{"id":940,"date":"2015-10-20T12:59:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T09:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danhotels.com\/Blog\/?p=940"},"modified":"2025-07-28T14:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:40:20","slug":"history-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danhotels.com\/Blog\/?p=940","title":{"rendered":"The Famous Wineries of Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The descendants of Sir Moses Montefiore established the Kerem Montefiore in Israel and a new winery that perpetuates Sir Moses love of wine and of Jerusalem.<\/strong>
\n A true mixture of historical roots and rich experience<\/strong>
\n in the wine industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/a>

Israeli Wineries<\/p><\/div>\n

Sir Moses\u2019 vision has without a doubt become a realization as today, a bottle of Israeli wine from the Kerem Montefiore Winery, founded by descendants of the British Montefiore, and, in commemoration of Sir Moses, can be enjoyed in British homes. Two wines from the Kerem Montefiore can be purchased in the Mayfair district of London at Hedonism which is classed as one of the world\u2019s leading wine shops. And Hedonism is not alone as the wines are in top restaurants and hotels in Israel<\/a> and 70% of the wines are sold abroad.<\/p>\n

When the wines were launched in 2013, they relied mainly on the legacy of the philanthropist Montefiore and bottles were stamped with the family crest on a decorated label with the name \u201cJerusalem\u201d. Although the Montefiore name intertwines with Israel\u2019s history and past, there is a good chance that it will also have a part in the future of Israeli wines.<\/p>\n

Sir Montefiore was born in Tuscany, lived in England and visited Israel on several occasions (his last visit was at the age of 91). At the age of 40 he took early retirement and decided to donate his time and energy to Judaism, charity and Israel. Montefiore\u2019s vision was that Jews would work in agriculture, including planting vines and olive trees. Thus the earlier settlers of the late 19th century would be able to earn a de-cent living. There appears to be some credibility in his dream as Montefiore was a wine connoisseur who daily drank a bottle of wine and lived to the age of 101. He believed in his vision some 40 years before the founding of the modern wine industry by the Rothschild family.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The History of Wine in the Holy land<\/p><\/div>\n

Sir Montefiore purchased land for agricultural use in Jaffa. This has since become known as the Montefiore Quarter of Tel Aviv. In Jerusa-lem he established the \u2018Kerem Moshe Montefiore\u2019 (Moses Montefiore\u2019s vineyard), which later became known as \u2018Mishkenot Sha\u2019ananim\u2019 and \u2018Yemin Moshe\u2019.<\/p>\n

A Family history of thirty years in wine production<\/strong>
\nThe continuity of the legacy of Sir Moses Montefiore continued when in 1989, one of his descendants, Adam Montefiore, together with his wife and children immigrated to Israel. Over the years Adam has devoted all his time and energy in the development and promotion of Israeli wine. He has been nicknamed the \u201cIsraeli Ambassador of Wine\u201d and the \u201cEnglish voice of Israeli wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of his children, David and Rachel Montefiore are founding partners of the new boutique winery which has rapidly become renowned and can be found in the menus of leading restaurants and hotels in Israel and sold in nine countries around the world.<\/p>\n

They are the only Montefiore descendants of Sir Moses Montefiore who immigrated to Israel and have contributed to Israeli wine for 25 years. David Montefiore moved to Israel with his parents when he was six years old, served in the army and studied English literature at Tel Aviv University before entering the field of wine. He became a sommelier in some of the leading restaurants in Israel, worked for wineries in Australia and Spain and studied wines at the \u2018WSET\u2019 in London. He is currently in charge of wine culture at the Tabor Winery.<\/p>\n

Rachel Montefiore was three years old at the time that her family made Aliyah. She served in the army and before she herself became enchanted by the wine industry, studied nutrition and Chinese medicine. Rachel enrolled in a course at the Wine Academy at Ramat Gan College and gained her experience whilst working at a wine shop and as a sommelier at a gourmet restaurant. She also gained experience in the marketing of Israeli wines. Today she is the winery\u2019s marketing manager.<\/p>\n

Arnon Geva is the founding partner and CEO. Arnon grew up in the \u201cYemin Moshe\u201d neighborhood that overlooks the Montefiore Windmill in Jerusalem. Arnon was an initiator and partner of Castel Winery and held senior management positions in both the Carmel and Yatir wineries.<\/p>\n

Sam Soroka is the winery\u2019s winemaker and is considered one of the most senior and experienced winemakers in the country. He has been involved in winemaking in Australia, California, Canada, France and Israel. Together with the Montefiore siblings, Arnon Geva promoted the young winery with extraordinary speed, to its renowned position today. Their wines have already won impressive recognition.<\/p>\n

\"Wine<\/a><\/p>\n

Out with the Bombastic<\/strong>
\nThe wines of Kerem Montefiore avoid the full bodied, bombastic style, preferring instead, wines with balance that are elegant, refreshing and blend excellently with food.
\nThe Montefiore Red won a gold medal at the Eshkol Ha\u2019Zahav Competition, and the white wine won a bronze medal in the same competition. The \u201cWine Enthusiast\u201d gave Syrah a score of 90 points. Robert Parker\u2019s Wine Advocate described the Montefiore Kerem Moshe wine as a graceful and harmonious wine and the white wine as refreshing, balanced and suitable for summer.<\/p>\n

Near the windmill at Mishkenot Sha\u2019ananim (not far from the hotel), they are currently working on establishing a wine tasting centre. The first wines come from the 2010 vintage which were produced to commemorate and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Mishkenot Sha\u2019ananim by Sir Moses Montefiore.<\/p>\n

According to Arnon Geva, who serves as CEO, this Israeli winery\u2019s historical roots connect the modern Jerusalem with the ancient. He adds that they produce the wines according to two leading principles; firstly the vineyards must be in close proximity to Jerusalem in order to preserve the legacy of Sir Montefiore, and secondly using a variety of grapes that are especially suited to the Israeli climate and agricultural conditions of the Judean Hills.<\/p>\n

The wines produced by Kerem Montefiore are innovative blends like Montefiore White, (made from Colombard, Chardonnay and Semillon grapes) and Montefiore Red (a blend of Malbec, Shiraz and Petite Sirah). There are three reserve, oak aged varietal wines: Montefiore Cabernet Sauvignon, Montefiore Syrah and Montefiore Petite Sirah. Finally Montefiore Kerem Moshe the winery\u2019s flagship wine, is handcrafted and produced in limited quantities from Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec grapes. Each variety is fermented separately before blended to make up the wine.<\/p>\n

Additionally, and faithful to the teaching of Sir Montefiore in cultivating olives and producing olive oil, \u201cMontefiore Vineyard \u201c produces extra virgin olive oil from Souri and Nabali olives grown in the ancient olive groves on the way to Jerusalem, where some of the trees are hundreds of years old.<\/p>\n

The vision of the winery founders is explained on their website (http:\/\/www.montefiorewines.net\/). They say that as benefactors of Moses Montefiore, they continue his agricultural vision. They produce wines from premium vineyards on the slopes of the Judean hills, where vines have grown since the biblical period, and by selecting a range of grape varieties which are particularly suitable to the Israeli and Mediterranean climate.
\nSir Moses Montefiore would surely open a bottle to celebrate and to show his approval of the new winery…<\/p>\n

click to see our famous hotels in jerusalem<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The descendants of Sir Moses Montefiore established the Kerem Montefiore in Israel and a new winery that perpetuates Sir Moses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Famous Wineries of Israel | Dan Hotel`s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite being a small country Israel is full with Botique Wineries all around, just a short distance from our Hotels.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.danhotels.com\/Blog\/?p=940\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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