The Barkan Experience

I am by no means an expert on wine. Like many Northern English "lasses" I do enjoy a little tipple now and then, but I do not have any real knowledge about what I am drinking except whether I like it or not. Our recent guided tour of the Barkan Winery at Kibbutz Hulda enlightened me a little bit and now at least I know how to taste my wine in the correct manner!

Looking for interesting things to do with my Dad, I discovered that Israel’s second largest winery, Barkan, has vineyards - actually the largest single vineyard in Israel - and a visitor's centre at nearby Kibbutz Hulda. Okay, it wasn't the most kid-friendly activity we did when Dad was with us, but I figured that the boys could learn about how wine is made and, yes, I allowed them a little sip at the end of our tour too!

We were greeted at the brand new Barkan Visitor's Centre by our delightful guide, Nani, and there is no doubt that she was the reason that our tour of the Barkan Experience was so interesting. She really knew her stuff!

Barkan receives grapes from vineyards from several regions in Israel - from the Golan Heights and the Galilee, to the Jerusalem mountains and Southern Mitzpe Ramon - and transports them to this modern winery with its state of the art equipment. The entire Barkan operation, including a 12 million litre tank farm, an automated crushing and fermentation plant and a 10,000 square metre air conditioned filling and case storage building, is located at this site.

We learnt about the production of Barkan's kosher wines. To be considered kosher, a wine may only be handled by observant Jews from the time the grapes are crushed. If, however, the wine is boiled or pasteurised, it may subsequently be handled by anyone without losing its kosher status. Although not all Israeli wine is kosher, all of the wine produced by Barkan has kosher certification.
Nani, our guide, showed us the bottling plant and explained the steps from the bottles being filled to corking, labelling and boxing. Nearby the wine is stored in huge metal vats or, for the more expensive wines or brandies, aged in wood barrels brought in from various parts of the world.
The visitor's centre offers a small selection of wines for tasting, though sadly my Dad was the only person who could really enjoy it. I was the designated driver for the day and the kids, well, I allowed them a sip.
Barkan wines can be purchased at the shop and Dad treated us to a bottle of barrel-aged Cabernet Sauvignon for Shabbat. That way I really got to taste what I had learnt all about. And pretty good it was too!