The Levahn Festival  (Levahn is Hebrew for white) is returning to the Herzliya Marina for it's second year. Last year, israel's first and only wine festival focusing on white wines, roses and sparkling wines attracted about 6000 people over two nights. This year their expecting more visitors so they've doubled their space. Instead of bartenders manning pouring stations seperated by wine types, each winery this year will por tastings and sell their own wines

When you visit Israel, explore the idea of trying out the local wines. Israeli wine has been undergoing a revolution lately and have received great reviews by many internationally recognized wine magazines (such as Wine Spectator in the US and Decanter Magazine in the UK) and critics (Hugh Johnson, Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson). One affordable way to try several Israeli wines is to have a personal tasting at your hotel or during a dinner along your travels here in israel.

Having a tasting at dinner or at your hotel can help you save time to visit other historical sites while in Israel (as there are so many) and can allow you to try some of Israel's best wines that don't have vistor centers.

Another option is to travel to a winery or two or three here in israel. There's over 256 although many don't have interesting visitors centers some do and I have many relationships witht the wineries to get you VIP treatment on these visits.

If you enjoy wine and want to make it part of your trip. Let's explore how we can do it together.

You can listen to my weekly wine show on Israeli wine on Rustymikeradio.com as well as listen to my more than 30 podcasts.

Or check out my over 50 articles on wine here on Travelujah,com

Did you know the first recorded mention of a wine in the world was that of Noah planting a

    As one enter's the wine village of Zichron Ya'acov on Richov (street) Hameyasdim there's a treat for those who plan ahead. The Smadar Winery is small and quaint as well as set back off Zichron's main street with little signage to tell a tourist there's a winery to visit nearby. But it's more than just a winery. For those interested, it's an all encmpassing experience, The winery is adjacent to a spa & a bed and breakfast that the family manages. So not only can you taste their wines (well worth the visit) but you can also stay overnight, swim in their heated pool or get a massage.

    The family has been living in this spot since they moved to Israel in 1882 when a wave of Jewish Romanian immigrants oved to the area specifially to works vines to produce wine. The family now is on their fifth genreation of growers and winemakers though commercially having been making wine in 1998. Motti, the owner and winemaker, is the great-grandson of the original growers who settled here and his daughter,Smadar, runs many of the tests in the winery's lab. Motti studied winemaking under Yair Marglait for 1 year in 1998 in Tel Hai.

The family man

    After over a millenium of Islamic rule,  Zichron Ya'acov became the launching point of Israel's resurgence as a modern wine growing region back in 1882 when Baron Edmund Rothschild supported Jewish Romanian immigrants to move to the region to work vineyards for the Carmel Winery, a collective of growers which became and remains Israel's largest winery (producing 15 million bottles of the 50 million bottles or about 30% of what Israel produces every year). The Carmel collective consists of over 300 independant growers and some of them like the Dahan family, owners of the Somek Winery, has gone on to create their own wineries in addtion to grapes they grow that they sell to Carmel or other wineries.

The Somek family has been growing grapes in Israel since 1882

The Somek Winery is located on a residential lot in the center of Zichron Ya'acov ( as are a few other boutique wienries). Their family has been growing wine grapes as well as other fruit in Israel since arriving in the first wave of Aliyah (the return of Jews to Israel) in 1882 (many of which were Jews escaping systematic massacres or pogroms occurring in Eastern Europe).

Barak Dahan