Recommend November 2010 - (Page 51)

to the biological extermination of rodents, significantly reducing the intensive use of pesticides, and thus are a boon to organic agriculture. n Etz Echad Winery bills itself as a family-run, ecological winery, in the heart of Israel’s historic wine country in the Tirosh Valley. Two of its top wines, both made from organic grapes with no sulphites and no preservatives, are the Ecological Emerald Riesling, a semi-dry white wine, and the Ecological Muscat, a blush wine. The winery also produces an Ecological Cabernet and Merlot. n Bashan Winery, a small and new enterprise, has been the talk of the Upper Galilee since its inaugural 2004 release. This boutique winery produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Portlike wines and prides itself on being “100% organic.” The winery produces around 10,000 bottles and plans to bring that number up to around 80,000. According to one of the owners, Uri Rapp, “Organically grown grapes are healthier for the land, the people who tend the land, and finally the people who enjoy the wine.” n Tishbi Winery, founded in the 1880s by Lithuanian immigrants and backed by Baron Edmund de Rothschild, cultivated land in northern Israel near the Mediterranean Sea. While the original 62 acres now produce award-winning wines, there are now four other vineyard locations, including one in the Negev where Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown using innovative irrigation techniques that are making the desert bloom. Tishbi owners are adamant about not using pesticides, fungicides or herbicides in the growing of their grapes, and their Tishbi Syrah Organic (2005), seems to be a popular choice among U.S. wine buyers. In addition to its 18 wines, on-location Tishbi visitor centers stock olive oil, honey, jellies and preserves, while wood-oven-baked bread and local goat cheeses are served for lunch. Less doctrinaire in production are sustainably farmed vineyards, in which the grape grower uses the smallest amounts of chemicals and applying only when necessary. Those who farm this way say vineyards tend to yield healthy, high-quality grapes consistently. At the other end of the spectrum are biodynamic wines, made from grapes farmed organically, but also in accordance with the earth’s movements along a series of farming guidelines that come from the teachings of philosopher (not farmer) Austrian Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Following the lunar calendar, biodynamic adherents will make their decisions about the grapes based on the phases of the moon. Some of the more interesting facets include rituals that may appear more religious than practical: burying a cow horn full of manure, then digging it up and spraying it on the field, or fermenting oak bark in a domesticated animal’s skull. While some view this all as witchcraft, few argue that, by and large, biodynamic farming results in wines that truly reflect the land on which the grapes were grown. Worldwide, there are about 450 biodynamic wine producers. ● An Eco-Friendly Wine Glossary Around the world there are three major environmentally geared, grape-growing practices: sustainable farming, organic farming, and biodynamic farming. At one end you have organic winemaking, which, as with food production, describes a specific method of farming, one that governs the use of chemicals in the process of cultivation. In other words, to produce an organic wine, man-made compounds cannot be used for the farming of the grapes or in the winemaking process. That means no preservatives—even sulphur dioxide, the most common stabilizer added to wine—are used. (Note that the natural fermentation process produces its own sulphites, which is, under the terms of organic winemaking, a-okay). 100 YEARS OF GREEN I-17 ISRaEl mINISTRY of TouRISm

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend November 2010

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk
Tour Talk
Medical Tourism Introduction
India: The Guest is God
Turkey: Investing in the Future
A Medical Tale of Two Latin American Countries
Quality Care in Taiwan
Uruguay's Making Waves
No More "Risky Business" in Colombia
River Cruising for 2011
Israel-100 Years of Green
South Africa With Style
Chicago: Nothing Second About This City
Jacksone Hole, Wyoming
Shining the Spotlight on Amelia Island, Florida
Koh Chang, Thailand
Barbados: Back to Work
Jamaica: Back to Basics
Acapulco on the Rise-Again
Re-Discovering the Wonders of the Yucatan

Recommend November 2010