Jerusalem Wine Festival at the Israel Museum

The Jerusalem Wine Festival has taken place at the Israel Museum since 2003, but last week was the first time I went. It was so well-organized and pleasant, I’m just sorry I hadn’t gone before.

Several friends and I got together and drove up. As one of us wasn’t able to drink much alcohol for medical reasons, we had our designated driver (and a good thing, too). We arrived at 9:00, when the event was already in full swing and there was almost nowhere to park. Circling around the grounds, we found that the olive grove to the right of the Museum had a few cars parked there,  so we stopped the car under a friendly tree.

We stepped out into the cool Jerusalem night and inhaled – the smell of Jerusalem. It’s a subtle smell, almost just a feeling, and the memory easily lets go of it till the next time you arrive. Then you recognize it again with emotion. A faintly sweet, dusty fragrance of olive trees, Jerusalem stone exhaling the heat stored up over the day into the cool darkness, then the sharp odors of pine and rosemary. Oh, Jerusalem. The round-faced Man in the Moon smiled down on us, with Venus winking alongside. Why did I ever leave Jerusalem?

We bought our tickets at a reasonable NIS60 and received our gift wine glasses.

At first I thought there wouldn’t be room to circulate – there must have been a thousand people treading the gravel in the Sculpture Garden, making a circuit around the 33 winery booths. The smell of fine wine was in the air, noticeable the minute you stepped into the grounds.

But with a little give-and-take and counting on everyone’s good mood, it wasn’t hard to put your glass in front of one of the attractive young people serving. At every booth, a different winery offered tastes of at least two white wines and two reds – some more.

A “taste” was one or two ounces, although everyone grew  less exact towards the end of the evening. Let me tell you – it looks like such a little, just a couple of swallows…you swirl, stick your nose in the glass, finally take some into your mouth and let the wine talk to you …and go on to the next, blissfully ignorant of the number of delicious wines yet to taste. The festival managers estimate that over 30,000 liters of wine are drunk over the 3-day festival – well, I must have been responsible for at least one.

A band played soft jazz standards in the background. I suppose they were told not to make the music too hot, because the focus should be on the wine. Maybe next year the music will be more compelling, because there is no reason to suppose that it would take over the wine.

I don’t normally enjoy sweet wines, so I can’t report on those. But of the wines I drank (kosher, mostly reds),  there were some that were wonderful. The Barbera from the Dalton winery stands out in my mind, and the Shoresh wine from Tzora, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon. Among the whites, the 2007 Viognier Reserve from Dalton was one I favored. I’m a fan of those wineries anyway. I didn’t count how many booths I visited, but it must have been around 15, and most of the wines were enjoyable.

There were some clunkers: some overly tannic reds that might improve in a couple of years, but were so tannic as to be bitter; a port that was so oxidized I couldn’t make myself drink it because the smell put me off.  I wonder why a winery would even present too-young or inferior wine at a festival; you get the impression that they don’t know what they’re doing. Unless I see a favorable review from a critic I respect, I’m going to avoid one or two wineries I encountered that night.

Part of the fun was being able to compare many different wines, in a semi-organized way. Three wineries presented their Barberas, for example; it was great to taste and compare one against the other. Not keeping a great variety of wines at home, this was a good chance for me.

Problem is, once you’ve tasted 5 or 6 wines, your memory won’t hold more for a while. So you take a break – chat with people you’ve just met, or with whom you met up, and have a nosh. Cheese platters were on sale, and many did buy, placing their platters on tall bar tables placed here and there. There were also fine chocolates (chai masala-flavor was outrageously good). Each booth also provided mineral water for rinsing out your glass and mouth, or just to stay hydrated.

It was fun to watch the crowd loosening up over the evening as the tasting went on. Couples walking with their arms around each others waists  – four girls sitting down on a low wall swayed together, singing – a man with serious stuff in mind writing down tasting notes as he went from booth to booth. A small video crew was interviewing and filming notables.  Folks standing with glass in hand, thoughtfully rinsing the wine around the mouth.  I found myself drifting along, a little separated from my friends, tasting here and tasting there, feeling anonymous and free of self-consciousness. The cool night, the heady atmosphere, the band stretching a number out for 10 minutes, the well-behaved crowd drinking Israeli wine under a fat yellow moon in Jerusalem. I did feel privileged. I didn’t wish to drink more, but wished we could all stay longer, much longer.

But the event ended at 11:00.  I rejoined my f riends at the concession, where we picked up a few bottles to drink at home.

That’s going to be sometime next week for me; I had truly reached my limit and I’m not used to it. Even two days later, I find the thought of a long, cool lemonade more appealing than any wine. I drank maybe a liter of water when I got home. Took a couple of multivitamin pills too. My good husband, who doesn’t indulge at all, was amused. But who has time for a hangover next morning?  There’s always too much to do. Another two liters of water when I woke up, and I was good to go again. The buzz is gone, but I won’t forget the magic of wine and the Israel Museum.