The medal-winning Israeli delegation: the wineries of the Golan Heights and the Galilee Mountains at an exhibition in Germany (Photo: YHAT)
Six thousand exhibitors from sixty-one countries around the world came this year to the ProWine wine and spirits fair held in the huge fair center of Dusseldorf, Germany, and hosted, for three busy days, no less than forty-nine thousand people, from one hundred and forty-one countries.
Traditionally, as the organizers of the exhibition shared with us, Italy was the largest exhibitor this year as well, with about fifteen hundred wineries, followed by France, with about nine hundred and fifty wineries, and in third place: Spain, from which came about seven hundred producers.
Israel was satisfied with the modest presence of only three wineries: the Golan Heights Winery, the Galil Mountains Winery and the Reknati Winery, which they presented in a shared pavilion, under the title "Northern Israel".
For the purpose of comparison, from neighboring Cyprus, fourteen manufacturers arrived in Dusseldorf.
Ten wineries even came from Lebanon.
There was also one Israeli distillery there: 'Milk and Honey', which in a few days will astonish the world when it wins the Oscar of the whiskey world, but in the meantime it was located in a hall dedicated to one hundred and twenty craft producers in the fields of distillates, beer and cider.
The CEO of Ramat Golan Winery Assaf Ben Dov (left) receives the most prestigious award (Photo: PR)
Where is the government?
"Most of the producers are subsidized, "Israel nothing!" the CEO of Ramat Golan Winery Assaf Ben Dov
told me
when I asked him for an explanation for the modest Israeli presence.
"I want to see all the Israeli wineries here. The good ones," he added.
But without government support for the participation expenses, which include, in addition to the costs of the pavilion itself, the flight and accommodation expenses of people and bottles, it is impossible.
As it seems at the moment such support is not on the agenda.
I sat down with Assaf and
Victor Schoenfeld, the head winemaker of Golan Heights Winery
, in a fenced compound, where the awarding of the first prizes in the 'Mondos Vini' wine competition took place.
The competition itself took place three weeks earlier in Germany, with the participation of a whopping seven thousand and five wines from around the world.
The Golan Heights Winery won seven gold medals and one "Grand Gold" medal in the same competition, for the "Golan Heights Jordan Malbec 2019", which was crowned the best Israeli wine in the competition.
The Galil Mountains Winery "settled" for three absolutely respectable gold medals.
Like participation in fairs, participation in international wine competitions is not done on the basis of free space or good will.
The competitions are business ventures for all intents and purposes and the competing wineries are their main source of income.
"How much do you invest in these competitions?"
I asked Assaf, while the announcer solemnly passed through the various categories, some of which looked as if they had been specially invented for the purpose of increasing the amount of prizes, and handed out the winning certificates to the participants,
"A few hundred dollars a bottle" he replied.
"And what do you get out of it?"
I continued to ask, after all, the Golan Heights Winery, one of the leaders of the quality revolution of Israeli wines since it was established in 1983, is not a producer that needs to prove itself and its place on the world wine map is well established.
"Our strategy is Israeli-international. Our playground is in the world," added Ben Dov, in the atmosphere of his previous position: CEO of the Maccabi Haifa football club. countries, and this is one award out of several hundreds that strengthens our international strategy."
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Not only because of the medal, it does no harm... Two wineries from the north of the country at an exhibition in Germany (Photo: Public Relations)
The medal is attractive
According to
Yael Guy, the international sales and marketing manager of the Golan Heights and Galilee Mountains wineries
, which participated in the fair for the eleventh time, the people who come to the Israeli pavilion are divided into three categories: existing customers, importers, marketers and distributors, who come on a regular basis to keep up to date and hold business meetings in which the main focus is Her time at the fair, wine field managers in restaurants and hotels and owners of marketing chains, who come to find interesting wines and get updated, and students, journalists and wine people who come to learn and get to know the wines from Israel.
According to her, the fair is very business-oriented, but it also has a significant part of studying and recognizing the world of Israeli wine.
And what about the medals?
According to her, the eleven medals won by the Israeli exhibitors in the Mondos Vinnie competition constituted another attraction for the Israeli pavilion.
The organizers of the fair published the results of the competition and not a few wine people came to find out how two Israeli wineries from a modest house that includes three wineries in total, won so many prizes.
When it was Golan Heights Winery's turn to receive the grand prize at the ceremony, Schoenfeld, the man who manages the winning team of winemakers, was no longer there.
