The Kosher Terroir

AY: Pioneering Kosher Wines and New Traditions in Judea and Samaria

• Solomon Simon Jacob • Season 3 • Episode 3

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Join us for an enlightening episode featuring the visionary winemaker AY, as he takes us on a remarkable journey through the vineyards of Judea and Samaria. AY shares his deep connection to biblical prophecy and ancient wine traditions, revealing how these influences have shaped his innovative approach to winemaking. Discover the inspiration behind the groundbreaking Queen Jane wine, a unique off-dry white Cabernet Franc, and AY's ambitious goal of establishing a new wine style called Buot, aimed at putting Judea and Samaria on the global wine map.

As we explore the unique terroir and winemaking processes in the settlement of Esh Kodesh, we'll uncover the incredible transformation of AY's garage wine operation into a global destination. Through stories of resilience and perseverance, we'll learn how the challenging conditions of the region, such as rocky bedrock and limited water, play a crucial role in crafting the distinct flavors of his kosher wines. AY's commitment to excellence shines through as he balances the art and science of winemaking, resulting in flavors that are as robust as they are intriguing.

This episode also delves into the profound connection between winemaking, history, and community in the Shomron region. Through AY's personal narrative, we gain insight into the cultural heritage and enduring significance of wine as a symbol of hope amidst adversity. From tales of over-fermented grapes turning into exceptional brandy to the heartfelt messages on wine bottles, this conversation celebrates the spirit of overcoming challenges and cherishing memories. Whether you're a wine enthusiast or simply curious about the rich tapestry of stories from Judea and Samaria, AY's passion will leave you inspired.

For more Information:
You can contact A.Y. Katsof at:
Phone: +972 52-623-1421
email: Akatsof@gmail.com

or on Instagram at:

settlerscellar
and
settlerswinerycabins

https://www.instagram.com/settlerscellar/profilecard/?igsh=MTZ6Mzc5MGF3MG1rNw==

Esh Kodesh

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Solomon Simon Jacob:

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. The private 1.48-acre estate located in the settlement of Eshkodesh in the Binyamin area, overlooking the ancient city of Shiloh, AY is creating a wine destination focused on his winery Settler's Cellars, with cottages looking down on the estate's terraced vineyards below. The following conversation with AY touches on the winery's history, the close connection he feels with biblical prophecy and his hopes and dreams for his family's future in Israel. If you're driving in your car, please focus on the road ahead. If you're comfortably at home, please select a delicious bottle of kosher wine, Sit back, relax and enjoy. Thank you for welcoming me to Settler Sellers.

A.Y. Katsof :

Thank you for coming.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

But also welcome to The Kosher Terroir.

A.Y. Katsof :

Thank you very much. All right, so I'll tell you how it started Special huh Isn't that amazing? So what are we drinking? How it started special huh is that amazing, so what are?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

we drinking. This is carboné franc white. This is a white carboné franc. It looks like a very, very light rosé at the moment uh, yeah, it's.

A.Y. Katsof :

It's even white, I would say it's like a very light rosé. Now this Cabernet Franc, when it's harvested red, it gets uh gold medals. I can't tell you which bottles what winery it gets what. Gold medals in Europe More than 95 points.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow.

A.Y. Katsof :

Without going into details, Okay. And what happens is a lot of times Cabernet Franc. Because of its nature it takes a while to turn red. It has trouble turning red. So what we do is we take the early thin Cabernet Franc to help them get red. And we take those early thin grapes and we turn it with a couple other tricks I can't talk about and we turn into this magic. It's amazing tasting.

A.Y. Katsof :

We call it Queen Jane, on the Queen Jane in France that she didn't like the red wine for the hot summer days, and they made this and we call it it's a PE style wine, which is pre-harvest, yeah, and so it's early, early harvest and Queen. Jane and L'Chaim to Queen Jane.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

L'Chaim to Vim, L'Chaim to Vim Really really awesome.

A.Y. Katsof :

It's the flavor. It's the flavor, it's the aromas, it's that uplifting thing and what I was telling you about. So we say this Queen Jane wine. Somebody comes to a forest Yep, some people look for a path to get through and some people they make their own path and let other people follow. And that's what I'm trying to do here in wine country of Judea and Samaria. That's exactly my vision, and the vision is like this you know, I did a tour in Spain, catalonia, and I was tasting wines there and I said you know this wine, I feel like a pottery in it. And the girl's like, hey, you're right. And she brings me down to the wine cellar and she shows me these pottery jars.

A.Y. Katsof :

And she says we age in pottery and this is the Roman style. And I was like, excuse me, miss Romans, you know, around about 2,000 years ago in ancient Shiloh, right next to my winery, right near where I grow my grapes, they found potteries, wine pottery jars that looked just like this from over 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years before Rome, Jews or they weren't called Jews there, they were called Israelites were aging wine in the capital of Israel, which was Shiloh at the time, before Jerusalem, before Jerusalem, in pottery. And then I understood. I was like we don't have to follow other wine styles and other winemakers. Yes, we have to learn from them, but we have to come back to our land, come back to our roots and recreate our style wine. Let winemakers in Europe and in United States follow us.

A.Y. Katsof :

And that's when I came up with this wine. I was looking for something unique, special, something you could do in our area, and we were 830 meters above sea level. A lot very tough bedrock, a lot of limestone, cold nights with very windy and we get and very little water, almost no water, and because of that the trees are very thirsty and it creates all these flavors. The roots go deep down in the bedrock looking for moisture and with that it brings up the minerals from the stone and you can mama's taste the minerals in here.

A.Y. Katsof :

And my dream is so you go to France, you drink champagne. You go to Spain, you drink cava. You come to Judea and Samaria. You drink boat. You drink what boat? Boat? Boat in Hebrew means bubbles, Buot, and I want to make a champagne style wine, light, bubbles, fruity, like this powerful fruit, and call it Buot. And one second last thing.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You know how, I know I succeeded.

A.Y. Katsof :

Go ahead. When the non-kosher restaurant in wine country in France or Spain orders Bouot, it could be from my winery. It could be another winery in the area. Why it's not kosher? They don't need it because it's kosher. They want it because they're looking for that unique special flavor of bouot L'chaim.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

L'chaim. This is sweet, though it's not sweet Off dry. Yeah, it's off dry, which normally means on a bottle that it's very sweet, yeah, yeah, Okay. So this is sweet but it's incredibly pleasant. It is like I can think of the vast population of people would love this one. It's very special, it's really special.

A.Y. Katsof :

Very, very special and it's very hard to make and I'd say it's a bracha, and talk about the bracha. So in 2011, I just moved here to Esh Kodesh. 2011? I moved here in the end of 2010. 2011, Rosh Hashanah.

