To view my Wednesday blog click here.
To view my Thursday blog click here.
To view my Friday blog click here.
To view my Saturday blog click here.
To view my recap of the trip click here.

July 14th 2009 9:30 AM (Israeli Time)
I am writing this as I sit in the Olympian hotel in Tel Aviv. I just came up with a great idea to share my travelling experience as it happens. I am equipped with a laptop my digital camera and a video camera. I should warn you that I have never done this before, but this should be a hell of an experiment. One more warning: My days are filled with winery meetings which means I have very little time to write this web diary, and even less time to edit it. I apologize for any spelling mistakes or industry secrets that I might spill here. I suggest you check back often so that you don't miss these gaffes. Eventually someone will point them out.

A great new feature to this site is that you can select to "Watch" a node so that whenever there is an update you will be alerted. The option to "watch" should be towards the bottom of the page.

Hope you enjoy this. And good luck to me.


July 14th 9:45am
I am now in a cab ride on my way to Tabor winery. The cab driver is extremely friendly and we are having a great conversation about where he is from. I thought he had an interesting accent and it turns out he is from Egypt. We begin speaking in hebrew and I somehow carry on a conversation (a very long one) about his past ALL in hebrew. I didn't knnow I speak so well. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures on here I will show a picture of me and the cab driver.


July 14 2009 2:30pm
I just wrapped up my meeting with Oren from Tabor winery. He is a very nice gentleman with a very nice winery. I was taken all around their vineyards in kfar tabar. They also have vineyards in Galil, Meron and Judean Hills. The scenery was beautiful and it was unbelieveable to see so much agriculture. They not only grow grapes, but also olives to sell at their boutique and almonds to sell globally. I never tasted a fresh almond picked off a tree, very neat. Another thing I learnd care of the Tabor Brand Manager, as long as you are in the field while eating from someones crops it is not considered theft in Israel. Good to know. Makes me wonder how why anyone would go hungry.

I will write much more about the Tabor winery later including pictures of their high tech bottling line and beautiful scenic pictures. But below is a picture of Oren, myself, and the winemaker. We tasted the Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay and all of the adam series Merlot & Cabernet wines. Plus some great fun. Lots of fun! Now I'm on my way to Recanati.

July 14, 2009 11.25pm I was hoping to keep posting every few hours, but once I got to Recanati and started drinking some wines I completely lost track of time. Its now pretty late and I have to wake up early tomorrow for a long day, but let me try to fill you in a little of the rest of my day. I met up with Gil, the head winemaker at Recanati and Ido, the #2 winemaker. Both great guys. Gil is on the left.
Both winemakers are relatively new to Recanati, only starting approximately two years ago. All wines that are currently in the U.S. were the products of the former winemaker Lewis Pasco. The first vintage to be created by Gil was the 2008 vintage (shmitah) so most likely most Americans won't have the opportunity to taste his wines until the 2009 vintage. The wines are all excellent and seem to be slightly more fruit forward and plummy then previously. I was especially impressed with the Cabernet Franc 2008 which I was able to taste barrel samples.

Dinner
After the tasting Gil and I drove back to meet Noam (the ceo of the winery) in Tel Aviv for dinner at Manta Ray, a restaurant off of the Mediterranean sea. The weather was beautiful and the food was excellent. I hadn’t eaten much all day so any food tasted good, but the bread was excellent. A large rectangular facaccia type of bread brushed with olive oil and a splash of salt. I think I ate a whole loaf myself. We had a few appetizer dishes such as yellow tail sashimi and babaganoush and a fish entrée. We drank two wines not available in the states ; a rose made from Barbara and a red wine made from a blend of cabernet, shiraz and merlot. Everything was amazing, including the view.

The dinner was topped off with a few desserts which I wouldn’t do much justice in describing lets just say there was ice cream and chocolate mousse and it was delicious. By this point it was about 9pm and was getting late so it was time to go home. I have a very long day ahead of me tomorrow so I wish you all a good night.

To view my Wednesday blog click here.
To view my Thursday blog click here.
To view my Friday blog click here.
To view my Saturday blog click here.
To view my recap of the trip click here.