Avi Ben Shlomo: Heritage and Innovation at Halom Winery in the Judean Hills

Welcome to The Kosher Teruah.

I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Before we get started, I ask that wherever you are, please take a moment and pray for the safety of our soldiers and the safe return of all of our hostages. Avi Ben Shlomo, a winemaker from Israel, is a fascinating character. He was born in Israel in the early '70s to a family with deep ties to academia and an appreciation for the arts. His parents, first-generation European Israelis, had a modest but cherished wine cellar where he was introduced to the diversity of wines from around the world. Avi's father, a literature professor, often spoke about his connection to the land of Israel, planting in Avi deep seeds about his Jewish heritage. Avi decided on an education abroad and attended UC Berkeley, where he initially studied environmental science. But a semester abroad in France kindled his love for viticulture, and winemaking. He extended his stay to work in a vineyard in Burgundy, and he fell in love with the hands-on experience, learning techniques from traditional winemakers who impressed upon him the importance of terroir and respecting the land. After returning to the U.S. and completing his viticulture degree, Avi worked as an apprentice winemaker in Napa Valley. Yet the pull towards Israel remained strong. In his mid-20s, he made the decision to return home, moving to Israel with a dream of establishing a winery that would honor both the terroir of Israel and the methods he had acquired and admired abroad. Join me for a thoughtful and often emotional conversation with Avi Ben-Shlomo.

Avi, I'd like to welcome you to the Kosher Terroir.

Well, it's a pleasure. Thank you, Simon, for having me.

It's really a pleasure to have you. Tell me a little bit about your background. How did you end up in San Francisco?

Well, it's kind of an interesting journey. My parents were born in England and decided to move to Israel just because they felt that this was home. Right. And, you know, they're Jewish and they are very devoted. So they came here.

You went to UC Berkeley?

Yeah, I did.

And studied environmental science? Wow.

Well, I regret that every day of my life, not because of the environmental science, but because the politics that UC Berkeley have taken recently.

Wow.

And I really, really do not like the direction that they went, but it was a good school, you know, as far as study. Yeah.

So then that led you to France to Well, not right away.

I became kind of like my parents had the wine cellar at home and they were into wine. They were not big experts or anything like that, but they liked wine and we had wine all the time and I grew up with wine. So, from very, very young age, I started to appreciate and I learned to appreciate wine. And so, after my school time in UC Berkeley, I decided that this is what I really wanted to get myself into. And although, you know, California has Napa and I could have stayed there, but France felt right because it had a tradition. And I wanted to— and this is also what I do today— I wanted to combine.

That's the—

I wanted to— this is what I do. I always had the feeling that, you know, wine is more than just a technique thing. You need to put your heart into it and you need to put your passion into it and you need to bring a love into this. And because I'm Jewish and because I'm— I like wine and because, you know, although overall wine had been produced here in Israel forever, I, from Pretty much a very, very, very young age, I kind of like saw myself making wine here. But I wanted the full education. I wanted it and I already know what I was doing and I wanted to bring myself into this dream that I had. That's also what I called my winery dream, Chalom. That's been my dream forever.

So when you moved back to Israel, you went directly to the Judean hills?

Wait, wait, wait. That's not so fast.

Okay.

I had a long journey before I came to Israel.

Okay.

So after UC Berkeley, I went to France and I worked there as an assistant winemaker. Actually, not only assistant winemaker, I—

You were a schlepper.

I was, exactly. I was there. I started at the very, very bottom, you know, working in the vineyard and learning about the different vines and the different varieties and characters and all this. And slowly I worked myself up until I felt that I was a little bit more ready. And then I went back to California and worked in Napa for a couple of years as an amateur winemaker. And so, you know, French wines with all its history and all its depth and all its heaviness, and California wine with—

and the more modern, the more modern.

Yeah. And taste of them. And so this is an amazing combination, I thought. And I wanted to take this, all the knowledge that I've acquired over the years, and come to Israel and combine it here. Because here you have the history, here you have the tradition, not only the winemaking tradition, but also the Jewish tradition that I'm very much— I appreciate it very much. You know, our ancestors back at the time made wine and drank wine from the Torah of Israel. And so this is what I wanted to do. So I know that I came to Israel, I purchased quite a a big piece of land in the Judean Hills. And on old terraces that some of them archaeologists tell me have even a biblical history, that the origin of them, when they started to build them, it was around 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.

Wow.

And so there is so much depth to the ground, to the soil. Because of that. And so the product, the grapes that are coming out of there are very, very special. I did not taste grapes like this anywhere in the world. And you know that I've been around.