He left the podium to the CEO and hurried back to the Israeli pavilion, so as not to leave the winemaker Tali Sandovsky and the other winery personnel alone in the fray. "Do you work with local grape varieties?" I heard a couple of curious Germans ask him, after we returned with the award. The ancient vine is in our region," he answered them patiently, "therefore, actually also the international grape varieties that we work with,
Later in the conversation, a study was also mentioned that was published at the beginning of March in the scientific magazine "Science", which stated that the origin of all wine vines in the world is in Israel.
"It's a pleasure to meet such a humble man who makes such great wines," a South African wine woman told me, after a long conversation with Victor.
The lady, who came to the Israeli pavilion together with a representative of a producer from South Africa who shares with the Ramat Golan Winery a joint marketer in the Netherlands, thought that the "Ramat Golan Jordan Gewurztraminer" is a "lovely" wine, that the "Ramat Golan Merlot Aloni Habshan" presents "a beauty of fruit" And her friends must organize a visit to Israel for themselves sometime.
Ramat Golan Winery team (on the right, the head winemaker Victor Schoenfeld, on the left Yael Guy, the director of international marketing for both wineries and in the middle, the CEO of Ramat Golan Winery, Assaf Ben Dov), with the marketers in Poland and Lithuania (Photo: Public Relations)
The Lebanon War
Part of the free time I had left, I decided to spend visiting our neighbors to the north in the Lebanese pavilion.
At the beginning of last year, when I accompanied the Israeli delegation to the 50 BEST restaurant competition in Abu Dhabi, I learned, almost firsthand, that Lebanese residents are reluctant to meet with Israelis, so I introduced myself in advance as a journalist from Israel and asked if it was okay for us to talk.
True, it's not the most investigative press in the world, but on the other hand, I'm not with Engel.
I had success with the first winery, thanks to its German marketer, who did not make an issue of a conflict between two countries in the Middle East.
"Domain de Treblos", is the first commercial winery in Lebanon, established in 1864, is located at an altitude of one thousand six hundred meters above sea level, works with local Lebanese grape varieties alongside international varieties and does a good job, especially with white wines and the beauty of Arak.
The red wines reminded me very much of Israeli boutique wines from about a decade ago.
Two other manufacturers that I tried to contact told me through a courier that they were not interested in talking to me.
"What about Chateau Moser?"
Yael Guy asked me, when I returned to the Israeli booth with my face in my hands.
"They won't give you any trouble."
So it's true, they didn't cause problems, but the atmosphere was a bit tense.
And the wines of the esteemed Lebanese winery were also a bit disappointing.
It seemed that they didn't want to waste the really good wines on a journalist from Israel.
Except for "Gaston Hussar 2017", a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sensaud and Carignan, which was aged for a year in concrete tanks and a year in barrels and was great
But it was a pleasant experience compared to what I went through in one of the Chinese pavilions, which I approached after quite a few travel warnings from those with experience.
The pavilion looks lovely, the tasters are smiling, the bottles are beautiful and the photographs of the Chinese wine regions are breathtaking.
On the other hand, I didn't make it all the way to Dusseldorf, for a young and energetic Chinese to explain to me with the utmost politeness and the utmost seriousness that white wines are not aged in barrels, and to discover that behind the great labels there are quite a few wines that feel amateurish.
According to quite a few predictions, China is going to become a wine powerhouse in the coming years.
At least according to the wines I tasted, there is still a long way to go.
Before the exhibition closed, at exactly six o'clock, I managed to have some corrective experiences, courtesy of some German Rieslings and some great Sauvignon Blanc.
Summary of the history of time
Three days, three months and even three years, will not be enough for the reasonable person to be impressed by everything this endless fair has to offer and there is nothing like exposure to such abundance to understand the modest dimensions of the Israeli wine industry.
Despite this, the wines from Israel and the people from Israel managed to stand out, with international awards and a lot of respect.
Now imagine what would have happened if instead of three Israeli wineries there would have been thirty, and if instead of a pavilion representing "Northern Israel" visitors to the exhibition would have also been exposed to wines from the Judean Mountains, the Negev and other wine regions.
The Golan Heights Winery, along with the other participants from Israel, did indeed do an excellent job both with the wines and with presenting the most beautiful face of Israel in the world, but as long as they continue to do it alone and at their own expense, Israeli wine will remain not only behind Italy, France and Spain, but also behind Cyprus and Lebanon, instead of formulating an international strategy, increase Israel's territory on the map of the wine world.
After all, we have a huge advantage: the source of the international wine varieties is here.
Of money
Tags
wine
Golan Heights Winery
Galil Mountains Winery
Germany
