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Home / Lifestyle / Wine & Spirits
Wine & Spirits

A Wine Lover's Guide to Galilee

By Debra Kamin on July 06, 2017

The Western Galilee is one of the most exciting pockets for wine and food in Israel, and a spot that despite its bounties of both culture and cuisine still remains charmingly unspoiled.

© Anatoly Michaelo

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At Lotem Organic Winery, a tiny two-man operation producing 20,000 bottles a year, everything is about energy. Winemaker Yonatan Koren spent 10 years as a career soldier in the Israel Defense Forces before trading his uniform for a life cultivating organic grapes—a move he says was motivated by a simple desire for happiness.

Winemaking brings together everything he loves best, Koren says, pouring two glasses of crisp rosé, a blend of light red Nebbiolo and Petit Verdot, on the open-air patio of Lotem’s small headquarters. On a clear summer’s day, the patio boasts a cool breeze and a sweeping view of the patchwork hills of Galilee.

Just inside, Koren’s brother Iftach, who lives in Tel Aviv but makes the drive north to help in the winery’s kitchen, is preparing watermelon sashimi and homemade chocolate truffles for a wine tasting scheduled later in the day. “There’s everything inside a bottle. There’s working with the soil, working with people, there’s creation, and there’s philosophy,” Koren says.

Koren is so big on energy, in fact, he and business partner Yaniv Kimchi have a soundtrack hooked up for their wine. Aging grapes are serenaded by new-age strains of Indian, Peruvian, and Arabic music 24 hours a day. Kimchi and Koren play music that they themselves like to hear, at specific frequencies linked to meditation and life force.

“No classical music, though,” Koren says, “because a lot of classical music wasn’t written for peace and love; it was written for war, and for crazy kings.”

Israel, which was the cradle of the world’s winemaking culture thousands of years before oenophilia reached Europe, is in the midst of a wine renaissance. For the past two decades, as Israeli cuisine has modernized, upgraded, and earned a global following, its vintners have been working to keep up with its chefs. But while its bigger wineries—Recanati, Tishbi, and Binyamina, among them—have earned an international following, there’s a quiet revolution unfolding in the Western Galilee, a tiny, lush pocket in the country’s north that boasts fertile soil, centuries of history, and a laid-back winemaking culture imbued with rustic charm and a tradition of easy elegance.

The Western Galilee is anchored by Acre, a 5,000-year-old port city that boasts Crusader castles, a shoreline teeming with fresh seafood, and a tradition of coexistence between its Muslim, Jewish, and Christian residents. Four years ago, Acre fisherman and bon vivant Uri Jeremias hedged his bets on the crumbling city, gutting two 19th-century Ottoman villas and restoring them into the spectacularly grand Efendi Hotel, a luxury boutique property unlike anything Israel had ever seen.

Today, the hotel—which sits adjacent to Jeremias’s famed seafood restaurant, Uri Buri—is a magnet luring tourists north from Tel Aviv and positioning Acre as a politics-free alternative to historical Jerusalem. Visitors dine family-style alongside Jeremias himself, enjoying seasonal delicacies including seared scallops with pomegranate sauce and salmon sashimi with wasabi sorbet, and then dream salty sea-air dreams in one of Efendi’s 12 rooms, all lined in cool marble and featuring painstakingly restored frescoes on the ceilings and Egyptian cotton sheets on the pillow-like beds.

It’s time, says Jeremias, that the Western Galilee gets a spot on the Israeli tourism map. The rest of Israel seems to agree: A gleaming new tourist center geared specifically to Western Galilee Tourism, run by the Jewish National Fund, was opened last year just steps from the Efendi at the mouth of the Acre market.

