A recent Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong, where an anonymous Chinese bidder purchased 300 bottles of Chateau Lafite for $539,280.

We take a look at the current climate for fine wines in Mainland China, following the launch of the first-ever Chinese investment fund dedicated to wine.

China’s market for fine wines is maturing and augmenting at a dizzying rate. Wine imports to Hong Kong are poised to break the US$1 billion barrier this year, after soaring by 65% in the first eight months of 2011. And that doesn’t even take the booming Mainland into consideration, a wine market valued at 75 billion Yuan (roughly US$10 billion) in 2009. Domestic wines still account for over two-thirds of the local market, but demand for imported grape wine is surging, as the rising middle class take more overseas travel, exposing them to western customs and wine culture.

Not that interest is sudden. Chinese wine buyers were instrumental in the recovery at the top end of the market, following the dip seen in the wake of the global economic crisis in 2008. The Mainland is now the largest importer of Bordeaux by volume, edging out Germany and driving a jump in exports of French wine. According to Luxuo, exports from the famed French region rose 34 percent in value and 23 percent in volume between July 2010 and June 2011.

“Mainland China is now the largest importer of Bordeaux by volume, Hong Kong is the largest importer by value.”

Messages regarding the market are mixed. Jing Daily recently reported that fine wine prices retreated 7.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 and that demand for the highest of high-end bottles, particularly Chateau Lafite, were thought to be showing signs of slowing after a nearly three-year-long tear – due partly to the ubiquity, rampant counterfeiting and unsustainably high prices of Lafite and other high-profile wines.

Echoing this sentiment, prime lots of Chateau Lafite, Chateau Latour, Mouton Rothschild and Margaux failed to sell at Sotheby’s Finest and Rarest Wines sale last week in Hong Kong. It was the first auction not to sell out entirely since Sotheby’s entered Hong Kong in 2009. Yet over at Christie’s, just last September, an anonymous Chinese bidder bought 300 bottles of Château Lafite-Rothschild bundled into a single lot for $539,280 – the most expensive single lot sale this year.

“Fine wine prices retreated 7.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 and demand for the highest of high-end bottles is showing signs of slowing”

Christie’s head of wine for China, Simon Tam, refused to become pessimistic, suggesting instead that the market is simply calming down. “The first generation of wine lovers to discover Lafite now have long-lasting stock and they don’t need to accumulate more.” Mathieu Chadronnier, managing director of CVBG Grands Crus, went so far as to say it was necessary. “We have gone through a period of constant growth. Prices can’t go on increasing forever – this correction was needed.”

The buying landscape is clearly changing. In a first for the country, the Chinese government has approved the first-ever Chinese investment fund specialising in wine, which plans to invest over €110 on wine over a five-year period. Ling Zhijun, a banking professional and wine enthusiast who manages Pacific Asset Management of Beijing, founded the Dinghong Fund. Investors must part with a minimum investment of €1m for a company and €100,000 for an individual, and buying will be managed by Bordeaux negociant Vintex & les Vignobles Grégoire.

“The first generation of wine lovers to discover Lafite now have long-lasting stock and they don’t need to accumulate more.”

Philippe Larché, one of the partners in negociant Vintex and the fund’s primary advisor and main supplier, revealed that over one-third of wines to be purchased will supply the cellars of fund investors. “The fund is not just about buying and selling grands crus, but also educating customers and introducing them to Bordeaux,” he remarked. “We expect to bring each investor to discover the vineyards of Bordeaux, and to set up wine masterclasses in China, with the participation of owners and winemakers.”

Mr Larché remained relatively unfazed by recent results at the Sotheby’s auction, instead suggesting the result was indicative of a natural evolution in the market, as bidders understand more about wine and how it trades. He, alongside Sotheby’s worldwide head of wine, Serena Sutcliffe, suggested that Second Growths are becoming increasingly popular in Asia, as knowledge of different châteaux broadens.

“China now understands that we don’t have only first growths in Bordeaux. The market is maturing. But I am not anxious. I am very confident that the first growths will go up again in value.”

