Food & Wine USA - (11)November 2018

58 NOVEMBER 2018

BOTTLE SERVICE

e Vines of Israel Meet Roni Saslove, a

rising star in the Israeli winemaking scene.

THE INTERVIEW

F&W: In the past 30 years, about 250

wineries have opened in Israel. What

happened?

RS: Wine has been made here since

Noah’s time, but in the 1980s, Israelis

started traveling abroad and tasting the

great wines of Europe. Suddenly they

grasped that there was a demand at

Saslove’s Picks Four bottles from Israel’s emerging wine

regions to uncork this fall, plus a can’t-miss gin

2017 VITKIN WHITE

ISRAELI JOURNEY

($29)

An unusual blend of

varieties—Grenache

Blanc from Upper

Galilee, Roussanne

and Viognier from the

Judean Hills, plus

Gewürztraminer from

the east Carmel

Ridge—makes up this

aromatic white.

2017 COVENANT

ISRAEL BLUE C

ROSÉ ($28)

California winemaker

Jeff Morgan went to

Israel and fell in love

with the country. He

makes this rosé from

Syrah, resulting in a

crisp pink-hued wine

with strawberry and

red grapefruit

accents.

JULLIUS DISTILLERY

AKKO GIN ($103)

With 12 different

herbs indigenous to

Galilee, this is the

first gin in the world

made using only local

Israeli botanicals.

Drinking it, Saslove

says, is akin to

walking the hills of

Galilee in springtime.

2016 JEZREEL

ARGAMAN ($49)

Argaman grapes are

an Israeli cross

between the French

Carignane and the

Portuguese Souzão,

producing deeply

colored reds with

aromas of

Mediterranean

spices and flowers.

2014 BRAVDO

CABERNET

SAUVIGNON ($39)

Two experts in

biotechnology make

this wonderful wine

from 90 percent

Cabernet and 10

percent Merlot. It’s

full-bodied with an

intense aroma of

plum, mint, and

green pepper.

RONI SASLOVE is at the forefront of a

new generation of Israeli winemakers

and is a champion of what she calls

“mindful wine tasting”—trying to get

people to experience the stories behind

the grapes and to discover their own

personal connections to a particular

taste. SYLVIE BIGAR

home for high-quality local wine. In

1998, my family opened the third

boutique winery in Israel. Now new

ones open every month.

F&W: What characterizes Israeli wine?

RS: Just like the country, it’s very

complex. here are different regions

here, each with its own soil and

climate. We have high mountains with

basalt stones in Upper Galilee; lower

hills with limestone in Lower Galilee;

coastal areas with chalk and sandstone

near Carmel; and the desert, of course,

with clay near the Ramon crater. It’s a

time of intense exploration. Vintners

are doing their own research, from

unearthing ancient grapes—as in “what

did Jesus drink?”—to working with

natural fermentation, and so on.

F&W: What is “mindful tasting,” and

does it enhance the drinker’s

experience?

RS: Behind every glass, there’s the

story of the grape, the story of the

winemaker, and your own story—all

three. In my sensory workshops in Tel

Aviv and abroad, we study the

connection between the drinker’s

personal reaction and that person’s

history to understand how it affects

taste. We start from a simple smell and

follow the memories that the smell

triggers and, finally, the physical

feeling it produces in the taster’s body.

F&W: What else influences taste

besides memory?

RS: Music, the color of a room, even

the temperature can influence the taste

of wine. And food, of course, so I often

work with chefs, not so much to pair

wine with food but to make wine an

integral part of the dish.

PHOTOGRAPHY: BEN YUSTER