“The area has more to offer than Tuscany,” he says over breakfast in Efendi’s communal dining hall, where guests gather around a long wooden table for fresh-baked breads, perfectly poached eggs, and a cornucopia of Middle Eastern dips, fresh fruits, and marinated fish and vegetables. The region’s multi-level terrain, he says, means that vegetables, ancient medicinal herbs, tropical fruits, and world-class wines can all be grown in the same area. And along with the bounty, Jeremias says, there’s coexistence, a word that is tossed around a lot in Israel but hard to find in practice in its more heavily touristed enclaves near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

“This is the one place in Israel where Arabs and Jews live together, work together, and it’s completely common,” he says.

The Western Galilee is one of the most exciting pockets for wine and food in Israel, and a spot that despite its bounties of both culture and cuisine still remains charmingly unspoiled. But its riches won’t be a secret forever. Here is a guide to the places you should visit before the crowds catch on.

 
Anatoly Michael

Kishor Vineyards

There are two reasons to visit Kishor Vineyards: The exceptional, award-winning wine that is produced on-site, and the heartwarming story of the Kibbutz where the vineyard is housed.

Kishor produces three labels of wine. Two of them are very good: the utilitarian Kerem Kishor label, which includes a dry white, a dry red, and a solid rosé; the Kishor label, which puts out a Syrah, the smooth, light-bodied GSM—a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre—and one of the only Viogniers to be found in Israel. But the third label, Kishor Savant, which includes Savant Viognier, Savant Riesling and the dense, powerful Savant Red, which earned a gold medal from the Asian Wine Review, is where the winery truly shines.

Kishor is one of Israel’s only true estate wineries. All of its grapes are grown on-site at Kishorit Village, a group home and farming community for Israeli adults with special needs. All residents of Kishorit, which runs on a combination of government funds and private donations, are employed by the village’s various industries, which in addition to winemaking include a cheesery, a bakery, an organic garden, and a dog breeding kennel specializing in prize schnauzers and dachshunds.

“We have a lot of pensioners who come to visit us when they’re visiting the north [of Israel], and they have a lot of wineries they could visit,” says Yair Una, who handles sales and marketing for the winery. “The reason they come here is they’re looking for more than just wine.”

M.P. Bik'at Beth Hakerem; 972-04/9085198; kishor-winery.com.

Anatoly Michaelo

Lotem Winery

Stepping into the tasting room of Lotem Winery, which sits perched above miles of green farmland and sports cool breezes, sweeping views, and a soothing soundtrack playing specifically for the wine, is like hitting pause on the outside world. Here, the energy is calm, the wines are all named after musical instruments, and winemaker Yonatan Koren is likely behind the bar, turning market-sourced ingredients into a gourmet feast that he serves daily with no set menu.

Lotem is one of only a handful of fully organic wineries in Israel, producing close to 10,000 bottles a year. Their stock is almost exclusively of light and dry reds, with Luana, a gentle, fruity white, and Piano rosé, a perfectly crisp summer blend of three of their reds, as notable exceptions. Lotem arranges romantic meals for couples, group menus, and daily tastings, but regardless of who their visitors are, their motto—come as you are—remains the same.

“When I go to Bourgogne, I don’t want to drink Israeli wine, I want to drink Bourgogne wine,” Koren says. “When you come here you want to drink Israeli wine. Not wine like Bordeaux. They do wonderful wine in Bordeaux, but I do wines for Israel.”

Klil 7, Lotem; 972-04/6214972; lotemwinery.co.il.

Anatoly Michaelo

Stern Winery

Johnny Stern spent years making wine out of a small room in his home before finding both the funds and the courage to launch Stern Winery, a family-run boutique operation located high on a Galilee mountain and producing around 25,000 bottles a year. They are small but mighty: In 2016 alone, their Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2012 earned a gold medal at Terravino and their Cabernet Franc 2013 picked up a double gold medal at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.

Tuval; 972-054/3034361; stern-winery.co.il.