A.Y. Katsof :

We're reading the Haftorah of Yirmiyahu, lamed, aleph and Yirmiyahu. Most of Yirmiyahu talks about the Jewish people going into exile. Every once in a while he gives some Nechama prophecies and Jeremiah says but one day the Jewish people will come back to the land of Israel and he could have just left it like that, but no, he says. And then they will come to the Shomron Mountains and in the Shomron Mountains, exactly where we are, the Shomron region they will plant vineyards and drink the wine. And I read that after right. I was looking across and I see the Bear Mountains and at the time the Arab villages were attacking us all the time and I said you know what? I'm going to plant a vineyard right on that mountain, by the village and after us, just because of Yirmiyá, yirmiyá Lámaná. We went there, we flattened the land and the Arabs attacked us and they stopped us and I tried to plant and they burnt our irrigation and they broke the fences and they tried to uproot the trees. It was a long way, and only with the trees was a long way, and only in 2016, five years later, usually takes three years.

A.Y. Katsof :

I did my first harvest there's about half the amount and I sold my grapes to a certain winery and we did hand-picked. Each tree was like an only child, if you understand each tree, me and my children. We put it in, we took care of it, we pruned it to perfection, we took care of the grapes, we did a night by hand and we sold it to a certain winery and they promised they'll give us 50 bottles. And then, when I came to get the 50 bottles, they said listen, the importer came. The wine was so good. We sold everything at a high price. I said that's very nice, I'm happy for you, but what about my 50 bottles? Listen, they paid top dollar for it. I was like okay, but you know this isn't just about the money. You know I put my heart, my soul, my sweat. I would wake up in the middle of the night. Fix the pipes, fight the thorns. I still feel the thorns in my fingers.

A.Y. Katsof :

And I said I'm never going to sell grapes again. 2017, we did our first batch Carbonaona Sauvignon Settler's Cellar and ever since then we've been making wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

A lot of people I know love those bottles. Yeah, so yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

Now, how did we get to start making this stuff? Now, if you're a big winery and you need to at the end of the day, a goal of a winery is to survive and be financially successful. It's very hard to do experiments, because if it goes bad it's a lot of money down the drain 2022, shemitah.

A.Y. Katsof :

We do Shemitah Lachamra. We mafgar our vineyard I make no wine, but a lot of other vineyards around here did the same thing. So we went to a our vineyard I make no wine, but a lot of other vineyards around here did the same thing so we went to a couple vineyards and we did very small batches, 50 liters, 100 liters, and it was really just test drives and we didn't really think anything would come out of it. And then, all of a sudden, these amazing flavors came out and the bracha of the Shemitah that we were. Otherwise we would never be able to experiment like that. That experiment is what that flavor, that unique flavor you're tasting right now, is B'schutz the Shemitah. They were able to allow us to experiment and have these amazing flavors.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Awesome.

A.Y. Katsof :

And then it's Ketusha Shavis wine. People just came and drank it. Some people paid like a little bit just to like cover costs, which of course it didn't cover costs, because imagine the actual cost of the wine and you feel the bracha.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow, how did you end up in Eshkodesh? That's a long story. I mean, you were one of the first people here I was the first ten. Okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

So it was like the second wave we call it. Should we go for another rosé? Yeah, let's try. So this is a Cabernet Sauvignon rosé For his Cabernet Franc. This is a Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a little bit drier, it's more classic. It's, I would say, less fruity.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I was going to pour this out, but I'm not.

A.Y. Katsof :

I could get a spitter right there. This is fun. Listen, if you can't drive back, we have the cabins right behind you, right, don't worry. So Pretty good, you know, we'll just crash it. No no that's the real business plan, you know.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Have people come drinking yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, they had. They can't drive back, so and you know the whole idea of wine is His uh Tikkun of ad and Rishon, so it's actually interesting. So this, the white that we're just Wait a minute, how?

A.Y. Katsof :

I never heard that before. Oh really, that's the whole. Why do you do Kiddush on wine? So some people say, I mean I'll pick a couple. The Eitz Hadass was grapes, yeah, yep, and that's why it keeps on happening. If it's no, you know history and our tikkun is Friday night. That's exactly when the head of Adam and Eve should happen, arab Shabbos.

A.Y. Katsof :

You do kiddish on wine to fix the head of Adam and Eve. Your mom tick the denim and that's all. Because, I listen, put a little water in the wine. And so somebody was just here this week, last week, and they said I have a question. He says it's like a macuba and, by the way, my vineyardsyards here I have seven terraces, seven spheres and each terrace a different variety. And he says I have a question. So I, like I'm a mirror that I'd up a Cabela. I do kiddish on red wine. Okay, could I cover a Frank is red wine, but this color is white. Could I do Kiddush on it or is it considered the hitter of red wine? And I said it's not just Mahudar, it's Mahadrin, minah Mahadrin. Why? Because the whole Indian is Hamtikata, dinim, to take the Dinim, the Mm-hmm.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Klipot, the klipot, the klipot, the klipot of the grapes.

A.Y. Katsof :

The klipot of the grapes is what makes it red Right, and you're mam tik the dinim.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You're turning it to white.

A.Y. Katsof :

That's Yom Kippur where it says im miyuchata eichem kashani kashela gelbinu, if your sins will be red like shani, which is like the, it'll turn white like snow. So this is red wine and it's white. It's both, yep, that's why it's Mahatim.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Minah Mahatim. Very cool idea. L'chaim L'chaim. Tovim Shalom, baruch Hashem. So this is now what.

A.Y. Katsof :

This is Cabernet Sauvignon . Also rosé. Okay, a little bit drier.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This is what.

A.Y. Katsof :

I tasted. No, this one's the Merlot. Okay, we'll get there.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Also, you taste Mamish the minerals of the ground.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, this is really, and it's a little drier, it's more complex. I think you, mamish, taste the minerals, the rocks of the ground. It's going to be really hard. People are going to listen to this and they're just going to want to get thirsty and they want to drink.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

That's okay, it's all right, we'll just get them.

A.Y. Katsof :

They're going to have to come here. I know Settler's Winery. I love it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This is really crazy. This is drier, it's a little redder, yeah, but it's fresh and crisp. It's fresh and crisp. That's the name of the game here. I wish it was really hot outside.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, that's what it is. It's for a hot day, that's perfect, baruch.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Hashem Wow. So in Eish Eish HaKodesh. How did you pick this place?

