Givat Yeshayahu, Jerusalem hills
This is yet another interesting winery that has appeared fairly recently on the Israeli wine scene, Sphera, which makes wines from a 3,5-hectare vineyard surface. The facility is located in moshav Givat Yeshayahu that was originally created in 1958 by Hungarian immigrants, this is in the Jerusalem area (mid-distance between Jerusalem and Ashkelon, south of Beit Shemesh) and its particularity
is that it only makes white wines. Zeev,
my knowledgeable informant for the wine scene here is a fan of their wines and suggested a visit, that was a very good idea.
Doron wasn't into wine initially he studied communication, got his degree but after 2 years he felt it was not a job for him and at that time he was working also in the restaurant and catering business and it was an opportunity for him to become familiar with wine, especially that since he was young he was gifted for everything related to aromas and tastes, so at one point he decided it was not enough to serve the wines , he wanted to have his try at making some himself. He then applied for studying at a wine school in France, sending applications to the ones of Montpellier, Beaune and Bordeaux, was accepted to all and after a trip with his wife to choose among the 3 regions and towns, Beaune & Burgundy appeared as being the evident choice. So that's where he studied his BTS Viti Oeno from 2000 to 2002, working for his training time at Domaine Jacques Prieur in Meursault. Then back in Israel he worked as a winemaker for 10 years for Ella Valley Vineyards very close from here, after which he decided to be brave enough to starting his own winery, Sphera.
Ella Valley where he worked for 10 years was making reds as well as whites but his own passion has always be
en for whites
and while he knows most people in Israel favor reds (and often big reds, which he feels boring) he was wanting to explore the whites nonetheless and show these wines that are more difficult to produce but are rewardingly wonderful. In Israel when dealing with the whites, he says, you have to go against the common narrative that whites are is for beginners or for the ladies and other nonsense, and his aim when creating Sphera in 2012 was to show what wine wine is about. In just a few years his whites stand out among the best wines of this country, as hinted by the tasting notes during Jancis Robinson's visit of Israel in late september 2017 where she highlighted the wines of Tzora, Castel, Clos de Gat, Margalit, Shvo, Sphera, Tabor, Yarden, Vitkin, Chateau Golan, Seahorse and Yatir (many of these wineries profiled by Wineterroirs), but the linked article says also word-for-word that the highest scoring Israeli wine ever in Jancis Robinson’s data base is Sphera White Signature 2015 which received 18 points...
Read here Jancis Robinson general comments on her trip (more details for subscribers of course)
Asked if the area is fine for growing whites, Doron says yes, he's been living and working around here for almost 15 years and he knows it now very well. As you can see on the pictures above the region is hilly a bit like in Provence and the vineyards are harmoniously mixing in the landscape, it's not a sea of vineyards like in certain regions. Doron says that while it's not a very high altitude here like in the north of Israel, they get cool-air movements along the narrow rivers, air coming from the Jerusalem mountains and the Hevron mountains, the Givat Yeshayahu area is at the junction of two air flows, creating a microclimate which he considers exceptional. He harvests early in the season, and still it's after Eran (Tzora) who harvests his Shoresh Sauvignon at a much higher altitude, it's oddly a very cold region here at certain hours, with wind all the time and important day/night temperature gap. The only white he doesn't grow yet here himself is Sauvignon Blanc (he currently buys the grapes from upper Galilee) but next year they'll plant some near Jerusalem. Otherwise he already grows Riesling, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Roussanne.
Doron grows also using different trellising systems because in his eyes you cannot grow different grapes along the same method, it's not possible you have to check first what suits the best to this or that variety, depends of the location and micro conditions of the parcel also. He tried a system that is in between the one used for table grapes and the one for winemaking, and he was very happy with the first results in terms of grape quality.
Today he picks 35 tons of grapes from a 3,5 hectare surface and his production is more or less 25 000 bottles depending of the vintage. Thje wines are divided into 2 categories : White Concept (4 cuvées) & White Signature (1 cuvée), the latter is supposed to be the best in a given vintage, it can be a blend, a single variety, that all depends of the vintage. As a reminder, that's the White Signature that got Jancis Robinson to give her highest rating on an Israeli wine.
Spera wines are mostly sold to restaurants (70 %).
Doron explains that he keeps the same distance between the rows but plants the vines 70 centimeters (27,5 inches) from each other, growing them as a Cordon Royal, but tilting every other vine in a different side which funnels more energy in the growth season for the foliage, the Chenin being able to grow high, he doesn't trim the apex and leaves the vine grow free on alternate sides which keeps enough light exposure for each of them. When the vine has extended its shoots with leaves that gives lots of shade between the rows which brings a good temperature difference. The bunches are in the shade which is good for him. He says it's not the usual Lyre system, it's something in between, with a Cordon it a rather high distance frm the ground, protected from the punishing sun by the leaves. He has 3 workers who do the job to tend the vines, it's not private land here it's a moshav and he has a 20-year contract with these growers for the vineyard management, he pays them by the surface, not by the weight.
