Sam Soffer: A Guide to Exploring Israel's Enchanting Wineries with Passion and Insight

Join us for an enchanting excursion into the heart of Israel's wine country with our esteemed guest, Dr. Sam Soffer, a passionate wine enthusiast and doctor. Together, we navigate the stunning landscapes of the Shomron region, uncovering the unique charm and educational allure of Israeli wineries. With Sam's rich experiences and insights, you'll gain an insider's perspective on what makes these vineyards a must-visit. Sam's personal anecdotes and connections bring an added layer of intrigue and authenticity to our exploration.

Our conversation also highlights the vibrant winery scene in the Shomron and Judean Hills, detailing the ease with which one can arrange visits from Jerusalem. We delve into the stories of renowned winemakers, like Amichai at Shiloh and Shivi the winemaker at Gvaot. Practical tips on transportation, setting appointments, and the advantage of having a designated driver ensure your wine tour is as smooth as the finest vintage. We also reflect on the joy of intimate experiences at boutique wineries like Tom, where exceptional wines meet breathtaking scenery.

Finally, we embark on an adventurous wine tasting journey at Gv'aot visitor center, sampling wines through various fermentation stages. Anticipate the thrill of tasting fresh rosés and learning about the intricate vineyard cycles. Experience the creative offerings at Tura Winery, and at Settler Cellars with wine maker AY. Our episode concludes on a heartfelt note, urging our community to support soldiers and hostages, while inviting you to stay connected with The Kosher Terroir podcast for more enriching stories.

The Tura Winery Visitors Center can accommodate up to 55 people. 
There is an entrance fee and it is by appointment only. 
To arrange a visit, please contact us: 02-650-8882

Shiloh Winery Visitors Center call us: +972 503554764

Gva’ot winery visits Contact Moshe Weiner: 052-7757574
or visitors@gvaot-winery.com

Settler Cellars contact A.Y. Katsof at:
Phone: +972 52-623-1421
email: Akatsof@gmail.com

For additional information on Winery Visits 
Please feel free to WhatsApp message me at +1-212-999-4444

Chapters

• 0:09 Wine Enthusiasts Explore Israeli Wineries
• 14:11 Exploring Israel's Wineries
• 20:15 Israeli Wine Tasting Adventure
• 29:10 Prayers for Soldiers and Hostages

Transcript

S. 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. The following episode took advantage of my wine friend, Dr. Sam Soffer, being in Israel with his wife, son and some friends, wanting to visit some wineries in Israel. Many people expressed to me an interest in seeing wineries while in Israel and I thought this an opportunity to share some of Sam's extensive experience and some ideas and tips from his past visits.

S. Simon Jacob: 0:53

If you're driving in your car, please focus on the road ahead. If you're relaxing at home, please open a great bottle of kosher wine. Open a great bottle of kosher wine, sit back, relax and enjoy this informative adventure into the Israeli countryside, visiting wineries in Israel's Shomron region. This was actually recorded while we were in a van on our way to the wineries, so please excuse some of the intermittent background road noise. Shmuel, yes, welcome. Welcome to The Kosher Terroir. Thank you. I had an idea that I wanted to ask questions of you, because we're going to go around to a bunch of wineries and there's a lot of Americans who come to Israel who would like to do this but haven't a clue why or where or how or what. So I was thinking this would be a good podcast to basically you know short and sweet, but to basically tell people about why you're coming all the way from New York to go to wineries in Israel, when you could sit home and your comfortable sofa in front of a TV and drink some incredible bottles of wine out of your cellar.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 2:04

In fairness, I am visiting my son, who's at yeshiva. However, whenever I come to Israel, I always figure out at least a day of wineries, and sometimes even more. So why do you go to wineries? I love wine. I love going to wineries. I love learning about how they make wine. I love learning about some of the nitty-gritty that goes into. Each different winemaker's has its own special way they make the wine and I like to meet with people and find out exactly what it is they're thinking, how their approach to wine is. I also enjoy. It's just. There's nothing more fun than drinking a glass of wine at a beautiful winery. Many of the wineries are located in these wonderful, lovely locations beautiful vistas, beautiful wine country. It's just a joy for people to come, and I love wine. I think you know probably more than most, but I think even for regular people who are coming, it's just such an amazing. I've never heard someone go to a winery here in Israel even people who don't even like wine and not say, wow, that was a lot of fun, so it's awesome.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 3:09

Do you have a wine background? Not really, I'm a doctor, but I started loving wine about really about 20, 20, over 20 years ago when I was a fellow. Then I got very, very serious about it. About 15 years ago I started reading about wine, read many books about wine and then I took the WSET3 course when they offered a kosher for the first time a few years ago. And then I completed that course and I've just become someone who I think people ask for recommendations from for wine. I'm certainly not a big expert, but I do love learning about wine and talking about wine with people. Big expert, but I do love.

