Resilient Winemaking on the Northern Border: A Recanati Winery Story Part 1

Part 1:
Embark on a transformative journey to the Recanati Winery in the northern Galil, where we uncover the intricate art of winemaking amidst a backdrop of regional strife. Join me, Simon Jacob, as I sit down with sommelier Efi Kotz and winemaker Shahar Mamor to explore the resilience of a community dedicated to excellence in viticulture. Despite the proximity to the Lebanese border and the recent conflicts, the winery's state-of-the-art visitor center stands as a testament to its unyielding spirit. We'll navigate the breathtaking Upper Galilee, where lush valleys contrast starkly with the visible aftermath of fires and missile strikes, offering a poignant setting for our discussion.

Learn how different climates impact Mediterranean varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignan, and gain insights into the cutting-edge technology that powers the Recanati Winery. From advanced Italian equipment by Della Toffola to computerized control systems that ensure precision, discover the meticulous processes that define their craft. Explore the logistics of manual and mechanical grape harvesting and delve into the balance between quality and quantity in wine production. We'll also cover the winery's recent move to a new facility in 2022, highlighting the challenges and triumphs along the way.

Get an exclusive look at the production of Petnat, a natural sparkling wine, and savor the rich profile of Yonatan, an exceptional wine sold along with others at the visitor center. We'll touch on vineyard testing, the harvest season, and the integration of local terroir in both food and drink. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the innovative spirit and dedication behind some of Israel's finest wines. Whether you're a wine enthusiast or simply curious about the intersection of tradition and innovation in a region marked by resilience, this episode promises to leave you inspired.

Efi Kotz:  Sommelier Visitor Center Manager
Shachar Mamour Wine Maker
Kobi Arviv, Head Wine Maker
To Visit Us:
Recnati Winery,
Ramat Dalton Industrial Park, Marom Galil
Phone: 04-6222288
E-mail:  info@recanati-winery.com

VISITORS CENTER OPENING HOURS

Sunday–Thursday:
10:00-16:00

Friday and holiday eves:
10:00-15:00

Transcript

S Simon Jacob: 0:09

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir. I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem The following two-part episode of the Kosher Terwa is a detailed conversation with Sommelier Efi Kotz from Recanati Winery, located in northern Galil, and with one of their winemakers, Shahar Mamor. Before we get started, I ask that, wherever you are, please take a moment and pray for the safety of our soldiers and the safe return of all of our hostages.

S Simon Jacob: 0:44

I was invited up to see their winery, one of the most modern in Israel, and their brand new, beautifully appointed visitor center. With all the friction on the Lebanese border and being located just 8 kilometers away, they have made the brave decision to get back into their pre-Gaza war lives and open up the Visitor Center for Business, though there is currently just a trickle of tourists, I believe when word gets out, this will become a major wine destination. Part one is a walkthrough touring the facility, discussing many of the winery's capabilities and innovations. Part two is a tasting and review of some of their more innovative new wine offerings. If you're commuting in your car, please focus on the road and enjoy. If you're home, please choose a delicious kosher wine, sit back and listen in on this very tempting wine adventure.

Efi Kotz: 1:43

First of all, where are we Exactly? We're in the Upper Galilee.

S Simon Jacob: 1:46

Okay.

Efi Kotz: 1:48

One of the most beautiful areas in the world. This is the Ben Zemra Valley. Under us, behind that hill, that's all the Dishon Valley. Okay, when we look to the right, we're going to the Hula Valley.

S Simon Jacob: 2:00

Yes, you can see the Mount Hermon and you can see there's still snow on the top of it.

Efi Kotz: 2:04

That's the Syrian side actually. Okay, you can see the Golan Mountains with all the fog in the middle is actually smoke from all the fires that we had in the last few days, and that's all above Hula Valley.

S Simon Jacob: 2:18

That's above the Hula right, very, very sad. I mean, you can still see the fire from smokes coming up.

Efi Kotz: 2:24

Come yeah, no the smokes from the fires that's still going up. Uh, all that small, the lower part that looks like a lower ridge that goes up all the way up there. This is you hear about all the time. Yeah, barganiot, manara, mizgav, iftach, all of those areas Ramot, naftali, malkia, it's all here. You can see all the times out there getting bombed and whatever. Not a great time to live here and practically almost no one lives here these days. They're all evacuated. The closest place to us is Alma and Kerem Ben Zimra, the Moshav, all the valley here and from the other side is vineyards of Kerem Ben Zimra. Up there the top of the mountain is Lebanon is Marun Aras.

S Simon Jacob: 3:17

Oh, that's Lebanon already.

Efi Kotz: 3:18

That's already Lebanon. We Between Iran and Maroon is a small valley in which the border is actually there, exactly right over there. You don't see the valley between you, see the green trees with the white roofs. Yes, that Eran. This is Avivim, if you remember Avivim winery that was burned that the one that was a month ago. Yes, it was right here. We could see everything from here. It was super sad. You can just see somebody's life going in the fire, these two getting hit all the time. Of course they're evacuated. I don't know what you mean.

S Simon Jacob: 3:59

Keren Ben Zimrah is evacuated. No.

Efi Kotz: 4:01

Keren Zimrah is still here, alma as well, dishon that we cannot see. Dishon isra is still here, Alma as well, Dishon that we cannot see Dishon is gone.

S Simon Jacob: 4:07

I know I have cousins in Dishon.

Efi Kotz: 4:09

You see the top there, the white spot in the forest.

S Simon Jacob: 4:12

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 4:12

That's Malkia.

S Simon Jacob: 4:13

Okay, that's Malkia.

Efi Kotz: 4:15

Ramot Naftali is over there, and then you go up with Tiftach all the way up to Metula In this Iran. For example, as you can see, very close to the border, Kenen Ben Zimra is 5.1 from the border, so they are not evacuated. We're 7.7, so we're also not evacuated, but we are still in the range of how do you say, missiles, yeah.

S Simon Jacob: 4:47

RPGs Exactly, and those are the ones that they can't do anything about.

Efi Kotz: 4:51

Those are exactly those. You cannot do anything about them. Now we're in the. We exactly are in the end of the range, so we're really edge, edge. They can go up to 8 and we're 7.76.

S Simon Jacob: 5:06

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 5:07

And that's from the border, so they have a little bit higher to get. I mean, they need to go a bit further from the border. So it's, you know something like that, and we don't hear a lot of sirens, but define a lot, Because if you're in Jerusalem and you hear a siren once in a month, it's a lot. It's a lot, yeah, here. If we have only two to three in a week, that's not a lot, Right?

Efi Kotz: 5:29

I mean those every second, they're more practically the people who are there lives next to the shelters because they have no time, and even that is, most of the cases, not enough. Here we don't have the same. We can actually stand here, talk about the Hezbollah that stands right over there and it's okay. We don't feel the same fear as they. For some reason we are not in the same interest as them. They don't shoot here almost at all. I told you if you were here a few minutes ago you would still see we drove by.

Efi Kotz: 6:04

We drove by the you see this yeah yeah, that's a you see where it is yeah, right, right above right, uh, 10 minutes after this, it was already a fire right and that it intercepted it and then, all of a sudden, and as it falls, it creates a fire. There was a bomb intercepting over there and two over here, approximately around the Amortnaftali Right, so you can see fire over there and you there was a fire over there. In this time of the year, everything is dry, so when something is burning, it's burning.

S Simon Jacob: 6:43

Right when we came through, when we came from.