While touring Sphera pacrcels we passed a plot of very old Petite Syrah that belongs to Carmel, it is part of the original series, now very rare in Israel. Very lucky to have seen these in this corner of the Judean hills... I learn that this moshav (Givat Yeshayahu) has 60 families and there are another 60 families living in the new expansion.
Doron says that if he wants to take fruit down, to make a green harvest he'll do that now before the grapes grow because the vines hasn't yet produced energy to grow them and it will less be a waste for the plant, the goal is to prevent to have the vine work for nothing, so the earlier the better to take fruit down, that's how he get the best balance.
From here it's a five minute drive to the winery on a tractor, it's very close for the harvested grapes. The area has quite a lot of wildlife, that's why they keep these nets to protect the parcels.
He read somewhere he was rather uniterventionist so I ask him about this issue, he says that for example in Israel many wineries acidify their wines because they look for big and high-flavor wines, waiting later for the picking and thus loosing the acidity
in the way. For him balance is important and any acidification will harm the balance of the wine, so he'll allow differences in the vintages like his Chardonnay 2017 which is smoother, more aromatic because of the crazy hot weather of july 2017, br he won't rely on acid addition to make it look like the leaner Chardonnay 2016. In general thanks to the microclimate, to the appropriate trellising system and early picking he manages to keep a good balance for his whites, with low sugar and good acidity.
And in the winery he uses tools that help get these types of wines, slow fermentation that can last up to more than 50 days in stainless steel. It's very risky to have this long a fermentation but at the end of the day he's not anxious, if the fermentaion stops at one point, let it be. He leaves the wines after their fermentation on their lees with a sulfites addition, he uses wide-body tanks [as you can see on the picture on top and below], not the tall and narrow ones like often found in the wineries around for whites because they're afraid of oxigenation, and the wide-body vats are better for the exchange with the lees, the pressure on the lees translates in a good way in the wine. With tall/narrow vats you have to do rackings to correct the issue and his philosophy is not move the wine at all until its first stabilisation. These wide and low vats are Italian made by Dizio, he used to work with these while in Chablis when he worked with Patrick Piuze (a very good friend of his) who uses the same tanks.
The grapes are harvested by hand at night with headlights [something which seems more and more common in Israel given the day temperature], opening the winery at 3am or 4am with the sorting tables to check the quality. I ask about where the pickers come from, Doron smiles and says it's a big problem, remembering with fondness how it works in France with the same pickers coming back year after year with a nice atmosphere. Here they have to look hard, they take either Bedouins or Thai workers, they do a good job but they change from vintage to vintage which means they have to keep looking for workers every year. After the sorting table the grapes go usually whole-clustered in the press, and it's a light pressing, like 55 or 56 %, really nothing (he tastes along the pressing and stops when he feels it), going up to usually 0,4 bar, but for him what counts is the best quality of juice. If he were in Chablis he'd be able to press more thoroughly his grapes because the material is different but you cannot copy-paste a recipe from other regions, you have to find your way. And they get rid of what they don't use, they don't even make a 2nd wine with the rest (there would be enough volume for it) or sell it elswhere because Sphera is not kosher and many wineries look for buying kosher juice.
Speaking of yeast says it's an important issue for him but he's careful and he's still conducting trials on letting indigenous yeast do their job, which he does on the 2 or 3 first pickings with small volumes, the rest being inoculated with lab yeast for now. The results of these trials are very nice but he's not taking all the winemaking on that road right now although it's his aim in the future. anyway for the lab yeast he doesn't use ones pushing high aromatics, he chooses them more neutral, his Sauvignon for example can't be mistaken for a New-Zealand Sauvignon.
__ Sphera White Concept Sauvignon Blanc 2017, from grapes sources outside the estate vineyards (upper Galilee on volcanic soil). Bottled one month ago. Fermented and élevage in stainless-steel tanks (just 12 % go in barrels), he says it's not an aromatic type of Sauvignon and he says it ages well in the bottle, he says he tasted the 2015 a week ago and it was beautiful, although Sauvignon usually isn't meant to age too much here. But because they don't rack the wine and they don't move it, it helps it age nicely.Aromas are indeed not typically Sauvignon, it's more on candy, berlingot, with a crispy, mineral mouth. Nice mouth touch too. 12 % alcohol, pretty low.
