This past Friday was another tiyul (the Hebrew word for “field trip,” “excursion,” or “hike.” It’s pretty multi-purpose word.) organized by the HUC interns and Jason, one of my classmates. This one was a wine tasting trip, which made me very excited. Jason is a wine aficionado and put a lot of man-hours into constructing a great itinerary exploring four wineries in the Judean hills south of Jerusalem (Israel’s version of Santa Barbara to the Galilee’s Napa). Each winery was chosen as representing different styles and approaching to wine productions and marketing.
The first winery we went to was called Ella Winery, and is conveniently located in the Elah Valley, the location of David’s legendary battle with Goliath. At the winery we received a tour of the production area by a slightly snooty Israeli Olah who continually reminded us that Ella Winery makes “kosher, premium wine.” And then she extolled the virtues of what it means to make wine that is both kosher and premium. Ultimately, she poured for us a Sauvignon Blanc, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Muscat (very popular in Israeli wine culture). The wines were fine, nothing to write home about, but definitely not terrible. The winery itself – with its décor, location, view, production style, attitude, and taste of wine – could pass for a low end California winery, and so in that respect it was much better than other Israeli wine. And it’s kosher. We had a choice of buying a bottle or paying for the tour, so everyone bought a bottle – I bought a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc which was light and refreshing, a good bottle for a Jerusalem afternoon.
The next winery was not as exciting. It was called Mony and it was located in an old monastery, which was a cool idea but not so neat to hang out in. The wines were nothing remarkable, but on the tasting bar they had olives, pita, zatar, and amazing olive oil. So I bought a bottle of olive oil, as it was both delicious and cheaper than the olive oil available in the stores here. Outside by the bus there was a terraced picnic table area with clumps of grapes draped on the terrace, and we picked grapes and enjoyed the view. They were very sweet and tasty grapes.
Me picking grapes
Our third stop was down the road apace – two stops on one property. Tavlin is a restaurant that grows and markets their own spices/teas/rices/cheeses in an attached spice store. We arrived, eager and hungry, and while we waitied for our table reservation to clear itself up, we wandered into the spice shop. It was overwhelming at first. Initially, it was just the smell, which hit my nose with a big puff of Spice! that totally caught me unaware. And then my eyes opened and I saw rows and rows of this:
It was like something out of an Arabian night or an Israeli novel . Just rows and rows of incredible rich colors and smells and textures. I could have walked around that store for hours. We realized that our lunch reservation was actually a reservation for a spice lecture, so we went to a separate room and received a cup of delicious fruit tea while an adorable British Olah lectured us on the benefits of spices – they add colors, taste, and aroma to food. Then she delved into individual spice traits: Turmeric is nature’s antibiotic, black cumin is nature’s penicillin, their special Viagra tea (it’s actually called Viagra tea) works for both men and women, and green tea is good for your heart.
The benefits of turmeric root
After a talk such as that, we mulled around the spice store (I bought tea, turmeric, and a tea infuser) before settling down to eat. Lunch was a very delicious dairy meal, and afterwards, as we slowly ran out of time, there was a rush to finish to fit in the last winery. As it turned out, the winery, Flam, wasn’t actually open, so we didn’t go, but it was all right because the spice store more than made up for more Israeli wine.
And it’s something to go back for again, as if I need a reason to return to that sumptuous spice store.
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