Very quickly after the Greek feast which we held after the first lockdown in June, a second at first semi and then full lockdown was instigated. We had to cancel a Moroccan dinner and a Chapitre. The only way left to keep in touch with our members was via Zoom.

Guy Haran, our new Échanson, and I came up with the idea to have a blind wine tasting workshop on Zoom entitled: an Israeli Terroir Masterclass.

The workshop given by Guy Haran and Roni Saslov, both leading figures in the industry, was organized by a boutique internet delicatessen shop “Cheeme”. “Cheeme” has a Sommelier on the staff and specialises in delivering items safely to consumers.

The following items were delivered to all participants:
- three cheeses from two boutique producers: Barkanit and Alto farms
- four wines (two white and two red with numbers on their corks): Midbar Chardonnay unoaked 2019; Clos de Gat Chanson Collection White 2019; Shvo Vineyard Red 2017 and Margalit Paradigma 2017.

The wines were shipped (with the whites ready chilled) the same day or the night before. All four wines had been tasted and approved by “Cheeme’s” Sommelier before being decanted into the industry-approved small bottles (which had been sterilised) for food and liquid transfer with their patented sealed corks.

With all the ingredients in place the Zoom meeting began by Tami greeting all 40 participants. Guy and Roni were introduced in case anyone didn’t know them. Tami also updated members regarding future plans.

Then the Zoom management was passed to Guy and Roni.

The presentation was accompanied by PowerPoint slides with the blind tasting lasting about 90 minutes. It focused on wine making in Israel which is unique by having almost seven distinct grape growing regions. A short description of each region’s unique features with recommendations of wineries in each one was most interesting.

After being educated about the influence of the land, weather, regions, climate and more participants had to guess where each wine came from for example the desert, Galilee, Judea. Guy and Roni elaborated and demonstrated giving information about taste without smell and more.

All was accompanied with cheeses to demonstrate how they can influence the taste.

And more questions and answers. All in all, it was great fun.

Tami Lancut-Leibovits
Bailli Délégué

NB: For those of you who are interested here is a link to a thorough presentation about wine in Israel given to the tourism bureau in London by Mr. Haran: YouTube