The Kosher Terroir

Part II La Forêt Blanche's Quest for Authentic Israeli Expression

• Solomon Simon Jacob • Season 3 • Episode 21

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Step into the sun-drenched hills of Israel's historic wine country as we continue our exploration of La Forêt Blanche Winery with CEO Yaakov Bris. This intimate conversation reveals how ancient tradition and modern innovation converge in every bottle, creating kosher wines that speak eloquently of their unique terroir.

Yaakov guides us through a comprehensive tasting that follows a symbolic journey from the Negev desert through Hebron and ultimately to Jerusalem. Beginning with their accessible Talpiot range—designed specifically to welcome new wine drinkers—and culminating with their prestigious Yar Levanon Cabernet Sauvignon, each wine tells a distinct chapter in their story. 

The heart of La Forêt Blanche is undoubtedly French winemaker Bruno, whose uncompromising dedication shapes everything from barrel selection to aging protocols. His refusal to rack barrels during aging—preserving the unique character each vessel imparts—exemplifies the winery's pursuit of excellence. 

Whether you're a kosher wine enthusiast or simply appreciate the stories behind exceptional winemaking, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into how La Forêt Blanche honors both its spiritual connections to the land and its commitment to world-class winemaking. Pour yourself a glass and join us for this intimate journey through one of Israel's most exciting emerging wineries.

Contact Information

La Forêt Blanche
Yaacov Bris CEO

Address: Moshav Beit Yatir - Metzadot Yehuda

Phone number: 077-996-9898

Email: hi@lfbwinery.com

Hours: Sunday to Thursday 09:00 – 17:00
Friday: 09:00 – 13:00

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S. 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. Welcome back to The Kosher Terroir, the podcast where we uncork the stories behind the world's finest kosher wines, one bottle at a time. Today, we're taking you back into the heart of Israel's historic wine country, where ancient tradition meets modern craftsmanship, nestled in the breathtaking landscapes of the Yatir Forest and the Hebron Heights. We continue with part two of our visit to La Forêt Blanche Winery, which has been making waves in the Israeli wine scene with its bold vision, meticulous winemaking and deep-rooted connection to the land. Yaakov Briss, ceo of La Forêt Blanche, is joining me again for this continued special conversation. With a background in e-commerce and a passion for wine that runs deep, Yaakov has played a pivotal role in rebranding and expanding the winery, turning it into a rising star in the world of fine kosher wines.

S. Simon Jacob:

In Part 2, we'll continue our discussions while tasting through La Fré Blanche's different levels of wine offerings and Yaakov's expectations of each of their wines. We'll also dive into the significance of each terroir and what makes their wines stand out in an increasingly competitive market. If you're driving, focus on the road ahead. If you're home, pour yourself a glass of wonderful kosher wine, sit back and get ready to discover the essence of La Forêt Blanche, where history, passion and innovation converge in every bottle. Yakov, welcome to The Kosher Terroir. Let's taste some. You got me thirsty.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, you want to drink, you want cheese, you want.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, I'd love you know a little bit of something.

Yaacov Bris:

So everything is here.

S. Simon Jacob:

Awesome.

Yaacov Bris:

Thank you. So then, we're going to see the winery, we're going to talk about the barrels, we're going to talk about the different production aspects.

Yaacov Bris:

Good, this whole visitor center here is temporary I mean since 2020, you know COVID and everything. So we said we're going to have like some sort of a VIP tasting room next to the barrels and actually the municipality was supposed to build us like this visitor center at the end, but they have like bureaucracy issues, whatever, so we haven't moved there. So this thing became temporary, but it's already five years temporary. But our project is to move the whole visitor center to the new building.

S. Simon Jacob:

It looked like it was the visitor center, so that's why I was wondering.

Yaacov Bris:

But yeah, so it's a. So the Talpiot, this is the Talpiot white. Okay, now that we're drinking wines, I must tell you about the story of the wines.

S. Simon Jacob:

Okay.

Yaacov Bris:

So when I built the ranges, obviously we had to have an accessible range price-wise, an accessible range price-wise, and we had to have mid-high range and then higher-end wines. But my intention was that when the visitor or the taster goes through a tasting, he would actually go into an adventure that would take him from south of Hebron or even, like the northern Negev, up the hill through Hebron back to Jerusalem. That's the idea. Now, entry level for me as a consumer and commercially, has to be accessible not to the wine connoisseur, obviously to him, but it's it needs to be accessible to the new consumer.

Yaacov Bris:

To that lady in the States that only drinks like sweet Moscato, and I want to get her to drink dry wine. I want her to enjoy with her husband that drinks heavy wines. I want her, I want them to enjoy the bottle together and not have like. I just took that example, but but it's an actual, it's an actual example, but it's. I think it's a good example that woman that would drink her own bottle and the husband would drink his heavy red wine. I need to have a bottle that would be not sweet but not too dry, just with the right balance of acidity and what I would call accessible accessible to the palate.

Yaacov Bris:

Okay, now to give it a name that's related to the Beta-Mikdash. What better name to describe it as Tal Piot? Tal Piot is the name of the Beta-Mikdash. It's Tel the mouth, shekol Piot, ponimbo, that all the mouthers are turning towards. Wherever you are in the world, you're praying towards the Bet HaMikdash, towards Jerusalem, not even the Bet HaMikdash. When you're in the States, you can't even imagine what the Bet HaMikdash looks like. You just pray like you look at your watch like.

Bruno Darmon:

Whatever your, this is Jerusalem whatever.

Yaacov Bris:

oh, east, okay, I'm praying east and you have in mind Jerusalem and that's it, you're good to go. And the same thing when you're in China, okay, pray west. So here we're, south of Hebron, I'm starting to south of Hebron, northern Negev, okay, and I'm talking to you about Bet HaMikdash, but you have no idea what Beta Mikdash is. The same way, you have no idea what wine is you're discovering so I'm just raising that idea with a wine called Tal Piot, accessible to all Piot, to all the mouth, and it's about Beta Mikdash. That's accessible to all the mouth, and all the mouth are praying towards which.

Yaacov Bris:

So this is the entry level a white, a rosé and a red. Now, the biggest challenge is the red. In that range, it's actually the first wine we make at the end of the harvest, because we harvest specifically for the red. The fermentation process is specifically for that Talpiot, so it's made into a Talpiot by definition. It's not that we take the leftovers of the tank, okay, we make the high-end blend, like they do in Bordeaux, for example, or maybe some other Israeli wineries, that they make their high-end wine, and all the leftovers are made into a Yain Chavalin Chaval to Chaval. Let's make it into a wine wine and we're going to sell it for cheap.

S. Simon Jacob:

So instead you're saying you're making it purposefully, this was designed purposefully.

