Hi all, I will be in Jerusalem for a couple of days and wanted to see if I could get recommendations on wine shops and particular wines not available this side of the Atlantic that I should seek out (native grape varieties, boutique wineries, etc. Red, white, dry, off-dry - I drink everything).
If they still have any of that 2,022 year old wine from Cana available, grab me a few bottles. That winemaker was excellent.
We were in Israel in November and tasted at a small winery named Somek. I thought the wines were quite good. Note that they are not Kosher.
Tzora Misty Hills
Yatir Forest
Pricey but totally worth it.
Have fun!
There’s a wine shop near Yaol Salomon(downtown) and another on Emek Refaim both in Jerusalem.
Howard
Hi Xavier,
Best all round wine shop in Jerusalem is Avi Ben at 22 Rivlin Street downtown (corner of Yoel Solomon Street) ask for Oded, tell him you are a friend of mine. There are a bunch of other shops but they all have very similar stock. There is a small shop at 16 Halamed Hei Street (in the Katamon neighbourhood) that has a nice range of smaller Israeli wineries. I do not know their opening hours over Pessach but the phone number is 02-5611557. If you have the time would be happy open a bottle of wine with you at my home; drop me a PM.
There is also a good selection of boutique wines (and Israeli whisky!) in the wine/cigar shop in the Mamila Mall…and the owner is a super nice guy
I can’t answer the OP, but I can add that a few weeks ago I opened a bottle of 2004 Ella Valley Cabernet that I had been saving for 12 years just to see how it would age and I thought it was very good. Drank it with 1999 and 2000 Musar! Seemed appropriate. Not as good as the Musar, but not embarrassed by it. Still on the upward slope of the aging curve. That despite the fact that many of the Israeli wine aficionados I know have told me over the years to forget it because the wine was already dead. If you can find some well stored wine with 10+ years of age on it, I would buy that because it is something you cannot get here.
I can’t speak for anything else but wine prices in this shop are more expensive than at other retailers. This shop caters to tourists and prices accordingly. Avi Ben is a 5 minute walk from Mamilla, carries a larger range and is better value.
Xavier,
Before you head out to Israel, watch the movie In Search of Israeli Cuisine (it is on Netflix)
And, eat at https://www.machneyuda.co.il/menu if you can get in. Great restaurant!!!
Thank you all for the excellent recommendations, both on stores, wines, and food! If anyone thinks of some good small-producer wines that are not necessarily available in the States, I’d be grateful for the suggestions.
Wines not readily available in the States and worth pursuing:
Pelter…adjacent to the Quinetra lookout in the Golan…wine is great (esp. the Pelter I) and the location is beautiful and you can safely and easily see the Syrian border (from the Quinetra lookout) where ISIS and the Syrian army are/were battling
Margalit…top level producer (especially the Enigma)
Flam…solid Judean Hills producer
I loved this movie. Israeli food is so pure and delicious. We have reservations in July at Machneyuda.
There is pop-up for a short time in NYC of Ha Salon from Eyal Shani. He brought his other restaurant Miznon to NYC and is very successful.
We are going tonight.
Where is that pop-up and how long will it be open (will it be open through Memorial Day weekend)? Is it called Ha Salon?
You are going to love Machneyuda. Also, the market around there called Mahane Yehuda Market is fabulous. https://en.machne.co.il/ Plan to spend some time there.
we are staying close by that market 6 min walk at a small new hotel the Bezalel.
Ha Salon open Thursday Friday and Saturday
There is some availability in July
thanks
I wanted to report back on my findings for anyone who might be interested and others in the future searching though the forum. First, thanks again to everybody for your suggestions and insight. I was glad to have watched the documentary, and all the pointers on wineries were very useful. Aside from your suggestions, I profited from Yossie Horwitz’s website, Yossie’s Corkboard, particularly his page “Only Available in Israel”.
Because it was such a short trip, I didn’t have a chance to go to a winery. I did stop by Avi Ben and bought a few bottles. The shop is well stocked and very centrally located. They didn’t have some of the whites I was looking for, such as Sphera’s White Signature but there were plenty of reds to choose from. I bought the following:
-Ramat Negev Ramon (Malbec) ‘16
-Margalit Paradigma (GSM) ‘16
-Mia Luce Winery CSM ‘15
-Gva’ot Gofna (Chardonnay + Cab Sauv - yes, Cabernet…) ‘17
I also discovered a gem of a wine bar in the German Colony (thanks to Jonathan Kalman) which I wholeheartedly recommend. It’s called the Wine Temple and, being a Kosher wine bar, their selection is exclusively Israeli, so this is the place to try a substantive array of local wines (another shoutout to Jonathan for explaining and dispelling some myths about kosher wine laws and winemaking). Some of what we tried was ok but not revelatory, but some was actually sublime. Case in point, Maresha Winery’s Boragin, a Grenache/Syrah blend (missing only the M in GSM). I am partial to both of these varieties so I might have been predetermined to like it, but the aromas were breathtaking and the palate was complex but not overpowering. I wish I could have brought back a case of just that one wine. I hear they sit at the intersection of three microclimates so I’ll make it a priority to visit when I can.
Again, thank you for all your comments. L’chaim!
Howard,
I loved, loved, loved this documentary.
It inspired me to go on this trip last fall. Agree…Machynehuda is a blast!!
My family and I were in Israel in the summer of 2015 and summer of 2017. Unfortunately, due to timing we weren’t able to eat at Machneyuda on either trip. The 2017 trip being the most disappointing because we had a reservation that would have had us go right from arriving at the airport in TLV to dinner with our driver dropping our bags at the hotel, but a combination of delayed baggage and traffic caused us to miss the reservation. 
All the more reason to go back. We were in London three weeks ago and ate at The Barbary and Palomar which are both by the Machneyuda folks and loved every second of it. Especially as it was over Passover and we weren’t with our extended family like we usually are, so this was a little slice of our heritage that made us happy.