To find the Castel Winery and discover the castle and the knight sitting at its head, we will have to drive on one of the most beautiful roads in the country. On one side, the twists and turns are reminiscent of the Italian mountains, and on the other side, there is the wilds of Nepal with the mountains that slide onto the road. Maybe I exaggerated a bit, but without a doubt, one of the most beautiful roads in our country.
But even then, perhaps to make it harder to find the treasure, after this trip when you reach Ramat Raziel, you still have to look for the winery. There are no signs and no directions. It's not difficult to find it, but there are no signs. To be honest, what's it hiding there for? As soon as you see the wall surrounding the castle, you realize that's where it is.
So how did it start? Eli Ben Zaken had a restaurant in Jerusalem and an empty lot behind the house. In 1988, he decided to plant vines from the first vineyards in the Judean Mountains and try making wine.
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After four years, Eli took the Cabernet and Merlot grapes that grew near the chicken coop and made wine from them, with a little help from friends who understood. For his part, There was no winemaking training., But there was a love for the land and wine, and that was what guided him.
His first wine was aged for two years in French oak barrels and in 1995 it was bottled, decanted and named in Israel "Grand Vin," which means "great wine" in French.
Eli says that he gave this name as a pretense for what he wanted to come out of the wine, when his friends tasted it, they claimed that it really was that. But good friends always support, and it was only when someone sent their wine to experts in England and their response was this: "The wine is brilliantly made, classic, and is a Tour de force (a French expression meaning, an outstanding creative achievement, S.G.). Please give him my best wishes" - that Eli knew that, as its name suggests, it was truly a "great wine.".
The knight at the top of the castle
Sometimes someone succeeds in something one-time, as an experiment that he himself doesn't believe in the results of, but enthusiastic reactions from those around him made Eli think that this experiment should have a continuation.
That's exactly what happened. The initial goal was to produce a little wine for personal consumption, not to mess with a winery or open a professional boutique winery, but after such enthusiastic responses, Eli realized that he had good potential in the soil and vines, and the result before us speaks for itself. "Castell Winery" became a first-class winery, and the rest is history.
Additional vineyards were planted in the area at an altitude of over 700 meters, in winter they even get a little snow, the chicken coop in the yard of the house was turned into a winery and a suitable cellar was carved into the rock.
Eli, the head winemaker of the Castel Winery, is the knight at the top of the castle.
I don't call him that for nothing, Eli recently received a knighthood from the French government for his contribution to the development of agriculture. Together with his son Ariel, who studied oenology in France and also worked in wineries there, they are both responsible for wine production at the winery.
A tasting in honor of the column
The winery focuses on three types of wines, all of which are aged in barrels.
In the cellar there are about 600 barrels for red wines and about a hundred barrels for white wine, C Blanc du Castel, which is Chardonnay.
I've tasted their wine many times before, but in honor of our column, I tasted all three of them again, and this time I did so with the utmost caution and responsibility.
The Chardonnay stays in the barrel for about a year, a third of the amount in new barrels, and then everything is blended.
Excellent, clear, light wine, rich aroma, lots of fruit, light and good acidity, medium finish. 145 NIS.
The second wine, Petit Castel, is a blend made from all five grape varieties grown in Castel's vineyards, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and the rest: Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The wine is aged for 16 months in French oak barrels.
An excellent wine, balanced both on the nose and in the mouth, with fruity aromas, a good touch of barrel and a long, good aftertaste. 124 NIS.
The King of Wine
The contender for the crown is "Castell Grand Vin" - the big wine, which is made more or less from the same material as its little brother, the "Petit Castel", but if Petit also has 'press wine', then Grand only has "free wine" [unstressed P, like F]. I'll explain: At the end of the fermentation of the grapes, the liquid is removed from the tank, taking also the broken grapes that float and the skins that sank into the tank, and putting everything into a press machine = pressure, to squeeze out more liquid left between the skins. The wine that flows out of the tank on its own before pressing the press is called "free wine" - free wine, and the wine that comes out with the pressing is called "press wine". The more you press, the more astringent and bitter the wine comes out, because it takes on the flavors of the skins and seeds.
Grand Wine is something like what is said about "extra virgin olive oil", where you take only what came out without pressing, so this wine is also made only from the juice of wine grapes that came out without pressing. It contains only 'fresh wine' made from the best grapes and aged for 24 months in barrels. Of course, the color is dark and deep red, aromas of chocolate and dried fruits, full body, elegant and balanced, good barrel, a wonderful residual taste that accompanied me for some time after I had already left the winery. 216 NIS.
The truth is that there is another rosé wine that has been produced in recent years called Rosa du Castel, which is a blend of Merlot Malbec and Cabernet Franc that were harvested especially early for this wine. Crisp and delicious, and usually ends 3-4 months after it goes on the market (Passover). By Rosh Hashanah it is already very difficult to obtain.
The series is hosted by Shraga Gebhard, a consultant in the professional and kashrut field of wine.