For more in our series of weekly wraps, please see our most recent editions of The Bulletin as follows:

- Luxury Brand CSR: No Longer Just an Option?
- Optimism Shines at Frankfurt’s 2011 Motor Show
- Paris & Beijing Legitimise Commitments to Design

© Luxury Society, China’s Market for Fine Wine Shows Maturity, 31 October 2011, by Sophie Duran.

Wine writers tend to talk in some pretty tight aphorisms too: ‘Wine should be accessible to people as an everyday beverage,’ ‘Wine should not be intimidating to ordinary folks,’ and ‘Expensive wine is not necessarily better than inexpensive wine…’

Yet in our hearts, our minds—in our very swill-sopped souls—we all know what a load of crap that is.

Let me put it another way.  Nobody likes to be laughed at, right?  It’s human nature.  So consider this:

• Redneck jokes are funny.  Blueblood jokes are not.
• Guzzling Colt 45 on a ghetto porch step is funny.  Sipping 2005 Domaine Leroy Chambertin in a Bloomfield Hills dining room is not.
• Getting shitfaced on green beer on St. Patrick’s Day is funny.  Getting slightly tipsy on Patricia Green Pinot Noir on Christmas Eve is not.
• At a restaurant, a beer steward is funny.  A wine steward is not.

I could go on, but let me change tack.  When was the last time you heard of anyone spending twenty thousand dollars installing a beer cellar?  Why do you suppose there’s a Hospice de Beaune, a Hospice du Rhône, but no Hospice du Milwaukee?  The number one beverage during the Revolutionary War was ale, and yet Jefferson is known for what kind of collection?

If I was to break with journalistic tradition and personal precedent and tell the truth, I’d have to say something that we all secretly understand:

Wine is for rich people.

Bernie and Mikey, sittin' in a tree...

This is not a bad thing—America likes rich people.  Michael Moore makes movies about hating them, then becomes one.  What percentage of the American workforce seriously believes they’re overpaid?  And who can revile Bernie Madoff without harboring a private little ‘Wow!’?

Take you, for example.  Do you fantasize about owning a Lamborghini or a K Car?  A Ducati or a moped?  Do you show off your Mont Blanc or your Bic?  Your Rolex or your Timex?

Stop feigning humility already.

Workaday Willie

And don’t get me wrong—wine writers are among the worst offenders.  We pretend to be proletariat non-snobs, but of course, if we really wanted wine to become the sort of plebian plonk that the average wanker drinks in Europe, we’d also have to admit that Workaday Willie in Waukesha, Wisconsin couldn’t care less about all the esoteric enological knowledge we’ve spend years absorbing and millions of words expounding upon.

You know who likes that kind of stuff?  Rich people, that’s who.  Being able to rattle off the five allowable red wine grapes of Bordeaux or the ten Crus of Beaujolais does Willie scant good during Happy Hour, and may in fact get him beat up.  But for rich people at the tony country club or some Ivy League benefit dinner, this shit is golden.  Not only does it allow a rich person to feel even more swank and superior, it actually allows him or her to make informed decisions as they drop tens of thousands of dollars at wine auctions.

I will be sued for using this picture and Sotheby's will get even richer

Which brings us around, full-circle, to Sotheby’s.

In 2011, Sotheby’s wine auctions brought in $85.5 million dollars, the second highest total in the company’s forty-one years of hooch hawkery.

Said Serena Sutcliffe MW (Mistress of Wine) and Worldwide Head of Wine at Sotheby’s:  “This is a great worldwide result, and for London sales, the highest total ever achieved since the start of the department in 1970. We had some tremendous single owner collections in London and Hong Kong and we continue to find remarkable collections with perfect provenance.”

If somebody has the wherewithal to drop me a quick email and explain what ‘perfect provenance’ is, I’d appreciate it; it might help me find placement for the collection of empty 211 Steel Reserve cans in the trunk of my K Car.

