I’m sitting in Frankfurt Airport on my final homeward leg of a three-week sales tour that has taken me to New York, Boston, Toronto and finally Dusseldorf for the Prowein exhibition. Well, actually I began this at Dusseldorf airport but actually I finished this off in Israel once I got home… In general I have to say that the mood seems much improved since last year. In the US there seems to be a general consensus that where as last year there was a general feeling of unease and panic, now people have got used the to situation and learned to live with it.

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…