ISRAELI WINE WITH THE DIVERSE CUISINE OF THE DIASPORA

  

https://winesisrael.com 

Israeli wine has come a long way from being absent from the global wine map to making  a strong presence around the globe. Viticulture has existed in the area now called Israel since biblical times, and wine was even exported to Rome at one point. However, the entire industry eventually died off with increased Islamic dominance in the area due to their religious rules about wine. Fast forward to much later, the modern Israeli wine industry was established in the late 1800s with the help of Baron Edmond James de Rothschild of the Rothschild banking and wine family but it really only took off after Israel was formed ~1948. Locally made wine was being sold within Israel earlier but it has continued to make a presence in other countries around the globe, although the US remains the primary export destination for Israeli wine.

For further reading, Wines Israel is an excellent resource to dive deeper into Israeli wine, past, present, and future.

JEWS AND THEIR CUISINE IN INDIA

The cuisine of the Jewish diaspora has always fascinated me because of its diversity and the nimbleness with which Jewish people have adapted foods to meet their religious and dietary requirements everywhere they have ended up. This includes India, which philosophically has nothing to do with Judaism but is a famously tolerant place that has offered protections and respect for cultural and religious proclivities to foreign communities who decided to stay in India after initially coming for trade and commerce.

Jewish people came to India initially as traders in the time of King Solomon’s reign (~970 to 931 BC) and stayed, and then after the Alhambra and King Manuel's Decrees which expelled Jews from Spain and Portugal if they did not convert to Christianity. The Hindu monarchs of the time offered numerous privileges to these waves of Jewish immigrants including land grants, tax exemptions, the freedom to speak their language, and freely practice their religion. These Jewish groups established themselves in India, built synagogues, and truly mixed  with the Indian population adopting elements of local  cultural habits and food. All of this was mostly in the coastal Indian states of Kerala and Maharashtra.

Indian Jews made their own wine, challah, and matzo because there were no Jewish bakeries, and like the Muslims do, they had their own butchers who slaughtered meat per Kosher requirements. As the Indian Jewry left or passed away, so did the butchers, and eventually the communities ate mostly vegetables and seafood along with the abundant varieties of rice, spices, and produce adapted from local recipes.

After Israel was established in ~1948 many Indian Jews emigrated to Israel. Although their centuries old synagogues and houses lay largely vacant in India, they continue to carry forward their synthesised cultural and culinary habits in their newly adapted land. I thought it would be interesting to connect the dots and discover how Indian Jewish food pairs with Israeli wine and ponder over whether the Indian Jews who are cooking their ancient hybrid Indian recipes in Israel ever pair them with local wine as they had done in India!

THE WINE + FOOD PAIRING

2014 Binyamina Winery Yogev, 12.5% ABV

SRP $20
WINE: According to the winery, "Our winegrowers instill their crops with their own individual character, Israeli roots and genuine love of the land, inspiring us to name this Series in their honor. Wines in the Yogev Series have been blended using the finest grapes from the best vines cultivated by our most outstanding winegrowers. Simply put, this is the very essence of our wines." The wine is an 80-20 cepage of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from the oldest vineyards in the Upper and Lower Galilee, and strives to be a "harmonious fusion between two noble varieties".

Regarding the wine-making process, the winery says, "The Sauvignon Blanc grapes are harvested two weeks after the Chardonnay grapes. Both varieties are brought to the winery and immediately pressed to extract the best quality free run juice and maintain freshness and aroma. After a natural clarification of the must, the wine is transferred for a slow alcoholic fermentation at low temperatures. The wine is then transferred for brief storage in stainless steel tanks until selection of the final varietal blend. Contact with oak is deliberately avoided in order to maintain maximum freshness. The wine is bottled after filtration and is released after briefly aging in the bottle."
NOTES: We thought that the wine is a beautiful medium lemon colour, clean with a medium intensity and predominantly citrus + white flower on the nose. On the palate it is crisp, medium-bodied with a juicy medium acidity and intensity, and grapefruit/lemon and pear notes with green apple and orange blossoms in the back palate ending with a medium finish. Overall this is a simple wine and considering that this has no oak aging, I can't see how it would age well beyond 2020.

