere. Wherever you could grow grapes you would produce wine. And then came the Muslims in 7th century 650, and they don't drink wine. They did grow grapes, but table grapes mainly, and they used to do like jam. They call it dibis from the grapes, but not alcohol.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 14:19

So the whole wine industry died for over a thousand years until we came back and the first years of Israel, they used to make a joke about Israeli wine that was so, so bad. They said what does the Israeli wine lacks? It says taste. But I think since the 1970s things started with the Golan Winery that, of course, before that we had the Carmel that was established here by Rothschild, but they were not very professional, let's put it this way. They tried, but it had the fame for coming from the holy land more than the taste. But um, since the 1970s we'd go line wineries and then slowly it spread out. Today we have more than 400 wineries all over the israel and israeli wine. Definitely it made a name for itself.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 15:16

Let's talk a little bit about the actual varietals that you what wines do you make? So let's talk a little bit about that. Okay, I know there's five wines that I've seen that you've listed. One of them is the Hallam Reserve Syrah, which is your flagship. Did you taste it? I didn't taste it yet. I'm looking forward to tasting it and you didn't bring any bottles with you either.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 15:49

I noticed that. I think you should taste it before you start talking about it, because that's really a flagship. I work very, very, very hard for the right balance very cool terroir and, um, uh, aging in a neutral oak. Um, what else do you want me?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 16:08

to say about it it's just a great wine. It's a great wine. It well, people, people seem to like it. It seems to have, uh, people seem to love it, so I'm looking forward to like it. It seems to have people seem to love it, so I'm looking forward to tasting it myself.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 16:22

You know that a lot of it, most of it, it's already sold before harvested. Okay, really, oh yeah, how do you Look? I'm a small boutique winery. I only have 20,000 bottles. They go way before they're harvested. They go. It's easy to sell. When you make a name for yourself, people will actually buy them, and I, 70 of it I sell here in israel and and 30 goes abroad, especially to the united states and to england. Yeah, I have regular clients that would just, would you know, would not agree to drink anything else.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:03

Very cool, very cool. You also make a white, the white blend, the Roussanne-Vionier-Colombard blend. What prompted that sort of a blend? Was that your background in France?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 17:18

That was your, yeah this is something that your background in France yeah, this is something that I learned in France and I thought that this is kind of like an attribute to my upbringing in the wine industry in France that I will bring some of their tradition here as well, but it's a small portion of my winemaking. It's just kind of like it's more a hobby for me. Okay.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:41

So what intrigued me about that is that you age part of it in stainless steel and part of it you put in neutral oak, and then you blend it. In the end that's cool.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 17:52

Yeah, because white you know it doesn't need much of oak Right, and if you age it all in oak it's a little bit too oaky, yeah. So I wanted to bring a little bit of oak into it, but without losing the freshness of the white Excellent. So, I just aged some of it about 30%, 40% In oak barrel. The rest is in stainless steel, and then towards the end I just blend it and it comes out perfectly. Wow.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 18:27

Alright, then you have a petite Syrah that's called Adama.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 18:32

You know what Adama is in Hebrew, right Sure Land. Adama is earth. I'm sorry, you're right. By the way, you know that the word earth is actually from Hebrew, it's eretz.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 18:46

Okay, wow, I didn't know that.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 18:50

A lot of Hebrew words got itself into international languages without people even knowing. So earth is eretz and a sparrow is tzipor.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 19:05

Okay, did you know that?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 19:06

No, yeah, no, very cool. So what was the question? Yeah, about adamah.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 19:14

No, it's cool. It's a petite syrah, so it's dark and it's very rich. I'm told it's an interesting wine. I also haven't tasted it yet and I'm looking forward to tasting it. It's got like smoky undertones, is what it's described as.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 19:31

You know I should have brought some bottles with me. I'm sorry, but I was kind of like in a hurry. So wait a second why don't you come over?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 19:39

I would love to. I would love to, but you didn't bring bottles today because you're fasting today. Why are you?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 19:47

fasting. Well, it's the Memorial Day for Rabin, and I call it the Tzom Gedalia Hatzioni. You know about Gedalia ben Achikam that was murdered after the first temple was already destroyed and this Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians. They nominated a local guy, gedalia, to be, kind of like, the governor in their behalf, their behalf, and somebody from the House of David, a zealot that thought that Hashem will take care of us and therefore we should not submit to the Babylonians, thought that this is an act of treason from Gedaliah to agree to be the governor on behalf of the Babylonians, and he murdered him. So for 2,610 years it is this year we are fasting in memory of Gedalia.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 20:56

Which is the day after Rosh Hashanah yeah.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 20:58