Courtesy Efendi Hotel

Efendi Hotel

The ancient port city of Acre has it all—walled Crusader fortresses, a technicolor market teeming with produce, spices, and fresh fish, and twisting stone alleys leading to authentic Turkish baths. Best of all, its community—a mix of Arabs, Jews, and Christians who shrug off questions about coexistence as if to emphasize what a non-issue it is to them—is friendly, warm, and welcoming. But for decades, Acre was all but ignored by travelers to Israel, perhaps in part because there was no standout hotel for them to rest their heads.

Uri Jeremias decided to change his beloved city’s fortunes, and he poured heart, soul, and history into the gleaming Efendi Hotel, a 12-room boutique gem with jaw-dropping sea views and pristine rooms featuring marble floors and restored Ottoman frescoes. Guests can unwind in the hotel’s Crusader-era wine cellar, on its open-air rooftop, or in its private, 400-year-old Turkish hammam.

Louis IX St. P.O. Box 2503, Old Acre; 972-074/7299799; efendi-hotel.co.il.

Sivan Askayo

Uri Buri

A short walk from the Efendi Hotel sits the Uri Buri Fish Restaurant, a humble, unassuming temple to gluttony, pleasure, and the riches of the sea. Chef and owner Uri Jeremias grew up in Acre, plumbing the seas for Buri fish—the name of the restaurant is his own beloved nickname—and skipping class. He never went to culinary school, opting instead to cook and serve the food he himself appreciates. He is plain-spoken, humble, and imbued with a searing wit, and his food is as multi-layered as he is. The plates here are no frills and all flavor, and the experience is one not to be missed.

Ha-Hagana St., Akko; 972-04/955-2212; uriburi.co.il.

Anatoly Michaelo

Aluma

The Western Galilee town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha is a quiet revocation of everything Israel’s politicians want you to believe: Ma’alot, which is Jewish, and Tarshiha, which is Arab, are sister communities that have come together, their residents’ quotidian schedules of work, shopping, and raising children serving, in a fractured country, as a beacon of a better future. And no spot better captures the flavor of Ma’alot-Tarshiha’s potential than Aluma, a handsome, smoothly-run gourmet bistro serving French-Galilean fare like butcher’s cut with black lentils and black pasta with garlic confit and mussels, chickpeas, and purple calamari. Alaa Sawitat, Aluma’s young Arab chef and owner, started in the kitchen at Aluma, learning the restaurant business ropes before earning enough to make the restaurant his own.

Alon St. 17, Ma'alot Tarshiha; 972-04/9574477; alumabistro.co.il.

Haim Yossef

Buza Ice Cream

Not long after Aluma chef Alaa Sawitat took over that bistro’s kitchen, he also joined forces with Adam Ziv, the Jewish kibbutznik with whom he runs Buza, one of the most innovative and delicious ice cream parlors in Israel. Buza—named after the Arabic word for ice cream—sports two locations in the Western Galilee and a brand new storefront in Tel Aviv as well. Fresh, seasonal, and unapologetically local, Ziv and Sawitat use Italian techniques but close-to-home ingredients to mix up their fresh flavors, which include plum and pistachio as well as lemongrass, spearmint, and even hummus, a surprisingly sweet and nutty ode to the classic chickpea dish.

Buza’s flagship shop sits in Tarshiha, at the top of a traffic circle and at the mouth of the city’s colorful fruit and vegetable market. Park across the street at the supermarket, and take your time choosing your flavor—Buza is as friendly as it is fun, so you can taste as much as you like.

HaShuk St. 1, Ma’alot-Tarshiha; 972-04/873-8984; buzaisrael.co.il.

Getty Images

Bahai Gardens

The mysterious Baha'i faith has deep roots in Israel, with many visitors curious about the religion—which emphasizes universal peace, the life of the spirit, and the oneness of humanity—traveling to Haifa, the northern Israeli metropolis, to take in the beautifully manicured Bahai Gardens. But it is the Israeli city of Acre, with 5,000 years of history and deep relationships with Arabs, Christians and Jews, where Baha’u’llah, the prophet-founder of the Bahai faith, lived out his final years. It is also in Acre where pilgrims can find a stunning circular Bahai garden of Alice in Wonderland proportions.

