Something New

We did a couple of things this week that were new, proving that no matter how much time you spend in Jerusalem there are always new things to discover.

On Sunday we went to Ammunition Hill, scene of one of the toughest battles of the Six Day War. Bill, Jane and Sid insisted that the 4 of us went there on a previous visit (23 years ago), but I have zero recall. Whether I was there or not, the site has been completely redone so it was new for all of us.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: no one does museums like the Israelis. First there is a film using original footage of the Six Day Way, particularly the 2-1/2 day battle for Jerusalem, and interviews with soldiers who participated. Then we went to the exhibit itself, which was very hard to find because the signage was terrible, also very Israeli. It's a self guided tour with automated commentary. No buttons to push; the sound starts and stops as you go through. The narration puts you right into the battles, with original sound tracks recorded during the fighting, as well as background interviews and descriptions. They got the fog of war exactly right, by using gauze over original films and sketches and drawings that morphed according to what was being described. 

When we arrived at the museum there were several groups of soldiers. What struck me immediately was that none of them had ranks. At first I thought they were in basic training, but when one of the soldiers, a paratrooper, struck up a conversation and I saw his wings, I knew these weren't recruits. So I asked who they were and what they were doing at the museum. He told me they come from all branches of the army and are training to be medics. The army is big on taking soldiers on tours, and you see groups all over the place all the time. It reinforces patriotism; you have to know what you're fighting for. And in the case of these future medics you need to understand what combat is all about, something this museum does very well. 

Some of the soldiers waiting for their tour to begin

A platoon under an olive tree

Soldiers are like interns. They take cat naps wherever and whenever they can.

Sid, Tamar, me, Bill, Jane having another small world encounter. Tamar, a docent at the museum, lived in Chicago for a year and worked at Akiba Schechter Day School with our daughter Jessica.

On Monday we did something I've been wanting to do for years. We went to a couple of wineries in the Judean Hills. The reason I've put it off is because I won't drink and drive, and you can't get to wineries on the bus. Two couple friends of Bill and Jane's happen to be in Israel now, and they are wine aficionados. They arranged for a van and driver to take us to two wonderful wineries and was it ever an education.

Once upon a time if anyone offered a glass of Israeli wine you would say no thanks. It was like that with food as well. That was then. In the past 30 or so years both food and wine have come a very long way and Israel is considered a foodie destination. Uri Buri in Akko was voted one of the top 25 in the world by TripAdvisor (so take it with many grains of salt). Even more impressive, Israel has 13 restaurants on La Liste, which can actually be taken seriously. It ranks # 21 out of 64 countries, putting it in the top third. 

The Judean Hills are an ideal place to grow wine, as it was during Biblical times according to the sources. Twenty years ago there were only 30 wineries in the Judean Hills. Today there are 400 and counting. Fun fact: there are more words in Hebrew for anything associated with wine than in any other language. The vintners are taking steps to become a terroir (an identifiable geographic location whose soil, sunshine and climate have an effect on the taste of the finished produce) and appellation  (the place of origin). The last time Israel had an appellation was in the 1950's for Jaffa oranges. This should take some of the guesswork out of the EU's campaign to blackball Israeli wines by labeling them as products of the so-called "west bank" as they just voted to do.

The first winery was Nevo, named for the owner, located on Moshav Matta. It's really a boutique, not like some wineries that call themselves boutique. They opened in 2002 and produce 12,000 bottles a year, mostly reds. Everything is done by hand (including harvesting the grapes at night) and under Nevo's strict supervision. We tasted a Merlot and a Cabernet, both 2017, both excellent.  They only sell direct to the public; you can't find them in hotels, restaurants or stores. For wine connoisseurs (and you know who you are) the website is nevowinery.com.

The tasting was accompanied by bread which had been baked in a wood stove at the winery, olive oil which they also produce, and cheese from a boutique cheesery in the Negev. The name of the cheesery is Mashkochit, which is the word for the lead sheep or goat in a herd who wears a bell. And I thought German was precise.

The 8 of us with Nevo, before the tasting. 

Nevo, the owner

Sharon, who led the tasting. She's a walking encyclopedia of wine and wine making

We had a whole course on wine before they poured the first bottle

The Cabernet and Merlot we bought

From Nevo we continued to Flam. They are a much larger capacity winery, producing 170,000 bottles a year, 70% of which are exported. Although far from a boutique, they are family owned and operated. We tasted a 2017 Classico Red (many of their wines are blends), a 2017 Reserve Cabernet, a 2017 Reserve Syrah (a wine that gets way too little attention in my opinion), a 2018 Blanc and a 2018 Rose. There was of course bread, cheese and olive oil to accompany the wines.

Golan Flam, one of the brothers who operate the winery. 

Tamar, who led the tasting

The week continued to be busy, with enough material to carry over to my next post. Shabbat starts early in Jerusalem at 405PM, and it's getting close to that now.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,
Peggy and Sid