S. Simon Jacob: 3:44

I do love learning about wine and talking about wine with people. So today we're on our way, right now, first to tour a winery which is up north in Israel, and the question I have is you know that was your choice as to where we going, so tell me, why did you pick tour up? So I picked tour.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 3:59

I haven't been to tour. Oh that's. That's the one of the first reasons. Excited to see they make wonderful wines. They're located in the northern Shomron. It's a little hard to get to sometimes. I think some people may be a little reticent to go up there, but it's supposed to be just a beautiful experience. I met one of the investors, one of the owners of Tura Winery, recently on a Bordeaux river cruise. He invited myself and family who's up at the front of this bus, the Tabasinics to come visit the winery. Okay, and I got excited about it. So he made a connection for me with the winemakers at the winery and we arranged a day there. And that's how we started our day. And then I spoke to you and it morphed into a wine day up in the Chimron Very cool.

S. Simon Jacob: 4:45

Is there a specific wine you like from there?

Dr. Sam Soffer: 4:49

They make three different levels of wine. Their best wine is the Tura. I think it's the Mountain Heights.

S. Simon Jacob: 4:54

Mountain Heights is the top. It's a black bottle.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 4:56

It's a blend and it's a lovely bottle of wine. They age it in oak for probably about 20 or 22 months and it's just a lovely bottle of wine. And I'm curious about some of their other wines. I don't know their wines that well, so I'm actually curious today to taste a lot of their wines, because I really don't know their wines quite as well as.

S. Simon Jacob: 5:15

I should. They have some very good people. One, obviously, is Verid, who is amazing, yeah, and I hope Verid will be there with us.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 5:24

That's who I've been reaching out to, and I think she sounded like she was going to be there, so we'll see.

S. Simon Jacob: 5:28

Did you mention to her how many people are coming? I did, and it keeps growing.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 5:32

It started at about six or seven and now we're up to it looks like we're about 13. Yeah, I did tell them we're bringing 12, so for me, my favorite winery in Israel, it's for a couple of reasons. First of all, the wine is fantastic and they make just lovely different wines. I know their wines very, very well and they don't make any bad wines. They make, at the highest end, some of the best wine in Israel. I'm also very, very interested and really I follow their winemaker, shibi Drori. He's hopefully going to meet with us today.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 6:14

Awesome, who Simon and I and Kenny Friedman had the opportunity to spend time with about a year ago Yep, less than a year ago actually and we spent time with him. He is an incredibly gifted winemaker. He's a professor at Ariel University where he studies indigenous grapes of Israel. He's going to teach everybody about his work. He has four postdocs that run around the country finding grapes indigenous to Israel. He then genetically maps the grapes. He then begins to grow them. He's actually made eight wines from the grapes. He then begins to grow them. He's actually made eight wines from the grapes, two of them commercially. He's actually growing one of the grapes in his own vineyard for the first time now. He hasn't come out with that wine just yet, but he's a fascinating winemaker. He lives in a Moshav called Harel and the Moshav is in a tough neighborhood in the Shomron in the southern Shomron, very close to Shiloh Winery. Also, shivi actually was at my home earlier this year. We had an incredible, incredible wine night at my house where he taught everybody about wine and we raised some money for his Moshav security. It was really just one of the highlights I've had in the last year from a wine standpoint.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 7:26

Any favorites from Give Out, my favorite is the Masada. I think it's a lot of people's favorites. It's, for me, the most interesting wine in Israel. I don't know if it's the best wine in Israel, but it's the most interesting and it's one of the wines in Israel that I think really can age. And I was joking with Chivvy. I've never opened a bottle of Masada. I've had them back going to, I don't know, 2005 or so. I've never quite opened a bottle that I thought was too old. Every year I open one on Succas and I write a note to myself to open another one in two or three years because it's usually a little too young. The wines mature, they evolve, they change. There's a lot going on in his wines. They're really just a special, special blend of wines, so I like those the best. His Pinot Noir is also excellent on different years, some years a little better than others, but his Pinot Noir is, in my opinion, the best Pinot Noir I've ever had in Israel.

