Meanwhile with more
vineyards producing than last season, the winery is expecting a
25 percent increase in production this year, and will be adding
new stainless steel tanks as well as barrels in the wine cellar
for grape processing, and will add 30 more employees to its staff
of 70. The Golan Heights Winery was the first winery in Israel to
produce quality wines. Perhaps only in Israel can one fine such
an atypical winery: it uses Israeli grapes cultivated with Australian
knowledge, based on French varietals on Israeli soil, Italian and
German wine-making equipment, American-trained winemakers and religious
Jewish laborers, (It's that last element that makes the wine kosher.)
The winery produces dry reds, dry whites, semi-dry whites, semi-dry
blush, dessert wines, and sparkling wines - 27 types in all. By
combining state-of-the-art technology with traditional vinification
techniques, the Golan Heights Winery has succeeded in producing
award-winning wines, firmly placing Israel on the international
wine map. In fact, it is the most “decorated" winery
in Israel.
Chief winemaker is Califorian-born, 36-year-old Victor Shoenfield.
Educated in winemaking at the University of California, Davis, and
with experience working in vineyards in California and Champagne,
Shoenfield moved to Israel in 1991, to join the Golan Heights Winery.
The secret of the winery's success, believes Shoenfield, is the
climate and soil of the Golan Heights, which are better than other
places in Israel.
“My team is
in charge of the whole production of the wines from the harvest,
including being involved in the grape growing, until the wine leasves
the winery and goes out of our control," explains Shoenfield,
who doesn't want to call the wines “California style".
The winemakers have all been from California so there is that influnce,
but I would say we have a much more international outlook than most
California wineries. If we're doing our job right, we're making
wines that reflect the Golan Heights, just this area. Hopefully
we're making wines that aren't a copy of anywhere else, but reflect
just the unique enviroment that we're in," states Shoenfield.