Efi Kotz: 6:46

You went through Amiyad, you went through all those areas.

S Simon Jacob: 6:49

No, there was a lot of fires on the side of the road as well.

Efi Kotz: 6:54

That is exactly what happens now, and that's the saddest part of the entire thing, because we got used to it.

S Simon Jacob: 7:04

Yeah, this is so beautiful. You know, I was going to ask you, why did you move here?

Efi Kotz: 7:14

I mean, just look around, I know it's so beautiful, it's so peaceful, and then this yeah. And nobody thinks it's. You know, when I moved here I didn't think that we were going to start a war that soon.

Efi Kotz: 7:30

I mean, everybody knows it's a matter of any second because we're in some kind of I don't know absorbing mode. We keep absorbing and absorbing until in some point it have to explode, and it did. We're in this absorbing mode. We keep absorbing and absorbing until at some point it has to explode, and it did. But even right now we're not actually in a war with Lebanon, so you can call it whatever you want, but you saw all the fires. There is nobody that lives in the first five kilometers of Israel. It's crazy.

S Simon Jacob: 8:05

I know. You know what. You don't know how many people from Shlomi and from what you call it, from Dishon and from Kiryat Shmona are living in my neighborhood now.

Efi Kotz: 8:14

Right, all right.

Efi Kotz: 8:15

Let's talk about wine, because we're here in a winery and we should be happier, although it's not that easy to be happy. As I told you before, this is Carignan. It's going to grow wild. This is our famous Carignan. This is Cabernet Sauvignon. They're both planted on the same day, but just see the differences between the Cabernet Sauvignon that you can see, which is it's growing, but it's a bit low and weak, while the Carignan is much stronger and higher and more leaves, much more powerful. And that's exactly the difference between a Mediterranean variety and not Mediterranean variety. Cabernet likes the cold.

Efi Kotz: 8:55

It doesn't get it here. Carignan knows only warm. It grows in one climate.

S Simon Jacob: 9:01

But don't you get cold here as well?

Efi Kotz: 9:03

We do in the winters a little bit Okay, but that is the origin of Cabernet Sauvignon, for example. I'm not talking about the Napa Valley yeah, yeah, no, no about.

Efi Kotz: 9:13

You know, although Cabernet is from all over the world, we're in the Fin. When you grow in some place, your body gets used to the climate and everything in the in that place. You're adjusted to that. Yeah, and when we talk about any produce, from vegetables to fruits, some things don't grow here because they don't fit the climate. Some things grow because they do fit the climate in the Mediterranean. So when you think about what's better to grow here, it's probably the same as what's better to drink here. And I mean, just imagine, right now it's not cold, let's go this way yeah would you like a bowl of soup?

Efi Kotz: 9:53

no would you like a glass of full body heavy red wine, 15 alcohol no, the same it's.

S Simon Jacob: 10:00

I would like a nice, cool, beautiful, delicate rosé or perfect, or or a like red, something that yeah, something lighter, something much fun light but you can enjoy.

Efi Kotz: 10:14

And that's exactly the mediterranean varietals. They don't have to be very light, but they don't.

Efi Kotz: 10:19

They usually don't show the heaviness yeah that they don't go to very high percentage of ripe of an alcohol. Of course, it's easier for them. This is one of the newest big commercial wineries in Israel, so we actually have a lot of new technology and everything here is up to date so we can actually make the best wine of any grape we will get. Now, when I'm saying that, reikonati winery was in Emek Hefer and moved here in 2022. In 2022, those old tanks were not even here completely. They were coming here during the harvest season, so everything was built during the season. It was a very difficult harvest season because it was all together the harvest, the picking, the receiving of the grapes here while most of the employees were still from Emek Hefer. They're still are. By the way, most of our core of the employees of the production areas are from Emek Hefer that come here every day, including the winemaker and many more. Anyway, the first part of the process is here.

Efi Kotz: 11:27

This is a big scale. Trucks come here and get scaled the way they wait, actually before and after, so we will know exactly how much grapes we'll get. And they start and they throw all the grapes up to here Right now. As you can see, it's not clean, it's not ready to process Because we're not in harvest season. Our season will start approximately by the mid to end of June, july. I'm sorry, so right here we don't really put our efforts here. We are already in the middle of processing, cleaning and sterilizing all the tanks and emptying barrels and bottling and many more things to do as preparation for the next season, but this area is not yet got ready.

S Simon Jacob: 12:22

Okay, prepared. Yet how many bottles of wine do you actually make Of?

Efi Kotz: 12:28

course it's a data that changes every year. Yeah, because you know it's producing Right. Every year you have more or less grapes.

S Simon Jacob: 12:38

Yes.

Efi Kotz: 12:39

And we try to plant more vineyards every year and some vineyards are going into the circle and some are actually going out of the circle because of viruses, because of economic reasons, from different growers, so it practically changes every year. The winery is built to make up to 2 million bottles a year. In a very comfortable way. We didn't get through past the, let's say, million point six, and last year it was even less million point four, and we are more or less on those numbers now. The entire winery was designed by a Spanish company from Bilbao that actually only does wineries so this was built by this factory from Bilbao that actually only does wineries.

S Simon Jacob: 13:31

So this was built by this factory from Bilbao, exactly that built. They designed the architects of all the wineries. All the facilities are designed to make the best I was going to say it's unbelievable the design and how it works, the smartest use of the property to make the best options for the winemaker.

Efi Kotz: 13:45

Now we bought almost, let's say, 95% of the tanks and the equipment is new, and we bought everything from the same company, italian corporation called Della Toffola. They actually combine several factories that each produces something else, but they combine together to one company that controls everything, and everything, of course, is automized. So even if we have a problem, they can, from Italy, help us to solve it.

S Simon Jacob: 14:09

Wow.

Efi Kotz: 14:10

And log into the system and just help us fix the problem.

S Simon Jacob: 14:16

Not even have to send somebody here.

Efi Kotz: 14:18

Sometimes, if they need, they will send someone, but in most cases they can understand the problem not even being here.

S Simon Jacob: 14:27

Right, which is very important.

Efi Kotz: 14:28

When you think about all the facilities together, it's a really, really big operation, and during harvest season you don't have the time until somebody will come here.

S Simon Jacob: 14:36

Right.

Efi Kotz: 14:37

And the technology is a lot of help. Let's call it this way. Anyway, when we start here, the grapes coming here we have two.

Efi Kotz: 14:46

Not we, anyone in the world have two ways of getting grapes. The first way is the harvest uh, hand pick harvest, let's get manual harvest. And the second one is machine. Uh, when you pick by hand you probably saw that a lot you put all the grapes in big blue cases. Yeah, each of them contains between four to five hundred of grapes. They come on the truck. Somebody with a forklift just spills all the grapes to the Into the virtual hill zone.

S Simon Jacob: 15:19

Yeah, it is the hill zone. Okay, it's cute.

Efi Kotz: 15:23

Just to they all start here, and then the process begins. When we talk about mechanical harvest, then that means it comes in a big aluminum tank.

S Simon Jacob: 15:34

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 15:35

And those tanks are on the truck and they like it's a big bath.

S Simon Jacob: 15:39

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 15:40

It's not, you know, a closed tank like you see this tank.

S Simon Jacob: 15:44

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 15:44

It's like a big bath of aluminum that contains a few thousand liters. Yeah, they get here. The crane is actually coming and Lifts it. It's not even lifting, it, just tilts it, and then all the grapes spills to the tank, to the pit, let's call it. And the process is beginning Now. When you think about the mechanical, usually it's the cheaper wines.

