What do you know or want to know about Israeli wine?

Hi, I write an Israeli wine blog called HaKerem: The Israeli Wine Blog at http://www.israeli-wine.org. It's one of the few English language resources exclusively focused on Israeli wine (besides, of course, Daniel Rogov's book and much of his wonderful material) and specifically bringing in some of that other material together in one place.

As a bit of "market research" I am looking to see what the participants of this forum -- lovers of wine -- but who may not necessarily be familiar with Israeli wine (or, in fact may also know quite a bit) want to know about wine? I'm not necessarily going to answer it here although hopefully Rogov and others who live in Israel or are frequent drinkers of Israeli wine can jump in, but rather interested in what people outside of Israel and outside of the Jewish community (although often they have the most misguided views about wine from Israel) know about or are interested in this topic. What do you want to know? What don't you want to know?

Also, if you have any private suggestions about my blog feel free to e-mail me at avi@israeli-wine.org, as I hope to take this Wine 2.0 site to the next level.

Avi
To be honest I quite like the 'osmosis' type of education we've been able to get with Rogov's forums joining with Robin's. Sometimes you don't know what you want to know till you see it!

What's stuck out?
- Kosher vs. non Kosher and what Kosher means in the context of winemaking is possibly the big, obvious question that many of us were unaware of. The effects of pasteurisation probably warrant a specific article.

- The $50 thread - the same argument that hits so many wine producing regions of the prestige cuvees or the production of good representative wines that offer understated value.

specialist grapes (not necessarily indigenous) are always of interest - e.g tannat in Uruguay; Carmenere in Chile

I'm personally always a fan of tastings of older wines, verticals/horizontals or just a 'library' tasting of older wines by critics (or normal wine enthusiasts for that matter). Too much critical attention is placed on new release wines IMO - in part due to the industry providing samples of what they immediately have to sell.

I hope this helps

regards

Ian

let's see, with only one response i think you have one of your answers. on the plus side, it looks as though citizens and supporters world wide are eager to support the industry. this is certainly NOT true for other 'emerging' wine regions.

I have never seen an Israeli wine, but since you joined with WLDG, I have been looking every time I visit a wine store. I would happily try some, if I find any.

I have never seen an Israeli wine, but since you joined with WLDG, I have been looking every time I visit a wine store. I would happily try some, if I find any.

I am looking too so wish me luck.

I posted on my blog a post of a few places to find Israeli wine. Print it out and give it to your local wine shop if you don't/can't order wine online. http://www.israeli-wine.org/2008/08/26/where-to-buy-wine-from-israel/

Obviously follow Rogov and other critics (and your own palate) in terms of what to buy.