S. Simon Jacob: 8:21

So the last time we were there we had the opportunity to taste his Natuni, which was like a Pinot clone from Israel, which was really spectacular.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 8:36

It's a very interesting wine and it gets better every time I taste it.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 8:39

The first time I had it. I thought it was a little bit thin. He was just experimenting with it at the time and now it's a finished wine and it's a nice, interesting Pinot style wine. I think it's going to be even better in another year or so because that's the one that he actually has a planted vineyard in Gvaot, so he'll now have control of the growing. He now gets the grapes from an Arab vendor and the wine is really interesting. But I think it's going to be even better when he has a truly estate-grown wine, which most of his wines are, and he'll be able to have complete control of the winemaking process. He also has another wine, marawi, a white yes, that is Shemdali Marawi that he actually brought to my house in New York when we had the wine tasting. That he actually brought to my house in New York when we had the wine tasting. That is a very, very interesting, very complex white wine that's wonderful, maybe even more evolved, at least right now, than the Batuni from a winemaking standpoint.

S. Simon Jacob: 9:38

I'm looking forward to tasting that. I'm really looking forward to tasting that.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 9:50

I know you're a fan of Merlot. You're a Merlot fan, so how's the Merlot from there? From there, it's interesting. In some vintages it's, for me, the best Merlot that's made in Israel. That's another reason I just love the winery. It's a very nice Merlot. It's an entry-level wine. It's not part of his higher-end series. That's an affordable wine and it's usually a very, very delicious, more delicate wine and it's usually a terrific, terrific value. I think Merlot in Israel has some. There are some people making nice Merlot in Israel, but you know, when you say I love Merlot, people making nice Merlot in Israel, but you know when you say I love Merlot, I love French Merlot.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 10:31

So what's your favorite French? My French, I mean. I, like you know, right bank Merlots a lot, maybe too much, and there are many, many wineries on the right bank. We were there in the Bordeaux region as a group of people who love wine a number of about a year ago, and one of the we went to a couple of different chateaus. One of the ones that was great was Chateau Vallandreau, which is a beautiful winery in the White Bank.

S. Simon Jacob: 11:01

One of my favorites for many years.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 11:03

That makes fabulous, fabulous Bordeordeaux 100% Merlot. Most Bordeaux wine, as you know, is a blend, but on the right bank you will find some of the really excellent wineries making 100% Merlot and that's that's one of them that stood out. We were also at a winery called Le Dome. It's a very, very boutique winery. It's called the Garage East Winery, made by, where they spare no expense in making wine. They made a kosher run for the first time this last year and it's an expensive wine, but it's a fabulous, fabulous wine. It's hard to say what it's going to be. It's a wine that really shouldn't be open this young. It probably needs at least 20 or 25 years until it's really going to be in its element.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 11:48

There was another wine from that winery. There's a guy named JCP Maltus. Do you know those? Yeah, jcp Maltus, and he's made a lot of. He's one of the really interesting wine owners and winemakers in the right bank of Bordeaux and he's made several of his wines, including the Le Dome kosher runs.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 12:17

There's a wine coming out shortly called Le Asteris and I'm butchering the name, but it was a revelation. It was really one of the most absolutely delicious wines. I don't know, I think it's 100%, I don't know. Actually, I think it's a blend. It's a blend of Merlot and Cap Franc, but I'm not sure. It was just fabulous what makes a wine delicious to you? So it depends on what I'm looking at.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 12:42

Today we're going to taste wines that have a real fruit-forward character to them, and that's a hallmark of many Israeli wines and that's why people love, particularly when they start drinking wine, one of the reasons people love Israeli wines. Some of the wines that are from France are a bit more complex, in the sense that they have more earthy elements to them. They have elements of mushroom and different kinds of elements that, as you drink more wine, you begin to crave. So I think that and it's interesting because you can like both styles you can love Israeli wine, which has a more fruit-forward element to it, tastes sweeter. It's not sweet, the wines are dry, but they have a sweeter kind of feel.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 13:23

So whenever I'm introducing people to wine, I have people in my house or shop. You've got to feel your crowd. So if you have a crowd, it's always nice to serve maybe an Israeli wine, a California wine that maybe is a little more fruit forward, as opposed to starting them on a French Bordeaux wine which they won't understand or really like and maybe would even turn them off. But I think as you drink more and more wine, you begin to like wines from Bordeaux. I'm hooked on wines from Burgundy, which is a bad thing to be hooked on. There aren't very many kosher wines from Burgundy, no, but there are some very very amazing ones.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 13:54

In fact, simon, I brought one here to Israel that hopefully we're going to drink together. That, I think, is one of the finest Burgundy wines that I've ever had made finest Burgundy wines that I've ever had, made by a winemaker called Dimantil, which I think many of the folks on your chat know about. Okay, a Volnais from 2020. It's Volnais, it's just fabulous.

