A good meal deserves a good bottle of wine, and an excellent meal deserves an excellent bottle of wine. But if you’re not a wine snob (a title I proudly claim), wine lists can be overwhelming. At a restaurant, it’s especially hard to know which wines will go well with the dishes that everyone around the table has ordered.
Now Sphera Kitchen & Bar in Rehovot, which I’ve written about before as one of the best chef restaurants in Israel, aims to take the mystery out of food and wine pairing. Groups of eight to 10 can order a tasting menu of dishes chosen by chef Beni Madar, along with six wine pairings chosen by the restaurant’s sommelier, Liran Viner.
The restaurant invited journalists to test out the concept; my only regret is that I got full too fast. We started the meal with an aperitif of Drappier champagne, a French champagne that makes a kosher cuvée. Dry and well made, it was a great start to the meal.
The first course included a selection of fish and vegetarian dishes, including a delicious tuna sashimi and salads. The wine Viner chose was one of my long-time favorites, the Castel C Chardonnay. The crisp chardonnay was a perfect match for the fish. “It was the wine I drank on my first date with the woman who is now my wife,” Viner said with a smile.
We then moved on to meat appetizers, which included a delicious pâté with brioche, and a cigar filled with beef cheek that was a bit spicy and delicious. My favorite (no judgment here, please) was goose liver on basbousa (similar to polenta), which melted in my mouth. To accompany this course, Viner chose a kosher French pinot noir. He said he had hoped to use a pinot noir from Avi Feldstein, but it had not been bottled yet.
At this point, we took a break to look at the restaurant’s enviable wine collection – which includes quite a few large-format bottles like magnums, which are the size of two standard bottles, as well as a few really large bottles called Nebuchadnezzar (look it up, it’s real) or Jeroboam. There is also a wine room, which may have become my new favorite place in Rehovot.
We then came back for the main course, which included some excellent lamb chops and steaks. Unfortunately, I was too full for more than a bite or two, but I managed to drink some of the wine that Viner chose – the elegant Yarden El Rom 2020 from the Golan Heights Winery, which was like drinking velvet.
Along with dessert, we had the white Psagot Prat (a takeoff on port, which has to be from Portugal), an elegant Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer blend that is made in small quantities, which I had never tried before.
Both chef Madar and Viner were with us for most of the meal, offering explanations of the food and the wine. It was great to listen to them explain their vision and why Viner chose these specific wines to go with the dishes that were offered.
Overall, it was an excellent meal and well worth the drive to Rehovot.
As expected, this experience does not come cheap. There are three levels of cost which includes all the food and wines. The Pairing Selection Reserve is NIS 550 per person; the Pairing Grand Vintage is NIS 650 per person; and the Pairing Prestige Collection is NIS 950 per person.
The experience must be booked in advance.
- Sphera Kitchen & Bar
- 18 Hamada, Rehovot
- Phone: 072-392-2099
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.