FOOD: We enjoyed the 2014 Yogev with a lovely Keralan lunch of ponganam (rice+lentil crepes) and mutta kari (egg curry) from the book Spice & Kosher. The wine paired exceptionally well with the warm herbaceous of the curry leaves, the smoke of the toasted black pepper, and sweetness of caramelised onions in the curry along with the slight tang of the crepes made from a fermented batter.

FUN FACTS
The egg curry recipe is from Matilda Davidson, from Petah Tikva, Israel, a city that started small but became a permanent settlement in the late 1880s thanks to financial help from Baron. As I've mentioned above, he also helped establish the modern wine industry in Israel.

The word "curry" is anglicised from kari, a Tamil word for dishes seasoned with leaves from curry plant and meant to be eaten with rice or crepes. Kari isn't always saucy, and can be sweet or savoury. There are also 1000s of different kinds of crepes in India, and since rice grows exceptionally well in the wet humid climate, it dominates southern Indian cuisine so the crepes in South India are all rice and/or lentil-based. Seafood also aplenty, and each region has it's favourite fish. Also, in India oysters are considered poor fishermen's food so they never make it to the markets!

Pop over to the websites of everyone below to see what they've done with their Israeli wine and food pairings! And then come talk about it at #WinePW on Twitter on Saturday, 23 May @8 AM PST.

• Terri at Our Good Life shares “Grilled Mahi Mahi and Gilgal Sauvignon Blanc. Our Good Life”
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator shares “The Eternal Light Shines in Galilee: Yarden Merlot, Pinot Gris”
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm shares “Lamb Stuffed Eggplant and a perfect Wine from Galilee”
• Deanna at Asian Test Kitchen shares “Yarden Wines Paired with Japanese Surf ‘n Turf”
• Rupal at Syrah Queen shares “Off The Beaten Path – Two Wines From Isreal’s Galilee Appellation”
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass shares “Of Israeli wines, long-ago memories, and Harvey’s takeout”
• David at Cooking Chat shares “Pairings for Gilgal Sauvignon Blanc from Israel”
• Payal at Keep the Peas shares “Israeli Wine with the Diverse Cuisine of the Diaspora”
• Nicole at Somms Table shares “Memories of Yarden Wines with a side of Meatball Shakshuka”
• Jennifer at Vino Travels shares “Pairings with Wines from Israel”
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares “Peppered Brisket, Honeyed Onions, and the 2106 Galil Mountain ‘Ela’”
• Pinny at Chinese Food and Wine Pairings shares “Enjoying Gilgal Cab Sauvignon – Merlot and Yarden Pinot Gris with Grilled Wagyu Steak, Alaska Sockeye Salmon and Poke Ahi Tuna Bowl”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click! shares “Two Fisted Wine Pairing with Yarden Wines”

WELCOMING SUMMER WITH A BERRY DELICIOUS BROUILLY

This May the French Winophiles are exploring Cru du Beaujolais. All 10 crus, so lots of options and lots to look forward to. The Beaujolias crus are stacked between Burgundy (north) and Rhône (south) and offer an exhilarating variety of wines to try, warranting a tasting dedicated solely to Beaujolais!

               Image from https://www.discoverbeaujolais.com/

Cindy from Grape Experiences is our host this month, read her preview post here to find out more about the finer points of Cru Beaujolais.

CRU BEAUJOLAIS: BROUILLY
I had originally thought of doing a north-to-south tasting of all 5 Cru Beaujolais wines we've got in the cellar, which would've been a great way to really highlight the nuances of each cru. But I've put a weekly limit to the number of alcoholic drinks we're allowed, and the virtual socialising has been adding up so there's no way we could've done the full tasting *and* the social hours and stayed within our limit. The upside to all the socialising I suppose, is that no one is taking their relationships for granted and everyone is going out of their way to keep in touch, including us, even if it is just a check-in to say hello. Everything is virtual nowadays, even meditation sessions! Although, I chicken out of those every week - I have done yoga and meditation since a young age, but I just cannot truly meditate in front of a screen.