A.Y. Katsof :

Sometimes you have to just let God run the world. We're actually on the way to somewhere else. We're on the way to Yitzhar and a friend of mine told me listen, just stop at Eish HaKodesh, I think it's for you. I was just there for Shabbat. We drove in here and we kind of just fell in love and we're like this is our spot. And in 2000, this was 2010, 2012, I sent an email to the Yishuv I think by then we're close to 30 families already and I found that email of my vision of building a winery under my house and planting vineyards around it and having it a place where people from the whole world could come and see what Judean Samaria wine is all about and that vision, probably besides the one vineyard I planted and I started making wine but it was a garage wine, it wasn't here About 10 years Shemitah is what triggered me.

A.Y. Katsof :

That says, wow, we have something here. And then the year afterward I already jumped up from basically nothing to 12,000 bottles.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow, wow. The question I have is in your past, what got you to making wine? Was there some experience in the past? Nothing.

A.Y. Katsof :

Never did it, never knew how to do it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

And I was never a good student, never graduated high school, even though later on I caught up on university I did uh, my master's degree in tel aviv university, but in middle eastern studies, in arabic. Okay, so my study has nothing to do with wine. Now, winemaking is divided by two. There's the chemistry yep and then there's the art. Right, there's the science. Chemistry is the science and the art Science is exact. You take the grape you saw what we just did at the beginning you put it in the maabedah, in the Tester.

A.Y. Katsof :

Maabedah is more like the lab.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, the lab.

A.Y. Katsof :

And it's numbers.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

And you go by the numbers and there's wineries that go only numbers and it feels like a lab wine. It's like too perfect. You know, that's one side. Then there's the other side. Is the art. Art is nothing to do with numbers, it's your tongue, you taste it and you feel that it needs to be fruitier or drier. And then there's people that make only wine by their tongue and people like that they could get amazing wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

But not consistent. But the other three go bad. It's not consistent, not consistent at all.

A.Y. Katsof :

But every once in a while they get lucky. But when you take science and art and you put them together, that's when you get magic, and that's what we're trying to do. You have to know the rules to break them. So we're trying to take the science part, which I'm not so good at. That's why I pay wine advisors. The art is, I gather friends and we just do flavors and tasting and try as much as we can to think out of the box, not follow existing rye. There's a rule oh, cab has to taste like this. Okay, it has to. But we want to do cab that matches our land and our trees and our weather, we trees and our weather. We use that and we match the sides right in the middle. We get the magic.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Very cool. How does the unique terroir of Eshkodesh contribute to the character of your wines?

A.Y. Katsof :

It is so unique we talked about it before it's so special. It's that hard bedrock I said, yep, the very little water that we have here. The trees here sometimes they have almost no dirt, mostly just bedrock with little pockets of dirt, and the trees have to work so hard you have to plant on top of that bedrock.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, so what?

A.Y. Katsof :

we do some. What I do is I go to the valley here, yeah, pick up dirt, I bring it up, I break the terraces.

A.Y. Katsof :

It's similar way to the ancient terraces right just a little bit more machinery modernized, but the same idea.

A.Y. Katsof :

We break the mountain, we build steps and then you have big rocks, small crushed rocks that go into that, and on top of that we pour about 10 to 15 centimeters of dirt we take from the valley. Okay, so the young trees, they start growing in the dirt and the roots go down into the little rocks, big rocks, and by that time they're strong enough and they break into the bedrock Very cool, and you get the flavor as mamish in the wine. The cold nights is what I would say gives the most the are. What we're gonna get to soon is the strong cabs, the colder nights you have, the longer the grapes could sit on the trees without going bad. And because if you have, the longer the grapes can sit on the trees without going bad, and because if you have it, if you live in a hot place, the grapes mamish start growing funguses on them and the cold nights keeps them fresh. We have a port. Maybe we'll be so happy to taste for dessert, yep.

A.Y. Katsof :

I'm telling you in mamish, I'm telling you in Mamish, I'm jumping the gun here. Mamish tastes like chocolate, chocolate and this port is 100% grapes. We didn't add any sulfites, zero sulfites, no alcohol, 100% harvest of, basically, raisins at 34 bricks, wow, okay.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay, can you walk me through the process of producing kosher wine at Settler Cellars?

A.Y. Katsof :

I could walk through the whole process, but it's similar to most grapes. You plant the grapes, you take care of every tree. You fight off weather. You fight off not having water. You fight off Arabs coming and trying to destroy. You fight off left-wing extremist organizations coming and trying to destroy your trees. If you're lucky, you finally get to harvest. You hand harvest, you bring it into here. Sometimes we put in the fridge yeah, right outside of the pressure.

A.Y. Katsof :

The pressure it sits here and the vats goes through malolactic. You see those two vats right there. They're the last ones that didn't go through Melolactic yet. That's what I just checked now Melolactic, then it goes into the barrel room that we'll walk in in. A second Sits there. That's another thing we do, different than other places Our wines. They've been sitting in the barrels for 26 months Now. We've just had wine for 30 months. Wow and right now we're gonna test a petite Verdot. It's been in the barrel since 221.

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow now, what's special about this? This is a hundred percent petite Verdot. Not many people make it. It does exist. There are some wineries that do it yep and I never planned on doing it. Somebody gave me a small batch, small little vineyard right here across the mountain. Yeah, most of my grapes is as I grow, so in the state winery.

A.Y. Katsof :

Every once in a while because I don't have enough grapes yet, I take from my neighbors. I did one barrel. I tasted it. I couldn't drink it. It's way too powerful. I threw it in the barrel. I forgot about it, sat there for about three years. Besides, every month and a half you do a little topping, yeah. And then I needed the barrels now to make room for my 2024 harvest. I pumped it into a vat and I needed to think what blend am I going to do with it? And I was even thinking like I had some wines here because of the war that went bad Because I wasn't around. I said you know what I might even have to just make brandy out of it. What can I do? Brandy?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

is also okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

And actually powerful wines could make very good brandy and I tasted it and I was like, wow, is this the same wine?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

And that's why we call it a Chauve.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, it's a Chauve, a Chauve is like here we have these cups red wine cups.

A.Y. Katsof :

A Chauvin is like the. How would you say that in English, the Chauvin child, it's the squeaky wheel.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

The wild kid the absolute wild.

A.Y. Katsof :

He has a lot, a lot of energy. I was that kid, I think. And the thing is, look at that color.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I know.

A.Y. Katsof :

The thing is about the Chauvin. A lot of times people try to stop them and do things. All you need to do really is just let them be and they take that powerful energy and they just need time to settle down. And that's why this wine we call it a Shuvav, because with time it took all that super powerful energy and melted back down. Look, you can even smell the flavors, just like this.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I know, you don't even have to taste it.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, you really don't. You taste that petite verdoe. It's like super fruity, almost like a prune flavor to it. Figs.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I don't know that. I would call it prune. I think it's much more appealing.

