Meishar Winery (Ashdod, Israel)

Haya and Zeev Smilansky Gedera, Ashdod (Israel)
My first winery visit in Israel was at Meishar, and for me it made a good link between the relaxed artisan wineries I'm used to visit in France and the boutique-winery new wave of Israel. The word boutique wineries is widely used in Israel and it refers to small-size and small-volume units set up by passionate individuals. The original boutique wineries were small wineries set up in 19th-century Jerusalem to make sacramental Kiddush wine.
As Meishar website states it, the area is not by large a renowned terroir and sought-after region for grape growers and winemakers, but somehow, is there because of the draining, sandy soil where vines struggle so much, the light refreshing wind from the nearby sea, Zeev Smilansky succeded to make on the most relaxed way beautiful wines from his 2-hectare vineyard. Zeev has a minimal-intervention approach in winemaking and all the work is done by himself and his family, plus friends for the harvest. He and his wife kept working on the side (he is a mathematician and works in the high-tech sector), so that they could really make quietly their wines without commercial pressure. He jokes that his mathematics background helps him fill the Excel files with all the weather, grape and vinification data...
When we showed up on a saturday (not a kosher winery), Zeev was enjoying the end of the lunch with his wife and a couple of friends on the terrace overlooking the vineyard, drinking under the shadow of an eucalyptus, a very very beautiful quince wine, a high-alcohol sweet wine made from his quince tree near the vineyard. Not on the market yet, just for family and friends but he should consider selling it. Its high acidity complemented beautifully the concentration of its aromas and this first drink was a rare pleasure.