Yaacov Bris:

Got it. It's on purpose. The vineyards are selected for that wine. Now it's coming out. So here you have the Roussan, and so here you have the Roussanne and Sauvignon, but the Chenin Blanc in the middle you have 30% Chenin Blanc. It actually links the Sauvignon and the Roussanne to give it an extra body. Roussanne is more like apricot honey, I would even say like minerality. Yeah uh, sauvignon is all about, uh, citrus. You know acidity, citrus, yeah, uh, citrus. Yeah, uh, acidity, um and um. And the chenin blanc like gives a width. It's like very low alcohol. On purpose, we harvest it very early. We're trying not to go above 20 bricks. 20 bricks it gives like 11.5 alcohol, okay, an entry level. At the end. It's not a very high end, but it's very, very pleasant, very, very pleasant. It really is Easy drinking. Now we can taste the rosé. It's exactly the same idea with the red varietals idols 50 Merlot, 50 Grenache in that case.

S. Simon Jacob:

So the topiote is the lowest level. This is the most approachable level that you have 79, 79 shelf price.

Yaacov Bris:

The rosé we sell like a little higher, 89. That was an idea of the distributor. Also, because the rosé is limited in quantity and because it's a little out of the ordinary, I would say Not the go-to bottle. Like you know, the first choice, you make it a little expensive also. So for the people that would pick it, it's like they feel that they get extra. I mean, financially-wise it has to fit into a whole yeah Right. So to say that I'm just charging another 10 shekels and I'm putting it in my pocket, it's completely wrong because it fits a whole formula from the bottle that starts at 79 through the bottle that sells at 249. I have to have like a whole financial evaluation based on quantities and demand and markets and then to calculate my profit and my revenue. But this is a whole different discussion. This is a whole different discussion but it's often discussed when a consumer comes to the winery and says oh, whatever, how can you sell 79 shekels or 130 shekels? What a bottle costs you? Like 25 shekels? Come on. No, it doesn't work that way.

Yaacov Bris:

It doesn't work that way Because they don't know, maybe the cost of raw material is 25 shekels but I have a lot of charges above and when I sell my bottle to export, I'm giving out all my profits. When I'm selling it to distribution, I'm giving out all my profits. So I have to have a whole balance of different margins and different calculations that go into pricing of a bottle of wine.

S. Simon Jacob:

So where is the wine available in Israel?

Yaacov Bris:

Today, you can pretty much find it in every city. Every city has a store, for sure, and then some cities have two, three, five stores. Like you know, Tel Aviv has unlimited amount of stores. Jerusalem, you can find it in the Shuk by, you know, by HaMisameach you have in Jerusalem. You have a liquor store in Romema.

S. Simon Jacob:

Does it sell through Kostel Bracha?

Yaacov Bris:

Kostel Bracha is one of our biggest….

S. Simon Jacob:

It's amazing.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, yeah, eviatar is really doing a great job. Actually, I met Eviatar when I made Aliyah. I lived in Gilo in Jerusalem, so I used to pray on Friday mornings. I used to pray at the Shtiblach in Katamon and he just opened up his. It was the time when he just took over the old store. He just took it was brand new into the business and he had this concept on Friday to have blind tastings, like he used to cover the business and he had this concept on Friday to have blind tastings. He used to cover the bottles Three bottles every Friday and you taste one of them and you buy what you like but you don't know what it is. And this way every Friday I discovered new bottles. He actually taught me a lot about.

Yaacov Bris:

He's a really special person because of that I tasted wines by him and I bought bottles that I told him like even I would never pick that bottle if it wouldn't be a blind tasting and I wouldn't have tasted it by you. Even if you would have it like unblinded and offer me a tasting, I wouldn't taste it. I'm not going to say names of wines that I tasted and experienced by him, but this is how I got to know Aviatar and since then we stayed friends. It was way before I went into that industry.

S. Simon Jacob:

He's a very special person.

Yaacov Bris:

So you see, even in the nose you have this balance between the fruit and what would you call the acidity. You can't smell acidity. You can imagine If we would put a smell on acidity. This is what it would smell like. You have this little bit of strawberry on one side, but not too much, it doesn't go into the jammy strawberry, that would give you a headache in the summer. And on that other end you have, like this, red grapefruit, like you know, californian grapefruit.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yes, right, yes pink grapefruit, pink grapefruit.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, so it's like sweet and acidic. It's like I love that balance. I love that balance. It's a great wine In the summer. You drink it cold and it's like also low alcohol, 12%, 12% alcohol. You just pop up a bottle on your porch, like in the summer, you could actually eat with it also yeah, like a barbecue, or you know.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's got enough acid. What I found is, as long as it has enough acid, you can eat some interesting things that you normally not eat, like Asian foods that are spicy. This will work together with that really well my favorite food with that, really well, my favorite food with that wine is pizza.

Yaacov Bris:

Pizza with that rosé yeah, cake-ass combination Completely. This is how, in Provence, when you sit down and a pizza, you know like, not a pizza, american-style pizza, like I'm talking about French pizza you sit down and you eat with a knife and a fork. Right yeah, they pour you a glass of rosé with an ice cube Unbelievable.

S. Simon Jacob:

In Jerusalem. Have you ever gone to Mojo?

Yaacov Bris:

Mojo, it's a restaurant. I've heard of it. I was supposed to do a tasting there. You should. They have a dairy and a meat. No, no, no.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's meat, but they have meat pizzas, but they're like dairy, they have cheese. It's all cachet. Right right right, but it's amazing, absolutely amazing. Everything has got so much flavor, very flavorful restaurant. It's great. The owner, svi Maller, is also a wine enthusiast, so he's a person that you should sit down. We should arrange to get together and do a tasting there.

Yaacov Bris:

It would be great, wow, absolutely, you'd love it. The pizza that I'm talking about is like Anthony's pizza. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anthony's as well, anthony's is David Guest.

S. Simon Jacob:

This is the pizza that I'm talking about. Do you know, david Guest? Of course, okay, this is the pizza. Yeah, well, the difference is that Anthony's is all halavi.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, this place is basari and it's amazing, it's all about his dough.

S. Simon Jacob:

Right, right right.

Yaacov Bris:

Right, we're making a jump into a high-end white. This is a Viognier. This is a Viognier called Ariel. Ariel is the name of the Bet HaMikdash. I have a whole story about it, but it's here at the bottom. You can read it Hakim Lebinan Ariel. I have a whole story about it, but it's here at the bottom. You can read I'm a Hakim LeBinyan Ariel. It's a song that we sing on Friday nights oh, ave Hashem, I'm Hakim LeBinyan Ariel. The whole story behind it is like the dream of the rebuilding of the third Bet HaMikdash that at one point, the Gemara and Baba Batra that says that after Choban Bet HaMikdash, they stopped drinking wine, they stopped eating bread and meat, and let's stop drinking water. Everything reminded them of the. I'm just making it like a little.