S. Simon Jacob: 14:11

So the last of the wineries that we're? Well, we're probably going to swing by Shiloh, absolutely, and say hello to Amichai.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 14:20

We've got to say hello to.

S. Simon Jacob: 14:20

Amichai and see the visitors. I should also mention.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 14:23

You know, last time we were here we spent time with Amichai yes, who people? Amichai is a big, big winemaker. Now I mean, they're making a huge amount of wine, but he's a very excellent winemaker and we were there and tasting some of his experimental not experimental wines he's playing around with that are going to be coming out that are also fantastic. He's located right next to Gvaot, so you asked me about people planning a day. Gvaot and Shiloh, for example, are easy to get to. You don't have to go to the northern Shomron, you can go to the southern Shomron. It's an easy, easy day to. You know, rent a transportation so nobody has to drive and you can go to these wineries.

S. Simon Jacob: 15:01

And have fun. What have you learned since you've been coming and visiting wineries, so that if a person is coming for the first time and they're going to visit a winery, is there mistakes that you made to begin with?

Dr. Sam Soffer: 15:15

I don't know mistakes. I think that it's not as hard as you think. You know, if you're staying in Jerusalem, the easiest thing to do is pick a winery in the Jane hills. They're close. There's fabulous ones Castel and Sorah and Flam, just to name a few. There's others.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 15:34

Agour as well. Agour. There's some beautiful wineries in the Judean hills that are relatively easy to get to. They know how to do this and it's not complicated. You don't have to know anybody. You simply call the winery, make an appointment so they know you're coming. You don't want to just show up to a winery without an appointment because it's not going to be a great experience for you.

S. Simon Jacob: 15:50

Yes, some of the wineries you can't do that Correct.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 15:53

If you show up at Castel without an appointment beforehand you'll get turned away and it's a shame because they have a very formal, beautiful wine tasting that they show and they'll take you around the barrel rooms, which are magnificent, at Castel. It's a new winery, it's beautiful. So you just have to call and these, you know, you could call you, text people and whatsapp, you know. Whatever it's just a range of time. They're very organized, they're more organized than we are, and they will give you a time, a date, options, food, all kinds of things you can do. So it's really very easy to do. Where we're going today is also not difficult, but maybe a little bit more adventurous to the Chamron. But the Chamron wineries and there you have, in addition to the ones we've talked about, you have Sago, you have other wineries that are located fairly close by that you can visit. All you have to do is just call, arrange an appointment. Many of the times the winemakers would actually say hello, meet you, you know, and it can be just a wonderful, exciting day.

S. Simon Jacob: 16:54

In Pesagot as an example. We actually pass Pesagot. It's probably the closest winery to Jerusalem on this side and we'll see it from the road as we go past, but it's also a wonderful winery. Sam Soroka is a fantastic winemaker. So make an appointment. Don't drive yourself. Get a driver. Get a cab for the day to take you around, especially where we're going. You can hit Givaot, shiloh when we're going up to Tura. It's not that much further away.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 17:27

It's a little further north. It's further north and it's actually easier. The way we're going to go today we're going to go up through an access road. You just have to go through a rough neighborhood to get there. Tura's before it.

S. Simon Jacob: 17:40

Tours before Hawara, the access road if you go up there.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 17:44

I'm talking about Harbrakha, which is another beautiful area Tome Winery up at the top of Itamar so there's beautiful places up there to go to that are now accessible.

S. Simon Jacob: 17:56

So you don't have to drive through the middle of Huara, yeah, we went through Huara on my son's bar mitzvah.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 18:00

We actually made a bar mitzvah up in the northern Shom Road and then stopped at Gvaot on the way down. We didn't spend time there.

S. Simon Jacob: 18:08

We did a bar mitzvah at Tom, really, and we had a barbecue out on the mountain with all the sheep. Were you a tome with?