Zeev Smilansky in the vineyard We walk down to the vineyard : first, the Cabernet-Sauvignon block, planted in 1992 (the oldest plot here). The foliage is already bright and big, this is a sunny country and in the matter of about one month (it was bare on the 1st of april), it went from nothing to this exuberant growth (it's the Shiraz plot on the picture, which is even more advanced). This piece of land, says Zeev Smilansky, was never cultivated, never since the beginning of the world : Only sheep and goat maybe. When this moshav where the house-and-winery are located (a moshav is a collective farm where each house has an attached individual land surface for cultivation) was set up in 1951, the land was bare. You can know when a given place was cultivated in the past or in ancient times just by studying the type of trees and bushes : the arab farmers for example always planted certain type of trees that would remain even after their departure. Here, there was no such proofs of human cultivation. The soil is sandy and with no possibility of irrigation in ancient time, the place was a virtual desert. On the platform overlooking the vineyardThis platform set on a bare strip beytween two vineyard blocks was a birthday gift that Zeev got from his wife. From there, under the shadow of vine foliage, they enjoy the view on the vineyard and the house, and they sometimes sleep there on summer night, bathing in the gentle breeze. The dog is wise and doesn't follow us into this risky climb. Zeev says that back in 1951, lots of orange groves were planted here, this was the high time for Jaffa oranges exports to the rest of the world. But this sandy soil at an elevation of 50 meters, very hot in summer was not really good for orange groves. When he planted here, everybody said it was not good either for planting grapes, even if you can select special rootstock for this type of soil. Having worked in 1990 with Yair Margalit whom he helped in his winery for various tasks (Yair Margalit is the real initiator of high-quality wineries and until this day one of the best Israeli vintners), he asked him about the chance of making something good out of this place, and Margalit who is a very serious analyst, asked for precise weather data from this spot. He didn't have any but it happened that German jewish immigrants that settled near here to create a kibbutz before WW2 were keeping old-school books with systematic notes about the weather data. The guys at the kibbutz just gave him the books and he got the large weather data he needed. Margalit looked at it and said that the conditions were not very encouraging, but if he had one type of variety to choose, it would be Cabernet Sauvignon. Zeev Smilansky planted Cabernet and alongside, a few other varieties, just to see. He chose to graft on Salt Creek rootstocks, which have a high resistance to nematodes. The best viewpoint on the vineyardSide by side and down the gentle slope, after the Cabernet Sauvignon, we walk pas plots of Shiraz, Muscat, Merlot and Mourvèdre (planted last july). This was all orange groves when they settled here 20 years ago, and the other moshav farmers keep uprooting them until today to plant less thirsty crops or buils chicken farms. Zeev says that orange groves need 850 cubic meters of water per dunam per year (10 dunam make one hectare and 1 acre is 4 dunams). An irrigated vineyard (which is the norm in Israel due to the extreme climate) needs only 150 cubic meters per dunam/year. At the beginning of the orange-growing boom in the 1st half of the 20th century, they would just pump water from the water table, but with the international competion on the orange market and scarcity of water here, this was no more feasible.
The grass and flowers grow freely on Zeev Smilansky's vineyard, he says that a month ago there were lots of wild Chrisanthemus flowers all over mid-leg high (no weedkillers here). Zeev shows how the Merlot leaves are so much softer compared with the Cabernet ones. Here and there, along the watering pipe, the ground had been rummed into by wild boars at night, and when the grapes are ripe in august, they put an electric fence, because otherwise they just come in and eat all the Merlot (the C.S. is not yet ripe then).
At the end of their slopy lot, we reach newly planted plots, one of Mourvèdre, one with more Cabernet. The other Cabernet is already 17 years old and they're not sure how longer it can live under this climate, so they decided to plant anticipate. I tell Zeev that the hot climate and permanent west-east breeze from the sea makes me think that his Mourvèdre could be as happy here as Bandol's. He says that in 5 years maybe they'll know, the vines need time here to make themselved at home, even with irrigation and some fertilizers supplements. Yawning unashamedly in the vineyardWith the Muscat (Muscat Alexandroni) they make a desert wine. The vines are very young-looking and thin but they are already 6 or 7 years old. Meishar Muscat is a late-harvest wine, the grapes are picked in the end of october and then the grapes are left drying in the open air until they're like raisins. This is a variety with intense flower aromas. It comes with very high-bric sugar level when they begin making the wine, something like 40 or 45. They use special yeast that can survive in high alcohol, so they have both high alcohol and a little bit of residual sugar, and lots of flower notes on the nose. As we walk, we see convoys of ants doing their business along their own trails/highway.
Asked if experience on this winery initiated copycat stat-ups around here, he pauses and begins by saying that Zionism started here, in the small community of Gdera, when in 1884, 12 people came from Ukraine and settled here. It happens that the first thing they did then was to plant a vineyard, and there is the story about how with donkeys they marched from Tel Aviv with the plants they intended to root here, buying water and the rest. So actually with also the initiative of Baron de Rotschild at this time, there are some vineyards around, but old types of, Carignan, French Colombard, vineyards meant for high yields (5 tons per dunam for the Carignan), which made people think the region was unfit for wine because of these high-yield vines that were planted long ago. Zeev Smilanski thinks that there is no fixed law and that by choosing the right variety and a particular soil in the area you can make good wine (depends also when you harvest, which tresilling you choose, how you irrigate etc...). Looking at the weeds cover The vineyard is more or so organicly farmed, and they fight moth pests with strings of red plastic strings imbibed with pheromones (called confusion wires) to imitate the female, so that the misleaded male insect doesn't reproduce itself. It allows them to spray once every 5 or 6 weeks instead of once every 2 weeks.