At one point Zeev asks him if he plans to make a Champagne type of wine, Doron says yes, next year, they had the idea to start a Champagne last year in 2017 but with this crazy hot weather in July that yielded small grape volumes they postponed the project for 2018. In 2018 they'll make the first base wine for a sparkling. He tried his hand at sparklings in the domaines he worked for, and he also trained briefly in Champagne at Pierre Péters, a grower Champagne in Le Mesnil sur Oger. Champagne-type wine is among the wines he wants to explore and given the success he has with making whites we should expect an outstanding Israeli sparkling at Sphera....
__ Sphera White Concept Chardonnay 2017. Pressing on whole clusters. 60 % stainless steel and 40 % oak (for 7 months). Very nice energy on the tongue, and in the throat when swallowed. Doron says this is a very aromatic Chardonnay compared to what you see usually in Israel, the acidity is lower (1,5 gram less than usually) than what he uses to have but he prefers not to acidify, this is the vintage 2017. But this energy which I feel does the job in the matter of balancing the ripeness. I ask about his policy in terms of sulfites, he says he adds some on the juice at pressing, then a bit after the fermentation, then nothing because the lees bring enough reduction, and lastly a bit before bottling.
Asked if he plans to expand his surface of Sphera Winery from the present total 3,5 hectares, Doron says yes, he plans to reach a production of 40 to 45 000 bottles which means 1,5 or 1,8 hectare more and then stay put at this level, that's his target, he doesn't want to go beyond this volume. I ask if he has trainees coming here for training, he aknowledges that he gets sometimes a phone call from someone who wants to come here and learn but even for free it's a lot of time for him to train a stagiaire as he has to take care of so many things in this small operation. Where he trained himself at Jacques Prieur there was the owner plus an ooenologue, a chef de culture, maître de chai, this was easier to handle and train a stagiaire...
__ Sphera White Concept Riesling 2017. Very few wineries make Riesling in israel, maybe only 5 to 7. Very long fermentation, which he stops when he feels appropriate, through continuous tasting. He feels that keeping a little bit of sugar (around 3 grams) balances the acidity of the Riesling and enhances the aging potential. Lovely wine, short mouth but very enjoyable and easy drinking, round and balanced with still this vibrant energy feel on the tongue.
What's interesting is that a few years ago a Master of Wine from Germany tasted his Riesling which he intended to put in his blend and she told him to put a few bottles on the side just to see, he ended doing it and later the same year this Riesling was tasted with a few other Israeli Rieslings by visiting Stuart Pigott, the Riesling-centered wine writer who hd come here to take part to a tasting between German and Austrian Rieslings. While he was here in Israel he went in a fine restaurant with sommeliers and wine people to taste 4 or 5 Israeli Rieslings blind to see what the country was making with it and he rated the Sphera one as among the 5 best he had for a 2015 from all over the world. Since that day they don't have Riesling to sell, it sells in advance for restaurants and other customers. Given that the winery started in 2012 that was a huge compliment for a 3rd vintage, and for a Riesling grown in these latitudes... The retail price is 104 Shekels (25 €) at the winery. It's sold out but they keep a few bottles aside, for history and later tastings.
__ Sphera White Concept First Page 2017, a blend of mostly Semillon and Chenin Blanc with a bit of Riesling (less than 5 %). Much of the wine (65 %) goes through oak here. He says the wine is bgger here but without getting boring. The percentage of the blend changes every year, plus until now they had some Pinot Gris but he stopped working with it, replacing it with their new plantation of Chenin.
Nice white flower aromas, with this energy in the mouth again, more powerful wine (but only 13,5 % alcohol), he says it's the highest alcohol among his cuvées (he never goes above 13 % usually) and this was because of the chenin on that vintage but this year he's confident he'll make a leaner wine on that regard. This was the first harvest for this new planting og Chenin which was 2 or 3 years old, Doron says he decides when to pick by tasting the grapes, not through lab analysis. No malolactic here, they stop it through sterile filtration.
__ Sphera White Signature 2017, poured from a bottle without label (vat sample I understand as it will be bottled the follopwing week). 60 % Semillon, 40 % Chardonnay. Stayed 10 months in oak (fermentation & élevage) among which 10 % new oak with 500-liter barrels from François Frères and Tonnellerie Marsannay, no malolactic, was prevented through temperature and sterile filtration, he doesn't want the wine to get these milky, buttery aromas brought by the malolactic, although the public likes that in Israel. what he looks in this cuvée is getting a bit more weight compared to his White Concept serie but without getting something too big. Semillon here he says, brings here in this particular terroir a fresh acidity, some herbal, green notes, while the Chardonnay is bigger, it's not what you'd get with these varieties in France.
My picture on the right is not very good the this Israeli sheep cheese was terrific, it's made by the Afaim Farm, the sheep live in the desert in southern Israel, it could be for example something like this Naot Farm.
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