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.

I had a funny conversation with my CEO the other day, he called to tell me that people were calling him to congratulate us on the gold medal we had just won, and did I know anything about it.

So it’s that time of year again, Passover, one week of non-stop eating and drinking. I always feel that because there are so many strictures about the foods we can eat on Passover, we tend to over do it a little and consume a little more than usual. I always remember, as a kid, my parents buying for the Pessach holidays way more food than we would ever consume in a normal week, I think it was the same for most of my friends. The holiday that prohibits so many food items slowly transforms in to a holiday where we consume as much of the food that is left for us too eat as possible.

The one litre bottles of 2011 Red Canaan are finally on the market. We have priced them at the same price as the 750ml bottles so you get a third free. We only made a very limited run, so enjoy them whilst they last.

We have been having a very interesting winter this year, a lot of rain strong winds and even snow over the weekend. Enjoy the photos that Yochai took for us.

This week sees the Biannual Israeli wines exhibition, Israewinexpo. I am afraid that anyone wanting to get a glimpse of Daltons finest will be disappointed as we won’t be there.

Yesterday was a historic day for the winery. For the first time ever we passed the thousand tonne mark. It is a landmark that we have been aspiring to for many years and should make us a million-bottle winery. We still have a few more vineyards to pick and hopefully we will be done by the end of the week.

We are three quarters of the way through vintage. I have written about vintages in the past haven’t really dwelt on it this year. We are heading for a record vintage and hope to exceed 1000 tonnes for the first time ever.

We are currently in the middle of a very exciting and challenging harvest. Exciting because the results so far look very good, challenging because this weekend saw torrential rain throughout the country.

The entire team at Dalton would like to express their sorrow at the passing of Daniel Rogov, wine critic and gentleman.

The Jerusalem wine fair began last night (15 August) and runs through till Thursday evening 18 August. It is held in the Sculpture Garden of the Israel Museum from 19.00-23.00. Entrance costs NIS70 and tickets are available at the door.

Who you might ask is Yossi David? Well, Yossi is a wine blogger of which there are many. Nothing too special you may say and you might be right, but Yossi has made an incredible contribution to the Israeli wine industry.

The wine industry is not for the impatient. The lag time between idea and implementation is usually measured in years. So it is particularly frustrating when I walk into wine stores and all they ask me is: ”So, what’s new?”

We are very happy to announce the introduction and release of two new wines into our D series. The wines are a Petite Sirah and the Zinfandel and are both from the 2009 vintage.

I have just returned from London where, on Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of presenting our wines the Red Herring Wine Club in London. The club was founded over 40 years ago and is the foremost wine club in London. Most of the members are accountants, solicitors and surveyors who purchase wine for their partnerships and boardrooms. They meet once a month for tutored tastings on wines of the world and this time I was given the opportunity to give a presentation of Dalton wines and introduce our wines and, by default, wines from Israel to a group of enthusiastic wine drinkers who otherwise would never have the opportunity.

We are in the process of preparing a newsletter for our members club so I thought I would take the opportunity to put a brief update on the site.

I’m back in the States this week to participate in another Israel portfolio tasting. Yesterday together with 14 other Israeli wineries we presented our wines to the Who’s Who of the New York wine world, even Marvin Shanken, the owner of the Wine Spectator magazine came to see what was on offer.

Finally, we have picked the last grapes of 2010. Many of the wines have finished fermenting and some are still going through their rites of passage.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Importer and distributor in the UK I am happy to report that our wines will soon be on the shelves in the wine section at Selfridges, one of London’s premiere department stores. A big thank you to Morris Herzog and his entire team at Kedem Europe.

Those of you watching the news this evening will have seen that we had another huge theft last night. About seven hundred and fifty thousand shekels worth of wine was stolen. This is our second theft in six years, look if Israel can have two wars in Lebanon then we can have two thefts.

Yesterday (Wednesday 18 August) the winery was honoured by a visit of Mr Shimon Peres, President of Israel, who came to celebrate his 87th birthday at the winery. The President spent his birthday travelling the Galilee an area of the country close to his heart.

I am happy to report that the 2010 Vintage is now under way. We began on Wednesday by harvesting Sauvignon Blanc. Next week will be a busy week as all the Sauvignon Blancs will be ripe and ready for picking and some reds too. Vintage is about a week to 10 days earlier this year, I think due to a couple of factors: the weather has been warmer and we have been thinning fruit quite aggressively in order to improve the quality of the fruit and the lower the yields the quicker they ripen. Meanwhile here are a few photos from our first day.

Over the next few month we will be unveiling new designs for many of our wines. We have begun with the Safsufa Series, beginning with the 2009 Cabernet and Merlot, the white will change labels with the impending 2010 vintage.

I paid a quick visit to the vineyards yesterday and things are progressing very well. We have new plantings which we will only see in 2014, new vines coming on line this year and, of course, some of our old favourites. We are anticipating high yields this year so we have had to thin a vast amount of fruit from the vines. Here are some photos from the visit.

As export manager of the winery, the past couple of years have been trying times for me. The 2008 vintage was Shmitta in Israel. It was one of our finest vintages but despite that, we were unable to send any of the wines from that vintage to our primary markets abroad.

I realize that some of the issues brought up in this article are going to be a little contentious and some may even say that they are sour grapes (no pun intended), however, I am writing here from the perspective of a consumer and not as a producer. Living in Tel Aviv we are blessed with some of the finest places in the world for dining out. The restaurants here offer world class dining with exciting tastes and flavours that can rival any top restaurant abroad. I am sure that the Israeli chefs go out of their way to source raw materials from the best suppliers possible and invest much though and effort in building the most perfect menu. If only the same could be said about their wine selections.

I have just returned from a quick visit to London, luckily avoiding the ash-cloud that is vexing so many travelers lately. The reason for the visit was to participate in a portfolio tasting of Israeli wines for the benefit of the UK press and wine buyers. Basically this is code for “lets get Israeli wines out of the Jewish Ghetto and into the mainstream markets”, this is the ultimate dream of the Israeli wine industry.

Yesterday we were blessed with our annual visit from Daniel Rogov, noted journalist for Haaretz, and author of several esteemed tomes, notably, Rogov’s Guide to Israeli wines and Rogov’s Guide to Kosher Wines.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.