The Jerusalem Post blogger Levi Shapiro has a new post about my two favorite Israeli wine folk: Daniel Rogov, Israel’s premier wine critic, and Adam Montefiore, Israel’s premier international wine marketer, often referred to (though he humbly laughs at the claim) as “The Ambassador of Israeli Wine.” Not surprisingly, the two most important figures for promoting Israeli wine to an international audience are also olim, immigrants to Israel, from North America and the United Kingdom.

As Levi writes:

Unlike venture capital, the Israeli wine industry has adopted a bottom-up approach.  A few individuals are helping introduce the Israeli Wine “brand” to an international audience. In particular, there is Daniel Rogov, author of Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wines, and Adam Montefiore, Wine Development Director for Israel’s largest winery, Carmel and Yatir.

Rogov, as he prefers to be known, is someone who I first made acquaintance via his original Israeli wine forum, in which Rogov – who calls himself a curmudgeon and is no technoevangelist practices the most important rule of social media and content marketing (not sure he would appreciate that compliment, though!) which is simply to be open, accessible, informative, and welcoming. This premier critic always answers the questions of his forumites, always is available for tasting notes, and usually shares his views. More importantly, a man of integrity, he calls ‘em as he sees ‘em and doesn’t let his personal opinions get in the way of his tasting notes. Originally from Brooklyn, Rogov has lived in Israel for several decades.

Rogov helped popularize Israeli wines for a global audience. Now prominent wine critics Robert Parker, Hugh Johnson, Mark Squires and Oz Clarke feature sections about Israeli wines in their books. Even web sensation Gary Vaynerchuck tasted Israeli wines with Rogov on Wine Library TV.

The other important figure mentioned is Adam Montefiore, currently the Wine Development Director at Carmel. Since the 1980s, Adam has been marketing Israeli wines (not just Carmel and his former employer, Golan Heights Winery, but really promoting the entire industry) to a global market.  As a marketer myself, Adam has taught me a lot about marketing – notably the first rule: be responsive to your customers. I first met Adam having criticized something at Carmel (since changed and now at world-class standards) and since then he has truly become a mentor . A true man of integrity and Zionist, Adam cares about the whole wine industry and really helping to promote the real Israel to the global audience — a true passion of mine as well.

“My career and hobby is the same- advancing Israeli wine”, says Montefiore. He contributes the Israeli wine section for several of the most famous wine guides and writes about Israeli wine for the Jewish Chronicle (UK) and Jerusalem Post.

“The best resource we have is the wine itself. Doing tastings- with sommeliers, wine press, retailers- is the way to get the message across. While the symbol of Israel was once the Jaffa orange and the kibbutz, today it is quality wine and high-tech. We want people opening a bottle of Israeli wine to think of ingenuity, climate, technology and Mediterranean sunshine. Our industry can symbolize all that is good about Israel.”

For more about Rogov and Montefiore, read the article.