Chateau Golan (Israel)

Anat holding a bottle of Cabernet Eliad 2008 Moshav Eliad, Golan Heights (Israel)
Here is another valuable winery which is located on the Golan Heights plateau. The first quality winery which emerged in Israel in the mid 1980s' was the now-famed Golan Heights winery, and the UC-Davis trained people at that time had understood the potential of this high-altitude volcanic region. Chateau Golan is located in the south part of the Golan heights, at mid distance between lake Kineret on the west (lake Tiberias) and the Syrian border or the Jordanian border as well at the east. You find this moshav under its former name Eli Al on this Golan map). Don't be put off by the fancy baroque architecture, the green-lawn landscaping and the faux-antique columns of the cellar : the wines stand out. The winemaker and now co-owner Uri Hetz (pic on right) is the man behind the wines. He was trained at Oregon State University for a degree in fermentation science before spending time at Phelps in California and Tzora in Israel. Don't be surprised if helicopters come and go while you visit the winery, Uri Hetz is also a former Air Force helicopter pilot and it seems that many of his former work mates also like wine...

Uri Hetz The winery, which sits in the middle of an agricultural settlement (moshav) overlooking a scenic canyon makes 60 or 70 000 bottles a year (half of it Cabernet Sauvignon) and they will probably remain that small, Uri Hetz says. The grapes are not grown by the moshav itself but by themselves, except for the Sauvignon Blanc for which they have an agreement with a grower further up north on the Golan. The 13 other varieties they make grow in their own vineyards in the vicinity in southern Golan, 5 minutes from the facility. They now go through this long process of determining which variety goes ideally with which soil and conditions to make the best wine possible. This could take many years, and they'll do for southern Golan the experiments that other wineries have done already for other Golan areas, say Pelter or the Golan Heghts winery. The altitude around here is 400 meters, much lower than further north where vineyards grow at an altitude of about 900 meters. Right now they grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Petite Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèrdre, Touriga Nacional, (a Portuguese variety), Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, plus the contracted Sauvignon Blanc. He says that the best white he ever had was a Chardonnay, like for example a Puligny-Montrachet les Folatières by Domaine Leflaive, but he doesn't plant Chardonnay here because he considers that the region is not suited for this variety. He tasted many Chardonnay wines made by very talented people in israel but still, he doesn't like what is made here with Chardonnay.
As we were still in the vatroom, we heard a chopper approaching and landing on the lawn on the side, it was carrying guests, some of them Russian if I'm right, who were to have lunch on a lone table in the vatroom. The Golan is not that far from Tel Aviv (this is a small country), this is about a two hours drive maybe, but it is probably very short and fun to hop down there by helicopter... Stainless-steel vats All these things are empty he says, pointing to the steel vats, and all the work is taking place in the vineyard right now. This is indeed the busiest season as for the vineyard work, and some of this work he does himself, and there are 2 permanent staff working along there, plus 16 temporary workers who were hired to help. Speaking of the stainless steel tanks, I notice that they're Israeli made (EGMO), it's interesting to see that this country now has winery tools and containers of its own. The cask cellar We walk into the air-conditioned (and humidity-controlled) cask cellar, a theatrical place where the lighting underlines the ancient Greece feel suggested by the architecture. All the wine is stocked into the circular cellar : the 2010 reds are in the casks, the 2010 whites and rosés being already bottled, and you find here also the 2009 wines which while already bottled, go through several more months of élevage in this cool and dark room. What they sell on the market right now are the 2007 and 2008 wines. So far the longest élevage he made on his wines was a year and a half. For his wine at least, he says that he doesn't feel necessary to make longer cellar time. They use many different barrel sizes, starting with 225 liters, then all the way to 500 liters. they buy these casks new but keep them for many years. When he begins to detect the flavor of oak in a wine he already considers that it's too much, he goes lengths to prevent the oaky side to come forward. this said, the reds get a 100 % élevage in oak, while some of the whites get an élevage half in tank, half in oak. The rosé also goes in oak, but 3 months only. Winemaker Uri Hetz in the cellar They do the fermentation in the casks, and this is spontaneous fermentation as they don't add yeasts. Uri Hetz also considers that the exchange between the wine and the lees in the cask is important. asked if his vineyard is organic, for having enough wild yeasts to perform the fermentation, he says no, except a trial that they conduct on one of the plots, but he adds that once you have an operating facility you have yeasts all over the place, even if it takes a few years for them to settle for good. After a few years the yeast population in the environment of the vatroom and cellar is big enough to support wild-yeast fermentations.
This cellar is 8 years old and in the future they'll build another floor above its central part so people will be able to see the cellar from the set of windows that you can see in the far (they're now blackened for obvious reasons). Vineyards near Chateau Golan We sat down outside then, under the shade of high-trained vines, to taste a few wines :