So I settled on a Brouilly for our May 2020 #winophiles tasting. Brouilly is the southernmost of Beaujolais crus, and at 1,315 hectares, is also the largest, with ~20% of the total Cru Beaujolais area. The wines are fresh, fruity, can be enjoyed young or aged up to 10 years, and are easy to pair with  various savoury foods. And, as is the case with all of Beaujolais, a great value for $$$. The only red grape allowed in Brouilly is Gamay, with Chardonnay, Melon de Bourgogne, and Aligoté allowed up to 15% in a blend. The four different types of soils on and around Mount Brouilly allow nuanced wines that can fit every palate. There is a long history of superior wine making and as far back as 1769, Brouilly was producing elegant wines that were authorised to be sold to Paris. Certainly a feather in the cap at that time.

I was introduced to Beaujolais and its wine-making communes when I took a wine class during my undergraduate years at Purdue Univ. In the early 2000s IN did not have much going on by way of wine but the class was incredible. The professor had been a wine consultant with American Airlines for decades prior so we always had the best wines in class and reps from all over who came to lecture, including Dom Perignon and other premium champagne houses. And every class included food pairings with the wines - looking back, I'm amazed and impressed at the effort and enthusiasm Prof. Vine put into the class.

THE WINE
2017 Les Frères Perroud "Amethyste", 13% ABV

SRP $16

The Perroud brothers grow the grapes for the Amethyste wine on the southern slope of the Saburins hill in Quincié village, one of the six villages of the Brouilly AOC. The wine is named as such because of the crystalline amethyst layer deep in the soil.

The wine is 100% Gamay and is aged for one year in Burgundian neutral oak barrels. According to the winery website, this wine is best between 2018 and 2032, so we definitely had it on the young side of that time period. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful ruby coloured wine, with aromas full of berries black and blue, ripe purple plums, cooked ripe raspberries, and a hint of black pepper in the very back. Same on the palate, with plush tannins and juicy acidity. The finish is medium and overall the wine is balanced although a bit simple. A splendid wine that I'd love to try again in a few years to see if anything has changed.

We enjoyed it with a classic Beaujolais pairing of charcuterie, cheeses, a goat cheese and leek crumble, and sardine butter. All the food was an expectedly incredible complement to the wine. Even the sardine butter which is silky and more buttery than briny or fishy. We actually had Coravined two glasses to start, but the food and wine were so delicious together that we ended up opening the bottle.

See the links below to find out what my fellow #winophiles are saying about the Cru Beaujolais wines they chose and the superb food pairing ideas for each wine! Join our Twitter chat on Saturday May 16 from 8 - 9 AM PST at #Winophiles. Hope to see you there!

• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm had “A Casual COVID19 Visit with Charcuterie and Chateau de Poncie Le Pre Roi Fleurie”
• Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Cam pairs “Tuna Pâté + Joseph Drouhin Hospices De Belleville Brouilly 2016”
• Jill at l’Occasion explores “Soil + Wind: Tasting Cru Beaujolais with Château du Moulin-à-Vent”
• Payal of Keep the Peas is “Welcoming Summer with a Berry Delicious Brouilly”
• Lynn at Savor the Harvest finds “Fleurie – The Princess Queen of Beaujolais Crus #Winophiles”
• Jane at Always Ravenous explores “Cru Beaujolais: Tasting and Food Pairings”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click enjoys “Cru Beaujolais at the Grill”
• Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles shares “Flowers for Julien – Beaujolais in May”
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass discovers “Gamay and Granite – A Beaujolais Love Story #Winophiles”
• Susannah Gold at Avvinare finds “Cru Beaujolais – An Endless Discovery”
• Pinny at Chinese Food and Wine Pairing discovers “Cru Beaujolais – Cedric Lathuiliere Fleurie Paired with Frog Legs #Winophiles”
• Nicole at Somms Table explains “Julien Sunier Régnié and a Focaccia Fail”
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish meets “Morgon de Jean-Pau Thévenet, One of the Beaujolais Gang of Four”
• Kat at The Corkscrew Concierge is “Exploring the Differences & Pairing Versatility of Cru Beaujolais”
• Martin at Enofylz Wine Blog considers “A Taste of Chénas, Beaujolais’ Rarest Cru”
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator shares “Comparing Louis Tete’s 2016 Brouilly and Morgan Gamay from Beaujolais With Pairings”
• Terri at Our Good Life shares “Cru Beaujolais with Rustic Foods”
• Cindy at Grape Experiences, is loving “The Wines of Fleurie – An Enchanting Introduction to Cru Beaujolais”