Everything was set. A night harvest was planned for right after the holiday ended on Shemini Atzeret, Shabbat, October 7, 2023 – but pulling out of his driveway, winemaker Amichai Lourie discovered that the entire Shiloh Winery staff and all the vineyard grower staff were fighting for Israel’s survival. Weeks later, an 83-year-old retired picker and his friends finished his northern harvest with IDF cannons booming alongside them and rockets fired in their direction.
The spanking-new Shiloh Winery Visitor Center was almost ready for its grand November opening during Hanukkah 5784-2023, with just a few final touches needed. But Amichai uses only Jewish laborers – all were drafted. There was no grand opening, just a ghostly shell standing. That was last year.
We came to learn about the war’s ongoing impact in its second year.
Today, the stunning Jerusalem stone structure sits on Shiloh’s main entrance road. An outdoor deck overlooks grapevines and olive orchards in the fertile Shiloh Valley; a wine-bottle-lined indoor hall with magnificent décor seats 140, with outdoor seating for up to 300 people. More intimate rooms for private gatherings or meetings are in the upper floor, including a cigar room. A state-of-the-art caterer’s kitchen is near completion. A full range of barbecue facilities is already in use by private chefs that work wonders for private and organizational groups. “We had a soft opening on Sukkot 2024. Regular tours include jeep trips into the fields, but only 150 overseas tourists have come in half a year, instead of 150 or more a day,” says Yossi Kransdorf, center manager and an American oleh.
“I was coordinating the production of our creative artist Pinny Mizrachi’s new beautiful graphics and labeling from my laptop,” says Assistant GM Itai Metzger, “working with Scheller Printing. But at some point, you have to actually check colors at the printer, and months went by until I could go.” Yossi smiles. “That’s when he was outside; he could work at night, but when he was fighting inside, there was no phone, no laptop, and no contact.” These men are serving in IDF units where they cannot even talk about what they do. So designing and labeling held up the bottling, which delayed the packing and shipping.
The in-house state-of-the-art laboratory boasts machines like one using both infrared and UV light, and turns samples into gas, to frequently and easily test an entire range of factors. Computers and smartphones adjust each room, tank, and pipe temperature, and set nonstop Sabbath and even three-day holiday treatments. For example, fermenting wine develops a hard “cap” of skins and solid material rising to the top. No more regularly opening all the tanks to physically pound it down; now pumps do it. Wetting the cap regularly with wine, even every few minutes if needed, enables maximum skin contact with the liquid, thus extracting flavors, aroma and color from the skins without damage. This exactitude was never before possible. Lees, a yogurt-like sludge with seed remnants and acids, form on tank bottoms, but with much absorbed wine. A new Italian machine extracts high-quality wine from the lees, greatly increasing the quality and quantity of each batch.
I finally sit down with Amichai himself, and he opens his heart before I say a word.
“The people of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and the Land of Israel are one – the land is a living responsive force that responds to the people and how they live with the Torah, in it and on it. The Hatam Sofer says working the land is the equivalent of putting on tefillin. Some mitzvot can only be done here, and even the others that are performed in the Diaspora, as the Ramban says, are preparing us to do them in Israel. I travel regularly overseas on business, and I sense this perception is lacking. So I seek to share it through wine.”
JP: How has the war affected you in its second year?AL: Many growers were away fighting, and their crops suffered, losing about 30% of our 2024 grapes. Our staff is in and out of the frontlines. Delays meant missing the high season of Purim and Pesach overseas for many 2023 wines, losing the “prime real estate” on store shelves, and canceled orders. But our product has shelf life and improves with age, so Baruch Hashem! I hope the 2023 18-month wines will make it for Rosh Hashana. And Royal Wine Corporation, our distributors, devote themselves to helping us succeed.
Originally, there were no chairs for visitors because you invested everything in the wine. After achieving the quality level you wanted, over ten years, you planned, designed, and built the new visitor center. What’s the concept?I wanted a 5-star hotel feeling – the furniture, lighting, aromatic candles in the bathrooms, and multiple venues for high-end meetings, leadership gatherings, honoring donors to organizations and those who really appreciate fine foods and fine wines to luxuriate here. At an outdoor deck party, the visitor will say, ‘I’m coming back here with my friends for drinks in the cigar room, with my staff for our product launch, or my overseas cousins for an intimate wine-tasting and gourmet meal!’ Come picnic in the vineyard, enter the vat and barrel rooms smelling the wine, feeling the air, seeing the people working, or go down with winemaker Matanya Popper into the cellar, drawing samples directly from the barrels.
