The Beit Shemesh area, in which the Judean Hills are located, is a sister city with our Washington Jewish Federation. The Federation is sponsoring a wine tasting for Agur Winery and three other Judean Hills wineries at Washington Hebrew Congregation (Massachusetts and Macomb streets) on November 9th at 6 PM. Because of the links to Temple Micah, all are invited to attend. Please RSVP to jmiller@whctemple.org so that enough wine is available.

Agur winery has even more in common with Temple Micah. Winemaker Shuki Yashuv partners with a known Beit Shemesh addiction clinic that sends recovering drug addicts to his winery to work and regain a sense of pride during harvest, pressing and fermentation, as well as other key times such as bottling and labeling. Sounds like Micah House!

Most of the Israeli wine industry is located in the Galilee and Golan Heights in the country’s north, but recent years have seen many new wineries cropping up in the hilly terrain rising to 600-800 meters above sea level between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The gently sloping Judean Hills and the Biblical Ella Valley – where David slew Goliath – is an ancient wine-growing region. Many archeological sites attest to the presence of oil and wines presses from the time of the First and Second Temples.

The area is now home to over 28 wineries, about half of which are kosher and most of which have opened in the last decade. Of particular interest is that the visiting winemakers produce quality non-Kosher wines designed to highlight the unique terroir of this region. The Judean Hills have many natural and logistical advantages as a wine-producing region: It is close to the commercial infrastructures of both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it is in a politically uncontroversial region, and a loamy, rich-in-sunshine, Mediterranean type of land capable of producing excellent wines.