Meanwhile, among the ‘remarkable collections’ auctioned off in Hong Kong was the Andrew Lloyd Webber Wine Collection, fetching $5.6 million—which should buy an awful lot of cat chow.  A two-day April sale of The Ultimate Cellar brought in more than $12 million, while a single bottle (albeit a big one) of Château Cheval Blanc 1995 sold for $45 k.  The lucky bidder was an unnamed private collector from South America, who will presumably cellar the wine in the vicinity of the dead bodies that I guarantee he’s got stashed down there.

Serena Sutcliffe, Masterette of Wine

Incidentally, beside the 13 Sotheby auctions held in London in 2011, and the six in Hong Kong, there were also four held in New York.  Repeated and harassing phone calls to Ms. Sutcliffe went unanswered, but private research has revealed that Sotheby auctioneers pretty much ignored the site-potential of Waukesha.

Sutcliffe may or may not be a rich person, but she certainly understands the ultimate truth behind the ultimate beverage or else she wouldn’t keep bragging about the figures she gives above.  Somebody somewhere is keeping precise tabs on sales of Piggly Wiggly shelf stuffers, but not our friends at Sotheby.  They don’t have to: They’re rich people.

If, in the end, there’s any consolation for us poor schmucks trying to schlepp our way through our daily schtick, it requires that we keep in mind another timeworn adage:

The rich may be different, but they’re still drunks.

P.S.: Two Buck Chuck is funny.  Two Thousand Buck Château d’Yquem is not.

But first, a bit of the history of the winery. Its founder, Eli Ben Zaken, who was born in Egypt and sent by his family to Great Britain for his education, came to Israel as a volunteer in the 1967 Six Days War. Between his British education and coming to Israel, he traveled through Switzerland and Italy where he was exposed to fine food and wines. His love of food and an absence of quality restaurants in Israel, stimulated him to open a gourmet Italian restaurant in Jerusalem. To complement the servings, he sought equally high quality wine, but could not find them in Israel. He started growing grapes and experimenting with making wine, having no background or training in viticulture or oenology. The first vines of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were planted in 1988 and the first harvest was in 1992 with a production of 600 bottles of a Bordeaux-style blend called the Grand Vin. The results were quite amazing and recognition first came from Serena Sutcliffe, an acclaimed specialist of wine in England and head of Sotheby’s Wine Department in London. In 1995, a friend brought her a bottle from this first vintage. She tasted the wine and declared it “absolutely terrific. It is quite unlike other Israeli wines…This wine is a real tour de force, brilliantly made and very ‘classic.’” These comments convinced Ben Zaken to pursue what he had started and the production has now grown to 100,000 bottles per year. His vineyard was in the “backyard” of Jerusalem in the Judean Hills where no other wineries were located despite wines having been made there 3,000 years earlier. He found that the Castel Crusader fortress was nearby and named his wine after this chateau. The emblem of the winery incorporates a depiction of the chateau, the Lion of Judea, and three stars of David for his three children.

We visited on a beautiful sunny day in early December and were greeted by Ruth Amir, the Customer Relations Manager. She described the history of the winery and gave us a feel for the spiritual energy that flows there. The Ben Zaken family and Ruth’s colleagues are connected to the earth and the forested countryside. The flavors of the wines reflect the people and the place. She asked the masgiach in residence of Castel, whose wines have been certified Kosher since 2003,

Look Up There's the Mashgiach

to guide us through the fermentation room  and down into the Chardonay cask cellar

Ruth in Chardonnay Cask Room

and further down into the beautifully designed red wine cellar where the French oak barrels reside. It has been said that this is the most beautiful cask cellar of all the wineries of Israel.  On the way we were able to view Eli Ben Zaken’s personal wine storage room and see a bottle of the Castel Grand Vin from the first production in 1992.

There is also a collection of jeroboam (4.5 liter) bottles from the early years of the winery. 

We then adjourned to the tastefully decorated wine tasting room for a treat of Barkanit cheeses paired with the wines.