__ Chateau Golan Geshem rosé 2010. Blend of 90 % Grenache plus Syrah and Barbera, they got the Barbera as a trade from a good friend who grows it in the Galilee, it makes 5 % of the blend here. Very aromatic. The labels reads 13,5 in alcohol. This wine is very mineral with a lovely saline mouth feel. 3000 bottles of it in all. Costs about 100 Shekels a bottle in shops (20 € or 29 USD). Asked about the acid addings which are done routinely around the world when acidity levels are too low in the wines, Uri Hetz says that he hardly does some. He shows the bottles we're tasting and says that these wines got no acidity correction, there's only the Cabernet which may have some correction, but very little. The basic question here is what type of wine you want to make at the end, of course, choosing wisely the picking start is importanty, but he doesn't think that he harvests that earlier compared to other growers (a bit earlier though, he concedes).
__ Chateau Golan Sauvignon Blanc 2009. One of the last bottles of this vintage, they're switching to 2010 now. As said above, comes from further north on the Golan plateau, from a vineyard planted at a higher altitude than around here. Also a small production, similar to the rosé (3000 btls), they use to begin to sell in summer and it doesn't last long. Nice Sauvignon with also a saline feel in the mouth. More acidity here, the vineyard is at a higher altitude, there's the variety of course, and the fact that it's a direct-press wine with whole clusters. They use a big Diemme pneumatic press. The fermentation takes place partly in stainless-steel, partly in barrels, both being blended after a few months, depending of the vintage (can happen after 8 months only). No racking or moving of the wine, except the débourbage from the gross lees at the beginning. This Sauvignon costs 120 Shekels.
__ Chateau Golan Syrah 2008. Got also maybe a bit of Mourvèdre and Carignan, he says. Beautiful nose of red and black ripe fruits. Very good balance for the 14 ° of alcohol. 6000 bottles in all. 3rd largest cuvée here, they started making Syrah in 2001, so it's already an old story. The 2008 vintage is more massive compared to 2007 which was more delicate. The differences are actually sometimes important between the vintages even though there is no hailstorms like in Burgundy. There has been a very light filtration he says, after I told him that I thought there hadn't been any, he adds that after a few years you find some sediments in these wines. Of course he says, the whites and the rosé are filtered on a tighter way because the wine hasn't been through its malolactic fermentation and it could veer off course. Costs 150 Shekels (30 € or 44 USD). View on the Golan from below while driving up from Kineret lake __ Chateau Golan Geshem 2007. Mostly Grenache with a bit of Syrah. Light-colored wine. Nice. Almost 15 ° in alcohol but very good drinkability indeed. Costs 200 Shekels. Most people in Israel don't know Grenache, being more used to Cabernet and Merlot, so it's a totally different experience for them, with this low-acidity feel in the mouth. Asked he he "compromises" to accomodate what the Israeli public wants for the style of wine, he says no, there is no point doing otherways than what he thinks is good for the resulting wine. Speaking about this wine, he says that they have only one acre maybe of Grenache, so it's still quite experimental at this stage, and the cuvée volume is between 1000 and 2000 bottles. They also have one acre of Mourvèdre. The yield is very low for these vineyards, like 30 hectoliters/hectare or less. The Cabernet Sauvignon has higher yields, something between 60 and 80 ho/ha. About the vineyard management, they do a lot of cover-crop, meaning they less the grass grow, which takes a lot of water, they planted at a high density which along with scarce watering increases competition. They also don't put fertilizers with the water, just organic compost. The vines are restrained by all these policies, also by the fact that they didn't water immediately after planting but only after some time to let them root.
__ Chateau Golan Merlot 2008. They make 5000 bottles a year of it on average. Nose with cooked fruits but nothing heavy. This wine is food, very enjoyable to drink, fruity wine. Looks also unfiltered, although it may habe been some sort of light filtration. They have more vineyard surface than they need, in Merlot, and they sell the rest of the grapes, not only Merlot by the way but also a lot of Cabernet, to other, large wineries like Dalton and Barkan. But the vineyard parcels that they keep for themselves and the ones they sell the grapes of are different, they don't wait the last moment to decide which they keep and which they sell. The total surface of the vineyards is maybe 15 hectares, 9 hectares of which they really exploit for their own wines. This wine makes 14,5 ° in alcohol. If you want to make a 12,5 ° wine under this climate, it would taste like lettuce, Uri says. It depends also of the variety, some varieties can be picked unripe and not end up with a lettuce flavor, but they'll still be very thin in flavor. What about pure Carignan, asks Zeev. Uri Hetz says that they had some a few years then got rid of it. It's still interesting to try, he says, but he hasn't tasted an interesting result with this variety around here, plus there were problems with Oïdium and so on, so they gave up on it. Asked about Malber and Zinfandel, he says they're not among the varieties he plans to try here. We digress on Pinot Noir (but I didn't catch if he would try it here) which he appreciated in Oregon, in places like the Broadley winery, which isn't well known bu makes good Pinot.
__ Chateau Golan Eliad 2008 Royal Reserve (pic above right). 10 000 bottles. A bit of Petit Verdot & Syrah in here too, but more than 85 % of Cabernet. Nose is spicy with dry eucalyptus leaves and the likes. Incense notes too. Very elegant wine. Costs 192 Shekels (price list for all the wines)

Chateau Golan Moshav Eliad, Golan Heights 12927, Israel (map) phone + 972 4 66 00 026 fax + 972 4 66 00 274 winery [at] chateaugolan [dot] fr Tel Aviv distributors www.chateaugolan.com

Canyon on the Golan (right near the winery, in my back) 65-6:00

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Thnxxx a tonn !! i was searching for this blog so long back.. finally i got thnx for sharing,,, jus loving it.. thnxx mate !!

[Lisa Wright]

Best wine I've ever had. We toured the Chateau Golan winery in 2011. We have ordered several cases.... time for another.

[sheila scully]

I visited your winery this past May & love your wines .. I received my 6 bottles & need more please send me your information on ordering
Thank you
Sheila