A.Y. Katsof :

So you tell me, what would you call it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

The smell alone is so robust and so wow, robust fruity.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, it's fruity.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

but the color is absolutely gorgeous.

A.Y. Katsof :

Take the white. I know, I know, look at that.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I know the garnet. It's like beautiful, deep, deep garnet. There's no bricking at all. What year?

A.Y. Katsof :

is this 2021. 2021. It's just been sitting and sitting and sitting. I bottled maybe 270 bottles of these. Somebody just came here and tasted it and he says give me 50 bottles.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You know it's interesting.

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow, this is wow. Now, this is also very low sulfites Like almost nothing. But that's a mistake, because I got to sulfite it before I bottled and then in the middle of the night I had like a nightmare. I'm like shoot, I forgot to sulfite it. I ran down in the morning and I tested the sulfites and there's about half of what it's supposed to be. So this is probably not going to last too long, but it's a lot healthier. It's beautiful and it probably has to do with the flavor as well, because sulfite sometimes touch the flavor what about sustainability?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

how much water do you use? Do you do water the, the?

A.Y. Katsof :

grapes, at all, trees, the trees. It's interesting one of the things I learned in Spain. It's actually it's basically illegal there to water the vineyards, also because they have no water and also they have like we have a Heckscher they have like a quality control yeah. And if they catch you watering your vineyards and most varieties, except for I think there's I forgot which is like one white variety, yeah, you need to water it it doesn't meet the OC, they take away your quality control.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah so my this well, here's the next one. Next wine we're gonna taste right now. Now we're already jumping up the cap. Okay, 2020, take your time open and let it breathe. This trees has almost no water. When I say almost no, water means it rains.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yes, no, yeah, but you don't add I add after harvest.

A.Y. Katsof :

Okay, after I harvest okay, then you I add why? Because the tree is so weak and feeling so bad, you don't want it to go. It goes to sleep in the winter, so you don't want it to go to sleep on an empty stomach, Because when it goes to sleep and you give it some water, so in its mind it's like you know what it's not that bad Spring.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

it's time to wake up.

A.Y. Katsof :

Exactly Right, but it gets zero irrigation. Now getting zero irrigation.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

That's the question I had is irrigation.

A.Y. Katsof :

The trees are miskin, they're very schwach, they don't grow so many leaves and instead of, let's say, my neighbors that will be harvesting, they can get between 1,000, even up to 2,000 kilos of dunam. Yeah, I got this year 550 kilos of dunam, so up to less than half, sometimes even a quarter in quantity, which comes to talk about the difference between an estate wine and a regular winery. An estate wine is where the winery also grows the grapes.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Right.

A.Y. Katsof :

In Spain, most wineries, any winery that wants to inhabit itself and in France they do that Grows it. Here most wineries do not grow the grapes. They give contracts with the grape growers Because winem two. There's two different businesses. One business is farmers. Growing grapes is a farm. You work in the gravel, you wake up in the middle of the night and fix the pipes. And then the second business is wine making. We talk about that science. It's a factory and to know how to do both most people don't do. We're an estate. We do most of our wines and eventually we do all of them. We also grow the grapes and also make the wine. And because of that, if we're not growing the grapes to sell them, I don't care about quantity. I'm not getting paid per kilo, I'm getting paid per liter of wine and I want it to be the highest quality.

A.Y. Katsof :

So that's, at the end of the day, what happens. What you're looking for, yeah, and that's why, if you're just selling grapes, it's not profitable to produce 500 kilos of Dunam. It's not. You don't even cover costs. If you're making wine, that's a different story.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

How did you handle the winemaking in the vineyards during now, during the war and everything? Were there issues that you ran into it was actually very, very, very hard.

A.Y. Katsof :

Sukkot before the war was the most successful Sukkot. I just finished this building that we're sitting in. I didn't even finish the bar the inside yet and I had morning to evening groups nonstop. Everybody tasted it and I'm actually looking for a partner, a partner in this winery. So instead of taking me 10 years to do the dreams I was telling you about, about Bouhout and everything, I could be able to do it much faster and I had a lot of people interested in it. People bought big amounts of wines and they didn't even pay me. I said you know what? Don't pay me After Sukkot, sukkot's now. After Sukkot, we'll call and we'll figure out payments. Same with Sarah 7.

A.Y. Katsof :

In the morning I get a call. It's my commander. He says no questions, the base right now. I throw on my uniform, I get in my car, I drive very, very fast. It's the first time I go right to the Kiryat. The Kiryat is like the Israeli Pentagon. I served minus three underground. Usually just getting into the Kiryat is hard. Here I show up, the gates are open and people are just like come in, come in. I go right down.

A.Y. Katsof :

For about seven months I didn't have anything to do with the winery. Only in March, when I came back, I had a lot of wines that went bad. A lot of grapes were misharvested. I had friends that came and helped me harvest during the war. They came just for that with bulletproof vests harvesting Harvesting itself is hard To wear. A bulletproof vest is even harder, and wines went bad. We actually had a whole vat of jandeli grapes. Jandeli is the Betta Migdash grapes, the ones that were found here in ancient Shiloh. A thousand liters went bad. I took that thousand liters and I made the most amazing brandy out of it Fruity brandy.

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow so we see from Mario Tsematok. I had 100 liters. That was like the bottom, the bad stuff, like that. I didn't want to make wine out of it and I put it in that 100 liter plastic over there. Yeah, and I forgot about it A week ago. I was like, wait, what's this? What is that? I opened it up. The most about it a week ago. I was like, wait, what's this? I opened it up.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

The most amazing wine, vinegar and if you want, we could taste it. Listen, this wine vinegar, I'm telling you a lot of people are looking for that. You're gonna taste it soon.

A.Y. Katsof :

That's hot, what you call it so amazing, and it's jandeli wine vinegar wow and know what?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I don't even know how it happened.

A.Y. Katsof :

I didn't do it on purpose and I still don't know how to make vinegar, but it just happened. And so we see, like from the bad things, the bracha, the blessing comes out. And just now we're just now getting back up on our feet. Look at that collar. And even when I would come back home for breaks mentally, I couldn't deal with the winery, because we're all our friends. You have all sorts of stuff that's on your head.

A.Y. Katsof :

I know, I saw so much death. I spent the first couple weeks before we went into Gaza interrogating the terrorists. The terrorists would come in to the room with blood on them still and it wasn't always their blood and I had to sit in front of them and talk to them for hours. After that you come home, you can't start dealing with wine. Wine has to be done with love, with passion, with feeling.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

How does cultivating a vineyard here in the middle of the Chamron connect to the historical significance of winemaking in this region?