Right.

Wow.

So, tell me a little bit about the area and what's special about your area, specific area of the Judean Hills.

First of all, the altitude, you know, it's very— it's almost 1,000 meters high. Okay. So we get quite cold winters, not so much in the last few years, but almost every year before, like up until about 3, 4 years ago, we had snow every year. Wow. On the mountains. And that, of course, adds a very important flavor to the grapes. The terraces I already mentioned, they are ancient terraces. We know that our ancestors in biblical times, when they came to the Promised Land, they started to reclaim the forest that was naturally indigenous.

Indigenous.

Indigenous. You know this word.

Yes.

Indigenously there. You know that—

You've been in Israel for a long time.

Oh yeah, yeah.

You've been in Israel for a long time.

Well, I think you hear in my accent that I have a little bit of a lisp. Yeah. So it's funny. Yeah. There are words that do not come very easily. But, you know, in the book of Yeshua, there is a little story about the children of Israel, the tribes of Israel come to Yeshua and say to him, we need land. And All this, there is no land because all the flatland, all the valleys is already inhabited by Canaanites. So what should we do? Where should we settle? And Yeshua tells them, "Talelecha yarau verato." That's what he says. Go to the forest, go to the hills, clear the forest and settle there. So we know from biblical information that all these terraces originally were created by ancestors at the time of Yeshua and few generations after that when they started to settle the mountains. And it's a very interesting environment because the rock there, the nature rock, the bedrock is limestone, which creates a beautiful terra rossa. It's full of iron, so it creates a beautiful terra rossa. Soil, but there is also clay there, and the clay mixes with it.

It gives it a little bit of acidity, which helps express it in the wine. Wow.

Oh, definitely expresses in the wine. And because the slope is not even, some areas are a little bit more sloppy than others, you get different kind of soils even in the same terrace. Right. So over the years, I was able to analyze the soil in different parts of my vineyards.

In the different plots.

Yeah, and introduce what I thought the most suitable species, varieties to that area. So I have 8 different varieties in relatively small area. And each one is cared, you know, carefully according to its needs and according to the environment that it uses.

So one of the things that I read about with regard to the winery, with regard to the vineyards where you're trying not to supplement the water, you're trying to be as sustainable as possible. You know, I was told a story long ago about how on terraces they dig a cave into the mountain and that brings the water that percolates down through the mountain out and it runs out of those caves. Do you use something like that?

Yes and no.

Okay.

The aquifer, first of all, let's talk about the depth of the ground. You mentioned that I hardly ever use artificial irrigation because the terraces are so deep and the roots of the vines can go really deep into water sources. Now the aquifer in the Judean hills is created by a layer of clay that is called by geologists, Chavar Motza. And so rainfall that seeps into the ground stops at the Khavar Motza, at the clay layer, and actually spreads across. And so there is water available for the grapes if they go deep enough. And that's what we try to do. When we planted the vines, we dug, for each one of them, we dug a very deep hole. So water could seep through. And come to its roots. And the grapes themselves, they find ways to come to water. So I don't need to actually dig into the rock because I do have this layer of water spread over the chavar motza, over the clay. And that's the water that's available for my grapes, for my vines.

Very cool. Very cool. Any other historical— Have you seen any gats, any—

Press, wine presses.

Wine presses.

Oh yeah, we have all over. Of course. Okay. All over. The wine industry was very, very— What's the word?

Abundant? It was all over the place?

Yeah. Me'od pa'il. Okay. Very—

Widespread?

Not only, but all over the place.

Yeah, it was important. There wasn't anything you could do in the Jewish religion that didn't require wine.

Yeah, but even after that, the country, when the Jews were sent to exile from this country, it fell into the hands of the Romans that also drank wine, and then the Byzantines, the Christians, they also drank wine. So until 7th century when this country was occupied by early Muslims, wine industry was spread over pretty much everywhere. Wherever you could grow grapes, you would produce wine. And then came the Muslims in 7th century, 650, and they don't drink wine. They did grow grapes, but table grapes mainly, and they used to do like jam. They call it dibis from the grapes, but not alcohol. So the whole wine industry died for over 1,000 years until we came back. And the first years of Israel, they used to make a joke about Israeli wine that was so, so bad. They said, what does the Israeli wine lack? It says taste. But I think since the 1970s, things started. It started with the Golan Winery that, of course, before that we had the Carmel that was established here by Rothschild. But they were not, they're not very professional. Let's put it this way. They tried, but it was, it had a fame for coming from the Holy Land more than the taste. But since the 1970s with Golan Wineries and then slowly it spread out. Today we have more than 400 wineries all over Israel. And Israeli wine definitely, it made a name for itself. Wow.