S Simon Jacob: 16:06

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 16:06

Because all the high-quality wines usually are in a manual pick. Yep, not always true, by the way, but yeah, this is the common, uh, the common belief, and after you tilt it and you spill, you spill all the grapes. You need to send it back to another round to the vineyard, or to a different vineyard right that means you have to wash it right you cannot wash it from upstairs, from above, because the water will stay, will remain there, right?

Efi Kotz: 16:32

So you actually can only wash it when it's tilted to the side and it's only here. Wow, now, those water are not the one, not anything that you want to put in your wine.

S Simon Jacob: 16:43

Right yeah.

Efi Kotz: 16:44

In most wineries. That's what you have. That's the only option you have, or you improvise something here. We built another crane just for that. This crane works two months a year only for tilting the tanks for wash to wash them over there that's it, wow. You wash them and they go back, uh, to the vineyard for another round so this does what.

S Simon Jacob: 17:05

This feeds the grapes, the grapes to the first step.

Efi Kotz: 17:07

So this does what. This feeds the grapes. This only pushes the grapes to the first step.

S Simon Jacob: 17:09

Does it do crush at all?

Efi Kotz: 17:11

No, not here. The first step here is the distemmer.

S Simon Jacob: 17:14

Okay, the distemmer the distemmer spins fast.

Efi Kotz: 17:17

The grapes go out through the small holes, the leaves, the stems, the branches, whatever that we don't want to go into. The wine goes inside. The grapes are getting down to the crusher. Wine goes inside, the grapes are getting down to the crusher.

Efi Kotz: 17:35

Yeah, the organic waste goes to the end of the of the stemmer and goes up to the tank. Usually in the season we have a tank there that goes every day back to the one of the refatot. How do you say ref it in english? I don't know, never thought about it and then the cows eat it okay and then the cows take it back yeah and put it back, and then it goes to the vineyards and it's a circle that we try to maintain.

Efi Kotz: 17:56

Now, this is the crusher. It usually goes under the stemmer. Yeah, and from the crusher, as you can see, the the blue pipe is connected yes and everything goes up to that. The first, which is already from that moment, is all optimized and controlled by the computer. First stop, although right now it looks like a storage house, which it is, because there is no grapes.

S Simon Jacob: 18:20

This is the first place.

Efi Kotz: 18:22

Not all the wines go through here. Yes, but if the winemaker wants to make a cold maceration, if he wants to keep it up to chill during the night, even if there is two trucks, and he doesn't want the grape to wait in the heat, we can put them all here. It ups to 80 dolavim, which is like 40 tons, okay, and it can wait a day, it can wait two days, it depends what the winemaker wants from this, and that's for the grape that comes in the dolap. That means manual harvest.

Efi Kotz: 18:59

When we talk about mechanical we cannot put them here, but we have those two chillers, okay. In Hebrew they're called masiveiko Okay, which is like cold transformers, yeah, but the idea of this is actually, like you see in MasterChef or in cooking shows, that they have the blast chiller that can freeze or anything very fast. So these can reduce 10 Celsius degrees in less than a minute.

S Simon Jacob: 19:31

Wow.

Efi Kotz: 19:32

So if you have something before you want, it can do either before fermentation, not fermentation before Crushing Press or after the press. So it can actually with skins or without. That's the most important part. And if you have grapes that they are too warm for what you want to do with them, you can change it. Wow, that's the main part. Now, again, not everything has to go through here. Yeah, but it's another technological assistant. Let's go this way. The winemaker here has much more to play with to make sure that he will have the best wine he can do. Now in the harvest season you will see the wine start to go up the tube in the first window and then the winemaker already can decide it goes to chilling, it goes straight to press, it goes to the tanks. Everything from here is already from his computer. You have a computer in this room, you have a computer over there covered in the blue plastic right now.

Efi Kotz: 20:40

You have a computer upstairs in the laboratory you have a computer in the winemaker's office and you have everything, even in his phone today, so he can make sure that everything is going as planned.

S Simon Jacob: 20:57

I'm showing you a thing that most people will probably won't see, because nobody cares this for example, is the workshop, if we need to fix something, everything.

Efi Kotz: 21:05

So this is the place, barrels, whatever, you want. We can change everything. This is empty. This is the control for the operation In harvest season. They all work from here, as you can see. This is the map of the tanks you can see clean after Chomer, which usually is like a for the caustic to wash everything from the last year Sterile, sterile. This is still 23 vintage post-cross, that's before bottling Blend, a problem that we need to fix. Ready for bottle. This is a manual backup for everything that's already ready for bottle.

Efi Kotz: 21:53

You know this is a manual backup for everything that's already in the computer. You can find all the yeast we use all the. You know, that's like things that you can check on spot if you want to see something really on spot when it's here. We have a bigger lab upstairs and, of course, when we scale, it actually shows right here.

S Simon Jacob: 22:12

That's what comes out there.

Efi Kotz: 22:14

So it will automatically log to the system. Now, as you can see, this is all the tanks, and up here we have another tank as well. You see, this is 100,000 liters, the middle one is 200,000 liters. This is another 100,000 liters, and so these are the only big tanks we have. Most of our tanks are this size, between 5,000 to 45,000 liters. That's, you know, as you can see on the floor, the surface of this, the amount of surface that this requires and the 100,000 liters requires are not that different.

S Simon Jacob: 22:55

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 22:56

I mean it is bigger, but it's not three times bigger.

S Simon Jacob: 22:59

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 23:00

As this 30,000 liters tank.

S Simon Jacob: 23:03

There's a black tank there.

Efi Kotz: 23:04

No, that's a different that I'll tell you about in a second. Okay when we talk about quality we talk about smaller tanks.

S Simon Jacob: 23:12

Yes.

Efi Kotz: 23:12

When we talk about quantity, we talk about smaller tanks. When we talk about quantity, we talk about bigger tanks. If we were only a commercial winery, as we are, but without the thinking of the small, specific parts and vineyards and plots, we will only have those tanks, Like many other big wineries have, and we will produce millions of barrels a year. We don't. Will produce millions of balls a year. We don't. Most of our vineyard, as you can see, is from nine. What is this? 4,000? Almost 5,000, almost 10,000, eight, seven, six.

Efi Kotz: 23:43

Those are the sizes that most of our grapes coming and gets to start, we try to receive every plot individually, every vineyard individually, so we don't have to blend in the beginning. We get the quality. We understand the process. If it's going to be one of the blends, then it's going to be like Galileo series, for example. So it will be Cabernet for many vineyards in the Galileo. But if it's going to be like a single vineyard or if we see something with a high potential, we will keep it separate until then and this is the winemaker's job here and they do it very. I mean, you can see each of those plots vineyards go to a different tank, different individual fermentation.

Efi Kotz: 24:26

So they have full control, exactly Whatever goes to be Galilee. They will move after that to the bigger tanks or Yitzmin Yonatan, but we start with as much as we can controlling on the process, so we can always make sure that we don't miss anything and we still be loyal to the terroir. That's one of the most parts of the process. Now, when we talk about white and rosés, they go straight to press and then the fermentation process. As you can see here another thing that you probably won't see in many other wineries we have two press Right, two press machines. The first one is classic, is exposed to oxygen. Here we have no oxygen exposure at all. So there's no oxygen. Here we have no oxygen exposure at all.