Yaacov Bris:

But this is what it really is. Everything reminded them of the Bet HaMikdash. And then, on Shabbat, you have a mitzvah, like you have to eat, right, and so we're going to eat meat. We're going to have wine on Shabbat okay, because we have a mitzvah on it. And then when you drink wine and eat meat on Shabbat, obviously it reminds you of the Bet HaMikdash. You know the Korbanot and the Pornpouring, and this is when you remember. So you sing about what you had, but you dream about what's going to be on Shabbat when you drink the wine. This range, ariel, is the dream.

Yaacov Bris:

Winem's blend A white and a red that are all about the winemaker. Now, if I'm taking you through the ranges, talpiot is all about the fruit. You have the next range. It's called De Vere, which we're going to taste four redss that are all about the terroir Okay, the expression of the terroir, even though the winemaker maybe would do things different or the consumer would drink different, but it's all about the terroir. This is what the terroir has to offer. This is what you drink. You like it, you don't like it. This is what it is and has to offer. This is what you drink. You like it, you don't like it. This is what it is, and Ariel is all about the winemaker. Now, when you start the fruit Talpiot, you go through the terroir of Hebron, you continue through Tekoa, which is the Syrah of the red Ariel comes from Tekoa. Then you reach Jerusalem. You've reached Yar Levannon. The red Ariel comes from Tekoa. Then you reach Jerusalem. You've reached Yar Levonon, which is the Bet HaMikdash. You're in. You basically took that adventure.

S. Simon Jacob:

Path. The grapes are sourced from where Soussia.

Yaacov Bris:

Vionier and Chandon Blanc. Now this is a crazy winemaking, I would. I would say crazy. But it's a lot of efforts, you know, like making 30% Vionier one way, 30%, Surly 30% with 30%, that goes into Marlactic, you know. And then one part of the wine is the Chenin Blanc. It's grown into clay jars with the skins. Part of it is like half with the skins and half flexorily, so it makes like a very, very complex blend. That is all about the winemaker's dream, like the expression of the winemaker. So you have here a little bit of orange wine. You don't say the color because it's very, very small.

Yaacov Bris:

It's a small percentage.

Bruno Darmon:

That's what.

Yaacov Bris:

I was wondering, but since you're a big fan of the Orange wine, so you know all about orange wine, so you can smell it. You can smell that it has something a little bit mature.

S. Simon Jacob:

No, it's definitely not overpowering at all. It's nice, it's a nice blend to it, but I'm tasting just a hint of the desert.

Yaacov Bris:

That's the wine that's on the skins for six months, but it's late harvest, late harvest. That year the Chenin Blanc didn't yield at all, so we took Sauvignon Blanc, we let it on the vines to grow old and we harvested it almost when it was like dry.

S. Simon Jacob:

So, even though you put Viognier here, it's not really just pure Viognier, it's a blend.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, it's like it has that year. It has like 7% Sauvignon Blanc, okay On the skins, okay that year, that's what? Okay, I'm going to give you a taste right now, before we go into the res. I'm gonna give you a taste of the 2024, which is a vionier chanin blanc.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's like it's, it's in the, it's in the vats or it's already blended I would love to taste it.

Yaacov Bris:

It's already blended. Let's go into the production I would love to, and then you're gonna see exactly what. What he meant. Okay, because it's. It's going to be the 2024. So that desert I'm not going to say botrytis because it's way- it's not botrytis, yeah it has nothing to do with it, but it's mature grapes that sat for six months on the skin. You don't have that color, but you have a little Taste in it Taste and nose. You have that nose right and the Viognier is like buttery wide.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, no, it's not a regular Viognier, that's one of the reasons. I asked Wait a minute Because I was expecting this really acidic lively Viognier and this isn't that, and that's the reason I was asking you the questions. It's not bad, it's very nice, but it's not. It didn't hit the profile of what I was thinking I'd taste with it.

Yaacov Bris:

But it doesn't go. The Viognier didn't grow in barrels. Normally you would put the Viognier in barrels and then they would give you that the. Normally you would put the Viognier in barrels and then they would give you that the oakier, yeah, the oaky, and then the acidic, and so it would be like another version of a Chardonnay. Right, that is. He wants to keep all about the fruit, bruno, when he makes the wine, he wants to take out the fruit out of the Viognier.

S. Simon Jacob:

So you don't barrel you only you don't really barrel white. No, okay, no, no no, he's considering it. He's considering.

Yaacov Bris:

Someone just came this week from France and they had a very long conversation. Like a barrel maker from France was here three days ago. When was it? Thursday, Wednesday, sorry, the day before Tiny Test. So they were here and we discussed barrels, whatever, and they had a whole conversation about making white into a barrel without killing the fruit profile of the grape, just adding a little raise to the fruit.

S. Simon Jacob:

So that's the reason he uses also amphora Amphoras In order to not influence it with the wood, but to get the micro oxidation.

Yaacov Bris:

So you would have the micro-oxidation without impacting the fruit profile. Let's take the glass and go into. I ask permission. So this is the production floor, this is the area of white. Give me your glass. It's unfiltered.

S. Simon Jacob:

No, I love it. This is my favorite wine, straight out of the vats. Yeah, a lot more to go, a lot more to go, mmm.

Yaacov Bris:

Wow.

S. Simon Jacob:

Wow.

Yaacov Bris:

It went partially surly partial, malolactic, partial.

S. Simon Jacob:

This is the whole thing.

Yaacov Bris:

So you do surly inside the vat. Part was done inside the vat and part was done inside the clay jar. Oh, inside the clay jar, but the clay is only for the Chenin Blanc. The Viognier had three vats One sur-lis, one sur-lis like maybe the more fine sur-lis, so it's different lis, and the third one was left like to do malolactic. So you actually raise a little temperature and boom, it goes on to malolactic. So it gives like a little more, it adds like complexity. This is really lovely.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, it's fuller bodied. It wraps around your mouth, it totally wraps around your palate.

Yaacov Bris:

Right, if we're already here, yeah, okay, I don't know if we should start reds or it's going to mess your.

S. Simon Jacob:

What else do you have?

Yaacov Bris:

that's white. White is the only.

S. Simon Jacob:

That's it so.

Yaacov Bris:

Okay, so White is the only one that's not bottled from 2024.

S. Simon Jacob:

We'd like to stay, because I can see why it's got body.

Yaacov Bris:

it's rich, it's still processing.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's a richness that it has to it. It's still processing.