Let's talk a little bit about the actual varietals that you— what wines do you make? So let's talk a little bit about that. Okay. I know there's 5 wines that I've seen that you've listed. One of them is the Halom Reserve. Syrah, which is your flagship.

Did you taste it?

I didn't taste it yet. I'm looking forward to tasting it. And you didn't bring any bottles with you either, so I noticed that.

I think you should taste it before you start talking about it, because you know that, uh, that's really a flagship. I work, uh, very, very hard for the right balance.

Very cool.

But there were aging in neutral oak. What else do you want me to say about it?

It's just a great wine. It's a great wine. Well, people seem to like it. It seems to have— people seem to love it. So I'm looking forward to tasting it myself.

You know that a lot of it, most of it, it's already sold before harvested.

Okay, really?

Oh yeah.

How do you—

I, look, I'm a small boutique winery. I only have 20,000 bottles. They go way before, way before they're harvested, they already go. It's easy to sell when you make a name for yourself. People will actually buy them. And I, 70% of it, I sell here in Israel and 30% goes abroad, especially to the United States and to England. Yeah, I have regular clients that would just, would, you know, would not agree to drink anything else. Very cool.

Very cool. You also make a white, the white blend, the Roussanne-Vionnier-Colombard blend. What prompted that sort of a blend? Was that your background in France? That was your—

Yeah, this is something that I learned in France, and I thought that, you know, this kind of like in attribute to my upbringing in the wine industry in France that I will bring some of their tradition here as well. But it's a small part, it's a small portion of my winemaking. It's just kind of like it's more a hobby for me.

Okay. So what intrigued me about that is that you age part of it in stainless steel and part of it you put in neutral oak and then you blend it.

Yeah.

in the end. That's cool.

Yeah, because white, you know, it doesn't need much of oak. Right. And if you age it all in oak, it's a little bit too oaky.

Yeah.

So I wanted to bring a little bit of oak into it, but without losing the freshness of the white. Excellent. So I just aged some of it, about 30-40% in oak barrel, the rest is in stainless steel. And then towards the end, I just blend it and it comes out perfectly. Wow.

All right, then you have a Petite Syrah that's called Adama.

Yeah, well, you know what Adama is in Hebrew, right? Sure. Land. Adama is earth. Earth.

I'm sorry, you're right.

By the way, you know that the word earth is actually from Hebrew. It's Eretz.

Okay, wow.

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Yeah. That's a lot of words, Hebrew words, got itself into international languages without people even knowing. So, earth is Eretz. And sparrow is Tzipor.

Okay.

Did you know that? No. Yeah. No, very cool. Well, what was the question? Yeah, about Adama.

No, it's cool. It's a Petit Syrah. So, it's dark and it's very rich. I'm told it's an interesting wine. I also haven't tasted it yet, and I'm looking forward to tasting it. It's got like smoky undertones is what it's described as.

You know, I should have brought some bottles with me. I'm sorry, but I was kind of like in a hurry.

So, wait a second.

Why don't you come over?

I would love to. I would love to. But you did not bring bottles today because you are fasting today. Why are you fasting?

Well, it is the memorial day for Rabbis.

Okay.

And I call it the Tzom Gedaliah HaTzionim. You know about Gedaliah ben Ahikam?

Yes.

He was murdered after the First Temple was already destroyed in the Second Temple Jerusalem. Was conquered by the Babylonians, they nominated a local guy, Gedaliah, to be kind of like the governor in their behalf. And somebody from the House of David, a zealot that thought that Hashem will take care of us and therefore we should not submit to the Babylonians, thought that this is an act of treason. From Gedalia to agree to be the governor on behalf of the Babylonians and he murdered him. So for 3,000, no, sorry, 200, 2,610 years, it is this year, we are fasting in memory of Gedalia.

Which is the day after Rosh Hashanah.

Yeah, actually Gedaliah was a nobody. And had he not been murdered by a zealot Jew, nobody would even know about him. So we are not fasting because Gedaliah was such a great man and we need to remember him. We are fasting because a Jewish leader was murdered by a Jew, by a Jewish zealot. And we had this unfortunately 25 years ago. It happened here in Israel. And I think that this is what Jews are supposed to do when a leader, and it doesn't really matter whether you agree with him politically or not, it's not about Rabin at all. It's about the fact that he was murdered by a Jew in Tel Aviv. And we already have a tradition in our Jewish heritage of what we do, what we're supposed to do when something like this happens. So I fast Tzom Gedaliah Atsioni on Rabin's Memorial Day.