S Simon Jacob: 25:13

So there's no oxygen?

Efi Kotz: 25:15

There is no holes on the side and no tank, no bath tank. It all gets to the small tank and from here it goes to the tank. For the next part. It doesn't have to be a tank, but there is no exposure to oxygen. Now, oxygen is not the enemy of the wine. It can be its best friend, but it can also be a very. Not too much of it can be not good, and exposing to oxygen not in the right time also can be not good. Yeah, so here the winemaker.

S Simon Jacob: 25:43

You want to control exactly what you want.

Efi Kotz: 25:44

Exactly what he can play. He can do it this way, he can do it this way. It depends on what wine he wants to produce, and with that, you can make sure that these wines will be exactly as you wanted.

Efi Kotz: 25:56

Now another thing that you, when you talk about fermentation, you like a lot of boutique wineries. Usually they don't have this size of tanks. One tank of those can be more than their production in the entire year. But when we talk about fermentation tank like this one, which is 30,000 liters almost, the process is a bit more different, because if it's 5,000 or 3,000 liters tank, when the fermentation starts, then you punch down. You make the process easily. You cannot punch down this kind of size of tank, so we have a pump over Pump over.

Efi Kotz: 26:35

It pumps and keep it circulized. The circle is always going up. It takes from the bottom and put it back on top. Circulation, now, the circulation is nice, but it's not always guaranteed that the layer of skins that goes up in the fermentation will break.

S Simon Jacob: 26:57

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 26:58

So here, because most of the tanks are new, we have another system. It's called air pull. This is only during the fermentation. It's a jet aimed to the center and the winemaker can decide.

Efi Kotz: 27:10

let's say, 30, 30, 40 seconds of a very powerful jet stream to the center of the open breaks open so it guarantees it will be open without always, you know, keeping it open and making sure and entering a lot of oxygen or anything else to the tank. And of course each of those are isolated and always broadcasting what's going on inside to the computer. So we always know what's inside without even opening the tank unnecessarily open the tank.

Efi Kotz: 27:40

Wow. So, as you can see, in this area as well, they put a lot of money and investment just to make sure that the winemaker will have all the equipment he wants, all the tools that he wants to make sure this will get him the best wine. And yet what we believe in Reconati is that we don't try to manipulate the wine, we try not to destroy the fruit, and this is the most important part. Now you asked about the black tank.

S Simon Jacob: 28:14

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 28:14

The black tank is actually mitkan tiur shfakim. It's for the sewage. Okay, as a productive industrial factory, we have to clear all the sewage before it goes to the sewage system. Okay, from any materials that Now most of the wineries or most of the factories in this area don't do it Because we're new. They asked us to build one of those. Actually we have two, and the reason for that is, well, ecological to keep the system as safe as possible and not unsustainable.

Efi Kotz: 28:51

Spilling the sewage, dirty sewage. When I'm talking dirty, it's not like dirt, it's chemical dirt to the sewer system. Most of the wineries just send tank to the local city Mitkan Matash, mitkan Tihoshvahin. We have to do it by ourselves.

S Simon Jacob: 29:11

You have your own.

Efi Kotz: 29:12

Now the most stupid part about it is that rainwater which we have a lot this year, we had a lot in God the facility cannot process them because they have no sugar or anything in them, so it's not dirty, so they don't know how to process it. We have to make the water dirty so it will start processing.

S Simon Jacob: 29:37

Okay, this is a Mavushel machine.

Efi Kotz: 29:39

This is we can do the Mavushel machine. And we can adjust temperatures, for example, before bottling. We don't. We cannot bottle the wine in 12 celsius degrees or 14 celsius degrees, because when something is cold it's getting uh, shrinked yeah and when it's getting warmer it's expedite.

Efi Kotz: 30:00

So it can. It can explode, yeah. The labels will not stick as well, because they will get sweaty. Yeah, so before bottling, for example, we can change the temperature to 18, something like that, so the wine will be in the right temperature for bottling and we will make sure that nothing is exploding on the way. Now, what you can see here is actually already ready wine, which is usually not here. The reason it's here is probably because a truck is supposed to come any second and take it All the back layer is bottles, empty bottles.

Efi Kotz: 30:37

You saw here, you will see them there as well. If you were here a month ago, even a bit more, this whole huge place was covered in bottles. It's good that you had them because with the Ukrainian war, there was an incredible shortage of glass bottles.

S Simon Jacob: 30:57

There was a shortage because of the Ukrainian war and after that the Khutyn that stopped the shipments to Israel.

Efi Kotz: 31:01

So we just order as much as we can and they're still coming. Whenever there is a shipment here, we get some more bottles. Now we're skipping a part, but we will get back to it. Okay, this is the bottling In this hole. We bottle 3,000 bottles an hour. Feel free, we bottle here 3,000 bottles an hour. No, no, no, no. We bottle here 3,000 bottles an hour. Now it's almost completely robotic. A person puts the bottles on the machine this way, you make sure the bottles are safe and not you know anything like that and then in the first process they get lost with water if you you have to empty them and brings them back. This is a source of nitrogen. Just to make sure, there is no review of water or any dirt inside bottling.

Efi Kotz: 32:22

that's the feeling already wow and, of course, forking Over here. This is it's projecting a little bit of heat just to make sure that the bottle is dry. This is the capsule. This is the capsule. You see all the cylinders of capsules, and then it goes through here. It takes one, put it on the ball Over there it gets sealed with heat. See how each ball gets up sealed and goes on and and then all the labels.

Efi Kotz: 33:19

Here we're getting the labels. Now, when the labeling is finished, they all got here. You see the cardboard over there. We put the cardboard, new cardboard. Every time we have enough ball, enough balls here, come here. You see, it picks 12 balls, puts them in the box and keeps going. The boxes are open, them opens by themselves and then sealed by them, by the machine, not by themselves. It's all about it, about it?

S Simon Jacob: 34:24

Wow, this is the box he needed to change the label, so it stopped.

Efi Kotz: 34:28

It won't do, it won't be doing anything right now. Now you can see the boxes keep going and they get stopped after the the totally robotic and anyway, as you can see, and the next step after it goes up, it's the next part that a human being touches the wine.

S Simon Jacob: 34:51

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 35:02

Unbelievable. You see, it sets them in a row, in a layer, and then moves it up and stacks it Exactly Unbelievable, Very sophisticated.

S Simon Jacob: 35:16

You can stop the video. It's not going to get any more interesting.

Efi Kotz: 35:18

I know it's amazing to me From any wine that we make. We also keep wines with no label. Yeah, because sometimes we need to send more to France or to UK, us. So you see, for example, unlabeled. Yeah, so you see it, for example, unlabeled. And then, by demand, if it's Israeli market, any other market, this is only for labels. We open the bottles, stock them, labeling and repacking them. This is a lot of effort, but it's just not to make, not to stop this from working Wow.

Efi Kotz: 35:56

Wow, wow, wow, if you ever wondered how a million bottles would look like this is how.

S Simon Jacob: 36:01

It's unbelievable.

Efi Kotz: 36:02

A bit more than 100 wines, 1 million wines. As you can see, this sport clip is very high-end. It goes up with the driver, all those floors you know, after the wine is ready, they already know where to put it, and it goes up the place he wants to put it.

