Yarden Winery (by Avery)

On Sunday, we went to a winemaking company, called Yarden, in the Golan Heights. We learned about the process used to make wine, and then we tasted various types of wine.

The first step in making wine is the crushing of the grapes. We were not able to see any grape-crushing, because we were in between harvesting times. After the juice is extracted, it is placed in giant steel barrels to ferment. After the first fermentation, the wine is cleaned and placed into air-tight oak barrels.

Inside the building containing the oak barrels, the air was chilled to near freezing. We saw rows and rows of barrels, stacked upon each other, stretching all the way to the ceiling. A man on the floor was transferring wine from one barrel to another, and a different man was driving a forklift, stacking the barrels.

After fermenting and aging (anywhere between a few months and twenty years), the wine is poured out of the barrels. The wine is tasted and blended, until the wanted taste is acquired. The wine is filtered once more, and bottled.

The bottling process is completely automated, with a machine that fills the bottles, a machine that corks them, a machine that labels them, a machine that packages them, a machine that stacks the boxes, and a machine that wraps the boxes together. It was very cool watching all the machines working in unison (for the most part).

After our tour of the factory, our guide brought out a cart with different wine bottles on it. We finished the day with a tasting of some of their wines. My parents liked the wines, although I did not like most of them.

Our trip to the Yarden wine company in the Golan Heights was interesting. We saw how wine is made, and then we went to a wine tasting. It was very fun.