Yaacov Bris:

And we may need to clean it, and maybe at that point we might even need to maybe some make acidic corrections, you know.

S. Simon Jacob:

This is nice. This is nice and it's got. It's got the acid that you want and everything. It's really good you want to go into the barrel room Just be, careful.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay.

S. Simon Jacob:

I'm okay.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, they're doing toppings. You got some new ones. You've got some big ones, right. So this, okay, this is Garvelotto from Italy. Yeah, we're the first winery to bring this. I think Ramot Naftali has, like one old one, smaller ones from Bagarbeloto, very old ones, and this year Eyal Drori and Bruno brought them in Bruno's dreaming about this for years.

S. Simon Jacob:

Eyal Drori. I saw a picture of him unwrapping it and it looked like a kid unwrapping it.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, but Bruno was on the floor, it was smelling, it was like all the accessories, just like when I was a kid and I was getting a Lego gift for Hanukkah. I was on the floor, your legs bred open, and then this is exactly how Bruno sat down on the floor. These are the clay jars. So we have two types of clay this is Italian clay and this is Chinese kaolin clay.

S. Simon Jacob:

Wow, it has more oxygen, more micro oxidization.

Yaacov Bris:

Different level and also like different minerality, different minerality in the clay. So this is where we put it, like for six months with the skins. It's a very small volume and this is surely these are the barrels. You want to taste this? I mean, it's a high-end red, so we're jumping to the Ariel red Like we tasted the Ariel white. Yes, it's above the Dvir. Okay, so this is all about the winemaker's blend. It's a Petit Verdot and Syrah.

S. Simon Jacob:

Okay.

Yaacov Bris:

Blended together in a new food. Okay, yeah, this is like 25, almost like 3 hectoliters. Okay, give me your glass, let's have a rinse. This is crazy. It was filled in December 31st, so it's like just about three months. You're going to smell the wood profile. Now, even the wood profile. We had very long meetings with the producer. They developed like a laser reader to read the aromas profile of each stave, each piece of wood. So they have a laser, they have a way to read the aromas. It's like crazy. So they selected each of the staves based on the profile that we want, that we want into the wine. They built a whole profile for Bruno.

S. Simon Jacob:

Wow, crazy, it's so tannic.

Yaacov Bris:

But it's not aggressive.

S. Simon Jacob:

No, it's not aggressive tannic but. It's nice, but it's developing. It's not aggressive. No, it's not aggressive tannic, but it's nice, but it's developing.

Yaacov Bris:

it needs to stay another. You know it's the beginning of its life, but you see where this is going. You should be careful.

S. Simon Jacob:

No no okay, sorry.

Yaacov Bris:

So now we're going to discuss maybe a little the barrels. Now we're going to discuss maybe a little the barrels. Bruno uses mostly French barrels, but he hates wood Like I mean hates.

S. Simon Jacob:

I know what you mean Oaky wine. He doesn't want the oaky.

Yaacov Bris:

What he calls like a like in Hebrew. You have this like A meat from a carpenter. Yeah, okay, it's from a carpenter. Yeah, okay, it's like a carpenter's juice. Yes, carpenter's juice, that's it, yeah, that. Basically, you would put any wine in any barrel and the barrel is just going to give you the price, and the amount of time you put it in any barrel is going to be good. It doesn't work this way. Each profile of each barrel. Bruno has studied it for years before he decides into which wine the barrel is going. It's a blend of different barrel makers, like you can see. You have here Radu, you have Sagan Moreau, you have World Cooperage, different toastings of the wine of the wood.

S. Simon Jacob:

But I'm also impressed, to be honest. I'm impressed because most of the smaller wineries, even the boutique wineries, use metal racks, and whoever is managing the cellar is managing it very well. Everything is pegged in with wood and it's done just exactly the way it should be. So they can get to every everything. It's just amazing. It's a lot of work to me. Oh, it's you.

Yaacov Bris:

I'm crazy about this all right, I don't want to use metal. It looks too industrial, I know, and when I build a fully, when I build this, they'd leave the winery. And they let me, because if you look at it, each barrel is like laser aligned.

S. Simon Jacob:

I know, I know, I noticed you could run strings and do it.

Yaacov Bris:

So I used to do it with a string. Now I have a laser, so I take hours to spend until this is completely right, straight, like I put it with a level, until this is completely right straight, like I put it, with a level each To an extent that I had them empty out, almost empty out a barrel because it wasn't straight. But it's me. I'm crazy about this. I want the visitors I was gonna say whoever is running the barrel room.

S. Simon Jacob:

whoever is managing this barrel room is Even the painting.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, I know, is Meshuggah like me.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, it's with the lees. Yeah.

Yaacov Bris:

It's not with the lees. We used to do it with the lees, but when you do it with the lees it grows mushrooms, because with the humidity that we have, we have to keep here something like 70% humidity here, right, and when you put it can create like dirt and mushrooms. I contacted someone in France that told me oh, yeah, yeah, we use beetroot powder mixed up with wine and a certain amount of water. So I asked them for the formula and this is how we painted this year, like I had a guy painting barrels for weeks and it's just for.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's for the look.

Yaacov Bris:

For the look.

S. Simon Jacob:

Because when they empty the barrels otherwise it trips out and it all looks dirty.

Yaacov Bris:

Look here you can see. You can see here the guy that did like, yeah, it's okay, or whatever. You know who.

S. Simon Jacob:

In Israel.

Yaacov Bris:

the person who started it was Ben Zakim Right, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, something like that, but in Bordeaux a lot of wineries do that in Bordeaux to differentiate the barrels of reds from the barrels of whites, the whites, they live alone.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, when you have it in the same barrel room. Now Bruno uses like 500 liter barrels for the Yara Levanon. Yara Levanon is the flagship wine. That's done. Free run juice, free run single vineyard, single varietal Cabernet, 40 years old vine from Zdekelev Okay Cool, Even these vines have like a very interesting story the way it was planted in 1985, they were planted. Since it's free-run juice, you may lack of tannins Because you don't press some tannins like lies in the skins.

Yaacov Bris:

So the way to overcome this is to have a very long maceration before fermentation and a long slow fermentation, not too low in temperature, because then it doesn't ferment all the way, but not too hot, so it goes too fast, and not not too many remontages. You know, like aggressive remontage that would actually rush the fruit or anything and then use of exclusively new barrels, only new barrels, for 24 months. Now new barrels might sound like very heavy oak. When you do 12 months in new barrel you have very aggressive oak, but when you do 24 months in new oak it basically goes up and down.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, it's amazing, it basically goes up and down. Yeah, it's amazing. You know, it's like strange that if you leave something for a longer period of time, it actually pulls it back out of the wine.

