One of Israel's hidden wine gems is the Or Haganuz winery,founded in 2005 in the eastern Upper Galilee at the foot of Mount Meron. It sits within the tightly knit Chassidic cooperative community of Or Haganuz, home to around 700 people, not far from the city of Tzfat, a historic hub for the study of kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). 

Besides producing some truly remarkable wines, the winery stands near the traditional burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a second century sage traditionally associated with the Zohar, a foundational work of Kabbalah. This proximity is hardly coincidental. The winery and its community aim to deepen their connection to the Land of Israel and its unique terroir through both physical cultivation and spiritual purpose. 

"The winery is not simply a commercial enterprise," says Rabbi Aharon Ziv, the founding and current winemaker, "but part of our community's core mission." 

Or Haganuz, both the village and the winery, is rooted in the teachings of Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (1885-1954), known as the Baal HaSulam, for his monumental Hebrew commentary on the Zohar. Ashlag taught that human spiritual growth is not merely individual but communal and redemptive. By transforming selfish desires into selfless giving and living in mutual responsibility, we can help reveal Or HaGanuz - the Hidden Light of Creation - long concealed by G-d until humanity becomes ready to receive it. 

This ideal underpins the very founding of Or Haganuz. In 1989, Rabbi Mordechai Sheinberger, Ashlag's primary disciple and son-in-law, established the village as a religious cooperative society designed to live out these teachings. "The community was built on the principle of 'Love your neighbor as yourself," explains Ziv. "All businesses belong to the community; if someone works outside, their salary goes back to the community. One of these businesses is our winery, and all the workers here are from the community." 

A WINEMAKER'S JOURNEY OF MEMORY AND FAITH 

Ziv's path into winemaking has roots in family memory His father, who passed away when Ziv was still a child, had built a small wine cellar at home for producing wine. "When I moved to Or Haganuz and built my house, I recreated that cellar, so I could make wine too," he says. It began simply: making small batches at home, enjoying the process without lofty ambitions. 

Then came a turning point. A friend in the village approached Ziv with an offer of surplus table grapes that couldn't be sold. "We hand-harvested them and put the must into plastic tanks inside one of the caravans. I warned them, I didn't really know how to make this much wine and the grapes were all wrong anyway, but we persisted. It turned out horrible." he laughs. But the seed was planted. The next year they tried again -this time with proper wine grapes, and the wine was really pretty good. 

At the local Talmud Torah fundraiser, bottles of their wine were given as donor gifts. The feedback was so positive that they decided to produce more. This pattern continued until 2005, when the community formally established Or Haganuz Winery, with its first official commercial harvest in 2006.

THE WINES: AMUKA, MAROM, OROT AND BEYOND

Today, Or Haganuz produces table wines under three main labels, plus an intriguing line of dessert wines. Ziv studied formally at the Golan Heights Winery and continues to hone his craft, looking to Mediterranean regions like Italy, Spain, and Portugal for inspiration, in addition to France. 

Amuka is their entry-level series, sourced from vineyards between Meron and Dalton (790m elevation) and aged for six months in barrels. The name reflects both literal valleys and deeper spiritual ideas of hidden potential. I particularly enjoyed their light but delicious and refreshing 2024 Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay (labelled as Amuka Blanc in English-speaking markets), bursting with citrus, kiwi, jasmine, and yellow cherry, finishing with a delicate almond edge and a touch of orange blossom. Also, their Amuka Gewürztraminer 2024 dazzles with aromas of rose water. lychee, tropical fruit, and a silky palate lifted by bright acidity. 

Marom means height or elevation and has a connotation of spiritual or metaphysical loftiness or exaltedness (e.g.. Psalms 93:4). This references not only the high-altitude vineyards near Mt. Meron but also the elevated quality and spiritual aspiration of the wines. This line has several lovely offerings and also includes the popular Elima blend made with no added sulfites. The 2023 Marom Cabernet Sauvignon was dry, rounded, lovely, and beautifully balanced with already well-integrated tannins, while the delicious 2021 Marom Blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz) offers a deeply satisfying, long finish. 

At the pinnacle is Orot, meaning lights, a nod to the Kabbalistic concept of divine emanations. These wines hail from specific vineyard plots and spend 20-24 months in barrels. The 2020 Petit Verdot is inky and elegant, while the Orot Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve (Namura)

2019 is still young but delicious (needs time to breathe!) and captivated my fullest attention. This lovely, deeply coloured, full-bodied wine from a tiny, high-elevation single vineyard in northern Galilee offers layers of black cherry, cassis, plum, and roasted red pepper. It's wrapped in aromas of violet, chocolate, and fine toasted oak, with chewy yet silky tannins that carry flavors of anise, menthol, and herbs into a remarkably long, elegant finish - destined to enter its premium drinking window around 2028.

SWEET REVELATIONS: HAR SINAI

Among their most surprising successes are their Har Sinai (red) and Har Sinai Hazahav (white). The red was inspired by Eastern European Kagor. In Orthodox circles, sweet kiddush wine was once dubbed "yayin patishin" - hammer wine, because its overwhelming sweetness and strength is likened to being "banged in the head with a hammer" and is consumed despite its sensory qualities.