Hushed in silence and framed with cypress trees, the garden includes a centuries-old sycamore fig tree, an ancient olive grove, and eye-popping geometric flower formations. In the heart of the garden, amid the chirping birds and whispering pines, sits the home where Baha’u’llah spent his final decade.

The Bahá’í Gardens in ‘Akko are located at the northern edge of the city. The entrance is near the North ‘Akko intersection on National Rd. 4, at the end of the old access road to Kibbutz Shomrat; ganbahai.org.il.

Getty Images

Rosh Hanikra

The sea line meets the cliffs at only one point in Israel—Rosh Hanikra, its northernmost tip and home to a spectacular collection of wave-beaten sea caves. Here, as waves crash against the grottos’ limestone walls, seawater collects in cool blue ponds dappled with sunlight that creeps its way in. Hyraxes dart in and out of rock crevices; the Israeli-Lebanon border beckons just meters away, and visitors can make their way into the heart of the grottoes by taking a ride on the Rosh Hanikra cable car, which sports both a breathtaking view and the title of steepest cable car in the world.

It’s an exhilarating encounter with nature just a 20-minute drive from downtown Acre.

rosh-hanikra.com

Anatoly Michael

Aya Natural

It’s not easy to find Aya Natural, whose cedar- and sage-scented shop sits atop a hill in a winding Druze village in the Galilee’s Mount Meron nature reserve. But don’t give up. For those who find the spot, owner and founder Jamal Hamoud, a chemist with nearly three decades of experience under his belt, will personally guide you through Aya’s extensive catalog of all-natural products, all based on some of the world’s highest quality olive oils and created from a perfect balance of cutting-edge science and Hamoud’s own ancient family recipes for medicinal herbs.

Aya’s products—lotions, serums, and creams for every part of the body, for men, women, and children of all ages—include olive oil mixed with sage and rosemary, which is a clinically proven muscle relaxant, and almond oil mixed with lavender and olive oil, which has been used as a natural pain reliever for centuries. Environmentally friendly, made with zero animal testing, and with not a chemical or byproduct in sight, the products all follow Hamoud’s own philosophy: If it’s not clean and natural enough to eat it, then you also shouldn’t put it on your skin.

Visitors are recommended to call and ask for directions; 972-04/980-5884; ayanatural.com.

Courtesy Shirat Roim

Shirat Roim Dairy Farm

In the summer of 2005, Michal Mor Melamed went paragliding in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps with friends. But the weather was poor, and their paragliding was canceled. Housebound and bored, they decided to visit a Swiss cheesemaker instead, a visit that Melamed says changed her life.

Melamed had an established career working as a speech therapist in Israel, but something about cheesemaking struck her. When she returned to Israel, she decided to study the craftsmanship of making cheese, and after stints in Israel, Switzerland, France, and Italy, she invested everything she had in her own farm.

That project, the Shirat Roim dairy farm, sits on Kibbutz Lotem (next door to Lotem Winery) and for a decade has been draining, salting, and aging some of the best goat cheeses to come out of Israel. At the 2015 Mondial du Fromage—the world championship of cheese competitions—four of the five cheeses made at Shirat Roim took home international awards.

Shirat Roim offers tastings and a full lunch menu; visitors should be sure to try the Ma'ayan Harod, a hard, nutty Tomme-style cheese made of sheeps' milk; the Inbar, a spicy, semi-hard cheese that represents Israel in the World Cheese book and comes in a number of varieties, including thyme, red wine, and crushed pepper; and the Kmehim, a luxurious, truffle-soaked semi-hard cheese with a mild flavor, inspired by cheese from the Pyrenees.

Klil 7, Lotem; 972-04/6787161; shiratroim.co.il.

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