But with far fewer visitors and maintenance costs, how do you continue?An IDF officer came in. I said, ‘Sir, I’m busy. I have no staff – how can I help you?’ He said, ‘Your care packages to our wives and families keep us going; I had to thank you personally.’ I replied, ‘Very nice, but give me my worker back!’ He replied, ‘No. Units from Gaza to Lebanon fight for his attention and fly him back and forth. He solves challenges that no one else can.’ He showed me classified images of my worker saving lives, recovering hostages, and finding real-time battlefield solutions you didn’t hear about on the news. That keeps us going.Visiting Tel Shiloh next door is an unforgettable experience, with the archaeology of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) and great multi-media. There is ATVing, workshops with craftspeople, hikes, and springs. We hope this summer will be packed! Our visitor center hostesses, Revital More and Aura Netzer, tailor the experience for each group, and our sukkah will host holiday visitors!”
I like the optimism under duress. Tell me about your new wines.Before that, I must first say that you cannot yet grasp our transformation from outside of Israel. Regular people suddenly being battlefield heroes or saving people from terrorists at home; world news and Time Magazine featuring relatives of hostages and freed hostages – look at these people, look how they speak! Overseas, people dropped their jobs to do everything possible to help and protect us, combining David’s protective shield with his slingshot and sword. Am Yisrael needs Gevura, steadfast and constant courage, resilience, and a readiness to stand up. Our people today are like King David’s courageous, brave fighters and entourage, like Adino Haetzni, soft and flexible learning in the study hall, tough as wood on the battlefield. Safra veSaifa, the book and the sword, learning Torah and defending its values in life, is an ancient Jewish value. They inspired the renaming of our Legend line of complex blends. I hope seeing these new David’s Heroes bottles with the protective Shield of David will convey that Safra veSaifa message.
This past year was the worst drought I can remember, yet the produce has been amazing! Adino, formerly “Fiddler,” blends Petite Syrah, Petit Verdot, and Shiraz, which are very full-bodied and aromatic. Ittai, formerly “Honi,” is Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec; 16 barrel months, very rich and spicy. Ira, a priest to David and his Torah teacher, is the name of a totally new blend of Carignan, Grenache Barbera, elegant and complex, yet light.”
“Privilege is our entry-level, then white and rosé wines, then the single varietal Shor series – the bull, Joseph’s blessing, and then David’s Legend blends. Secret Reserve, Mosaic, and Mosaic Exclusive demand exceptional quality grapes and more time to process. They are only produced in some years.
I sense you are holding back a secret; you are not satisfied.What earns a 100 score? No Israeli wine has yet received 100. For two decades, I have been working with Napa Valley winemakers and constantly experimenting. In 2019 and 2020, I finally thought some barrels had it. This summer, I hope to release them with a new name. They are definitely an eighth level. We shall see….”
Still, Amichai. We are still at war, you pay salaries, and have suffered financial losses. Private chefs and others come, but far below the center’s potential. How can you keep going?What truly drives this place is the deep conviction and belief of owner Dr. Mayer Chomer of Mexico. The Bible speaks about winemaking as part of life here, with God’s blessing, with fruits growing as heralding the onset of Israel’s redemption; “There is no greater open [sign]that the end is in sight,” says the Talmud. Jeremiah promises wine growing will return to the Shomron (Jeremiah 31:4). That this visitor center now exists, and as Elton John sings, “We’re still standing,” is a credit to his integrity and to his belief that we are making a difference here, and that our wine proudly carries an important message –and this center will certainly be its flagship. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with such a man. But I sense success is percolating, like Joseph smelling sweet smells while being taken captive. Good things are coming.”
An expanded version of this article may be found on the Shiloh Winery website.Barnea may be reached at selavan@gmail.com
This article was written in cooperation with Shiloh Winery.