Instead, "We wanted to make something sweet but serious," Ziv says. They use late-harvest Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, flash-freeze the grapes to further concentrate the sugars, then gently heat them over an open olive wood fire (thermovinification), before aging in barrels left outdoors for 12 months through all four seasons. The result is a delicious, full-bodied yet supple dessert-style inky red wine, layered with aromas of raisins, cherries, plums, and coffee grain, unfolding into rich flavours of dark chocolate, balsamic, and toasted oak, ending with an impressively long, harmonious finish.

Even more dazzling is their Har Sinai Zahav 2023, a sweet Gewürztraminer fermented on the skins and aged in barrels outdoors for a year. This is a gorgeous late-harvest Gewürztraminer, showcasing a striking amber-orange hue and tremendous aromatic depth of roses, lychee, orange peel, and toasted nuts. It has a rich, slightly viscous palate of lychee, vanilla, and quince that's sweet yet clean and balanced. Its finish is long and warm and would probably be divine with flourless chocolate cake, though I suspect I'd be just as happy drinking it on its own.

THE WONDER OF WINE

Despite the community's mystical goals, Ziv remains deeply practical. "Wine can still amaze and induce wonder," he says. "We're not making Coca-Cola. You never know exactly how something will turn out. That's what makes it so much fun." At Or Haganuz, tending vines and producing wine is a devotion. Wine is not only for joy but for purpose - to draw light into the world, to reveal the hidden, and to elevate the mundane. 

One might not expect a winery to help hasten the redemption. But Or Haganuz is built on that very aspiration. And in the glow of a glass of the wonderful 2019 Orot Cab Special Reserve (Namura) or a sip of the stunning 2023 Har Sinai Zahav, the goal no longer seems quite so distant.

This article was written by Joshua London and originally appeared in Fleishigs Magazine.

Everything was set. A night harvest was planned for right after the holiday ended on Shemini Atzeret, Shabbat, October 7, 2023 – but pulling out of his driveway, winemaker Amichai Lourie discovered that the entire Shiloh Winery staff and all the vineyard grower staff were fighting for Israel’s survival. Weeks later, an 83-year-old retired picker and his friends finished his northern harvest with IDF cannons booming alongside them and rockets fired in their direction.

The spanking-new Shiloh Winery Visitor Center was almost ready for its grand November opening during Hanukkah 5784-2023, with just a few final touches needed. But Amichai uses only Jewish laborers – all were drafted. There was no grand opening, just a ghostly shell standing. That was last year.
 

We came to learn about the war’s ongoing impact in its second year.
 
Today, the stunning Jerusalem stone structure sits on Shiloh’s main entrance road. An outdoor deck overlooks grapevines and olive orchards in the fertile Shiloh Valley; a wine-bottle-lined indoor hall with magnificent décor seats 140, with outdoor seating for up to 300 people. More intimate rooms for private gatherings or meetings are in the upper floor, including a cigar room. A state-of-the-art caterer’s kitchen is near completion. A full range of barbecue facilities is already in use by private chefs that work wonders for private and organizational groups. “We had a soft opening on Sukkot 2024. Regular tours include jeep trips into the fields, but only 150 overseas tourists have come in half a year, instead of 150 or more a day,” says Yossi Kransdorf, center manager and an American oleh.

“I was coordinating the production of our creative artist Pinny Mizrachi’s new beautiful graphics and labeling from my laptop,” says Assistant GM Itai Metzger, “working with Scheller Printing. But at some point, you have to actually check colors at the printer, and months went by until I could go.” Yossi smiles. “That’s when he was outside; he could work at night, but when he was fighting inside, there was no phone, no laptop, and no contact.” These men are serving in IDF units where they cannot even talk about what they do. So designing and labeling held up the bottling, which delayed the packing and shipping.

The in-house state-of-the-art laboratory boasts machines like one using both infrared and UV light, and turns samples into gas, to frequently and easily test an entire range of factors. Computers and smartphones adjust each room, tank, and pipe temperature, and set nonstop Sabbath and even three-day holiday treatments. For example, fermenting wine develops a hard “cap” of skins and solid material rising to the top. No more regularly opening all the tanks to physically pound it down; now pumps do it. Wetting the cap regularly with wine, even every few minutes if needed, enables maximum skin contact with the liquid, thus extracting flavors, aroma and color from the skins without damage. This exactitude was never before possible. Lees, a yogurt-like sludge with seed remnants and acids, form on tank bottoms, but with much absorbed wine. A new Italian machine extracts high-quality wine from the lees, greatly increasing the quality and quantity of each batch.

I finally sit down with Amichai himself, and he opens his heart before I say a word.

“The people of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and the Land of Israel are one – the land is a living responsive force that responds to the people and how they live with the Torah, in it and on it. The Hatam Sofer says working the land is the equivalent of putting on tefillin. Some mitzvot can only be done here, and even the others that are performed in the Diaspora, as the Ramban says, are preparing us to do them in Israel. I travel regularly overseas on business, and I sense this perception is lacking. So I seek to share it through wine.”

