Glimpses of the everyday, wine in the south.

First I'll finish up Wednesday. When we got back to Har Adar we rested a bit, then went food shopping at Rami Levy in Mevaseret. One of the things I like about the way I structure my visits is I get glimpses of regular life. I take buses, cabs, Sheiruts (shared cabs) trains. I drive occasionally. I don't tend to stay in hotels, so I shop, go to hardware stores, pump gas, etc. Rami Levy is a great place - imagine a full service supermarket, all kosher, including wine and liquor, separate meat and dairy counters, etc.

After that Daniel really wanted pizza and we were all hungry so we went back to Abu Ghosh (at the bottom of the hill below Yossi and Dina's) and went to a fairly new, arab-run pizza place. It was good, clean and reasonably priced (55 NIS for a family size with 2 toppings and 1.5 liters of coke, about $14).

I crashed not long after. Thursday am we got up and headed south; Yossi had heard of some nice wineries in and around Gadera (near Ashdod). Gadera is a community from the first aliyah, founded in 1884. It's grown quite a bit, and is becoming a popular destination, with lots of boutiques, nice restaurants. Housing prices are rising there.

We had a hard time reaching winemakers by phone; we visited one winery in Gan Yavneh for about 2.5 hours. Meir Kfir started as a hobbiest about 8 years ago when he got laid off from his high-tech job. He now produces about 6000 bottles a year and is in the process of moving his operation out of his basement (which is lovely, he has an amazing home) to Arad since the Ministry of health told him he can't operate in a residential neighborhood. He has at least 12 varieties of wine, including whites, very unusual for a small winery. He experiments a lot, has three port style wines including a white (not my thing, my sweet tooth is diminishing) 2 Gewirtztraminers, a chardonnay, shiriz, petite syrah, Cab Franc and unusual for an Israeli winery, no Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot (there are plenty that do it well, he says). He enjoyed having guests who know and appreciate wines, and he treated us very well. He is starting to work with Malbec, fairly new here (I've only seen a couple here). he tried to help us reach other wineries, but alas, we were mostly unsuccessful.

We had a delicious dairy lunch in Gadera at Badolina; Yossi had a baked eggplant caserole with cheese, I had an omelet with Bulgarit (a low fat, feta type cheese) and mushrooms. The food and service were excellent. We then found a small moshav winery (the name is escaping me) where the winemakers were in; they showed us their vineyard, we had a barrrel tasting of a cabernet, and then, they offered us nothing else. We left surprised and a little dumbfounded. On the way home we stopped at a cheese shop in Tal Shachar (on Hwy 3 just south of Latrun) that makes all of its own Goats' milk cheeses. I was hot and tired at that point and wasn't so into it. It's a pleasant place, certified kosher, run by a pleasant young man, next to the Soreq winery (which said open but we called and they said it wasn't a good time to come), and worth another visit sometime - maybe during Pesach.

Thursday night was poker - smaller group than last time, and I lost only 7 shekels, but it ended a multi-year winning streak for me at this game. It's a great group of guys, I enjoy their company immensely, and wish I were here fore frequently to join them.

Friday I will be in transit, from Har Adar to Moshav Gefen to Kibbutz Saad (in the northwestern Negev) for shabbat. Sunday I will meet the USY group in Sderot. Then its 4 USY groups in a row Sun-Wed, and Thursday is Tisha B'Av - now sure how much writing will get done, but I will aim for some short posts and time permits. Shabbat shalom.