For food and wine

La Terra Promessa is a winery where the food is as good as the wine.

By OFER ZEMACH
La Terra Promessa 298 (photo credit: Courtesy photo)
La Terra Promessa 298
(photo credit: Courtesy photo)
Located at Moshav Shahar on the road between Kiryat Gat and Ashkelon, La Terra Promessa is a winery where the food is as good as the wine. Its name in Italian means The Promised Land, and it was founded in 1998 by Parma-born Sandro Pelligrini and his wife Irit. Sandro, who comes from an Italian family of winemakers, arrived in Israel in 1991 and worked as a chef in a Jerusalem restaurant. There he met Irit - whose family roots are in Cochin, India - and decided to settle in Israel. Together the pair set up a small winery, where Sandro started crafting his own wines using grapes from a vineyard in the upper Galilee. The establishment now has its own organic vineyards of Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Cabernet Franc grapes, and produces three series of wines. La Terra celebrates its new release, Lacrime (Tears) 2004 over the weekends of June 22-24 and July 13-15 by offering a gourmet dinner for two accompanied by a package of 10 or 12 bottles of wine. Sandro and Irit's dinner combines Italian and Indian cuisine and includes delights such as cabbage in mustard seeds and curry; a salad of carrots and ginger; pickled eggplants in balsamic sauce; homemade pasta in eggplant and tomato sauce; chicken in coriander; tiramisu; and a selection of La Terra Promessa wines and liquors. The package of 12 bottles is comprised of three bottles each of Rubino Reserve 2002, Lacrime 2004, Zinfandel 2004 and Emerald Riesling 2005. The package of 10 bottles includes five bottles of Rubino Reserve 2002 and five bottles of Lacrime 2004. The price for each package, including a dinner for two, is NIS 1000. Lacrime 2004 is a red wine blend of 45% Sangiovese, 45% Shiraz, and 10% Cabernet Franc grapes. Six hundred bottles, aged for 14 months in French oak casks, were made in this series. The appealing wine features fruity aromas of plums and cherries with a hint of vanilla and oak, and costs NIS 95 per bottle. For information and reservations, call (050) 568-4775.