We walked into the cask room, which is in the side of the vineyards, not far from the house, a frail-looking construction with the stainless-steel vats in the outside. Zeev Smilansky gives his wine an elevage between 10 months and 20 months. He uses new and old french casks (people say barrels in Israel, I'm almost sure I never heard the word cask here). The total output at Meishar being something like 7000 bottles a year, he doesn't need too many barrels and has an easy time following and tasting each of them. Zeev Smilansky says that he considers that most of the work has to be done in the vineyard to have the best-possible quality on the grapes. In the winery, he does very simple work, nothing fancy. The fermentation takes place in the stainless-steel vats, then they press by hand with the small press, then back to the vats for settling, then to the oak barrels. Usually the Cabernet goes to the newer casks, some new, some one-year old. The Merlot and the Shiraz go to older barrels, some for a year elevage, some for 2 years, that's all. Topping every two weeks; every 4-5 months, they take the wine out, mix it, wash the barrels and put the wine back inside, it helps also aerate it. They do all the heavy work like harvest with friends volunteers and at the end of the day the 30 people or so gather under the big trees for some sort of festival with a picnic and Chakchuka, a dish made with tomatoes, pepper and eggs (the tradition is to say that one's own mother makes the best Chakchuka...). There's a lot of pita and wine too from the year before, to which I say that with his small production, if he begins to drown the pickers, he could easily ruin his winery. Well, he doesn't pour the best wine of course, he jokes, the best, he gives it to bloggers... The barrel cellar and lab roomBack on the terrace, we sit at the table for a tasting of Meishar wines.
__Meishar "730" 2004, the top wine of Meishar winery, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, from a 0,25-hectare (2,5 dunams) vineyard. I'm tasting here my first Israeli wine in Israel, we hold our glass forward and say the usualLe Heim (to life) like Israeli do when toasting. Beautiful aromatic nose. The tannins are not sharp at all, this is a 2004, but still. Zeev says that the warm climate is why, and also he destems the grapes. Ripe red fruits notes with spices, chocolate. 14°, no high-alcohol feel. 140 Shekels for this bottle (25,3 Euro or 34,3 USD). I note jammy fruit but that can be seen as negative in Israel according to Haya, and Zeev Smilansky says that in Israel people tend to move away from the overcooked fruit because this is very easily reached, and they tend to reach more on the fresh fruit side. This moving away from the oaked and overcooked-fruit wine is a trend, and some vignerons even boast of "early picking" on the labels to mean that the fruit is not overripe. Zeev says that like many similar collective moves, this reverse fashion has to be taken cautiously. Haya says that if the vintner knows what he wants and keeps free from any fashion, he can succeed making a beautiful wine which is not hostage of ephemeral trends. Back to this Meishar 730 2004, Zeev says that even if differences between vintages are not as big than in France (the summers are always hot here), there are some difference in Israel from year to year, depending of the winter rains and early season. And 2004 was a very good year for wine here. 2005 was terrible and he didn't make any 730 cuvée that year because the vintage lacked the strenghness that you find in the 2004, it didn't have the color and character in spite of being a nice harmonious wine. The 2007 is still in barrels and it is early to say but it should be good. In fact, this Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard seemed to be dying in 2006, with half the amount of harvest compared to 2004, that's why he had a new vineyard planted separately, and in 2007 and 2008 the vineyard seemed to resurect and he has no explanation for this.
__Meishar Muscat. The first vintage that he sells, after experimenting a few seasons. Complex aromas, what a smell... Some residual sugar, but little it seems to me, or the acidity is particularly high. Zeev says that the residual sugar is 6% here. He made 400 bottles of it and this wine has been is a lot of work with the late harvest, the drying and careful vinification. The drying for example is often uneven, some grapes drying at a better pace than others, some are grilled when others dry nicely. About to enjoy a bottle at Meishar The discussion drifts on Kosher wines and Zeev Smilanski (who doesn't make Kosher wines) says that from year to year, Kosher rules and concept seems to evolve and get tougher. Kosher wine today is not what it used to be 2000 years ago, it become more difficult because the rules have become more strict. Here, they work in the vineyard on Shabbath as on the other days they run their day jobs, which makes Kosher label impossible of course, plus they would have to hire a religiously observant staff, for 2 hectares it is not feasable. About the wines of 2000 years ago, Zeev says that even if many of them would be considered as undrinkable today, there were differences in style and quality, and Cyprus wines for example were on the upper tier and more expensive. According to them, Cyprus wine is far from being on that level today. I tell them of a post by fellow blogger Alder Yarrow about his tasting experience in Egypt not long ago, also a country that has an ancient history of winemaking and wine consumption but has lost all these roots. His tasting notes are quite funny and I hope that the wineries there hired new vintners since...
Meishar wines are exported in the US through Israeli Wine Direct.....................Listen to this podcast interview with the participation of Zeev Smilansky, the energetic winemaker/owner of Meishar winery. Meishar winery41 Meishar, 76850 (near Gdera)Phone +972 8 8594759Fax +972 8 598481 winery [at] meishar [dot] co [dot] ilwww.meishar.co.il Daniele and her parents on the Tel Aviv beachThis was a few hours before the visit at Meishar, I was strolling along the shore on the beach in the morning when heard Daniele who was singing and playing guitar between puffs from the traditional water pipe. I went closer to listen and we exchanged a few words. She was enjoying a few days of good time in Tel Aviv with her parents. The family lives in a settlement 20 km from the green line in the eastern part of the country and she is in the army for her 3-year service time. She says that she likes to walk around with her guitar on one side and her machine gun on the other side, and I'm sure she goes like that in the real world. I lament that I didn't think to record her on my microtrack. Her father was enjoying a bottle of Argentina red (he offered me some, but it was too early for me) that he said cost only 25 Shekels and was a good deal for the money. Very friendly and easy-going family indeed...

Comments

[Alder]

Betrand,

Thanks for the link to my funny and painful tasting notes on Egyptian wine. I hope they have gotten better.

[Bertrand]

Hi, Alder,
Yes, who knows, they might have hired winemakers abroad since you visited. But their recent move over there to cull all the pigs of the country on the excuse of preventing the swine flu doesn't make me optimistic...

[Ken Rosenberger]

For the past 45 years, I have been gathering wine labels from my home in northern California. It would be with great pleasure to be able to include your labels in my collection. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Please reply to the following address:

Ken Rosenberger

354 Prune Tree Drive

Healdsburg, CA 95448 USA