Efi Kotz: 36:26

Now, this all is all the bottles that you saw outside the ones that were ready, were here before and they're now ready for shipment and the truck is going to take them for shaked you know, shaked, yes, so they're going to take them and distribute them. Here we have another storage. Most of it is cardboard and all the things for preparation, and if we know that the truck is supposed to come on that day, we put, as you can see here, this all is ready to load on the truck and these are the bigger bottles. Those are magnums. Magnums, but not just those you know what?

Efi Kotz: 37:06

let's go through here.

S Simon Jacob: 37:09

I can see them over here.

Efi Kotz: 37:11

Those are just bottled magnums. Yeah, I can see them over here. Those are just bottled Magnums.

S Simon Jacob: 37:15

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 37:16

Those are already bottled with a label Magnum From Gris des Mocelins, special Reserve. The new have you tried the new? Yes, we have the Audem. The Audem.

Efi Kotz: 37:27

So this is a secret, but that's a Cabernet from Audem in Magnum. It's not yet released. It will only released maybe in the next year, maybe in the year after Magnum's. Wines that nobody will ever see outside, probably like the Jonathan Rosé which is only for a specific two places that ask for a Rosé at that price. So they get Jonathan Rosé, a bottle of Metuselellach. The special reserve this is the 18, 17,. Which one is that? 18. That's a special reserve that got another extra year in the barrels. It's actually one barrel.

Efi Kotz: 38:06

You will find here the archive, the unreleased yet, the already sold out wines all here and maybe some labels that you've probably never seen because they go to specific places. Now, as you can see, this is the barrel room and most of the wine of the barrels here are not new. We get something like 30% even less new every year. This is the bottling season because we need to clear barrels, we need to clear tanks before next harvest season. So this is most of the effort of the winemaking these days is to clear If it's blending, if it's emptying and bottling and then cleaning the barrels. This is most of it.

S Simon Jacob: 38:56

What's the difference between the barrels that have the lees on the outside and the ones that don't? Are those whites and these are reds? Those are new, not yet used, and those are reds that have already been used probably.

Efi Kotz: 39:11

Now, the red color is actually from wine.

S Simon Jacob: 39:13

Yeah, it's the leaves Painted over the top.

Efi Kotz: 39:16

Exactly, it's a paint. Yeah, in France they used to say that you know, it's wine that spills in process. Now, today you can buy those Painted already from the factory Right, but they paint it with non-kosher wine, so we cannot use those, so we paint them by ourselves. But they paint it with non-toaster wine, so we cannot use those, so we paint them by ourselves, which is not as good as their painting.

Efi Kotz: 39:36

Because, we don't make the same deep mud color that they do. That's right. They use very like port, sweet wine or something like that. Now, as you can see here, most of our barrels are 500 liters.

S Simon Jacob: 39:49

Yes.

Efi Kotz: 39:51

And they're all from the same barrel maker called Havan, in Burgundy, northern France. We use the toasting levels between light and medium, not even medium plus. As I said before, we don't believe that we're supposed to change the wine. The barrels are for micro-oxidation, for the maturing process, not for, you know, overpowering the flavor of the fruit, not to making the wine oaky. The barrels are a process that the wine will go and develop in, but not overpower the fruit and the terroir that we try to show, and the terroir that we try to show especially in our wine. Now you can see here some one 3,000 liters barrel and you can see some, actually one wine in the winery that ages in a small barrel of 300 liters called cigar.

Efi Kotz: 40:54

What's it called Cigar barrel? It's like a pattern a bit longer, all made by the same producer. Of course, we have tried different producers as well, as you can see here, and some other ones other barrels as well, but we got to the understanding that this is what we're looking for and now it works only with Havan.

S Simon Jacob: 41:15

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 41:16

Now you see the Well, now it's empty, but you can see that most of the this side of the wall now it's this side of this as well, but that side as well standing on wheels, while these are not.

S Simon Jacob: 41:30

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 41:31

The reason for that is actually souli. When we have white wine with the serraments of the lids and we need to spin them to make the circulation it's called betonage In most, when you enter like a curly stick and spin it until it's all it's mixed, it's all mixed, it's all mixed. So here we do it easier and do it just better. Now we have a wine barrel with a glass wall.

S Simon Jacob: 42:05

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 42:06

Just to explain the process of betonage how the leaves are getting Wow, you. How the leaves are getting Wow. You see the leaves. So when we spin the barrels, it's actually mixing, stirring the inside and all the leaves are getting in touch with all the surface of the wine and we have consistency inside the barrels. Every few weeks, few weeks, depends on the winemaker. It decides when and how much time to spin and they spin it just to make sure that everything is-.

S Simon Jacob: 42:45

And you get it from the. That's great. They put glass on both sides. Yes, of course, amazing, so you can use the light. I know it's amazing, it's a brilliant. Of course, amazing, so you can use the light. I know it's amazing, it's a brilliant, brilliant idea.

Efi Kotz: 42:54

It's a beautiful video Now because we're this is all underground, as you can see and we wanted to make usually in fermentation, you cannot ferment in this temperature. It's too cold. Yeah, not only classic fermentation, but also melo-lactic fermentation is need a bit warmer temperature now.

Efi Kotz: 43:19

In most wineries they take the barrels outside yeah and then they try to make it in the under the Sun and always check the process. Now, here we built the cellar divided to two different facilities. When I close these doors, this is completely isolated. So we can put here 17, 18, 24 Celsius, and over here it will still remain 12 or 10, depends on the Right. And here we can ferment and make all the process without taking the story yeah and when it's finished.

Efi Kotz: 43:59

Either we can take the belt and finish fermentation inside data, or we can open the doors when everything is finished and then compare the temperature. Right now it's the same temperature in during the harvest season it's. It is closed and then temptations is happening here.

S Simon Jacob: 44:14

Very cool.

Efi Kotz: 44:16

As you can see here, most of the barrels are empty, new ones. This is already used, but clean. For next one there is no sticker. Those are the barrels for toppings. Got it and basically that's it.

S Simon Jacob: 44:32

Did you make wine during Shemitah?

Efi Kotz: 44:34

Yes, Etem Achira.

S Simon Jacob: 44:35

Okay, Etem Achira.

Efi Kotz: 44:38

And this is the barrel room.

S Simon Jacob: 44:40

Okay.

Efi Kotz: 44:41

This is Lilach Shachar Shalom. This is Simon. Simon pleasure Shalom this place is actually one of the core part of the winery. This is where all the decisions are made. I didn't introduce you. Shachar is our winemaker.

S Simon Jacob: 44:58

Pleasure Shalom.

Efi Kotz: 45:01

I keep touching this, for an understandable reason.

S Simon Jacob: 45:04

It's a problem.

Efi Kotz: 45:09

Back with you soon, no problem, Not just the laboratory. This is the winemaker space when all the decisions are actually made here. They have all the results from all the testing that they want. They have the FOSS, which is a very high-end. They have your SOMOR. You see this, the SYNTHIA is actually an entire laboratory in one small device. It can check everything from the grapes to the wine Alcohol tests, whatever you want you can do here. They even check how much oxygen goes through the cork or in the cork, how much dissolved oxygen there is in the wine after a few years or something like that, to see the development.

Efi Kotz: 45:50

And of course this is all monitoring all the operation all the time. Any problem that can occur is also alerted to their phones, so they will know that something is wrong and they need to be fixed.

S Simon Jacob: 46:06

So if a barrel goes out of the norm as far as temperature is concerned, or something gets A barrel, a tank temperature, any process that you want.