Yaacov Bris:

It settles, it settles right, it settles 100% and the mix of using a 500-liter barrel reduces that even more without touching the micro-oxidation process right, and you have different profiles of 225. Like, I mean, this whole row here is like Yarl-le-Vanone. You have different profiles. For example, you could see a lot of you could see Seguin-Moreau, seguin-moreau. You have Crianza, which is like American oak in a French barrel maker. So it's a French barrel from American oak, very, very interesting barrel. Bruno loves it. You have the Sagamore Classic.

S. Simon Jacob:

So what do you do with the barrels after the first year?

Yaacov Bris:

So after two years they're reduced into the D'Veer range, okay, right. And then for another two fills. So it's like we do four fills and the fifth fill it's done. For Talpiot, for example, six months, a part of certain wines that we feel that too we need old, old wood, like to be, just because it's too tannic already. So if we don't want to overkill the wine, and for example, pinot Noir, like, only only fifth fill because the oak kills it, right.

Yaacov Bris:

so we do fifth fill barrels and in certain barrels, like in two barrels on the Pinot, he used like a burgundy stick interesting. Like in two barrels on the Pinot, he used like a burgundy stick, interesting. Yeah, so that gives like an interesting. So that's about the barrel.

S. Simon Jacob:

So all the barrels are reds, yeah, yeah.

Yaacov Bris:

All the barrels are red. Yeah, this side is like second year. Now, one thing that Bruno does, he doesn't rack the barrels like like some wineries do every six months racking like you empty out, you clean and you put it back. Yeah, when bruno fills it, he fills the barrel all the way through. Now, 24 months, fill doesn't touch if you do top like we do topping right yeah, um, but it doesn't touch the barrel.

Yaacov Bris:

So when we this year I mean last year was we didn't have Schmitt wine, that was, say, 24 months. So last year was like we had to redo the whole barrel room. Okay, I mean last year, 2023. Yes, now 2023, yarl-evanon is going to be bottled in the end of December 2025. I mean January 26th, probably right.

Yaacov Bris:

So we had to stay here and we had to figure out a whole way to rebuild the whole barrel room. I mean I had to figure out because it's my craziness. So I said to him my piton, like we're constructing a wall of 500s and all the 225s are going to be in the middle and we have the Garbelotto here. So there's no way we're not emptying them out. No, no, you don't touch my barrels, you don't empty out my 500. My Yarl Levanon I don't empty out, because what happens is that when you rack the barrels, you lose the sediments at the bottom. You touch the tartaric acid. You basically could impact the wine. You do impact the wine. That's the whole point. So his motto is not to touch the wine once you put it in a barrel until you bottle it. So I had to redo this thing, so I did like, so we're going to do 500 here, 500 there and the 225 is behind.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah now I understand. Now I understand. Now I see how much sugar you are.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, that's cool, that's great so we have these vats here, we have, uh, more vats coming in, uh, but we're managing, like we do also open fermentation in Shiraz. I'm going to show you a video. It's so it's like they do this in Australia. You see these vats here, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's so practical because, like you see the height, so you can actually like do the pijage, like very easily, very gently, and you can actually pile them up and you just take them down every day to do the pijage. When you empty out, you just like bend it over and you empty it out. And the process of fermentation and like open fermentation is like crazy. So it gives so much fruit and so much flavor because you have like a lot of oxygen so you oxidize everything else but the fruit, you know. So this is to give what I would call.

Yaacov Bris:

If you would have to profile the identity of the winery, I would say it's something in between new world wine and old world wine. You know, because Bruno is still like quite old world wine Free run, slow processes, barrels, aging, et cetera before releasing the wines, but all these things are quite from the new world, like to give fruit and accessible wine immediately. You don't want to wait 15 years to drink your wine anymore, like nobody does that anymore. I mean, it's not the mainstream. No, no, no, I get it. Actually, when he worked in Yatir. Bruno was one of the founders of Yatir in 1999. And he worked there until 2007. They called him the. I mean he had once one of the Rothschilds visiting the winery and they wanted to do something together and at the end they didn't do it and he took Bruno on the side and he said, as French, from Frenchman to Frenchman, he said don't become a kangaroo, don't become a kangaroo. A kangaroo, don't become a kangaroo. This is how much French hate the new world. When you touch processes and you change stuff, they hate it.

Yaacov Bris:

So the De Vere you have, like this you have the Pinot Noir, which is 2023. Okay, I have nothing. Yeah, I have nothing Older than that. Older than that because we didn't do Schmitta. Yeah, but it's actually ready to drink. I would love to taste that. We have the Petit Verdot, yeah, which is quite unique. It's not the Petit Verdot you would expect. Okay, we have the blend and we have the cab, and we have the cab, which is 2023. Also, the story about the Pinot is they have this. Menachem planted this vineyard next to about three dunams to experience Pinot Noir because someone told him that it would do great at that altitude here. They actually won medals in 2011. But they had no idea what they had on hand back then.

Yaacov Bris:

I mean Bruno did. Because Bruno started his way in Burgundy and he was a big, big Pinot Noir guy but here he didn't have the audience to sell it to and how people would react and back then bringing special barrel profiles for this and growing it. It wasn't what he did. Back then, when I came here I sort of liked to taste this real Pinot Noir. The impression that I had is, like everyone else, you know this a priori. A priori is like you have this like previous experience, and just like there's no Israeli Pinot We've heard that many, many times and to me it tastes like a bad version of Cabernet. Right, this is pretty much.

Yaacov Bris:

A diluted version of Cabernet, because they treat it like Cabernet and it's Israeli, so it's got a lot of sun and they treat it like in the barrel, like aggressive, and it loses everything that Pinot has to offer. And I said to Bruno okay, listen, we have three Dunant Pinot. We have two possibilities Either we take it out and we plant Cabernet or we make the best possible version of Pinot Noir ever. Let's try so every year. We learned and learned and tasted and fine tuned it and see how we could harvest it and grow and make everything possible to have like the best Pinot Noir, the best version of an Israeli Pinot Noir. You know what you know and I think we're just about to get there. I don't know if it's, it's great. Look at the color. It's an Israeli Pinot Noir color, but we're lighter.

Yaacov Bris:

To me, pinot should taste like a walk into a wet forest after the rain. You know this is what Pinot Noir should really taste like, with the mushroom and the mousse. You say the mousse like the green, the moss Moss, the moss In French, it's mousse and I think we're getting there. I think we're getting there. It has some fruit profile that's undeniably Israeli, okay, but it has a Pinot Noir profile? It definitely is. You have the mushroom, the truffles, the wet dirt, wet pine trees.

S. Simon Jacob:

This is lovely the barrel is not.

