Yarden Winery - a Parent's Perspective

Avery's post (immediately below) does a very nice job describing the process at the winery, but the highlight of the visit was the wine tasting. Yarden uses its own name for its premium wines and has won a great many awards since it opened in 1982 - on the heels of the official (but not quite complete) annexation of the Golan Heights into Israel. The middle-priced labels use the Gamla name, while the relatively less expensive table wines use the name Golan.

Many within Israel suggest that Yarden transformed the Israeli wine industry, pushing all the other wineries to improve their quality. As a result, there are a tremendous number of high quality wines available, ranging in price from under $10.00 to well over $75.00 in the local grocery stores.

As a special treat, the Yarden Vintner brought out a bottle of the 2005 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon which had just received the top prize in a French wine competition.

Both Noah and Avery were served tastings along with the others on the tour. Avery was not impressed by the wines, and really did not like the complex taste of the award winning wines.

Noah shared some of Avery's attitude regarding the Cabernet Sauvignon , but enjoyed the Golan "ice wine" traditionally made by allowing the grapes to remain on the vine and freeze until harvested in February. Israel has no winter freeze, so Yarden picks the grapes and stores them frozen, resulting in a very sweet, thick dessert wine.



Noah has quickly developed a sophisticated palate, though I think that the similarities between Ice Wine and Grape Juice are sufficient to keep him off the alcohol at least until his bar mitzvah. Avery has learned to appreciate Coke Zero and I can happily report he will be staying away from the red wines for a long time to come.

Cheers,
Jon