Castle Winery produces their “C” Blanc du Chateau, a varietal of 100% Chardonay, which, after four days of fermentation in stainless steel vats is put into oak casks, one-third new and two-thirds old, for the remainder of the 12 month fermentation and aging period. This white wine is produced in a style similar to that used in Bourgogne, where the grapes are crushed but not de-stemmed and pressed slowly and gently. In grapes, tannins can be found in the stems and seeds as well as in the skins. This white wine gets its tannins from the stems and seeds and can therefore, age well in the bottle, improving with time in your wine cellar. When we tasted it we were treated to a balanced mix of oak and fruit. I look forward to a tasting of this wine at home.

The other two wines are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot plus small amounts of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec, depending on the year. The Grand Vin was awarded the highest accolades by wine conneseiurs including Robert Parker who gave the 2004 vintage a grade of 92. It contains approximately 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot. It is aged 24 months in 100% new French oak barrels made exclusively by Seguin Moreau of Cognac, the leading French cooperage. It is bold and velvety, with flavors of the forest. Its high tannin level demands a number of years of aging in the wine cellar before it is opened and tasted. The cost is 216 shekels, which makes it one of the highest priced wines in Israel. It you want the highest quality at any price, this should make its way into your wine collection. If you want a good quality wine for a reasonable price, you should look elsewhere.

Perhaps the place for that high quality wine at a reasonable price is the Petit Vin du Castel, a 50-50 mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is aged 16 months in oak casks previously used for the Grand Vin and is a pleasant and flavorful wine with a fine finish. It is a fine wine with high tannin levels and rich flavors of nuts and berries. This wine costs only 116 shekels and I agree with Robert Parker’s statement in his Wine Buyer’s Guide No 7 from 2008 that this is near the quality of the Grand Vin and should be tasted without long years of aging in the wine cellar. For more details about Castel Winey’s winemaking process, see the their web site.

We had a wonderful day at the winery in Ramat Raziel and give many thanks to Ruth, our gracious hostess. After the visit, we bid Castel Winery adieu, looking forward to an opportunity to return in the near future.

David Shrigley. Photo: Boo Lee

An interview with David Shrigley at this year’s Frieze Art Fair became a feature on the artist’s weird and witty book art.

And a press trip to a new wine hotel in Porto, plus a chat with the UK’s second ever Master of Wine, explains a lot about why port’s back on the British dining table.

Taylor's tawny port lodge, pipes and vat. Photo: Taylor Fladgate

Fancy reading more of articles on books and drinks? Check out my bars blog, Knees Up Mother Brown, read my preview of new East London speakeasy The Nightjar, or discover the latest indie novel picked up by the mainstream.

The Catalog

House: Sotheby’s

Date: 19 May 2010

Title: Fine and Rare Wines & Vintage Port

Live Location: London, U.K. (34-35 New Bond St.)

Web: http://ow.ly/1K888

Phone: +44 (0)20 7293 5283

Buyer’s Premium: 15% + VAT and Duty

Shipping: England – ₤7.50 per case, ₤25 minimum charge; ROW – No delivery, must be arranged through a forwarder

Storage: 4 weeks free from date of sale, ₤2 per case or part of case per week thereafter

Total Lots: 431

Wine Distribution: Red Bordeaux 39% (167 lots), Red Italian 25% (106 lots), Red Burgundy 18% (79 lots), White Burgundy 12% (50 lots), Port 4% (16 lots)

Most Expensive Estimate: Lot 5, Chateau Lafite 2000 (12 btls. owc), ₤17,000

Least Expensive Estimate: Lot 295, Chateau Monbrison 2005 (6 btls.), ₤100

Potential Bargains:

While the Cru Bourgeois from Margaux Chateau Monbrison has the lowest estimate in the auction, working out to a seemingly reasonable ₤16.67 a bottle, this isn’t really such a great deal.  The 2005 Monbrison is fairly widely available according to Wine-Searcher.com and can be found for only slightly more money on a per bottle basis.  For example, two stores in Belgium and France price the wine at about ₤21 per bottle and stores in the States have it for around ₤23 ($35).  Plus, if you live outside of England, you won’t have to hassle with Sotheby’s no-shipping policy if you buy retail, and no retail purchaser has to pay their buyer’s premium.