Thank you for enlightening me because I'd never heard that before.

Well, I'm the only person that practices it.

Okay, so, but next time when I invite you, I'll invite you on a day where we can taste the wine.

Yeah, maybe on Yom Kippur.

No, invite you on a day when we can actually taste the wine. So, yes. So, okay. You also have a rosé, which is interesting.

Yeah, because the rosé is kind of like a combination between the red and the white. And I think it kind of like introduces The old and the new. This is an old country with a very, very old tradition, but it's a young country, very, very fresh. And these two elements put together, I think, in the best way in the rosé. Very cool. Okay.

So, yeah, the tasting of that, that's one I would really love to taste, especially on a nice warm day like it is today, because the tasting notes include things like strawberries, melons, and rose petals.

We're sitting here in Yerushalayim. I think after After sunset, maybe you and I should go over and just have a little bit of feast.

I am ready. I am ready.

I have some bottles, I think that will knock you off.

Good. Good. Excellent. And the last one is a single vineyard Cab Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon, which is kind of typical. The other ones are all very Israeli blends, which is interesting. It is nice rather than just going straight to a Cab. Cabernet Sauvignon.

Yeah, but the Cab really grows here the best. It's the easiest. It's not a spoiled plant, and it could grow in extreme weather, and it produces beautiful grapes. So for the quality, you know, if you do not want to go to risk a lot, because you have sometimes you have years that all the others would produce very, very poor quality, and the Cab will Always will produce something good. Cool.

All right. What's your favorite type of wine? What's your favorite wine? Do you like whites? Do you like reds?

I like the Adama the best. Okay, cool.

Very cool.

Definitely, I feel that I put my heart and soul into everything of my wine, but the Adama is really what brought me into Israel. Okay.

I love it. I love it. I love the passion, especially the passion for Eretz Yisroel. Okay. So I am going to ask you some questions, and you can, you know, answer them to the best of your ability, what have you. I am kind of springing these on you, so I understand that you might not be able to answer them right away. Was there something specific that inspired you to move from California to Israel and start Halam Winery? I mean, you told us a good portion about that up to now, about the dream. And did any of that journey shape your winemaking?

Well, you know, I have two loves. More than two. The first one is, of course, to my family. But my—

You have children?

I have three boys. Wow. And yeah, I'm very proud of them. Some of them, actually, my oldest son is very much interested in winemaking. I think he'll be the next generation. Cool. I'll have him educated a little bit. Before that, but he's really into wine. What brought me here originally is my love for my people. I really believe, you know, even growing up in America when it seems to be so comfortable and easy for Jews, I always— when you're Jewish outside of Israel, you always have to look behind your back. Kind of like hide your Judaism, don't show so much, and always feel a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit unsafe. And I knew from pretty much young age that Israel is my home and wine was my passion. So just to bring these two together, that's what brought me here.

Very cool. The name, winery, Halom, we discussed it means a dream. What does it symbolize to you?

Well, when I was really young, and before my father would let me drink his wines, I would go down with him to the cellar and he would describe the wines to me. I remember I was 5, 6, 7, I don't know how much could I really understand, but I started, the passion started to grow in me. And that just brought a dream to my young soul. It says that one day I will have a winery myself. And so it was a dream, a halom from the beginning. And it's a dream come true. Wow.

How do you see Halom Winery contributing to Israel's growing wine culture? It's really kind of blossoming. I mean, there's quite a number of wineries here.

Oh, yeah. I'm very, very happy to say that I'm one of many. And although I would testify about my wine that it is a great wine, It's definitely one of many. And we have amazing wines in Israel. And each winemaker brings his soul into his wine. So if you taste a variety of wines from different vineyards in Israel, you would know that even if they're made from the same grapes and even grown in the same area, each one of them has the soul of the winemaker in it. And so I just hope to add a little bit of, you know, my drops into the ocean of Israeli winemaking.

Very cool. What about sustainability? We talked a little bit about the practice of not watering or trying not to water as much as possible. What are you doing as far as minimal intervention?