A.Y. Katsof :

You see what it says on the sign there.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, Settlers the taste of liquid prophecy.

A.Y. Katsof :

So you could read the Bible, you could read about prophecy. Here we live it and we taste it. It's Mameshed, you know Valentine's Day. It came from the biblical Tu B'Av. Yeah, where did Tu B'Av start? Shebo b'not shilo. Yotzot v'cholot bakramim, the daughters of shiloh, which is right where we are right here dance in the vineyards. My daughters dance in the vineyards and that's why I have this 357 magnum right here, to make sure no guys come and grab them. Biblical times how old are?

A.Y. Katsof :

you that's why she's still single oh oh, not good, gotta let go soon.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

He's got to let go soon.

A.Y. Katsof :

And then Hannah comes to pray in Shiloh and Eli hakit Cohen. He thinks she's drunk. Now, if you go to Scotland and you're walking a little not straight, you probably think you're drunk.

A.Y. Katsof :

You come to Shiloh, that's the default. You must have drank too much wine because it was wine country. Shell needs to find a wife. They say go to shiloh. There's a holiday in shiloh. They're dancing in the vineyards. So to come back. You always promise. I write. I wrote in my, in my, in my war bottle. This is the verse that I wrote on the bottle. Every every bottle, I write a different verse and a different story. So the verse of my 2021 bottle. I'm taking out the label right now and I will bring back the captives of my nation, israel, and shall build the deserted cities and inhabit them. Talk about bringing back the captives and come back to the deserted cities and inhabit them. And then what? They shall plant vineyards and drink its wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow.

A.Y. Katsof :

Amos 9.14. And then I wrote at the end despite the hardships and attacks against us in every generation, we will only get better, stronger and more refined. As you drink this wine, please remember those who have fallen so that we may live peacefully and secure. Raise a toast to life and to a better, brighter and stronger future.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Amen, amen, amen Amen.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yesid Verdo HaShuvav.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yep, this is lovely and it's so nicely balanced. It's got a finish on it. It's also got front middle palate, everything. It's really lovely.

A.Y. Katsof :

I wish I could tell you that there's a secret behind it, but this one is actually just very lucky and blessed.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's a Shavuot. That's exactly what a Shavuot is.

A.Y. Katsof :

It really is Exactly, I think. I don't know. I have a feeling you had a couple of those.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, I even have Shavuot grandchildren.

A.Y. Katsof :

There you go. You see, I don't have any great grandchildren. Yet If these grandchildren are really Shavavs, you'll have some great-grandchildren soon.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

That's lovely, that's really great. How does Settler Sellers play a supporting role in the development of the local community of Estonish?

A.Y. Katsof :

Okay. So I think any business in this area, you know it's all about building, building and anything as long as you're building, you're, you know we're it's all about building, building and anything, anything as long as you're building and you're growing and you're developing, you're giving Parnassa to people around you're helping people giving other jobs out.

A.Y. Katsof :

We just started here in this settlers winery. We have now twice a week, thursday nights and Saturday nights, and hopefully we'll have more kind of's. Kind of like. It's like a wine bar, but it's open mic. So young people come here and they pick up the guitar or the keyboard and the microphone and they sing. And all of a sudden you discover all these hidden talents of people coming up and singing, like singing their soul out, singing their neshama.

A.Y. Katsof :

And there was this boy here last Thursday night and he was singing till 3.30 in the morning and he was singing so beautiful and I came over to him at 3.30. And I was like you know, I've been drinking a lot. Are you sure you can make it home? And he's like actually, I think I'm just going to go to my car and I'll continue writing music there.

A.Y. Katsof :

And I was like well, you're the last one here. I'm going home now. Just stay in here in the winery, sit on the couch. He's like, but I can stay here by myself. I was like, yeah, stay here, why not? There's a light switch, turn it off when you leave. And tears started coming down his eyes and he's like listen, Sunday I'm going back into Lebanon and Sunday I'm going back into Lebanon and I don't know if I'm going to make it out. I lost already a lot of my friends and I feel that I'm singing to Hashem, singing tunes, songs to Hashem, and it might be my last songs from Sayer Golani, and it was the week where we just lost five people from Golani so crazy these are.

A.Y. Katsof :

It's from Sayer Ghulani and it was the week where we just lost, I think, five people from Ghulani.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So crazy these are. Everybody says they're Kedoshian, but they're more than that they're superstars. They're superstars.

A.Y. Katsof :

And I feel that I'm able to give for somebody like that to come up on stage and sing his music. People sitting around drinking wine and enjoying it and connecting to God. Song is a way we connect to God.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

In the.

A.Y. Katsof :

Beit HaMikdash tefillah was through the levim on the 15 steps playing music. Wow, wow steps playing music.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow, wow.

A.Y. Katsof :

And with wine, wine and music, I feel like I'm just taking a little part in helping people connect to God and connect to themselves.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Do you collaborate at all with the local wineries, with the other artisans around?

A.Y. Katsof :

So, without saying names, there are. I would divide it to two. There are some wineries that are very helpful and help you a lot in every type of way If it's advice, if it's the lab, if it's infrastructure and then there's the wineries that don't help and even accuse you of copying them or using their name or using their this.

A.Y. Katsof :

so I think it's the same thing, just like in anything in life you have the the good ones and the bad ones, and the trick is is to focus on the good, but there's definitely many very good wineries that really go out of their way. They understand it's not competition, to understand the opposite, it's helping each other, and the more the merrier. Yeah the.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So the term that's always happens with syrah is it gets translated as boat. All right, it always gets translated as boat. Never seen that, but okay, right, so it's. But what's funny with that is that um, the, the tide, the higher tide lifts all the boats, lifts all the different wineries. So if you do something that's positive, everybody together, it makes a difference. For everybody.

A.Y. Katsof :

I think so too. Yeah, I think it does. I really think so.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Are there qualities or characteristics that you strive to achieve in the wines, and how do they reflect in your vision as a winemaker?

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow, that's an intense question, I know I'm sorry, are there qualities and characteristics in the wines that you're making.

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow, let me think about that. So I'll tell you a story. I was at a restaurant. We're meeting a congressman from the United States. He's here in Israel and I wanted to show off the wine of the region, so the waiter gave us. It was a fancy restaurant. The waiter gave us a wine menu and there was a wine I think it was probably Shiloh or something, I don't remember what it was and I was like, oh yeah, here, can we order this wine? It was like maybe 200, 300 shekel and it was something from our region. The wine waiter comes back and says, sorry, we're out of that wine. The wine waiter comes back and says, sorry, we're out of that wine.