Actually, gedalia was a nobody and had he not been murdered by a zealot Jew, nobody would even know about him. So we're not fasting because Gedalia was such a great man and we need to remember him. We're fasting because a Jewish leader was murdered by a Jew, by a Jewish zealot, and we had this, unfortunately, 25 years ago. It happened here in Israel, and I think that this is what Jews are supposed to do when a leader and it doesn't really matter whether you agree with him politically or not it's not about Rabin at all, it's about the fact that he was murdered by a Jewish zealot, and we already have a tradition in our Jewish heritage of what we do, what we're supposed to do, when something like this happens. So I fast Tzom Gedaliah Tzioni on Rabin's Memorial Day.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 21:49

Thank you for enlightening me, because I'd never heard that before.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 21:54

Well, I'm the only person that practices it, Okay but next time when I invite you.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 22:00

I'll invite you on a day where we can taste the wine, maybe on Yom Kippur. No, invite you on a day when we can actually taste the wine. So, yes, okay, you also have a rosé, which is interesting.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 22:15

Yeah, because a rosé is kind of like a combination between the red and the white and I think it kind of like introduces the old and the new. You know, this is an old country with a very, very old tradition, but it's a young country, very, very fresh, and these two elements put together, I think, in the best way, in the rosé, very cool.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 22:35

Okay, so yeah, the tasting of that, that's one I would really love to taste, especially on a nice, warm day like it is today, because the tasting notes include things like strawberries, melons and rose petals.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 22:49

We're sitting here in Yerushalayim. I think after sunset maybe you and I should go over and just have a little bit of feast. I'm ready.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 22:57

I have some bubbles.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 22:59

I think that will knock you off Good.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 23:01

Good, excellent. And the last one is a single vineyard, cab Savignon, cabernet Savignon, which is kind of typical. The other ones are all very Israeli blends, which is interesting. It's nice, rather than just going straight to a cab Cabernet Sauvignon.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 23:22

Yeah but the cab really grows here the best. It's not a spoiled plant and it could grow in extreme weather and it produces beautiful grapes. So for the quality, if you do not want to go to risk a lot because you have sometimes you have years that all the others would produce very, very poor quality, and the Cab will always produce something good, cool, all right.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 23:52

What's your favorite type of wine? What's your favorite wine? Do you like whites? Do you like?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 23:56

reds. I like the Adama the best. Okay, cool, very cool, definitely. I feel that you know I put my heart and soul into everything of my wine, but the Adama is really what brought me into Israel.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 24:13

Okay, I love it. I love it. I love the passion, especially the passion for Eretz Yisrael. Okay, so I'm going to ask you some questions and you can answer them to the best of your ability. What have you? I'm kind of springing these on you, so I understand that you might not be able to answer them right away. Okay, was there something specific that inspired you to move from California to Israel and start Halom Winery? I mean, you told us a good portion about that up to now, about the dream, and did any of that journey shape your winemaking?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 24:59

Well, you know, I have two loves, more than two, the first one. First one is, of course, to my family, but my, you have children. I have three boys and I'm very proud of them. Some of them, actually my oldest son, is very much interested in making in winemaking. I think I will. He'll be the next generation. Cool, cool. I'll is very much interested in making in winemaking. I think I will, he'll be the next generation cool cool.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 25:27

I'll, uh, I'll have him educated a little bit okay before that, but he's really into wine. Uh, what brought me here originally is my love for my people. I, I really believe you know, even growing up in America, when it seems to be so comfortable and easy for Jews, I always, when you're Jewish outside of Israel, you always have to look behind your back, kind of like hide your Judaism, don't show so much, and always feel a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit unsafe. And I know from pretty much young age that Israel is my home and wine was my passion. So just to bring these two together, that's what brought me here.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 26:19

Very cool, the name Winery Halom we discussed. It means a dream. What does it symbolize to you?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 26:30

Well, you know, when I was really young and before my father would let me drink his wines, I would go down with him to the cellar and he would describe the wines to me, and I remember I was five, six, seven, I don't know how much could I really understand, but the passion started to grow in me and that just brought a dream to my young soul. It says that one day I will have a winery myself. And so it was a dream, a halom from the beginning, and it's a dream come true.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 27:16

Wow, how do you see Halom Winery contributing to Israel's growing wine culture? It's really kind of blossoming. I mean there's quite a number of wineries here.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 27:27

Oh yeah, I'm very, very happy to say that I'm one of many, and although I would testify about my wine that it is a great wine, it's definitely one of many, and we have amazing wines in Israel, and each winemaker brings his soul into his wine. So if you taste a variety of wines from different vineyards in Israel, you would know that even if they're made from the same grapes and even grown in the same area, each one of them has the soul of the winemaker in it, and so I just hope to add a little bit of my drops into the ocean of Israeli winemaking.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 28:13

Very cool. What about sustainability? We talked a little bit about the practice of not watering or trying not to water as much as possible. What are you doing as far as minimal intervention?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 28:32