Efi Kotz: 46:16

It's already always broadcasting. They can know if something is admit it doesn't work as well as its ship, or supposed to, anything like that. Now, besides that, there is a manual backup for everything. Yeah, not the broadcasting, but what's inside of each of them and everything of those yeah, and this is the most.

Efi Kotz: 46:30

This is my favorite part of this room, but this is probably the only part of that. Actually them and everything of those, and this is the most. This is my favorite part of this room, but this is probably the only part that I actually understand. This is a. It's not exactly a map, but each of those squares are seen as one vineyard. That's one vineyard.

Efi Kotz: 46:45

Yes, okay, very soon they will start to bring tests from the vineyards. Examples of grapes they sent someone. He picks grapes from different rows in the vineyard from the bottom, from the sides, from the middle of the row, end of the rows, from few rows inside the vineyard. He brings them here as a grape. They squeeze them and then start to get results, from sugar to pH to whatever you want to know. They will know and, of course, taste what the flavor is. You can start seeing each line. It's two exams for each vineyard every week. You will see some vineyards. We already know that they have long seasons, so you see a lot of room. Some have less and when they finish everything before harvest they put an X on it and then we know it's picked. The end of the season is when this entire wall is crossed.

S Simon Jacob: 47:47

It's all crossed off Exactly.

Efi Kotz: 47:48

And then you know we finished harvesting Exactly. And then you know we finished harvesting Last season 2023, we had a lot of I don't know. You can call it luck. Whatever you call it. We finished the harvest season just before Sukkot, 27th of September. The last press was the 3rd of October and it was very difficult to get here on the 7th of October after Sukkot Roadblocks you could not go any further. Everybody was sure that Lebanon will start the same, and even now you can go to some places. Just after the industrial era, you will have a roadblock that asks you where you go. If you're just visiting, you cannot go. If you live in Alma or somewhere over there, you can pass, but otherwise they won't let you crazy.

Efi Kotz: 48:35

This is how world looks like in the first few days here anyway, from this door and can get to any part of the process, of the process area yeah the tanks to the barrels of press, whatever in less than minute they can actually be anywhere.

Efi Kotz: 48:53

You see all the bridges above yeah, they're all connected to the door over here and they can be anywhere they want in less than a minute. And we do not wait for you know, we don't send things to an exam in a laboratory where we wait for the results and then process or understanding what we're going to do during the process. Every process that starts is after results from the lab. Every fermentation that finishes is after the results from the lab. And since the lab is right here, we don't have to wait or trust some other services. Let's call it this way. We do everything here. So this is the wine way. Let's call it this way. Okay, and now let's go taste some wine, okay.

Efi Kotz: 49:47

So just a few words about the food that we serve here, which is a little bit of a weird time for us, because you don't want to buy a lot of dairy products because they go bad very quick. We don't want to freeze things, so we try to keep it simple and still maintain our own supplier that we worked before. All of our food is coming from the 40 kilometers radius. That means Golan, galil, mostly Galil, some Golan and some lower Galilee. The cheese is from Iftach. It's a sheep's cheese from a place called Meshech Shvarts. The bread is from Kibbutz Moran, which is a bit lower Galilee. We used to have bread from here as well, but it's evacuated so we don't have. The olive oil is from here, from Alma, you can actually see the trees in the view If we go to the balcony.

Efi Kotz: 50:39

I will show you the trees where it grows Very nice, so we try to keep it all local. There is not much of tourism right now and not much of awareness for the area of the north, and nobody wants to come here. If you would walk around, even weekends, which usually were packed, it's empty. Nobody's outside. Everybody's in a weird sense of fear. Not weird, I mean it's empty. Nobody's outside. Everybody's in a weird sense of fear. Not weird, I mean, it's understandable, I know. So. One second yeah.

Efi Kotz: 51:22

Just sync the mics by the way this is the sound of a crystal.

S Simon Jacob: 51:29

Yep.

Efi Kotz: 51:30

If it's a glass, it's a different sound. This is Totsle. Anyway, the first wine we're gonna try is actually a Petnat, the short for Petit Linet Natural in French. Sparkling natural wine. When I say natural, that means no added yeast, no added sulfites. Wild yeast, that means the Really wild yeast.

S Simon Jacob: 51:55

Yes.

Efi Kotz: 51:55

We don't add any yeast to this wine. It fermentates in the tank spontaneously and when we see before it's about to finish the fermentation, we bottle it. It's still fermenting. So this is the result and we got here a sparkling wine made of Marcellin, and it's sparkling in the most natural way of winemaking. Of course it's unfiltered, uncleared. No, that's for you, I have a glass here. Okay, unfermented, unfiltered, unfiltered, uncleared. Of course it's fermented and it's natural wild yeast. So we can't really tell exactly when and what is going to happen to the wine. If you look, you will see the bottom is full of lees. It's part of the process. Yeah, full of leaves, it's part of the process and that's part of the beauty of Pet Nut.

S Simon Jacob: 53:06

This is one of the most. This is number one beautiful looking.

Efi Kotz: 53:10

Definitely the color is beautiful. It's orangey, pinky color. The smell is a bit funky. When I'm saying funky, I'm saying it's not the usual smell of rosé. This is a rosé from Marcellin and it's not the usual smell for rosé, it's a bit more funk. That's the natural yeast, the wild yeast. All the yeast are natural, but this is the wild one. You can smell the fruit, you can smell some kind of funk into it. The fizziness, the mousse is really nice. It's elegant. It's fun to drink, especially in a hot day. This goes perfect.

S Simon Jacob: 53:59

This is perfect to be drinking outside.

Efi Kotz: 54:01

Exactly. Of course it also varies between bottles. Sometimes it's more of that or more of that, because you cannot really control how those leaves behave. Let's put it closer to you so it will be easier. You cannot control leaves when they're not Right. It's the wild leaves, the yeast is wild, so you cannot control it how it will react. So sometimes you will feel more or less of any of those. Anyway, petnut is a sparkling wine that you the cap. It's not a cork. Yeah, it's called an ebu kete like crown. The same cork, the same stuff you put as beer and that's because of the pressure of fermentation inside the bottle.

Efi Kotz: 54:56

It still happens. That's why it's still sparkling. It's a very fun kind of wine. We make the Petnat every year from different varieties. This one is Marcellin. The 23 is going to be actually white wine, it's going to be Colombal, and it's really interesting.

S Simon Jacob: 55:15

This is the 22?. This is delicious, crazy delicious.

Efi Kotz: 55:22

It's actually in a very nice phase of his life as well. While the fruit is coming forward, with all the surrounding, it's actually very fun. Sometimes I really love Petnaut, sometimes I really hate Petnaut. I'm inconsistent with it.

S Simon Jacob: 55:42

That's why, when you asked me, because it is inconsistent.

Efi Kotz: 55:45

We tried Marcellin. It actually came from two vineyards. One of them is in Kit Matsvi, the second one is in Canaf, both in the Golan. More than that, they are the same grapes that we use to make this. You know this rosé? Yes, this is the Gris de Marcellin. The Gris de Marcellin is our finest rosé. We have two rosés in the winery, in the portfolio. We have the rosé, the classy one, and we have the Gris de Marcellin, which is a very unique rosé because it's 100% free run. That means no press at all, bleeding in whole clusters without press whatsoever, from a very specific vineyard. Actually two plots in two different vineyards. One of them is in Kidmat Tzvi, where it's the same as this one, and the second one is in Tel Fares, which is a bit lower in the Golan but higher altitude, grown specifically for making rosé in a very high, very the quality no.

