The following article is from wines-israel.com and reprinted with permission.

In a brilliant and original marketing ploy, a new wine has been launched which is totally secret. So secret it has no name, no variety, no story on the back label. Even the winery is unknown. All there is to go by is a QR code, which can be read by a smart phone, which leads to the secret wine website and facebook.

The idea is presumably that the tasting should be totally blind without any pre conceived ideas from the critic or consumer. It is obviously produced by a winery interested in showing improved quality and image, when in the past it has been known for wines of lesser quality.

The idea will launch a new series and the secret winery will reveal all in due course.

The rumor mill indicates the winery is Arza, which is situated at Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem. Arza is one of the three wineries owned by the Shor family. They opened the first recorded winery in Jerusalem’s Old City in 1848. The three wineries mainly pandered to the strictly orthodox market, producing Kiddush wine and grape juice. Of the three,Zion is the one that has made the best effort to improve quality and enter the table wine market. Hacormim has not moved quality wise, but they still sell their famous brand of Kiddush wine, Conditon. This new marketing idea may show Arza’s new will & determination to improve quality and image.

Arza is a large winery, the 12th largest in Israel. There have been two recent encouraging signs. Firstly they employed an internationally trained winemaker. Philippe Lichtenstein studied in Montpelier, France. He was for many years the winemaker of the Zichron Ya’acov Winery. This showed intent, because there is no point in employing a good winemaker to make basic wines.

They then invested in a market most other traditional wineries have fled from, the sweet Kiddush wine market, but they did so in a very innovative way. They created a new series of wines called Hallel, in an effort to modernize the traditional world of Kiddush wines. They put varieties and vintage dates on the labels. They increased the range by adding a low alcohol and a semi sweet wine. All the range are closed by a zork stopper, a very innovative user friendly closure. So, they modernized a very conservative category.

Up to now their main table wines are called Charisma and Cadenza, but these whilst good value, are reasonably inexpensive supermarket wines. Maybe the new secret wine will show that Arza is joining other traditional wineries in the move to quality table wines.