Instead of the Monbrison, and if I was willing to drop a bit of dough, I might look at Lots 19 and 20 of the 2001 Chateau La Conseillante.  It ain’t cheap at an estimate of ₤650 per lot ($1,000), but considering that it is considered a “very admirable” wine by experts, subdued but high praise from the Wine Doctor Chris Kissack (he rated it 17.5+/20), and that you’d be lucky to find it for less than ₤60 per bottle ($100), if you could get it for around the maximum estimate, you’d still be paying less than retail even when you figured in the buyer’s premium.

If the Conseillante is more than you want to spend, wines estimated to sell for under ₤300 per lot and that represent good value include several Ports, such as the 1997 Graham (nos. 277-278).  That Graham vintage averages ₤56 per bottle at retail, meaning if you can get one of those lots for less than ₤285 ($419), you’d be paying less than the retail average for a case of six even accounting for the buyer’s premium.  Not a bad deal for a Port that U.K wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd price at ₤60 and call “one of the top three vintage ports in 1997, for some the best wine of all.”

If Port isn’t really your thing, perhaps you’d consider something lighter, like a 1er Cru Chablis?  There are several lots of Louis Michel & Fils Montmains Chablis Premier Cru from the 2004 and 2006 vintages (nos. 372-374, 402-403) listed at maximum estimates of ₤160 ($240) for a case of 12, and there are two additional lots of 24 bottles each of the ’06 (nos. 404-405) at the equivalent estimate of ₤320 ($480).  While Michel’s Montmains is far from the best Chablis, it comes from a well regarded domaine and International Wine Cellar (“IWC”) rated the ’04 Montmains 85-87 when it was tasted in the barrel.  If you could any of these lots for under ₤200, you’d be saving money on retail.

Blockbusters:

Per usual, it’s the big name Bordeaux from heralded vintages that will go for the biggest bucks.  There are five lots in this auction that are estimated to sell for over ₤10,000, two cases of Latour (both from 1982), two cases of Pétrus (from 2000 and 2005), and the most expensive estimated lot, the Lafite 2000 that is listed above.  On a per bottle basis, the Pétrus lots, nos. 9 and 57, are the dearest since they consist of six bottles per lot instead of the twelve bottles per lot of the First Growths.  As mentioned earlier, all of these lots’ vintages – 1982, 2000, and 2005 – are considered to be top Bordeaux years by experts like Parker.

Interesting, two lots of 1985 Le Pin (Lots 91 and 92, with 12 bottles and 6 magnums respectively) are in the rarified air as well with estimates at ₤9,000 each.  Sotheby’s in-house Master of Wine, Serena Sutcliffe, effuses about this Le Pin, saying “This seems to me as essence-like as ever. Luscious blackberries, total appeal.”  These Le Pin lots are the only ones in this auction that could be categorized as so-called Bordeaux “garage wines” or “microchateau” of the type that have been priced so highly in the past 20 years.  Le Pin is usually considered a predecessor to the garagistes, the Bordeaux winemakers who eschewed traditional Bordelais subtlety for big, brash, tannic, fruity wines in the mid-1990s.  Despite a substantial decline in “garage wine” prices, Le Pin has held its value better than most.  Considering how tough Le Pin is to get a hold of and how expensive the wine is even if you can find it (one American retailer sells a case of 1985 Le Pin for $21,599.88, that’s approximately ₤14,560 at prevailing rates), these lots may even be a relative bargain.  Relatively speaking.

One other unsurprising, but interesting, note, out of the 40 lots with the highest estimates, there are only three that are not red Bordeaux: two lots (nos. 129-130) of 1985 Sassicaia Tenuta San Guido, called the “king of the Super-Tuscans” by Sutcliffe, and one lot (no. 121) of the queen of Burgundy, that’s me talking not Sutcliffe, DRC – Domaine de la Romanee Conti, from 2005.  As both of the Sassicaia lots and the DRC one will likely cost more than a used car, you can imagine what the top Bordeaux sells for.  Anyone who’s ever looked at the Liv-ex indices knows that red Bordeaux rules the roost when it comes to wine investing, and this Sotheby’s auction demonstrates that same thing.  Luckily for those of us not named Buffett or Gates, the laser-like focus on a few “name” wines by investors leaves lots of lesser-regarded ones for us plebs to drink.