A.Y. Katsof :

So I was in the middle of a conversation. I didn't really have time. I just told the waiter listen, bring your best wine, and that was it. The guy comes back it was not an Israeli wine. Now.

A.Y. Katsof :

It was very dry and very smooth, very soft, very silky, easy to drink, but what? No life, there's no life to it. The guy charges a thousand shekels for the bottle and I didn't. I was if I would never pay a thousand shekels for a bottle of wine. It was easy, it was smooth, but no life? There was no. And I looked to. I was with the head of Binyamin, rosh Matzah, and he looks at me. He's like there's no life to this wine. We're already so spoiled in our region and I think that would give the answer. In our wines I try for there to be character, I try for there to be life and I think when you taste it, you feel like a story and you feel life, you feel like something going on. It's not just a taste, but it's an experience, it's a khabaya, and each wine we're going to go now to the cab soon You're going to feel the flavor, the life, the characteristic to it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This PV is blowing me away. I never, ever expected this.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah me neither, Wow Me neither.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So what varietals do you make?

A.Y. Katsof :

So we plant it now a lot, but they're not all giving fruit yet growing fruit. So if we go to my seven spheras so first I have the bottom, which is Malchus- it's before the seven spheras.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

That's the cab.

A.Y. Katsof :

No, my cab is my first vineyard I planted, that's somewhere else. That's across the mountain, across the valley, right under my vineyard, in the Malchus, I have a Merlot, a Barbara, a Shiraz, cabernet Franc, and then two whites, three whites Chardonnay, gewurz and Chenin Blanc.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow, you are really pushing it.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, Everything. Each one is about between a dunam to three dunam. That's just in the bottom. And then I have seven spheras, seven terraces. The first one is Sauvignon Blanc. After the Sauvignon Blanc I have Rosanne, another white. After the Rosanne, I have something very special. It's three varieties on one terrace Pinotage, mardova and Cabernet Franc and the idea is you harvest them together and you make one organic wine with three varieties. So Sauvignon Blanc, rosanne, the three and. Mordova, Barbara, Grenache, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow.

A.Y. Katsof :

The idea is, each one to make a vat of 1,000 to 3,000 liters. Some are white, some are rosés, some are reds, as you go up the terraces, get bigger, no.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Or about the same.

A.Y. Katsof :

The number one is actually the biggest. Two, three, four and five are about the same Number. Six again is very long and the seventh is actually very small.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Wow. So what's in the seventh? You see it right up there Pinot Grigio. That's the Pinot Grigio, wow.

A.Y. Katsof :

The seventh Requiére and my dream is the Pinot Noir and the Pinot Grigio to make champagne-style wines.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Cool, no Viognier.

A.Y. Katsof :

I don't know what that is Okay, it's another varietal.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's another varietal. Never heard of it, okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

Well, if I have next year, I have a spot to plant. I'm thinking of planting Carignan.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

Or more Carignan-Franc to make Queen, jane, okay. Or more Carmen de Franc to make Queen.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Jane, or what would you suggest? There are two whites that are that can be incredible. One is Viognier, that a lot of people use, and another one is Simeon.

A.Y. Katsof :

That's fruity.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, simeon, you need to, you need to deal with it. Semillon, it's fruity, it's yeah, semillon, you need to deal with it specially. And even Viognier. Viognier is really crisp and light and wonderful.

A.Y. Katsof :

But you're doing a great job so far. I mean, I'm not, no, no, I'm learning Cabernet Franc. I've never tasted Cabernet Francs. I'm always learning more, you know. Before this cab, I'm trying to think what we should do. First, I have a Cabernet Franc, 100%. It's in the vat.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's not ready yet.

A.Y. Katsof :

Also 21, and I'm trying to figure out if I should do something to it or bottle it as is. You can take it out soon in the vat.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

We can taste it. Let's do it. I'm happy. I'm happy to taste it.

A.Y. Katsof :

Let's go into the barrel room and I do want to do some bituni.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

That's also, but what are you building over here?

A.Y. Katsof :

Ah, you want to know all the secrets.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

That is going to be my barrel room. Wow, broken into the bedrock, you see that? Yes, I see 200 square meters. You're going to come in from the side, you're going to walk down and like all in the narrow steps, yep, and there's going to be where I'm going to make champagnes Champagne room and barrel room.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You're crazy, you're crazy.

A.Y. Katsof :

Only now you realize that.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

No, no, champagne is really Meshuggah.

A.Y. Katsof :

I know, but it'll be Buot. What It'll be Champagne? It'll be Buot, okay, champagne style.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

Judean Samaria Buot, this is my barrel room, okay.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Beautiful.

A.Y. Katsof :

So here I have all the wine that's aging. These are my new barrels that my 24 harvest is about to go into it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

And these are all the 24 harvest stuff.

A.Y. Katsof :

These are the 24.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

This one is actually 21,. I know it says 23,. It's a mistake.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay, and here, what do you taste?

A.Y. Katsof :

Good, I just took it out of the barrel right before bottling, but now I feel like it's not ready to be bottled, so I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Uh-huh, there we go, got it. There you go, got it. Come on, I'm going to pour you some into your glass.

A.Y. Katsof :

No, no, no, my head's already spinning too much.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

All right, you taste it.

A.Y. Katsof :

I actually just tasted it yesterday. So I'm trying to feel like it might be a little too tanniny. I think 100% carbonate frank, it might be too tanniny to bottle. So another thing we built here. You'll see right across. We built four cabins and their mom is here. We'll go in them soon and they're overlooking the vineyards. So it's like you come here, you enjoy the winery and then you stay in the vineyards. What do you think of the Cabernet Franc? I think it's not ready for bottling. I think the tannins are still too high. What do you think?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I think they're beautiful.

A.Y. Katsof :

Really Like that, as is.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I really think it's beautiful.

A.Y. Katsof :

You don't think I should sell them with the tannins?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

maybe Wait. These have a certain audience.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, for sure.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This has a certain audience, okay.

A.Y. Katsof :

It's not the same audience as those by any means.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This has got nothing. It's not lacking for anything.

A.Y. Katsof :

You wouldn't eat it like that. Do a clean carbonate drink An heartbeat. It's not only unique, you wouldn't leave it like that. Do a clean carbonate drink an heartbeat. It's not only unique it's balanced, it's smooth.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

The tannins are not. The tannins are not a problem, at least for me.

A.Y. Katsof :

I hear it. No, you want a powerful wine. You want the tannins? Yeah, but it's not overpoweringly tannin.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So talk to me about all the wines you make, all the different terraces that you made. You created the terraces.

A.Y. Katsof :

They weren't here already? Yeah, okay, we took existing ancient terraces and made them a lot bigger, wider, did a lot more work on them.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

How deep are they?

