In recent years, a welcome trend has been taking root in our country — a return to the local. More and more chefs and winemakers are choosing to focus on products grown here, on local varieties, and on raw materials that speak the climate, the soil, and the season.
At first it looked like a trend, but it seems to be a movement that is here to stay, one that seeks to break free from the imitation of European models and listen to what is right not only for the body, but also for nature and local culture, and as they say: To rediscover the richness that lies right under our noses.
For some reason, it always seemed to me that we have a tendency to undervalue local produce. This is not something that happens only in the field of wine or cuisine. In general, it seems to me that we tend to belittle ourselves and what we have here. About some of the reasons for this, we can agree.
Faithful to the source
recently I tasted two local wines that were worth mentioning. Not Bordeaux and not anything else trying to imitate what’s happening elsewhere, but an original Israeli variety: Argaman.
It is a cross between the Portuguese Souzao and the Spanish Carignan, developed in the 1970s in an attempt to find a unique local variety rich in color.
Those behind the development, done at the Volcani Center for Agricultural Research, were Prof. Pinchas Roy-Spiegel and Shlomo Cohen from the Wine Institute. Argaman was registered in the Israeli Population Authority as a patent in the early 1990s, but winemakers at the time were not particularly impressed.
Today the story is slightly different. It may be part of the new trend of returning to origins and roots, which has shed light on the potential of this variety.
Twice Argaman
Two bottles of Argaman were on the table: One from the 2019 vintage of Jezreel Valley Winery, among the first not to fear this variety even though they were surely told it wouldn’t work. And one from Feldstein Winery from the 2022 vintage. Two wineries different from one another that usually make wonderful wines.
The winemaker Avi Feldstein insists on making wines that can be drunk in the Israeli climate. Reds that are not intimidating and not heavy. You can’t say this wine is light, but it’s not heavy at all. 12.5% alcohol for a red wine — that’s as Israeli-autumn as it gets.
In the Jezreel Valley version there is a bit more alcohol, 13.6%, but this Argaman is also part of the winery’s style, which focuses on producing wines from climate-adapted varieties that love plenty of sun and are fun to drink under the sun.