Dr. Sam Soffer: 18:16

me, it was crazy. I was a tome. Oh no, I was a tome. I was a tome. I have a friend. If you don't have a driver, I have a friend who doesn't drink and he was a designated driver. We went up to Tome, which is just a fascinating little tiny. It's not a winery, it's like a tiny little, like it's really excellent boutique wine, which is just a revelation. It was a revelation. I remember when I tried it I was like, wow, this is weird, where did this come from?

S. Simon Jacob: 18:42

I was like, wow, it's unbelievable wine, it's great and I've planted there and I've harvested there and it's a lot of fun. It's just beautiful.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 18:50

It's a beautiful area, I think our wine guide that day, which was really interesting to have a 15-year-old leading you on the tour, and his son now, who takes over when he's not there, is now in the Army. I think I was there six or seven years ago.

S. Simon Jacob: 19:12

Yeah, yeah, his son's already in the Army now. Any other ideas? You mentioned a couple of great wineries to go to in the Judean Hills, three or four.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 19:25

Certainly, and it's been difficult obviously over the last year, but there are many wineries up north that are worth visiting and that are worth working into. If you're going into now, hopefully things are going to be opening up again, people are going to go back to the Galil and the Golan Heights on trips and all that, and there's a lot of beautiful wineries to go there, starting with Golan Heights Winery Dalton, many other wineries.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 19:49

Have you ever gone to Reconati. I have not been to Reconati, but what a great winery. It's one of my favorite Israeli wineries. They make fabulous wines. These are good winemakers. Many of their wines are of good value. It's really one of the. I don't know if it's unsung because people know about it, but it's one of the really good wineries in Israel that makes great wine. I have not been there, but it's definitely on my bucket list.

S. Simon Jacob: 20:17

It's actually the visitor center. They have a brand new visitor center up there that's being managed and run by Effie Kotz, who used to be the sommelier at the top of the Mamilla Hotel Really really special guy Right, and it's just a beautiful, beautiful location.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 20:33

It's funny and I love their wine. I'm surprised I haven't been there. I know why I haven't been there.

S. Simon Jacob: 20:37

I know why you haven't been there in the last year. I know in the last year, but I'm surprised.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 20:40

I haven't been there before that they just opened it.

S. Simon Jacob: 20:43

They just opened it about a year ago, and the last year has not been a great time to go up there, of course, of course, but now, with God's help, it'll be a little more peaceful.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 20:54

Just a little fun fact. You know, everybody goes home and they've got wineries at Duty Free. Right, they have the two best value wines at Duty Free. Duty Free, really. You can buy the Reconati, the gold label, the special, their special, the special reserve. It's a gold label, it's unmistakable. It's a blend that they make and it's their flagship wine. It's a beautiful one. You know the wine, I'm sure. Right, yes, yes. Then they also make a wine that I don't think people know quite as much, but they make a wild Carignan. They make a Carignan and there are a lot of winemakers in the show making good Carignan. I think they make the best one and it's a great, great value.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 21:28

I always pick up when I'm coming home. I always pick up Reconati wine at the airport. Those are the ones that one, and the Carmel Limited Edition is often at the airport. These edition is often at the airport. These are the these are people sometimes call me which I get at the airport and there there's a lot of nice wine. But those are the ones that I always kind of look for.

S. Simon Jacob: 21:44

So one of the things I think is especially really good about going on a wine tasting like we're doing and, to be honest, this time of the year happens to be a great time of the year to go because they did the the harvest and the wine is already starting to percolate and it's already going through fermentations or finishing. Some of them already finished fermentation and we're we're getting to a point where you can actually taste some of the wines that are in process that you could never do from home. All All right. So one of the things that excites me about going on this trip is I happen to like rosés, but I like rosés especially when they're still in the steel, where you can actually draw a cup right out of the steel vat and it's crisper, it's cold and it's usually incredibly delicious for me. A little more fruity, a little less acid, though there's acid as well and I just love them. So I'm hoping today we get a chance to taste those.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 22:51

Also for me. The vineyard cycle is always interesting to me, the nitty-gritty of the vineyard. It's an interesting time, you know, in December. The vines have been picked long ago, usually in Israel, probably in September, october, but this is a time where they're thinking about pruning and I find that very, very interesting because, you know, I like looking at the vines now, see how they look, see if they probably haven't been pruned just yet. They probably pruned in February here, but they're going to prune the vines in preparation for the next vintage and people don't realize what a critical time it is and critical decisions are made during the pruning process. We were just in Bordeaux and I was showing folks on the river boat some of the decisions that they're making in the pruning, because it was the same kind of time of the year. But I love that time in the cycle.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 23:45

It's always nice to see, right before harvest, the grapes in full bloom, but it's also really interesting to see it when the canopy's gone and what the potential is for the next vintage.