The 1960 showed the great drive of peppery Shiraz, with orange, coffee and peppermint, all of which are Grange signatures. We had the usual discussion as to whether the 1962 or 1963 was ‘better’, but it is a pointless exercise as they are both show-stoppers. I found the melting aniseed of the 1965 seductive, the liquorice-filled 1966 a mite drier, the plumy 1967 redolent of candied tomatoes, the stellar 1971 all black truffles, the 1975 reminiscent of peaty tobacco, the 1976 full of mint and bitter chocolate and the 1978 evocative of Cuban tobacco and log fire.

Ordinarily I don’t pay much attention to wine writing, but I think what Sutcliffe writes here is kind of wonderful (even though, to readers who don’t encounter much “wine writing,” it may appear stuffy in quite the ordinary way).

Rather than simply describing what a wine tastes like—a practice I think is kind of inherently ridiculous—she talks about what the wine evokes. And she manages to avoid some of the most hackneyed terms and phrases. Wine writing at its worst is really something that deserves to be place in quotations, as I did above. Most of what you find when you search for a wine looks like this. The descriptions hardly vary, like a checklist of regulated qualities: “cigar,” “earth,” “leather,” etc. Slightly more literate, but not an ounce more alluring or useful, are examples like this: again, “spices,” “earth,” “stones.”

These descriptions utterly fail to say anything about the wine; there is nothing about what makes one wine different from another, save for vague flavor profiles. If wine A, at $20, contains “cigar-y earthiness,” and wine B, at $400, also contains those qualities, why would anyone buy the second? Really, why would it cost more at all? But wine isn’t just about what the stuff tastes like—not only, that is. Good wine possesses a remarkable power to create emotion. Same as a good book, or movie. There’s no specific quality, or set of qualities, that makes it good, just as there are no specific qualities that make a film good. The only measure of quality is that capacity to elicit feeling. And if you think wine can be expensive, think about art.

Ms. Sutcliffe’s paragraph creates a more richly varied texture to the language of wine, and I am impressed by that. She acknowledges that the wines are “redolent of,” or “reminiscent of.” This is a far cry from claiming to actually detect those flavors, and the difference is very important. Rather than haphazardly grouping wines together based on their supposedly shared qualities of “earth,” she describes the experience that she herself is having. That interaction between the drinker’s mind and the wine is what creates meaning. The same with literature, the same with film.

Some take it much further, and to a more enlightening extent. Alder Yarrow, of Vinography.com, practices a style of journalism that sometimes allows me to take away the quotation marks around ‘wine writing.’ In his article “Wine Will Never Smell the Same Again: Luca Turin and the Science of Scent,” he explores the human physiology of smell. While that aspect of wine writing interests me quite a lot less (since those with a physiological bent often just seem to be seeking empirical support for their personal experiences), I understand what he’s doing. In directing attention away from simply describing tastes and smells, he presents a new perspective on wine, and the brain, and experience, without forcing us to come to any firm conclusions about any of it. We think about wine more, and that new, enriched context makes each sip mean more.

I remember tasting a sweet wine from 1959 and thinking, JFK was alive when these grapes were on the vine. Obama hadn’t been born yet. We’d never been to space. And in all that time, between those days and today, this bottle was sitting, uncorrupted, aging. And all of that, for this moment, for this taste in my mouth as I stand in a hazy, sweaty kitchen late at night in New York City, in 2009. Holy fuck! 2009?! [looking around frantically] Where am I?! In wine, like poetry and art, what ultimately matters is the power of the subjective experience. To deny that would be to erase what is special about it, what makes it sought after.

