Wineries of the Year
D
uring our tasting of hundreds of bottles of wine in the course of the making of the Jewish Link Wine Guide, some wines consistently appeared at the top of our rankings, pleasing our palettes time and again and delivering a superior experience in the glass. The designation of five Wineries of the Year honors the passion and innovation of the winemakers behind these consistent, approachable labels, as well as their consistency in placement in multiple rankings categories. We asked each winery representative what their focus is at their winery, how they’ve emerged from the pandemic and what we can expect from them going forward.
By Jewish Link Wine Guide Staff
Yaffo Winery was established in 1998 by physical therapist Moshe Celniker and Anne Marie Celniker.
YAFFO WINERY Yaffo Winery is a boutique, family-owned winery in Israel’s Ella Valley, owned by one-time physical therapist Moshe and his wife, Ann Marie Celniker. The winery is their long-time dream come true: “We started with the production of 1500 bottles at our home cellar in Jaffa, following our dream. Today, we produce nearly 70,000 bottles annually in our boutique winery located in Neve Michael, close to our vineyards in the Judean Hills, and plan to grow our production to 200,000 bottles, while keeping it a family winery,” Moshe said. The couple takes pride in hearing their wine is wellreceived: “We are happy whenever we meet people who tell us they love our wines. It makes all the complications we had on the way worthwhile.” But they are perhaps most proud that they “succeeded in convincing our son, Stephan, to study enology and become our next, future generation of winemaking,”
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shared Moshe. Having a family winery has its benefits and detractions, noted Moshe, since sometimes not everyone agrees on new trends, “but we understand that it is part of working with the family.” Yaffo winery is a labor of love for its founders: “We put all our efforts into improving the quality of the wines, testing new varieties that will differentiate us even slightly from the global wine industry. It is not always simple, but it is a long-distance game and we love it,” Moshe said. As to the future? “We will keep on producing quality wines that happen to be kosher, “ promised Moshe.
APRIL 2022 / NISSAN 5782
