Welcome to the Dalton website. Over the past few years the Internet has developed from a one-way informative tool to more of a communal and collaborative tool and I wanted to build a site that incorporated the old and the new.

Last week saw the Israwinexpo wine fair take place in Tel Aviv. This is a biennial trade show that is supposed to showcase Israeli wines on the world stage. Well, when I say world stage I mean to the Israeli public and a contingent of about 30 guests who were invited but the Israel government to come and taste Israeli wines. And when I say to come and taste Israeli wines I mean to taste the wines of the wineries that are showing at the fair and in addition to taste the wines of a few randomly selected wineries who were lucky enough to earn a visit from the foreign delegation.

Here are the first pictures of the new Matatia wine in all its glory. The Jewel in the Crown of the Dalton portfolio it is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Cab Franc restricted yields in the vineyards, scrupulous selection in the winery and aged for two years in 200% new French oak, we are really proud of this wine.

It has been a while since my last posting, no excuses really I just seem to have lost the blogging mojo for a bit. That is not to say that nothing has been happening in the winery. There has been plenty of action.

It’s that time of year again; a month after vintage and most of the wines have finished primary and secondary fermentation. Time to sit down and piece together the giant jigsaw puzzle of blends. We tasted about 100 different wines from different vineyard sites that need to be blended into 6 different series and 21 different wines. We added some new wines and deleted others. I’ve written about it in the past so this time I’m going to put up the pictures…

This weekend I decided to rummage in my Dad’s wine fridge to see what was lurking in there and I came across a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1999 which I decided to open and drink with Friday night dinner. Well the wine is holding up quite well, the nose is still vibrant and the palate smooth and complex. By the way, it goes quite well with roast chicken.

Once again the Who’s Who of the Israeli Wine industry came together under one roof to show off their wares. The exhibitors were all the major wineries in Israel and the major importers and distributors of wine. A large section of the exhibition was devoted to small and boutique wineries. Entrance was free to people directly involved in the food and drink industry, storeowners, restaurateurs, hoteliers, sales people, servers etc.

The last day of vintage finally arrived with the first clouds of winter finally rolling in. This year was a little weird, we started about two weeks later than usual and had 3.5 cm of rain suddenly in the middle of the harvest, but in the end the weather warmed up and we finally finished on schedule.

The solar panels were finally completed and approved at beginning of September, since then we have been generating electricity at the rate of about 600kWh per day and generating about 1000 shekels per day of income.

We are into our second week of vintage; Naama is busy scurrying around the north of Israel checking that all the vineyards are healthy and that the grapes are ripening nicely. In addition, every morning she makes her morning rounds, visiting and tasting of all the wines we have fermenting, yesterday I joined her.

Well it’s finally here; the 2009 vintage has finally begun. This weeks vintage was Sauvignon Blanc from our Safsufa vineyard at the foothills of Mount Meron. The yields were good and the fruit was excellent. Here is a little photomontage showing the first steps of the journey from grapes to wine.

It is a site that no winery owner wants to see, bunches of fruit lying on the ground. But for a vineyard which is yielding for the first year it is a worthy investment.

The mealybug is a huge pest in the vineyard; it causes untold damage to the vines and is responsible for spreading a virus that has decimated many of our vineyards. Here are a couple of natural and ecological ways we have tried to combat the situation.

If you look at the back of any bottle of Dalton wine you will see a cluster of little medallions at the bottom of the label, they are the stamps of the various rabbinical authorities that supervise the Kashrut of our wines. This is a brief article to explain what it is all about.

This is an article I wrote a few years ago about the history of Israeli wines and its current state of play. Of course I give Dalton and our wines quite alot of credit.

a short list of wines that we can recommend for the Passover holiday.