Yaacov Bris:

You don't feel the barrel, you don't smell the wood because it's old oak, but it's going to be there, just how it should be to raise all these profiles that I just mentioned before. We just popped it open, right? Yeah, this is amazing. It's ready to drink.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's 2023.

Yaacov Bris:

It could age. It's ready to drink. It's 2023.

S. Simon Jacob:

It could age. It's going to age beautifully.

Yaacov Bris:

It's not too tannic, it's not too watery, it's not too fruity, not too sweet. It's Wow, I'm discovering it. Yeah, that's my goal with Pinot Noir To make a Pinot Noir that could actually represent what an Israeli Pinot Noir is. We sent it to French competitions Gilbert Gaillard. Gilbert Gaillard is a very known guide, but they're all over the world. They're very popular in Asia and in the States. It's becoming very popular, gilbert Gaillard, it's like. So we sent them a Pinot and they wrote about it it's a Pinot Noir with a warm profile. That's how they described it. Warm profile means like warm as the sun Not like warm as warm spice.

Yaacov Bris:

No, yeah, not like warm as warm spices no, no, no, that's what they wrote about.

S. Simon Jacob:

From a warm, from a warm environment, yeah, that's awesome.

Yaacov Bris:

So you have like pinot noir from oregon that it's like uh from a very, very cold, uh, environment, environment. Or your pinot noir from moselle. You know it's always humid and I'm very excited about this bottle.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's like this tastes amazing, tastes amazing. There's nothing. You don't need to apologize for this bottle. It's great.

Yaacov Bris:

It is exactly it's amazing that you just opened it yeah and this is a 2023 2023 bottle in December wow, three months ago. I mean it's painful. And this is a 2023?, 2023. Bottled in December Wow, three months ago. I mean it's painful to me to have this, but I had nothing else to sell. So you know, like Schmitta, we didn't make. That's amazing.

Yaacov Bris:

Let's go with Petit Verdot, petit Verdot. Okay, so the Pinot Noir grows on the hill and the bottom of it you have the Petit Verdot, but it's already deeper. Actually, you know what this bottle? I would cool it a little, maybe two or three degrees lower. When I drink Pinot Noir on Shabbat, I put it in the fridge for like 20-25 minutes.

Yaacov Bris:

It changes. This is a 2021 Petit Verdot from the Devere. Now you see what I mean. That Devere is a representation of the terroir. To make a Pinot, it needs to represent where it's growing, and this is the Pinot Noir that can get to that level just because where it's where it's growing. And this is the Pinot Noir that can get to that level just because where it's growing. And the same goes for the Petit Verdot. The Petit Verdot Verdo in Latin is green Verde. It's all about green spices. This is green. It's like Bruno used to say, it's like walking into a spice shop in Mahanayuda. You have these spices, you have thyme, rosemary, you have alida. Then you go into a little bit more warmer spices, like a cumin maybe Do you know.

S. Simon Jacob:

Gabriel.

Yaacov Bris:

Gabriel Geller. Yeah, yeah sure.

S. Simon Jacob:

Okay, because I know he's royal and what have you.

Yaacov Bris:

but I met him last year. We had an event Pasek New Jersey from the Jewish link with Elizabeth.

S. Simon Jacob:

Kratz? Yes, Kratz, she lost her husband.

Yaacov Bris:

She just lost her husband, yeah yeah, oh, I heard I was supposed to meet her when I was in New York. She was in the summer. She came here. Wow, such a pity, wow, unbelievable. She actually came in the summer and she planted a vineyard right next door here. She came with her kids.

Yaacov Bris:

They came at 6.30 in the morning and they planted a Petit Verdot vineyard right across from the winery. I mean the other side, Outside the Yishuv, you see, on the hill across. You see there's a new vineyard. She planted there, Elisabeth. So I met with Gabriel. Actually, everybody was crazy about the Pinot Noir last year. I was going to ask.

S. Simon Jacob:

I was going to ask, I was going to ask him he should really taste this. That's what I was going to tell you to do.

Yaacov Bris:

So I tried to go to the people that shout out loud that there's no Israeli Pinot. I tried, I tried to have them taste the Pinot and convince them that there is an Israeli Pinot, but it's very hard for them to change their mind, so I stopped.

S. Simon Jacob:

You don't use. You don't because it's Red Garden, they don't go through kosherwinecom.

Bruno Darmon:

Yeah, sure, they do, sure, sure we do we do?

Yaacov Bris:

we do so Now. Kosherwinecom often have like older vintages, okay.

S. Simon Jacob:

But it has a store in Westchester.

Yaacov Bris:

Skyview. So you just I think he took in like all the new vintages now. Okay, so Corshawinecom usually have all the vintages, yeah, but then you could go through every store. Pretty much on the east coast, like you know, like New Jersey, three states, like you know, new York, there's a lot of non-Corshher stores now that have, like you know, like if you go to Shopper in Carmel.

S. Simon Jacob:

What about in California?

Yaacov Bris:

California, we have it. Like you know, you can find it at the cask on Pico Street. How about San Diego? San Diego, I don't think we have it right there. No, san Diego, I don't think so, Just curious. Okay, we have it in Chicago, illinois, by Sarah's tent, we have it in Florida we're doing well great. This is the most the nicest time of the year to come here. Everything is green, everything is growing, coming back to life, and you feel like you're in Ghana and the Yar is unbelievable, that forest.

Yaacov Bris:

So this is the first trees of Yar Yatir, Right First trees. You go behind that hill you have the Yatir vineyard.

Bruno Darmon:

No, the desert is there on the east.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah right.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, you see, like the whole Judean desert.

S. Simon Jacob:

The reservoir is where? Which side? Straight Okay, straight across, okay, it's like five minutes from here. Yeah, no, I saw it. Etty took me around, oh right right, right, right.

Yaacov Bris:

You told me, yeah, and this is the new visitor center.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, I saw it.

Yaacov Bris:

And they're planning like a whole development here, like with places to see flowers and trees and vines and this visitor center like overlooking the whole south of Hebron towards Be'er Sheva. This is Be'er Sheva, straight out, straight out. Yeah, wow, this is the Ariel Red.

S. Simon Jacob:

You live where I live in Carmel, okay, carmel is right here as well.

Yaacov Bris:

Ten minutes from here you have Carmel. Ma'on and Yatir are like Aguda Shetufit, so they formed Yatir winery. Okay, so it's like three Chuvim that are.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, they're all together. Yeah, they're all together. The Malik's by the same.

Yaacov Bris:

Yeah, susia is by who. Susia is different. Susia is apart. Susia, it's their own thing. Okay, they have their own thing. All the other issues, and Bruno is in Maon, in Maon, right next to me. Okay, so this is the Ariel Red we tasted from the barrel From the foudre. We tasted the 2024 version of it and this is the 2019 2019 we have a few bottles left of 2019.