It’s unfortunate that in ‘The Science of Scent’ he ends up heaping praise on Luca Turin, a guy who clearly embodies everything I don’t like about wine writing. If you read his passages in Yarrow’s article, you’ll see a perfect example of how smug and precious it can be: ” ‘The ’59, in a bottle for forty years, comes out the way James Bond emerges from a wet suit in a perfect tuxedo. It looks at you and murmurs, ‘What kept you?’ ” A perfect example of something I never want to hear or read again.

From Yarrow’s articles on trying to understand why exactly this particular type of rotten grape juice holds so much magic for him, to his review of Patz & Hall Winery (which pretty much only presents the story of the winery, and saves tasting notes for the very end), he largely embodies a new style of wine writing, in which the magic and mystery of experience are paramount; in which curiosity is valuable and open-ended; in which the strict ontological traits of a glass of wine are less important than, for lack of better words, what actually makes it important.

More on this later, and hopefully some great and illuminating stories about the history of wine that will make you thirsty.

Creating what is arguably Israel’s best boutique wine was only the most recent of Eli Ben-Zaken’s many challenges. Born in Egypt, life for his family, along with that of most Jews, became ever more difficult in the mid-50’s. The tumultuous period subsequent to the 1919 revolution when Egypt broke away from Britain and many businesses were nationalized became untenable during the Suez war in ’56. Jews were perceived to be Zionists and communists – the excuse given for endless arrests. Eli’s uncle, an attorney who defended many Jews accused of the crime of being a Zionist, was also arrested. Foreigners had been departing Egypt en masse. Fearing they would no longer be able to avoid the dangers, Eli’s parents planned to leave Egypt for Australia. However, attaining identity papers necessary to leave the country was nearly impossible.

Although Eli’s father was born in Egypt, he was never given citizenship making it that much tougher to come by departure visas. The government instituted a range of taxes and fees forcing the Jewish community to leave behind most of its wealth in order to exit the country. After much tribulation, Eli’s parents finally managed to secure three exit visas. Just before leaving Egypt for Australia, Eli’s Italian mother’s connections led to his father attaining a job in Italy as an export manager for a factory.

It was September, the start of the school season. With his plans to attend school in Australia abruptly terminated, Eli had only a few days he had to decide whether to study in Italy in a language he did not yet know or go to a boarding school in England. At 14yrs old, Eli Ben-Zaken headed to Britain on his own. He pursued his first degree in Economics and language at University in Italy followed by a masters attained at the School of Interpreters in Geneva.

Throughout his life, Eli felt an affinity for the land of Israel. In July 1967, he postponed his impending marriage and university exams in order to serve with the Israeli army during the Six Day War, after which he volunteered on a farm here for 3 months. Subsequent to his return home to Geneva, Eli observed the 1968 student revolution in Europe. He saw that although the Jews joined in supporting the revolution, they were perceived as dangerous outsiders. “That convinced me that there was only one place for the Jews – to be in my own country,” Eli explained.

So in 1970 with a one year old daughter, Ilana, and his wife, Monique, Eli made Israel his home. In 1971 they purchased the farm in Ramat Raziel, a small Moshav in the Judean hills just West of Jerusalem. The setting was well suited to Eli’s and Monique’s first business venture in the land of Israel – a horseback riding school. Meanwhile, Eli entered the Israel Defense Forces. However, as a father, the full three year army service was not an option. Eli was placed in the program called Shlav Bet, or Second Stage, and sent to an artillery unit. His service time was limited to a few months spread out over each year. That is until the Yom Kippur War. Like many fathers during this war, Eli was called to serve for six months straight. And like many families, the Ben-Zakens suffered the ravages of that war including watching their business go bankrupt. “Luckily, we had the house,” Eli said in all sincerity. “Although we had no money for food or heat, we had a roof over our heads.” Without hesitation, Eli took the first job that was offered – working in a nearby hatchery. “My ability to read English got me the job and it went well. But there’s little money in agriculture. So a few years later, in the early 80’s, Monique, the three kids and I opened a restaurant in Jerusalem.” Meanwhile, Eli continued his reserve duty. “I was a second lieutenant by the age of 34 and a Major at 48,” Eli noted with pride.

