Before I knew it we were traveling as a family to a winery that Anat, my son’s wife to be, thought it would be fun to visit. But our love for good food and good wine encouraged her to first take us to a wonderful dreamlike restaurant situated in the middle of a goat farm at the Tal Shachar Meshek 17. Not only were the goats cute and friendly but the food was delicious. The goat cheese spreads, homemade jam and bread were a food lover’s delight.
The phone number of the restaurant is 08- 949-5964
Next we visited Flam Winery. “Flam Winery is located in the heart of the magnificent Jerusalem Hills, at the mouth of the Kisalon River and Hakdoshim. The winery is a half-hour drive from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.”
The Flam family passion for winemaking unveils a small boutique winery with top quality wine.
The Winery was established by the brothers Golan and Gilad Flam in 1998. Golan is the winemaker and completed his Master degree in winemaking at University of Piancenza in Italy and received practical experience by working in wineries in Italy, and Australia. His brother Gilad is a Law and Business graduate and is in charge of the winery’s business strategy.
We had the wonderful opportunity of meeting their father Israel who had been a winemaker for over 30 years at Carmel wineries. . He personally took us on the tour of the winery. His excitement and pride in his son’s accomplishments was inspiring. He spent time explaining how the love and passion for winemaking by his sons evolved into the Flam winery of today.
The Flam family passion for making wine can be seen through out the winery. The meticulous detail of the brochures, labels and the concern for top quality wine is evident in the last part of the tour: Tasting the fruits of their labor.
The credo is based on a “union between the European theory that good wine begins in the vineyard, and the New World claims that the winemaker is responsible for the wine’s character and identity.” As a result of this understanding the Flam family found the best locations in Israel to produce these wines of high caliber and most importantly great taste.
I am no wine tasting expert but all of us had a great time tasting the 5 varieties as we slowly sunk into a pleasant state of bliss. While all of the wines we tasted were rich and delightful to the smell and taste we all seemed to especially love the Flam Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay, Flam Superiore Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon, and the smooth tasting Flam Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. The other two wines we tasted are the Flam Classico blend of Cab and Merlot that is the table wine found in many of Israel’s finer restaurants and the Flam Merlot Reserve that has received high marks by the experts and was so rich and full that putting it away for a time would only make this wine the preferred red. However, not having the facility in my Tel Aviv apartment we decided to stock up on the other wines mentioned and this Shabbat we will break out the bottles for a blessing with a full meal of joy and stories shared by all the family.
You can visit their web site at
www.flamwinery.com
The telephone number of the winery is 02-992-9923\4\5
The photos will give you an idea of what we were up to. Click on each picture for a better view.
Anat, David, Liz and Steve (that’s me with the beard)
The Flam Winery. Israel Flam is our gracious host.
This was the best part of the tour.