A.Y. Katsof :

Deep. Well, we'll go out and see them, but some of them could be like two meters high, Some of them more even. You'll see the bedrock the broken bedrock Underneath?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Did you smash the bedrock?

A.Y. Katsof :

underneath it. Yeah, big time Huge excavators In order for the grapes to go through them yeah, another thing we do is before we, while we're doing the terraces, we take the excavator, the big hammer, and you just put it in the ground and it vibrates it creates cracks and those cracks, later on the roots are able to go into them. There's these, like in agriculture, and they usually come once a year in this area, yep, and when they hear about how much water we use or how much water we don't use they're like how does it grow?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

And they're like so why are you calling us here? Like you're not going to listen to our advice anyways. And then we're like listen. They're like you know, according to the books, maybe it won't grow, but if it does grow you'll get the best, best, highest quality grapes. Right, that's what they tell us. But they say because they're coming, remember, as grape growers, not as winemakers right and they're saying this is not financially sustainable because you get such little amount of grapes you're not going to cover the cost of.

A.Y. Katsof :

You know it costs about. You know at least $1,000 a year per dunam just to upkeep. Right, you're talking about. You know the tractors, the pruning, the work and all that, and then we didn't get to harvest. Plus, it cost money to harvest and if you can't make that back in selling the grapes, or you make exactly that in selling the grapes if you're making a little amount.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's not financially sustainable. So, ideally, what you want to do is you want to make the wine. Exactly, yeah, you're making the wine story.

A.Y. Katsof :

But remember, in israel that's not the default. In israel, the default is you're growing grapes to sell grapes to sell somebody else. Yeah well, if you're, if you're a farmer down south in the jordan valley, in the golan, you just get water thrown at you and you pay like a shekel two shekels per kub, so 1,000 liters here. First of all, we don't have water. When we finally do have water, I could sometimes pay 15 shekels a kub instead of one shekel.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Very hard. So ideally, what you don't want is grape juice.

A.Y. Katsof :

What you want is wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So one of the things that people have said this year is that with the war and everything else that's gone on, that the yields have been much lower.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, very low. We feel great this year. I'm not sure why. I don't know if it has to do with the war, but the yield was definitely lower this year. But it's a wave, Sometimes more very low. We feel great this year. I'm not sure why. I don't know if it has to do with the war, but the yield was definitely lower this year. But it's a wave.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Sometimes more, sometimes less, I understand. So what some people have said to me is there's a sadness because of the war, even in the land, and there's lesser yield. But with the lesser yield, the quality of the grapes, the concentration of the grapes, has been much greater.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, that's always how it is when there's lesser yield Right. But you know, it's so true what you're when there's yesterday yield right.

A.Y. Katsof :

But uh, you know, it's so true what you're saying, because even here, like you know, this thursday night we're having an event here I feel like on my conscience, like it's wrong that I'm even advertising I don't think so you know, because we have my friends there in lebanon or in gaza, yep, and I've been there till recently and it it's like we're just you know, I mean, I know that's victory, that we're able to continue living it's, it's, it's okay, number seven, it's definitely atovah mitiv. Okay, Baruch atah Adonai lehem haolam atovah mitiv, I'm going to wait. Give it like a nice swirl. This is my 2020 cab. See how fruity that is.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's delicious. That is really wine.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, I know how unique is that. Now you understand what. When I was telling you about how there's life in the wine.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

You almost feel like life.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Right.

A.Y. Katsof :

There's fruit, there's so much going on and this is just 100% cab, single mountain vineyard, nothing to it. It's God's presence, god's prophecy.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

No tricks, no addition, no playing around with it.

A.Y. Katsof :

No extra stuff, yeah, no, what they call it smatsavim designers. No chemicals, nothing. And we do everything right here, hand harvest these vats, right here, hand harvest these baths, right here, hand bottled, pumped into the barrels, out of the barrels, all by me and my kids. And then we have volunteers that come, yeah, and you know especially why? Because when we were talking about Jeremiah and you tell them about the Jews coming back to the mountains of the Shomron planting vineyards why did he say vineyards? He could have said plant wheat. I'll tell you the difference If you're planting wheat, that means you're surviving. If you're making wine, you're flourishing, and we have to flourish. We can't just survive 100%. That's why the wine is so important, because that means we're already, we're beyond, surviving. So this, you see, is 220, very full body. This is delicious and life it's vibrant, it's happening.

A.Y. Katsof :

I would let it sit for probably another couple hours to really let it open up because you know, 26 months in the barrel this is the 2020 cab.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, well, single vineyard.

A.Y. Katsof :

After this, you bottle that about a year ago. Okay, so we'll do 21 brandy and then port, I think of course it's in same. This is the 21.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This is the 2020. The 2020 was a great year.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, you're gonna taste the 21,. It's pretty good. Now the 21,. You're supposed to barrel it after two years and then the war hit, so it's had another six months in the barrels, ended up bearing after 30 months and that's really good.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's very similar.

A.Y. Katsof :

There's 2020. I think it's a little bit less fruity, but still very powerful. Now a little secret in this 21. I took this Cabernet Franc that you tasted before, yeah.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

And you blended a little in Six percent Okay. So that's like not even considered.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, like a tint Now I have. There's some, we call them cab snobs. Yeah, glenn's a cab snob, he liked their cab 100% cab.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Don't tell him, don't tell him.

A.Y. Katsof :

No, he says it. He tells me he's like I'm a cab snog, I love 100% cab. Don't touch my cab, you know what. But I, you know, I was actually with Ari.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You'll never know it.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, I was with Ari. Yeah, really, but I was with Ari Tannenbaum and we sat here, yep, and we tasted with it and without it with it and without it we did 10%, 5% and then we did 6% and we just felt that what it did, you don't taste the frank, but it takes the Cabernet Sauvignon and it brings it to perfection. It gives it that extra balance and that's why we did it. And this was just bottled a couple months ago.

A.Y. Katsof :

This was just bottled so it still needs time to go through the bottle, shock and relax and all that wow it's delicious, it's crazy.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I have seven yam blancs, so amazing. Wow, it's delicious, it's a wine, it's crazy.

A.Y. Katsof :

I have Sauvignon Blancs yeah, but I also have Pinot Noir Rosé that I'm going to turn into champagne, into bouillotte. See this? Wow, this wine was 2018 wine and I had a batch that I was not so proud of. Yeah so I decided to turn into brandy. It's sitting here in this barrel for about two years. That's where it gets the color in the oak. This is brandy. Wow, smell that oak Ooh.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah, you going to bottle it as brandy.