Well, I think other than not watering the vineyards, I also keep Shemitah, which is important. You know, Shemitah, besides being a mitzvah from the Torah, the soil really needs a little bit of rest. So Shemitah is very important when I let the grapes fall back to the ground and to be absorbed into the soil. Go and pick by hand and see that there is no pests that are trying to damage the grapes. And if there are, then I will bring a bunch of people to try and clean it. But overall, grapes are very, very strong plants and they know how to take care of themselves. You don't really need much. If you don't disturb them, they will give you good crops.

What have you faced, especially this last year in the winery, as far as staff, as far as people going into Milouim? How tough has it been for you?

It was not that tough business-wise, because it is a small vineyard and how many people do I need to harvest it? So I had a few volunteers during the harvest times just to harvest and to bring it to the winery. But Overall, it's a one-man show. And I'm old enough not to be taken to Milim, although my sons were in Gaza. Actually, one is still in Gaza until now. It's a tough year for us, not so much for the business, but for everything else. And I think, you know, I did not have a chance to really drink much of this year's wine, but I'm sure the grapes also felt it. And I'm sure that the quality of this year will be more— you will feel the sadness in the wine.

I've heard from a number of vineyards that the yields have been down. That the number, the amount of wine, the amount of grapes coming out of the vineyards has been much lower. But because of that, the expressiveness of the grapes is there. So maybe that is the expression of the sadness that you are talking about.

You know what? I never really thought of it, but it might be true. Because there is definitely sadness in there. There's definitely sadness in the air. This war is extracting from us a lot, a lot of emotion, emotional energy. And it shows. I think the grapes, the vines, they feel it too. The atmosphere around them definitely influences them.

I heard about terroir. We talk about terroir with regard to grapes and with regard to vines. And the terroir is everything around it from the altitude of where the vines are, the weather, the—

Availability of water.

Yeah, the plants that grow around that give it different, different elements, the types of stone it's planted in as well, gives it certain mineral characteristics. So the terroir really makes, um, makes the— makes the wine, gives the wine a certain, uh, taste and feel that's different to every location and every winemaker, as you say. But it also impacts I think the terroir impacts the people. So it is like the terroir, even the people who are growing here, I notice with my grandchildren that they are being brought up in Israel brings them such a different impact than them growing in America. It is like unbelievable.

There is no doubt. You know, many times I look at my vines, at my plants, and I look at my children, and I see that both of them have roots in Israel. And it is just, it amazes me.

It is really, really, really special. Incredible. Incredible. The Halom wines have gained recognition in both Israel and abroad.

And some prizes too.

What? Yes, they have.

Well, you know, there is a saying, "Yihal el chazar velo picha," that somebody else should say your praises. Okay. But we are returning it to say, "Yihal el chazar velo picha." And if not, then you should say yourself.

Then you should say yourself. Yeah, I love it. How has that success impacted your vision? I know it's a small winery, but any future aspirations? Are you looking to grow it tremendously, or what are you looking to do?

I really don't know that I want to go much, much bigger because it's not only business to me. I think, you know, you cannot— there is a saying in Arabic, I have some Arab friends that we talk. I can even speak a little bit of Arabic, and they say, don't stretch your leg further than your blanket. So I, you know, it's a one-man show, and it probably will stay a one-man show. I don't want to make it industrious. I don't want it to be an industrial— industrial, uh, industrial winery. There are good industrial wineries in Israel, but I think the, the impact of one man that actually touches each barrel and touches almost each grape with his own hand, that's something that you cannot do with a big winery, with a big vineyard or big winery. Got it.

Last one, last question for you. What do you hope people feel or experience when they drink a bottle of Halomoyner?

The love.

Love of what?

The love. Of who?

Just the love.

The love to the land, the love to the grapes, the love to the work that went into it, the love to other people. It is just, you know, love is such a small word. But it's the whole world.

Unbelievable. I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you very much for being here on the Kosher Terroir. It's a pleasure, and I really look forward to tasting wine in the winery. Really look forward.

Thank you. You're more than welcome.

Take care. Bye-bye. Shalom u bracha.

This is Simon Jacob again, your host of today's episode of The Kosher Teruah.

I have a personal request.

No matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldiers' safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. Please subscribe via your podcast provider. To be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you are new to The Kosher Terroir, please check out our many past episodes. This is Simon Jacob again. I want to thank you for listening to this dramatized podcast. Much of the information was factual, but the character of Avi Ben Shlomo, played in this episode by Amir Orly, was a fabrication unrelated to any person living or dead. I look forward, on occasion, to bringing Avi back to life to teach about wine processes and information about Israel. Thank you for your support and trust of the Kosher Teruah. And I truly hope I haven't stepped over the line on this naughty occasion.