A brief 42 hour or so trip to Israel over the weekend.
Went to Kibbutz Zova or Tsova or Tsuba or Tsoba - it's one and the same place, up in the hills to the west of Jerusalem. I have more than a passing acquaintance with this place.
I met Paul Dubb, the winemaker, or very nearly didn't. Having reached the place easily I was directed to an office behind a cowshed, except that the place appeared to be full of cowsheds and I did not realise that the particular cowshed to which they referred was a demolished one. My apologies to the lady in the shop which I breezed through in frantic search of Paul and ended up scrambling over rocks to get to the office.
Paul is South African and has been at Tsova a few months. The winery produces about 30000 bottles a year and intends to export to the UK shortly. It also supplies grapes to Castel. I tasted the 2005 Chardonnay, a 2005 Cab Sauv and a rather good Merlot Reserve straight from the barrel. It all tasted OK so I bought some for my daughter’s wedding. The chardonnay is NIS 69 per bottle, the Cab Sauv is NIS 79 and the Merlot Reserve will be no more than NIS 100. On my way out Paul asked me if I liked port -- I am not a Port person so I never followed this up but I assume that Zova produces Port as well. You can try buying direct from the winery. Castel will use a normal courier service to send bottles to London.
On the way back I drove along the scenic back doubles towards Eshtaol and Bet Shemesh. I ended up later at the bistro at Ga'ash golf course for a snack. Unfortunately they have increased their green fees in shekalim by about a third and with the appreciation in value of the NIS, no Anglo can afford to pay about £ 40 or $ 75 for 9 holes on a course which at best is a glorified English coastal pitch and putt.
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