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.

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.