“The land requires that you care for it, that you work it, and I think as Western societies, we’ve either forgotten or outsourced that responsibility,” he said. “It's very telling that one of the first things the Rothschild family decided to do when they were establishing industry in Israel was to plant vineyards, which is a long-term commitment to the land – they don’t mature quickly.”
Elie Wurtman. (Photo: Dor Kedmi)[Missing Credit]
Wurtman, who planted the new vines 16 years ago with his community and his then-small children, hoped to impart a similar sense of commitment to the land by involving young Israelis in the vineyards’ cultivation process. He partnered with The Regavim Youth Program, a social-agricultural initiative that combines hands-on farming with academic learning for children who struggle to sit at a desk. What began in 2010 with just a dozen high school-aged boys has since grown into a change-making mixed gender programme for nearly 1,200 kids to engage in farming at Bat Shlomo and across the region.
“They learn in the vineyard that things don't start with the school bell and end with the school bell; they start at sunrise, and they end when you're done,” Wurtman said. “And they come out in the mornings with a smile –
I don't think we can say that about most teenagers. I think we're doing something really meaningful and important.”
The kids’ work is honoured on every bottle of Bat Shlomo wine with the embossment of the Regavim logo. One of the blends – a dry red – is named after the programme. “There's a sense of pride that they are a part of this product,” Wurtman said.
And so they should be; Bat Shlomo Vineyards produces a lineup of acclaimed wines that have earned top scores from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, most of which are French varietals as introduced to the region by the Rothschilds.
Wurtman particularly set out to create an exceptional white wine, something he envisioned as “the perfect bottle to open up on the beach, on a hot summer day, that would be approachable and crisp”: in other words, ideal for the Israeli climate.
Wine selection at Bat Shlomo. (Photo: Amir Giron)[Missing Credit]
“There were not great kosher white wines at all in the world, let alone in Israel, and we thought that we would make our mark by creating great Israeli kosher white wines, start with sauvignon blanc, and then the rosé, and then we also make a Chardonnay,” Wurtman said. “It was only later that we introduced red wines, and that's really more for the industry, because any self-respecting winery needs to make a top scoring red wine.”
Bat Shlomo's answer to that is “Betty’s Cuvée”, a dry blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. But going forward, Wurtman said Bat Shlomo is looking to push the boundaries on what makes Israeli wine distinctly Israeli, namely by utilising new blends and, eventually, cultivating indigenous grapes.
"We're not France, we're not California - I don't know yet what defines Israeli wine. I think that's our mission,” he said. “I think it's up to us and people like us, who are really committed to modern and environmental farming practises and dedicated to making great wine; I think it'll be people like us that break through.”
For now, being at the forefront of Israel’s modern revival as a distinguished region for winemaking – and not just wine that will collect dust in the kosher section – is the goal for Bat Shlomo.
“We did this tasting the other day for a wine enthusiast who is highly regarded as one of the top authorities online, and during the blind tasting, he says: ‘I wouldn't know that this was Israeli wine,’” Wurtman said. “Today, I'll take that as a compliment. But in the future, I'd actually like him to know
it’s an Israeli wine, and to recognise it because of its excellence.”
Bat Shlomo is reviving one of Israel's first settlement villages and vineyards to bring the agricultural spirit of the pioneers into the present. (Photo: Amir Giron)[Missing Credit]