A.Y. Katsof :

What you going to bottle it as brandy. Go, go, go. Yeah, yeah, it'll be a bottle of brandy. You need some time and energy and some money to buy bottles Everything is.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You know, Everything costs money. Okay, this is this actually is really nice.

A.Y. Katsof :

Thank you, brother. It's not Inside of heart, it's powerful.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Well, yeah, but it's not, it's powerful.

A.Y. Katsof :

Well, yeah, but it's not. It's not bad.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

A lot of compliment, not bad, no, no no, okay, I'll tell you what my attitude about some of the sweet dessert wines and also things like brandy. Is that it's okay, but there's like a bad edge to it. Okay, okay, this doesn't have a bad edge to it. There's nothing wrong with this.

A.Y. Katsof :

When I say there's nothing wrong it means that's pretty good. I took 2018 wine and I distilled it four times. Wow, I did it one time, two times, three times and I said do it one more time. Look, you know what. Do it One more time, Awesome. Other times you distill, you lose a lot. How so?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

How so? You lose flavor, no, you lose amount.

A.Y. Katsof :

Oh, you lose amount.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Oh.

A.Y. Katsof :

You lose quantity.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Okay, I didn't know that, yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

That's the big part. That's the big. You put on the fire and it evaporates. And the idea is you catch the steam and it drips back in, but in the process you lose a lot of it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I didn't know that.

A.Y. Katsof :

Which makes it a lot more expensive.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

So that's why, when people say there's still something, four times Even vodka, it's expensive. Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

First of all, the process is time and money. I have an 80 liter still. Every time from the 80 liter I'll take out maybe 20 liters, 25 depending on which. Every the later on the stills, the more you take out. But besides that, it takes seven, eight hours, sometimes more so I need to need to sit here by the fire. No, besides that, you lose a lot. You lose a lot, but it gets softer and softer. The gendelli brandy I made I have over there. I distilled it twice and I'm thinking if I should go for a third time or not, because it gets softer but you also lose fruitiness. So sometimes you don't want it.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

You don't really want to do that.

A.Y. Katsof :

So I'm trying to figure out right now if I should do it or not now my, this is the special stuff now bringing that's a gendali.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

What which one is that? This is the port.

A.Y. Katsof :

Oh wow, it's port. What this is a hundred percent cab. Okay, what I do in my vineyard is I leave like two rows so I harvest everything at 27 bricks about. Then I leave this for a couple more weeks till it gets to 34, 35 bricks and I harvest it. Its raisins and it's thick. You can't do it with any machines, the pumps, everything. They get clogged, so everything is by hand buckets. It's a lot of work. Last year I tried it. It went bad, so I'm turning it into brandy. This year I have my the vat. I think it went okay. And this is like chocolate. It momish, tastes like chocolate.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This is lovely.

A.Y. Katsof :

I don't know how it has a chocolate flavor.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

I was actually just reading about it now how, somehow, naturally, it's actually not even chocolate. I'll tell you what it is it's thing that they serve, which is cherries with chocolate I say it's cherry covered chocolate this is cherry covered chocolate, and the amazing thing is it's 100 grapes.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, so the flavor is. God made the flavor I didn't add, even though science tells you something, at the end of the day, trust your tongue and trust your flavor. This is not and and I and I taste it and I'm like it doesn't need it. It would have been, it would have. And I said it would be moissif and gorea.

A.Y. Katsof :

Yeah, it would have it would have you know there's moissif, this would be moissif and Garea right. And I listened to that inner voice, also Pascal, telling me right. And I didn't add it and it just kept on by itself getting better and better, and better and better.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It sat in a barrel for two years if you added alcohol to that, it would have. It would have. It would have. It would have been. It would have been a very nice dessert aperitif, but it wouldn't have been like this Wouldn't have been this chocolatey, so this is 100% grapes.

A.Y. Katsof :

And when it's sat in the barrel, so the H2O evaporates, so it gets thicker and thicker. Yeah yeah, my brother, do you want me? He's my soldier. I don't see you Come down. Do you see the slope? There's a slope like this, the slope. Yes, yes, I'm going down. You see there's a slope and a slope. You come down and you come here inside. Yes, bye, it's from South Africa. In South Africa, they drink wine. Yes, in China, how is it?

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Hello, Hi, what's up? God bless you Good. Thank you Very nice this is for me.

A.Y. Katsof :

Shalom u'Brekha. Hi Mani, shabbat Baruch Hashem Yofi, yofi. Yes, I'm very happy. This is Shili, my South African brother.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

From South Africa, yeah. We're just doing a finishing up an interview.

A.Y. Katsof :

So what's nice about it is I feel, I really feel, and I it's nice that he came in now, because I feel that the bracha, the blessing is, is that the way we built this place and we have guys like him and girls that are here in Israel. Their parents are in the States or in South Africa or in Europe and I try as much as I can to make it like home for them here and they'll come here. I just had a guy last week. Tuli came right out of Lebanon, just like this guy here.

A.Y. Katsof :

This guy was serving here, but he's serving in Lebanon and he was there for, I think, six weeks. He had a week off and he decided for half of the week to come here and work in the winery and he felt at home here. That's what's special. He felt at home and he also invited his fiancée. He's from New York, His fiancée is actually Israeli, Parents are American but born here and he came here and this is where he wanted to be, because this is where he felt at home. He doesn't have a home here and he comes here and he feels at home and he stays here and he works here and that's the bracha. The bracha is Huge Like. We're not here for ourselves, we're here to give to other people. And you asked before like the sustainability of the area.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Yeah.

A.Y. Katsof :

And to build a place where people like him are able to come work a little bit, take some wine, feel a part. Feel like they're being part of something constructive. That's what it's all about.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

It's awesome, very, very special, and I feel that's the bracha. When you taste the wine, you taste that. So that was the question I was going to ask you what's your wish for people to taste when they taste your wine?

A.Y. Katsof :

Wow, I think the same way. When you taste the wine, there's that complexity, there's so much, so many flavors, that's like a good wine, so there's so many things, but at the end of the day it's chesed, it's working hard, it's hazorim, b'dima, b'virna, yikzorim You're planting in those thorns that you told me, that you feel in your hands. Yep.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

And years later it was so good.

A.Y. Katsof :

Years later, yeah, you feel the blessing and you feel the fruit, and it's amunah and bitachon and hazorim b'dima Amen.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

Beautiful, beautiful, thank you. Thank you for being on the Kosher.

A.Y. Katsof :

Terwa. Thank you Amen.

Solomon Simon Jacob:

This is Simon Jacob, again your host of today's episode of the Kosher Terwa. 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. Provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you're new to the Kosher Terwa, please check out our many past episodes.

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S. Simon Jacob

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