"It was a big, big honor for us and we're still somewhere up in the clouds," says Valerie Hecht of the Carmel Center for Wine Culture. She's referring to the recent decision by the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards to grant a Carmel specialty Shiraz the Decanter International Trophy in September, describing it as "the sensation of this year's competition."
The town of Zichron Ya'acov sits on the sunny slopes of Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean. It is the undisputed home of Israeli wine, dotted with a number of boutique wineries, but most importantly, the site of Israel's largest winery, Carmel Mizrahi, producing more than 15 million bottles a year.
Founded in 1882 by 200 Jewish families from Romania, it was French Jewish philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild who discovered that the area around the town was perfect for growing grapevines.
He put the town on the map by agreeing to send over grapevines from France and lay the groundwork for the country's first winemaking operation since biblical times. It was also the first industry in Israel to have telephone and electricity.