Yaacov Bris:

I don't even know how don't ask me how this bottle got here but it's open, so let's taste it. Sometimes, like they find bottles and they open it and I'm in charge of the of the maltef, you know. It's like I lock up my bottles and I keep a very tight inventory and nobody touches the bottle without asking me. Like you know, I'm very, very careful about these bottles. I age like. Every year I age a certain amount of bottles. So people that don't have patience and they drink their wine when they buy it and all of a sudden they say, oh, you have like, I really like the 2018 and all of a sudden, like wine is completely different, or I have like I do like horizontal tastings. Yeah, it's amazing to see the development of the wine and to see what the winemaker had in mind when he made the wine, and it's like developing.

S. Simon Jacob:

On these blends. Do you change them each year or you really try to keep them the same?

Yaacov Bris:

We try to keep the same. There's a message behind it. You just tasted the Dvir Petit Verdot. It's the same Petit Verdot Okay 2019, but it's Dvir Petit Verdot. It's the same Petit Verdot Okay 2019, but it's the same Petit Verdot. Now the Petit Verdot is aged 12 months. Bruno picks the best barrels of the Petit Verdot I mean, the barrel profile is picked according to that wine, obviously, but he tasted the barrels and then he assembles the Petit Verdot that's going to be for the Ariel, and then he adds Syrah that aged 12 months, also separately, and then blends it and goes back to the barrel for six months. This year 2024, is the first year that he blended it straight after the harvest and put it together in the food. It's the first year, but it was his dream, because this is the profiling of the food and it's specific to the profile of the wine that he wants to reach. I want Bruno to tell you about his wine in Hebrew.

S. Simon Jacob:

Okay.

Yaacov Bris:

Ariel is also his grandson. Okay, I mean, he hasn't tasted it until 2019, so I told him that he must taste it since we have it open. You see how this wine is different from the previous ones. Okay, from the Petit Verdot, from the Pinot, yeah from the from the whites. It has already a different message.

S. Simon Jacob:

Eucalyptus menta.

Bruno Darmon:

Chocolat de after after night.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, after 8.

Bruno Darmon:

After 8. After 8. Wow.

Yaacov Bris:

I had some Irish cream, like not Irish cream, the liquor that you put in the chocolate, it's called yeah you have this chocolate ball Bailey's. Irish cream, something like that. Yeah, in the chocolate. Yes, it's the 2019 Petit Verdot, which was very spicy, if you remember. Wow, the spices that you have here from the Petit Verdor, wow.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's integrated really nicely, though it's like….

Yaacov Bris:

Although the blend varietals are like two complete opposites. Bruno, tell Simon about the Ariel Red. What's your message? In the Ariel Red, what are you looking when you're making Ariel Red wine? What's your message? I?

Bruno Darmon:

really like on a screen level. For example, I don't like wine, that is too flat.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, they're having a conversation with you. Yes, instead of it something that you go into knowing what it is from the beginning and at the end, you much prefer to have a wine that has a conversation with you, that surprises you, that takes you through.

Bruno Darmon:

Fits you out of your lead, the yain that took me at the beginning and then goes down and returns me and goes down.

S. Simon Jacob:

That takes you up and down through the enjoyment there is something I try to do it in Ariel.

Bruno Darmon:

Yes, because it takes two zans. Yes that usually you don't put them together, because each zan takes you to all kinds of places and tries to.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's two zans Zan, right. Okay, so it comes from two varietals, and each varietal takes you in a different direction.

Bruno Darmon:

Right right.

S. Simon Jacob:

But together they and then try to connect them, but no one will give up on his uniqueness so that each one has a part of what's going on. It doesn't outshine the other one.

Bruno Darmon:

That's what I try to do in this specific blend of Ariel. In this blend specifically with Ariel In other blends. It's to take all kinds of things and try to mix them so that in the end there's something else.

S. Simon Jacob:

Okay. So in some of the other blends that's what he's trying to get out of Ariel, but in some of the other blends he'll blend them together, not to get a balance, but to get something that's different altogether by putting them together.

Bruno Darmon:

אבל זה לא פה. אפשר בהתחלה להרגיש את הפטי ורדו ועז בהפתח שלו, but that's not it. Here you can initially feel the Petit Verdot, yes, and then in its after we see the Syrah, and that's interesting.

Yaacov Bris:

Just before, we tasted the 2024 from the food Oof and I explained to him that this was your ideal.

Bruno Darmon:

Right Right, this is what's there. Yeah, you just taste it, and a little bit it's not so bad.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's a conversation because we tasted the 24 that's still in a very large wooden. I don't know what they're called Foodle Foodle. So because of that, we tasted it and you can actually taste the two varietals discussing what they want to do together Precisely. You're in the middle of the discussion and it's balancing itself back and forth.

Bruno Darmon:

It's very cool Zalier Zalier.

S. Simon Jacob:

I do have one more question. Is there any wine, is there any wine in particular that doesn't get enough attention from you, not from you, from your customers? Is there a wine that you would like them to pay more attention to?

Yaacov Bris:

Ariel, ariel, ariel is all about the winemaker's profile and actually the person that doesn't get enough attention at the winery is Bruno. He not because he's my winemaker. I mean, I consider myself his son. When people ask me, what's your relationship, are you father and son? We say yes, like we're spiritual father and son. He taught me so much, so much, so much knowledge, and he knows so much more. And he's learning every day, you know, trying to experience different things, and he's so humble about what he knows that he doesn't even believe himself in being in a winemaker. But he's really a genius, a genius person. I can see that, and Bruno needs to get a lot more attention.

Yaacov Bris:

Now, if I want Bruno to get a lot more attention, this is why we went on to develop a range or series called Ariel, which wasn't at the beginning of the winery, it's something that came later into the winery stage and actually, when we made the Dvir range, for example, we had to make the Dvir blend, for example, the estate blend. It was in pain, in terrible pain, because I actually had to tear him apart from his dream wine, which is the Syrah, you know, in the estate blend, and make it into a blend that's so actually commercial. So in Hebrew we say mit chanef. It's like so it was very painful to him because it's the opposite of what he believes. You know, instead of making it distinctive.

Yaacov Bris:

You made it smoother and accessible, like we made what people want and not what we want, and and and. Then we created the Ariel to get that, that attention. Now people don't don't get enough of this understanding of what Bruno is, what he's trying to achieve and what this wine is all about. Cool, I'm glad I asked you. Now. We've gone through Talpiot, the fruit, the terroir, we've met the winemaker and now you want to know what's La Fora Blanche?