Things were going well at the restaurant. With an Italian menu, wine was a must. Seeking supplies for his customers exposed Eli to quality wine for the first time. “I never liked wine as a kid. My family was not into wine; we only had cheap, simple wines that were boiled until they had no flavor.” After many years of financial pressure, the Zakens were finally able to go on holiday abroad. It was the late-80’s when they traveled through France and Italy tasting top-of-the-line wine. “The par between Israel’s wine and what we were tasting abroad was huge. It gave me incentive to start making wine.”

What began as a hobby came to take up more and more of Eli’s time. Yet he was unprepared for the unbridled success of his first bottling in 1992. Serena Sutcliffe MW, Head of Sotheby’s Wine Department, London was given a bottle of Castel’s Grand Van by journalist Dallia Penn Lerner.

The reply was stunning…

Dear Dallia

Thank you for bringing over that fantastic 1992 made by Mr Ben-Zaken. I tried it with my husband, David Peppercorn (also a MW) and we both thought it absolutely terrific. It is quite unlike other Israeli wines and
does not have any of those “cooked” and “herbaceous” flavours that I am afraid are prevalent in Israeli reds. This wine is a real tour de force, brilliantly made and very “classic”. Please give him our congratulations.
I hope others take the hint and learn how to do it. I wonder if his vineyard is at some altitude? He also must
have just the right clones and root stocks. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to know this wine. With all best wishes,

Serena
London, 15th August,1995

“I never had a dream to make wine. I really saw it as a hobby. But after that, we had to consider doing it seriously,” Eli stated matter-of-factly. “Wine is something to pass onto the next generation – a legacy for the children. We discussed it as a family and decided to go forward.” So while Monique and the three children ran the restaurant, Eli devoted himself full time to developing the winery. That is until Intifada broke out. “Bombs were going off everywhere in Jerusalem. I was in Ramat Raziel while my wife and children were at our restaurant. Each day I felt like I was sending them to the front line. Finally in 2002 we closed the restaurant.

“We put everything into the winery. They say good wine is about climate and technology. But it’s just as much about personality – being consistent, meticulous, having conviction in your chosen path.” In many areas of wine-making, the Castel Winery is a pioneer. No vines were grown for wine in the Judean Hills until they planted in 1988. “It was just serendipity that we happened to have a farm in the Judean Hills and that land turned out to provide excellent soil and climate for wine-making.”                      

                                                                When planting, Eli decided on a high density vineyard. The average vineyard has 2200 vines per hectare. The Castel Winery’s vineyards hold 6700 vines per hectare. Although this requires specialized equipment to maneuver the extra narrow paths between the rows of vines, the results are higher quality grapes. Another higher is cost that ensures the best possible wine is handpicking all the grapes. Machine picking causes loss of the juice that drops into the machinery during the harvesting. When machines are used, many stems stay on the vine instead of coming off w/the grape, contributing to reduced quality. At Castel, only French, oak barrels are used to age the wine. Each barrel yields a maximum of 300 bottles. Then these expensive barrels are replaced.

According to Eli, managing the finances of a business like wine-making, where a great deal of equity is in the cellar much of the time, takes solid financial acumen. Fortunately for Castel, Eli and Monique’s son, Ariel has the talent and education to carry the winery forward. In 1997 Ariel returned from a two year course of wine-making study and apprenticeship in Beaune College in France. “He came home wanting to do the actual wine making. I explained it had become my passion – and how many more years would I have to do it? He was miserable until he discovered that he is an excellent business and financial manager. He saved us from bankruptcy and made all the right decisions regarding finance and marketing. He’s not afraid to take advice and receive consultation. Even in the wine making I often ask his opinion.” As Eli said, to succeed in this business a wine-making personality is what it’s all about.

more photos: http://www.castel.co.il/images/Pictures/index.htm

To visit the Castel Winery or attain the oak wine barrels at a token cost, please contact them at http://www.castel.co.il/form2.html.