Well, I think, other than not watering the vineyards, I also keep Shemitah, which is important. You know, shemitah, besides being a mitzvah from the Torah soil, really needs a little bit of rest. So Shemitah is very important. When I let the grapes fall back to the ground and to be absorbed into the soil, go and pick by hand and see that there is no pests that are trying to damage the grapes, and if there are, then I will bring a bunch of people to try and clean it. But overall, you know, grapes are very, very strong plants and they know how to take care of themselves. You don't really need much. If you don't disturb them, they will give you good crops.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 29:25

What have you faced, especially this last year in the winery, as far as staff, as far as people going into Meluim? How tough has it been for you.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 29:36

It wasn't that tough business-wise, because you know it's a small vineyardyard and how many people do I need to harvest it. So I had a few volunteers during the harvest times just to harvest and to bring it to the winery. But overall it's a one-man show and I'm old enough not to be taken to Miluim although my sons were in Gaza. Actually one is still in Gaza until now. It's a tough year for us, not so much for the business but for everything else, and I think you know I did not have a chance to really drink much of this year's wine, but I'm sure the grapes also felt it and I'm sure that the quality of this year will be more. You will feel the sadness in the wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 30:39

I've heard from a number of vineyards that the yields have been down, that the amount of wine, the amount of grapes coming out of the vineyards has been much lower, but because of that the expressiveness of the grapes is there. So maybe that's the expression of the sadness that you're talking about.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 31:03

You know what? I never really thought of it, but it might be true Because you know, there is definitely sadness in the air. There is definitely sadness in the air. This war is extracting from us a lot, a lot of emotional energy, and it shows I think you know the grapes, the vines they feel it too. The atmosphere around them definitely influences them.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 31:35

You know, I heard about terroir. We talk about terroir with regard to grapes and with regard to vines, and the terroir is everything around it, from the altitude of where the vines are, the weather, the Availability of water that give it different elements.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 32:04

The types of stone it's planted in as well, gives it certain mineral characteristics. So the terroir really makes the wine, the vine makes the wine, gives the wine a certain um taste and feel. That's different to every location and every winemaker, as you said, but it also impacts I think the terroir impacts the people. So it's like the terroir even the people who are growing here Um, I noticed with my grandchildren that they're being brought up in Israel Brings them such a different impact than them growing in America. It's like unbelievable.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 33:01

There is no doubt. Yeah, you know, many times I look at my vines, at my plants, and I look at my children and I see that both of them have fruits in Israel and it just it amazes me.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 33:21

It's really really, really special, incredible, incredible. The Halom wines have gained recognition in both Israel and abroad, and some prizes too. What yes?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 33:33

they have. Well, you know, there is a saying Yehalel ha'azar ve'lo picha. Somebody else should say your praises, okay, but uh, we are returning it to say and if not, yeah, you should say.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 33:52

Then you should say yourself yeah, I love it. Um, how's it? How has that success impacted your vision? I know it's a small winery, but any future aspirations Are you looking to grow it tremendously or what are you looking to do?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 34:08

I really don't know that I want to go much, much bigger, because it's not only business to me. I think you know you cannot. There is a saying in Arabic I have some Arab friends that we talk, talk I can even speak a little bit of Arabic and they say don't stretch your leg further than your your blanket. So I you know it's a one-man show and it probably will stay a one-man show. I don't want to make it industrious, I don't want it to be an industrial winery. There are good industrial wineries in Israel but I think the impact of one man that actually touches each perron and touches almost each grape with his own hand each Perron and touches almost each grape with his own hand that's something that you cannot do with a big vineyard or big winery.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:10

Got it. Last one, last question for you what do you hope people feel or experience when they drink a bottle of Halom wine? The love. The love of what?

Avi Ben Shlomo: 35:25

The love. The love of what?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:26

The love Of who? Just the love, okay.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 35:27

The love to the land, the love to the grapes, the love to the work that went into it, the love to other people. It's just, you know, love is such a. It's a small word, but it's the whole world, unbelievable.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:47

I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you very much for being here on the Kosher Terwa. It's a pleasure and I really look forward to tasting wine in the winery. Really look forward.

Avi Ben Shlomo: 36:00

Thank you, you're more than welcome. Take care, bye-bye Sh look forward, thank you.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 36:02

You're more than welcome. Take care. Bye-bye. Shalom u'bracha. This is Simon Jacob again, your host of today's episode of The Kosher Terroir. I have a personal request no matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldiers' safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you're new to The Kosher Terroir, please check out our many past episodes. This is Simon Jacob. Again, I want to thank you for listening to this dramatized podcast. Much of the information was factual, but the character of Avi Ben-Shlomo played in this episode by Amir Orly was a fabrication unrelated to any person living or dead. I look forward, on occasion, to bringing Avi back to life to teach about wine processes and information about Israel. Thank you for your support and trust of The Kosher Terroir and I truly hope I haven't stepped over the line on this naughty occasion.