Modern Israeli Wine History, Part 1: Early History featuring Adam Montefiore - episode #92

How did the Israeli wine industry get going in the 19th century? Israeli wine writer Adam Montefiore joins the 92nd episode of The Jewish Drinking Show to discuss this topic.

Adam Montefiore is a wine industry insider turned wine writer, who has contributed to the advance of Israeli wines for 35 years. He is the wine writer for the Jerusalem Post. Previously, he worked many years for Israeli wineries and became arguably the most visual champion of Israeli wine in the wider world. He has been referred to as ‘the ambassador of Israeli wines’ and ‘the English voice of Israeli wines.’ He is the author of The Wine Route of Israel and Wines of Israel. 

Stay tuned for episode #93 for Adam Montefiore's return appearance to discuss the growth in Israel's wine industry from the 1970s to the present.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:31 Introduction to Adam Montefiore
• 1:52 Introduction to contemporary wine history in Israel
• 2:40 Sir Moses Montefiore's call for a return to agriculture (1839)
• 5:30 First recorded wineries: Ginio (1840), Shor (1848), Teperberg (1870)
• 7:56 Oldest existing winery: Shor-Zion (1848)
• 10:18 Open to feedback for the show as well as suggestions
• 10:42 Shor family still going
• 10:51 First Jewish vineyards: Rothschild (1882)
• 12:43 Farmers began struggling with Biblical agricultural laws - shemitah, in particular (1888-1889)
• 16:21 First commercial Kosher winery: Rothschild – Carmel Oriental (1890)
• 19:15 In those days, one need not to have been shomer Shabbat until the 1980s to work at a kosher winery in Israel
• 20:56 Open to suggestions for Jewish Drinking beyond the show
• 21:32 Rav Kook making it okay for religious Jews to work with secular Zionist Jews in smoothing over barriers (1921)
• 23:29 Sneak peek into next week’s episode, which is a continuation of this discussion into Israeli wine history