S. Simon Jacob: 23:57

It really is amazing. It really is amazing. In Israel you can really get hands-on to all of these different things, which is, you know, kind of fun and spectacular. Any wines that you're looking forward to like tasting that we.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 24:13

I'm curious to see. I don't know if we'll do the Ras again today. It's a wine that Chivy has made that is sold at the winery, and it's a very special wine made from a vineyard right near his home. That's very interesting. I called it a Masada on steroids last time I was there.

S. Simon Jacob: 24:31

Chivvy liked that description.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 24:33

So I'm interested in that. I'm interested to try his new Pinot and I'm very interested in the Terras wines because I must tell you I don't know the Terras wines as well perhaps as I should. So I'm interested to try. I told them the five wines we might be interested in and obviously if there's something else that people want we'll open some of those too. But I'm curious to taste a lot of the Terras wines.

S. Simon Jacob: 25:09

I know at the end also, we're going to meet one of your friends that's a winemaker, potentially. Are we doing that today? Yes, with God's help, we're going to go from Givaort to a little place called Settler Cellars and the person there who's the winemaker is AY. Ay is a real character. He's a cowboy, to be honest, with a cowboy hat and a six-shooter and what have you. He's a really good guy, cool. I'm curious to try some of that stuff. And his wines are extremely creative. Some of them are very robust, fruit-forward cabs. He's got some others. He has a wine that's a PV, that is Petit Verdot, that he left in a barrel and I think almost mistakenly and it is crazy he calls it Hachovav.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 26:02

Israel makes some very interesting Petit Verdot. Petit Verdot is a blending grape in most of the world, particularly in Bordeaux, where it's blended in very small quantities to add color and some oomph to a wine. But in Israel there are single varietal Petit Verdots that are very, very interesting, that are made by a lot of different winemakers, so that I always find Petit Verdots very interesting. It's tough, it's a tough grape to really as a single variety, it's tough to make a wine. So I think people attempt it. I don't know if they're always successful, but it's really something interesting.

S. Simon Jacob: 26:39

So I think people attempt it. I don't know if they're always successful, but it's really something interesting. He had a difficult time with it but it ended up being, you know, kind of very special. We'll see if we can taste it. He also makes some crazy Blanc Noirs, which are. He makes kind of a rosé out of Cab Franc, which is crazy Sure.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 27:02

Absolutely crazy. Well, there's people who experiment. I mean, Chivvy makes a white wine that's partly out of Cabernet Sauvignon, where he takes the free run of the Right and makes a white blended wine out of Cabernet Sauvignon. I think you told me your friend does this also.

S. Simon Jacob: 27:19

This is a little pinker, this is a little pinker, this is a little pinker Wines that are reasonably approachable, and I've got a few more years on me than you, so to buy a wine that I can't really taste for the next 20 years is like I believe I'm catching up, but I always joke that my kids are going to drink some delicious wine.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 27:40

My kids are already.

S. Simon Jacob: 27:41

In fact, my kids were all lined up to do that until I sold my cellar in America and my kids cried but bruch Hashem, we're still taking care of them. We're still taking care of them. So bruch Hashem, All right, Thank you. Thank you, Sam.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 27:59

Awesome, always fun to spend a day with everybody.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 28:01

Yeah, it's just a wonderful break and I think anyone coming to Israel whether you're a wine geek or not, I think would love at least a day, half day, at some of these magnificent wineries. And I'll tell you they really need us to come visit them. A lot of the wineries that are getting back on their feet you know what I mean and had such a rough stretch. They need people to come visit them. They're so accommodating when you show them interest. They're so happy to see you.

S. Simon Jacob: 28:30

They could really use the business right now and it helps a ton of people. I mean, the wine business in Israel is so large and so expansive that it really is a major part of the economy in Israel. If you want to do something to help Israel and also get some incredible enjoyment out of it, buying Israeli wine is just great, right now especially Okay.

Dr. Sam Soffer: 28:57

All right, awesome. Thank you, have a great day.

S. Simon Jacob: 28:59

Pleasure. 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 are new to the Kosher Terwa, please check out our many past episodes.