Indiginous grapes. A USP for Israel?

 One of Cremisan Cellars' vineyards with Beit Jala in the background.

Unique Selling Proposition, USP. Definition: The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition.

Especially in the world of wine, everyone needs their USP.

Here are some of them

Argentina - Malbec
Australia - Shiraz
Canada - Icewine
Chile - Carmenere
France - Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy and friends.
Georgia - Qvevri wine
Germany - Riesling
Hungary - Tokaji
Italy - Barolo, Chianti and friends
Japan - Koshu
New Zealand - Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir
South Africa - Pinotage
Spain -Tempranillo
USA/California- Zinfandel

We could go on.

Then there are countries such as Greece, Portugal and Switzerland which have many native varieties with strong personalities to which people may be well disposed having discovered them on holiday. That in itself is a kind of USP. The country is the brand and the wines are unique.

And then there are countries with more recent traditions based on the international grape varieties: Algeria, China, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco,  Peru, Tunisia, Uruguay. What would the USP be in these cases?

One way to go it seems to us is to discover a native grape and make that into a speciality. It has already happened in what is known as 'The Holy Land' meaning mainly but not exclusively the West Bank, Israel and southern Lebanon.

The Cremisan Cellars Winery was founded in 1885 in the West Bank and have been producing red and white wine, fortified wine and spirits since then.

A most interesting recent book 'Tasting the Past' by Kevin Begos goes into the subject extensively.

Riccardo Cotarella, right.

No one knows any more exactly what the original Cremisan wines consisted of but today, the Italian consultant and oenologist Riccardo Cotarella has steered them towards  local grape varieties including

Baladi
Bittuni
Dabouki
Hamdani
Jandali
Marawi

Some say Hamdani and Marawi are one and the same but Galet gives them separate entries.

Most of these varieties are native to the area around Cremisan which is just over the border from Jerusalem, near the town of Beit Jala.

Dabouki is found throughout the Middle East as well as in France in the Gers department where it is known as Malaga Blanc. It is authorised also in Spain and Portugal. Many of these grapes were considered dessert grapes which is not surprising as all grapes since the 7th century would have had to be for eating as wine was forbidden.

Apart from a passing reference to Dabouki, none of them appears in 'Wine Grapes' and Baladi and Bittuni are even missing from Galet. He lists various white Baladis but the only possible red version, Baladi Haffe is dismissed as 'Mauvais cepage syrien...qui n'est bon ni pour la table, ni pour la cuve' without specifying if it is red or white. Curious.

Now, not only does Cremisan make a feature of these grapes ('What did Jesus drink?') but Israeli winemakers are beginning to use them too - whether grown in the West Bank or the state of Israel.

The good news is that these wines are really excellent. They have reached winelists in New York (Dizengoff) and London (Ottolenghi restaurants).

On a recent trip to Israel, we decided to visit Cremisan and seek out bottles with these native varieties. To get to the Cremisan monastery and winery entailed in our case finding a Palestinian taxi in West Jerusalem with the appropriate ability to cross over and return.

This was not too difficult. We were certainly lucky in having Hamid as our driver. He called Cremisan to tell them we were on our way (we had previously made an appointment). That conversation was not straightforward as Cremisan asked if we could delay our arrival as they had a lot of visitors but Hamid was firm, telling them we had already started.

Hamid

We had been told the winery practically straddled the border but that was not quite so; more like a good 10 minute drive after entering the West Bank. That was surprisingly easy. There were just a couple of young soldiers who gave a desultory glance inside the car practically without us having to stop. It was the same on the way back although Hamid said sometimes it could take longer.

Entering Cremisan was more tricky. For whatever reason they seemed in no hurry to open the gates and when we were allowed through they said we would have to wait to be shown around the cellars because it was lunchtime.

We were ushered into the shop before the tour for a somewhat hard sell but they were pushing against an open door;

We bought their Baladi (red), Rosso Vecchio (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) and Dabouki (white) having already bought the white Hamdani/Jandali blend in London from Ottolenghi.

Cremisan have various other wines including their Star of Bethlehem entry-level wines of various blends (the red for example is Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah and Baladi), Dessert Wine (Malvasia) and some fortified wines including a 'Marsala' and spirits. They work with all sorts of other grapes including

Chardonnay
Emerald Riesling

Argaman
Carignan
Grenache

Left alone while everyone went off to eat lunch, we conducted our own tour of the cellars via an open door in the side of the building.

The cellars are really big and impressive.

every now and again a reminder we were in a Christian establishment.

 Back in Jerusalem we visited one of the recommended wine shops - Avi Ben.

Here we discovered that the Israeli winery Recanati had already got on the bandwagon with a Bittuni (red) and a Marawi white. Ido Lewinsohn is the imaginative winemaker at Recanati.

Another winery taking an interest in these local grape varieties is Jezreel who make a Dabuki Pet Nat. 

Elyashiv Drori, grape archaeologist of Ariel University and partner at Gva'ot winery

Others include Gva'ot and Feldstein.

Gva'ot's Hamdani/Jamdali blend.

Gva'ot has the eminent Dr. Elyashiv (Shivi) Drori on board, We read about Shivi Drori in the pages of 'Tasting the past' mentioned above and immediately wanted to meet him. This was not to be on this occasion but we eventually reached him by email and he kindly sent us his paper entitled 'Collection and characterization of grapevine genetic resources (Vitis vinifera) in the Holy Land, towards the renewal of ancient winemaking practices.' This is a fascinating, highly scientific and academic piece of work in which we learn of scores of native grape varieties that have been collected in Israel and the West Bank over a number of years. Microvinifications have been made and there has been quite a lot of press coverage already in Israel and abroad. No doubt there will be more wines featurng this USP in due course.

Avi Feldstein

Avi Feldstein is a very interesting person. Without realising it we had come into his orbit previously with Segal's Argaman. This was a wine made by Feldstein when working as winemaker at Segal. He decided to give the unloved Israeli crossing of Souzão and Carignan another chance by planting it at the high altitude Dovev vineyard and fermenting it over Merlot skins.

This has produced a very interesting wine indeed, one of the best in Israel. Argaman might be added to Israeli wine's USP after all.

Feldstein's Dabouki

Now Feldstein has his own operation buying in grapes from Upper Galilee. As well as Dabouki, he works with Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Mourvedre and Sirah.

We would like to wish everyone involved in the rehabilitation of these native grape varieties well, Israeli, Palestinian, Christian. May this cross-border and ecumenical collaboration prosper.

References

'Rediscovering forgotten grapes.' Elizabeth Gabay MW (blog).
'Wine talk. Feldstein Unfiltered' Adam Montefiore, Jerusalem Post
 'Grape Expectations' Adam Montefiore, Israel Wine Experience
'Holy Land Varieties' Adam Montefiore,WinesIsrael.com
'Israel's Grape Varieties' Adam Montefiore,WinesIsrael.com
'Ancient Grapes are the future of Israeli Wine' Peter Weltman, Food and Wine
'Grapes from Zion. Biblical Prophesy and quality wine in the West Bank.' Ian McGonigle, The Times of Israel.
'What Israel must do to become a wine Superpower.' Hadar Kane, Haaretz.