Our Vineyards

In principle, we do not buy grapes from any external source and we make our wines only from grapes grown by us. By doing so, we have full control of the human factor which is responsible for the grapes’ quality. The rest depends only on nature and the annual weather conditions.

As is known, Israel is a dry country in the summer, from April to the beginning of the winter in November. This is the period where the vines are growing shoots and berries, which will be harvested at the end of the summer. At this time, the water needs are at a maximum and practically it is not possible to grow grapes without either rain or irrigation. Without this water supply, the vines will be in deep stress, which will cause the grapes not to ripen.

However, despite this situation, we choose to rely only on the winter rain and not to irrigate the vineyards at all. To achieve this, we developed our vineyards with a special program that will allow the vines live and grow, without extra water in the summer. This is how we do it:

Initially we irrigate the new vines as required, without any limits, for two years. In the third year we cut the total irrigation quantity by half. Each irrigation is carried on for a longer period, but with very long time intervals betwee each irrigation. In the next two years, the irrigation volume is cut again by half from its previous year, until we stop the irrigation completly from the sixth year onwards. The gradual limiting of the irrigation volume causes the vine roots to dig deeper in search of water. At last the vine roots are deep enough to survive the long dry summer solely with the last winter rains. The result of this procedure is that the vine growing is controlled, and balance is established between vegetative growing and the grape yield.

In addition, without irrigation there is no need for chemical nutrient supply, which is most important in typical irrigation protocol, because there are enough nutrients in the deep soil, which are less depleted by the irrigation of the top layers of the soil. The final result of these regime is a lower grape yield, with small berries, and a potentially higher quality of wine.

When the grapes are fully ripe we harvest by hand in small boxes of 10-20 kg. Generally speaking, in our vineyards, any vine produces approximately two bottles of finished wine.

Zichron Vineyard

The vineyard’s area is 5 acres, located in the northern side of Hanadiv Valley south of Zichron-Yaakov. This is our youngest vineyard, traditionally known as one of the best vineyard sites in this area which was used to grow grapes by the “Biluim”, the first immigrants back to the Holy-Land in 1882.

The soil is chalky with a south facing, moderate slope. Here we planted three Provence varieties: Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, and three white varieties, Chardonnay, Riesling, and the unique “Margalit Blanc” vareity. The last one is enigmatic and was developed by us from Cabernet Franc (red). The grape yield of the red varieties is about 4 tons per acre and the white varieties is about 3.5 tons per acre.

Binyamina Vineyard

This small vineyard of 2.5 acres is close to the Mediterranean Sea in the village Binyamina, midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa.  The temperatures are hot during the day and moderate at nighttime. The soil is Tera-Rose (red color), containing sandy clay and is rich with iron.

Cabernet Franc is the variety grown in this vineyard. The yield is 3.8 – 4.0 tons per acre.

Kadita Vineyard

The vineyard is located in the Upper Galilee Mountains, close to the Biblical village of Kadita. The area of 7 acres is at 800 meters above sea level. The climate in the winter is cold, rainy, and there is snowfall from time to time in the colder years. The temperatures in the summer are warm during the day and cool at night. The soil is volcanic, a reminder of the geological activity in the past. We think that the cool temperatures and the soil give the wine made from this terroir, its unique fruit flavor and quality.

The varieties in Kadita Vineyard are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and very small amount of Durif. On average, the yield in this vineyard is about 3.5 tons of grapes per acre, (with no fruit thinning or green treatments).

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