S. Simon Jacob:

Yara.

Yaacov Bris:

Levanon Flagship wine.

S. Simon Jacob:

And again, this is the same thought process behind it. Yara Levanon is what gave the name, because this is the white forest in Hebrew.

Yaacov Bris:

White forest in Hebrew, which is the symbol of the Bet HaMikdash. Yeah, it's really lovely.

S. Simon Jacob:

Wow, this has been open since yesterday. Yeah, yeah, so that's great. Yesterday afternoon Afternoon Good.

Yaacov Bris:

So now it's accessible to drink. You see what I like, and in Israel I find it very hard to find this aroma. The green bell pepper yeah, it's. Very Usually you find this in Medoc Cabernet and in Israel they try to convince me that it's Cabernet Franc flavor and it's not typical to Cabernet Sauvignon, but I know Cabernet Sauvignon from the dock.

Yaacov Bris:

And the balance between the red and the green aromas, like the red being the fruit, forest fruit or plums, and the green being like bell pepper. And it's not a lack of ripness, ripness, ripness. It's the exact balance between harvesting at the right time and let it run into a jammy red. Then you would lose all these aromas and it's so refreshing when you drink it you want to get more because it balances like the green and the red. It's like the red being fresh, not herbal Herbal would be like a lack of ripeness but the green bell pepper, at the right amount, of course, because if it takes over the red then it's wrong, you know. But just a little bit. This is lovely. Now, what's really challenging about this wine? That he doesn't add anything but cabernet and free run. There's no price. He doesn't have the petit verdot and the merlot to play around and make it into a better wine, just Cab the way it is. That's what's so special about it. It's an expression of the fruit, the terroir, the winemaker.

S. Simon Jacob:

It's free run. What do you do with the rest of it?

Yaacov Bris:

Part of it goes into the Dvir Cabernet and part of it goes into the Estate blend.

S. Simon Jacob:

Wow, part of it goes into the dvir kabernet and part of it goes into the estate blend.

Bruno Darmon:

Wow, this is something, something 24 months, 24 months, and this process, his work. I can tell you that Yaakov already told you that all his business is very special, from the vineyard to the harvest of grapes, the difference between a whole grape and a smaller grape, and the free run that we do with Amit Zaluchad until the use of the vineyard which get the free run, yeah, Until the use of the barrel, which is only French barrels 24 months, that's it, that's what it does.

S. Simon Jacob:

And you don't do rocking.

Bruno Darmon:

No, no, no. I only do it as a barrel right, that's it. That's it.

Yaacov Bris:

We had a whole argument if we had to empty out the barrel. I was telling you earlier we had a whole argument if we had to empty out the barrel. I was telling you earlier we had a whole argument uh, uh. I wanted the bell room to look like, uh, um, uh, like you know, balanced and like to have the 500 barrels like on one end and the 225s on the other end, like the garbalotto in the middle. And bruno said no, you don't touch my barrels, you don't empty out my 500 liters. The hour of the unknown. It stays there until next year. So you figure out your way. So I had to find out a whole way of building the 500 on one side, then the new 500 on the other side and the 225 is behind. It actually looks quite good now. It looks beautiful, it looks beautiful.

S. Simon Jacob:

So one of the things what Bruno was saying he was saying it in Hebrew, but what he was saying I'm going to translate a little bit of it was that the whole process with the Miar Lev Hanan is it's special. It's special from the time it's picked. It's special when it's actually brought in and it's just purely free run, coming off of it for these bottles, and then it's put into. It's put into first year barrels, specifically French barrels. That goes on for 24 months. It's not racked, it's not disturbed, it's allowed to just develop properly and at the end of that process then it ends up getting bottled. So it's like the absolute best handling that you could ever do best handling that you could ever do.

Yaacov Bris:

Actually, one more thing that you get is that you keep each profile of the barrel for the wine, because if you rack, you empty out all the barrels, you put it into a vat, then you lose the profile of the barrel, yes, and when you keep it for 24 months. So you keep the profile of the barrel for 24 months and you get the full extent of that specific wine in the barrel, and that's what makes Yarl Levanon so special also.

S. Simon Jacob:

So when you do that, though, do you blend barrels that way to know what you want to get the?

Bruno Darmon:

consistency of the flavor? Yes, but before that. I mix every barrel.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yes, he tastes every barrel.

Bruno Darmon:

And it could be that there is one barrel, even though everything is good and I don't barrel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Okay.

S. Simon Jacob:

So his desire is that the Yar Lev Anon wine is really really special. So all of the barrels that come out of it though they've been sitting for 24 months because he doesn't rack each barrel has its own specific profile and because of that then when he makes the Arlevanon he blends them. He blends the barrels per what he's trying to accomplish, and sometimes there'll be a barrel that he won't even include, because it just takes it out of the profile that he's trying to get out of it, and that makes a lot of sense. It's beautiful, awesome.

Yaacov Bris:

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you so much for all the time and what have you, it's amazing.

S. Simon Jacob:

My passion no, mine too it's great. It's great to talk to another passionate person. These are amazing wines. I can see why they've taken off. At the beginning I didn't understand, but I very much have a much better picture of what you're trying to do here. Awesome, it's really awesome, beautiful, very good, thank you. Thank you for being on the Kosher Tehrua.

Yaacov Bris:

Sure.

S. Simon Jacob:

Finally. Now it's a pleasure.

Yaacov Bris:

Great, great great. It's good to meet people like you that do an extensive work at actually showing each winery, because each winery has its own specialty and its own mindset and what they're trying to achieve. And this is what you're doing. You're taking the time because you don't have the time, like normally, when you visit a winery, you visit on the spot, you're with children or you have to run somewhere else and don't take the time to understand. You don't remember.

S. Simon Jacob:

I also want people to be attracted by something that they. I purposefully don't, just as an addition for me. I don't include video and we didn't do any video. It's all audio and there's a reason for that because people can listen to audio whenever driving the driving, walking their dog, doing whatever they want, and they can focus on this, rather than having to focus at a video to see two heads talking to each other, which is like crazy, um. So I found for me it helped and a lot of people comment on it and tell me wow, I love that it's just audio, I love to just listen, listen in and, um, and it's, you know, a little bit more personal. So, very good.

Yaacov Bris:

I really enjoyed it. I hope I've answered all your questions.

S. Simon Jacob:

Yeah, you've answered a lot and I have more for next time.

Yaacov Bris:

Okay, very good, thank you.

S. Simon Jacob:

This is Simon Jacob, again your host of today's episode of The Kosher Terroir. I have a personal request no matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldiers' safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you're new to The Kosher Terroir, please check out our many past episodes.

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S. Simon Jacob

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