Efi Kotz: 56:59

I mean very strict policy of growing. The growers have a lot of instructions how to grow it exactly to make the best ones that we can produce. Who defines that?

S Simon Jacob: 57:10

for them.

Efi Kotz: 57:10

Kobi and Shachar.

S Simon Jacob: 57:11

Okay.

Efi Kotz: 57:12

We have main agronome you have an agronome as well.

Efi Kotz: 57:15

Of course. We have two actually, one main and one underneath him. We have two, one for the north and one for the rest of the country, and they work with all the growers that grow grapes for us. Now, by chance, I live in Kidmatzvi and we actually grow the Moshav grows the Marcelan. So once I got, I asked to just give the instructions to the growers in Shav. Sure, I will get it. And just took a read. We have not just the Marcelan, we have a few varietals, and I saw how many specific instructions.

Efi Kotz: 57:53

It's crazy, Like it was almost eight full pages, While I know that different vineyards which is not a single vineyard that we produce are one, two pages.

S Simon Jacob: 58:05

What sort of instructions can there be for that many?

Efi Kotz: 58:09

Just out of curiosity. I'm not really familiar with the terms in English, that's the problem. But for example, we call it the Nebuchadnezzar making windows in the gravestone so the wind can go through in an equal way to prevent some things diluting leaves. I understand where it's coming just make sure that everything is going to be eight. How do you say eshkol?

S Simon Jacob: 58:43

Eshkol Clusters like the.

Efi Kotz: 58:47

For example, eight clusters from each Vine.

S Simon Jacob: 58:52

Not vine from each side of the vine, From each branch.

Efi Kotz: 58:54

Something like that From each branch eight clusters, or it depends, I'm not exactly how it is.

Efi Kotz: 59:01

But the idea is very small details that you will not think about, like when to spraying in what part, every small thing that has to be in the vineyard anyway, but when exactly? To what are the signs for If this happens, then what to do? If that happens, what to do? Everything is very specific and you cannot just do whatever you want. We don't buy grapes in the wine middle, but we do. I mean, we cannot own the land.

Efi Kotz: 59:33

In Israel, a business cannot own land. It can be like a A lot of rules, okay, but people can own land. Yep, places like kibbutz, moshav, they can own land. A company cannot own land, okay, like an industrial company doesn't own the land. So we can lease. We have long lease agreements, leases with them, like in Kidmatzvi. It's a gudashi to feed, it's like a lot of families that work in the agriculture part of the Moshev and we're not leasing. But the property, the vineyard, it's from the Moshev, but we a long agreement with them and we get all the grapes. We don't pay per kilo or per grape, we pay per year, with all the process that involves.

S Simon Jacob: 1:00:30

For all the grapes that come out.

Efi Kotz: 1:00:31

So it can be eight tons for a vineyard or it can be two tons, We'll pay the same amount. So for them they don't mind to do whatever we ask for them, because they will only get more money. I mean in Israel, back in the days, they used to pay per kilo. So when you tell the grower, dilute 10% of the clusters, it's lost money. They wouldn't do it.

S Simon Jacob: 1:01:00

I was going to ask you about that, because how do you control that? Because I can see people providing grapes and if you're paying it per kilo, no matter what you tell them to do.

Efi Kotz: 1:01:14

They won't do anything that costs them money. Yeah, when you tell them, I only want so many clusters per branch.

S Simon Jacob: 1:01:23

So what happens? If they leave an extra cluster? What have you? But if they leave it on all of the vines, where's the incentive for them to cut back and shear, you know, cut things off and throw it away?

Efi Kotz: 1:01:34

Exactly so. The biggest problem with Carignan, for example, was that when it come here, the Rothschild brought carignan to Israel and they used to pay. They used to pay by weight as any other normal agriculture business, but you lost all the quality because carignan can produce a lot of grapes. So it can get you three, four tons per dunam. I'm talking Israeli measures.

S Simon Jacob: 1:02:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no Perfect.

Efi Kotz: 1:02:05

And when we talk about those quantities, the quality is very low. When you talk about reducing quantity and increasing quality, it costs money and if you're not paying for the quality, then they won't do it. When we're in Reconati, we're paying not by quantity, so they don't care. I mean, if the end result is, I don't know, a ton per dunam or six tons per dunam, for them it's easier even to dilute more at some point. They don't care about the money in this case, because they will get the same money for the entire year, for the whole process that needs to happen in the vineyard, which is already specific, written in the instructions, and the agronomes are going with them all the time, explaining, teaching, showing, checking, working together with those growers, just to make sure that we will have the best quality in the end result. And that's what you will see in most of our wines.

Efi Kotz: 1:03:06

We try not to overpower the wine in any other way. We try to let the fruit talk and that is the most important part. In the vision area of the winery. We try to show the fruit, the freshness, the Mediterranean style if it's not Mediterranean varieties to make it fun to drink. In the vision area of the winery, we try to show the fruit, the freshness, the Mediterranean style if it's not Mediterranean varieties to make it fun to drink, even in a hot summer day. So now we're going to go to the next rosé.

S Simon Jacob: 1:03:29

Yeah.

Efi Kotz: 1:03:33

The Gris de Marcelin that I was talking about. So it's the same grapes grown specifically for rosé, with no press at all. Very sharp flavors, fruit forward, but not fruity, not like the tutti frutti style. It goes a bit more mineral, a bit more acidity.

S Simon Jacob: 1:03:51

This is available on the market now.

Efi Kotz: 1:03:52

Yes, this is in the market.

S Simon Jacob: 1:03:54

This is the 22. And what you call it is also.

Efi Kotz: 1:03:57

This is the Petnat.

S Simon Jacob: 1:03:58

The Petnat is on the market, or it's all.

Efi Kotz: 1:04:00

It's a very limited series. It's very difficult to find on the market. You will probably find it more in restaurants, some stores maybe.

S Simon Jacob: 1:04:10

It's definitely food oriented, the Petnat yeah.

Efi Kotz: 1:04:14

Now, this is probably the most gastronomic rosé you'll find in Israel. On one hand, the Marcellin gives a lot of great aromas. On the other hand, it's a nice acidity and really well-balanced bitterness to it.

S Simon Jacob: 1:04:44

I love the balance of it. From the front of your palate through the mid palate, it's got a nice finish.

Efi Kotz: 1:04:47

It's got the acidity, the bitterness, all the small parts in the meal that balance it together to a very gastronomic one. We try that with sushi, with pizza, even with look, not fat meat like minute steaks or carpaccio's raw meat. It's amazing. It goes with raw fish, salads, appetizers in general, and even with creamy, like cheese or cream pasta. Those things. It actually goes really, really well. Let me taste that. That's fatit.

Efi Kotz: 1:05:20

Yeah this is. This is actually really nice. They make really good cheese, anyway. So this is a version of a Mediterranean rosé. Yep, now, this is a Mediterranean gastronomic rosé. We have another rosé that is a bit more to the crowd pleaser. Let's call it although it's not an official name for it, it's Syrah and Petite Syrah that goes a bit more to the fruitier side. It doesn't require food next to it. It can be perfectly balanced, you know, to the beach, the pool, to the balcony, anything like that that you can just enjoy on a summer day. This is a bit more sophisticated rosé and although it's not labeled a single vineyard because it's two vineyards, it's treated as a single vineyard Because each of those vineyards are really really high quality level. Let's see when is Shacha. It's lovely, it's delicious, actually.

S Simon Jacob: 1:06:18

Really, Really. It's see when is Shacha. It's lovely.

Efi Kotz: 1:06:21

It's delicious actually.

S Simon Jacob: 1:06:22

Really, really, it's delicious. Wow, rosé is really coming of, coming into its own these days.

Efi Kotz: 1:06:32

Definitely.

S Simon Jacob: 1:06:33

This is. This has got so many lovely. It's a nice texture, but it's also got some nice nuances to it that are just really special.

Efi Kotz: 1:06:52

When you drink a classy rosé in Israel, it's either to the very sweet fruity side or sometimes it goes to the very sweet, fruity side, yeah, or sometimes it goes to the very acidic, bitter side.

S Simon Jacob: 1:07:00

Yeah, A lot of them have become. People are trying to get more acid into rosés.

Efi Kotz: 1:07:07

I love acid, but it needs to be balanced well, because if the fruit is not powerful enough to balance the acidity, it translates to just bitterness, and that's it. This is a wine that we don't sell at the visiting center.

S Simon Jacob: 1:07:24

It's the Yonatan.

Efi Kotz: 1:07:25

You know the Yonatan.

S Simon Jacob: 1:07:26

I don't, but it's from the. What do you call it, yonatan? Is it from the Yonatan? No, no, no, no, okay.

Efi Kotz: 1:07:35

This is Yonatan. For another reason this Yonatan is the son of Lenny Recanati. We have a parallel series to this wine called Yasmine. Yasmine is the wine you can find in supermarkets, in stores like 3, 410 Czechoslovakia, something like that. Yonatan is the same series. It means the same parallel series that goes only to restaurants and wine stores. You can find a lot of home wine, house wine for hotels, restaurants that want to give good wine for not expensive price. Now, I haven't mentioned it downstairs, but when we talk about our wines from the series of Galil and above, we have only free run, no press Above that underneath that we have Yonatan, yasmin and wines that we sell in supermarkets that you can find the press liquid as well.

Efi Kotz: 1:08:38

Now, you would expect the press to be bitter or unpleasant, but we don't really press that hard, so it's actually a very fun wine to drink. This is a blend of Colombar and Sauvignon Blanc from different areas in the Gilboa Galil area, and the price of it is around 40 shekels, 3 for 110, even sometimes 3 for 100.

Efi Kotz: 1:09:08

This is Colombard. Colombard and Sauvignon Blanc 60-40. Now the unique, not unique. The fun part about it is that anytime that people ask me we have like a Yain Le Shabbat Before Shabbat, you go and you get. You can choose whatever wine you want from the winery. They will give you a bottle for Shabbat. It's like the thing that we do here in the wine for all the employees.

S Simon Jacob: 1:09:33

Any bottle.

Efi Kotz: 1:09:35

Almost any bottle, those who wear a shortage. I mean we don't have a lot of special reserves but you can practically take whatever, almost whatever you ask, you will get People. Usually you know they like to have the more sophisticated, the big wines. I always take this wine. It's my I can't say favorite but this is my go-to wine. Right, this wine is just fun. It's a nice balance, nice aroma, nice bouquet. The flavors are. It's just a fun wine to drink. The complexity is nice. It's simple wine.

S Simon Jacob: 1:10:24

It's not a very, you know, sophisticated, complex wine. But it's fun, it's so nicely balanced, it's just a pleasure. There isn't.

Efi Kotz: 1:10:29

There isn't anything that tastes out of place it's when you think about ordering a cocktail, a cocktail in a restaurant. You think all about the exactly balance between acidity, sweetness, maybe some spice, and the alcohol won't be too powerful. This is exactly what you're thinking about when ordering a cocktail in a restaurant. This is the exactly same qualities Exactly balanced, perfectly balanced. Nice acidity, nice sweetness.

S Simon Jacob: 1:10:59

And the alcohol is very muted. The alcohol is low, it's.

Efi Kotz: 1:11:02

I think 11 and a half yes.

S Simon Jacob: 1:11:04

It's really muted.

Efi Kotz: 1:11:05

And it's delicious wine, I mean at any second of the day. If you tell me, open a bottle of wine and drink a glass of wine, I cannot imagine myself drinking a glass of red wine, but this I don't mind drinking. At 9 am, I mean I probably won't. No, no, no, it's a wine that you can, I could. I mean you have a morning break, for example, and you serve wine. You can serve the big red wine, but it's very difficult to continue the day after a big red wine.

S Simon Jacob: 1:11:36

Right.

Efi Kotz: 1:11:37

This wine is my go-to.

S Simon Jacob: 1:11:37

It's really light the day after a big red wine, right this wine is my go-to.

Efi Kotz: 1:11:39

It's really light. You finish your day, you're coming back from work, you sit on the couch and you think, oh, should I open a bottle of wine? No, but I only want a glass. I won't open a wine, I don't want to waste a bottle. This bottle costs 30 something, shekels.

S Simon Jacob: 1:11:53

Nice, really lovely.

Efi Kotz: 1:11:55

You don't think too much when you open up this kind of bottle. The worst case scenario you cook with it tomorrow.

S Simon Jacob: 1:11:59

Do you export this to America?

Efi Kotz: 1:12:01

Yes, I don't know if it's exported in the same price as in Israel, but you can find it in the States definitely. And this is the 22. The 23 is already boiled as well. It's about to release any second now. It's called. Yoneta, yes, and the 23 just received the gold medal in the best value competition.

S Simon Jacob: 1:12:21

Wow.

Efi Kotz: 1:12:23

And for the right reason. I mean this is the best value for money you can ask for. It's a great wine, especially for the very low price range Awesome.

S Simon Jacob: 1:12:34

This is really awesome, awesome, this is really awesome.

Efi Kotz: 1:12:43

Every time that people come to me and say, oh, in Europe you can find in a few euros a very nice, fun wine to drink Not the most complex, but very fun wine I give them this Look, this is a few euros. Yeah, this is great, it's delicious, I love them. This Look, this is a few euros.

S Simon Jacob: 1:12:58

Yeah, this is great.

Efi Kotz: 1:13:00

I mean it's delicious. I love this wine.

S Simon Jacob: 1:13:02

How much does this sell for in the stores? Like 30 shekels, yeah.

Efi Kotz: 1:13:08

It's most cases, it's 40, 3, 410.

S Simon Jacob: 1:13:11

Okay. So it's like 30 something shekels for the bottle. Great.

Efi Kotz: 1:13:17

And I find it just delicious. I'll be honest. Actually, I've just ordered wine for Chef Wout, yeah, so I ordered two of the Sauvignon Blancs that Sophie likes a lot, and ten of those. Wow, I wanted you know we have some guests.

S Simon Jacob: 1:13:35

I love this wine. It's good, it's really good, definitely.

Efi Kotz: 1:13:41

And for me, it's probably the best thing I've learned. Remember that I had in my Instagram that I tasted a lot of cheap wines from the supermarkets. Yeah, and this is the main wine that I've learned is wow, that's worth the money, and I liked it a lot then, and then, when I started to work here, it's even better.

S Simon Jacob: 1:14:12

This is Simon Jacob, again your host of today's episode of the Kosher Terroir. I have a personal request of today's episode of the Kosher Terwa. I have a personal request no matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldiers' safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. Please tune in again next week for part two of this conversation about the Reconari Winery with Samuel E Eficotz and winemaker Shahar Mamour. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you're new to the Kosher Terroir, please check out our many past episodes and thank you for listening to the Kosher Term.