JP: How has the war affected you in its second year?

AL: Many growers were away fighting, and their crops suffered, losing about 30% of our 2024 grapes. Our staff is in and out of the frontlines. Delays meant missing the high season of Purim and Pesach overseas for many 2023 wines, losing the “prime real estate” on store shelves, and canceled orders. But our product has shelf life and improves with age, so Baruch Hashem! I hope the 2023 18-month wines will make it for Rosh Hashana. And Royal Wine Corporation, our distributors, devote themselves to helping us succeed.

JP: Originally, there were no chairs for visitors because you invested everything in the wine. After achieving the quality level you wanted, over ten years, you planned, designed, and built the new visitor center. What’s the concept?

AL: I wanted a 5-star hotel feeling – the furniture, lighting, aromatic candles in the bathrooms, and multiple venues for high-end meetings, leadership gatherings, honoring donors to organizations and those who really appreciate fine foods and fine wines to luxuriate here. At an outdoor deck party, the visitor will say, ‘I’m coming back here with my friends for drinks in the cigar room, with my staff for our product launch, or my overseas cousins for an intimate wine-tasting and gourmet meal!’ Come picnic in the vineyard, enter the vat and barrel rooms smelling the wine, feeling the air, seeing the people working, or go down with winemaker Matanya Popper into the cellar, drawing samples directly from the barrels.

JP: But with far fewer visitors and maintenance costs, how do you continue?

AL: An IDF officer came in. I said, ‘Sir, I’m busy. I have no staff – how can I help you?’ He said, ‘Your care packages to our wives and families keep us going; I had to thank you personally.’ I replied, ‘Very nice, but give me my worker back!’  He replied, ‘No. Units from Gaza to Lebanon fight for his attention and fly him back and forth. He solves challenges that no one else can.’ He showed me classified images of my worker saving lives, recovering hostages, and finding real-time battlefield solutions you didn’t hear about on the news. That keeps us going. Visiting Tel Shiloh next door is an unforgettable experience, with the archaeology of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) and great multi-media. There is ATVing, workshops with craftspeople, hikes, and springs. We hope this summer will be packed! Our visitor center hostesses, Revital More and Aura Netzer, tailor the experience for each group, and our sukkah will host holiday visitors!”

JP: I like the optimism under duress. Tell me about your new wines.

AL: Before that, I must first say that you cannot yet grasp our transformation from outside of Israel. Regular people suddenly being battlefield heroes or saving people from terrorists at home; world news and Time Magazine featuring relatives of hostages and freed hostages – look at these people, look how they speak! Overseas, people dropped their jobs to do everything possible to help and protect us, combining David’s protective shield with his slingshot and sword. Am Yisrael needs Gevura, steadfast and constant courage, resilience, and a readiness to stand up. Our people today are like King David’s courageous, brave fighters and entourage, like Adino Haetzni, soft and flexible learning in the study hall, tough as wood on the battlefield. Safra veSaifa, the book and the sword, learning Torah and defending its values in life, is an ancient Jewish value. They inspired the renaming of our Legend line of complex blends. I hope seeing these new David’s Heroes bottles with the protective Shield of David will convey that Safra veSaifa message.

This past year was the worst drought I can remember, yet the produce has been amazing! Adino, formerly “Fiddler,” blends Petite Syrah, Petit Verdot, and Shiraz, which are very full-bodied and aromatic. Ittai, formerly “Honi,” is Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec; 16 barrel months, very rich and spicy. Ira, a priest to David and his Torah teacher, is the name of a totally new blend of Carignan, Grenache Barbera, elegant and complex, yet light.”

“Privilege is our entry-level, then white and rosé wines, then the single varietal Shor series – the bull, Joseph’s blessing, and then David’s Legend blends. Secret Reserve, Mosaic, and Mosaic Exclusive demand exceptional quality grapes and more time to process. They are only produced in some years.

JP: I sense you are holding back a secret; you are not satisfied. What earns a 100 score? No Israeli wine has yet received 100.

AL: For two decades, I have been working with Napa Valley winemakers and constantly experimenting. In 2019 and 2020, I finally thought some barrels had it. This summer, I hope to release them with a new name. They are definitely an eighth level. We shall see….”

JP: Still, Amichai. We are still at war, you pay salaries, and have suffered financial losses. Private chefs and others come, but far below the center’s potential. How can you keep going?

AL: What truly drives this place is the deep conviction and belief of owner Dr. Mayer Chomer of Mexico. The Bible speaks about winemaking as part of life here, with God’s blessing, with fruits growing as heralding the onset of Israel’s redemption; “There is no greater open [sign]that the end is in sight,” says the Talmud. Jeremiah promises wine growing will return to the Shomron (Jeremiah 31:4). That this visitor center now exists, and as Elton John sings, “We’re still standing,” is a credit to his integrity and to his belief that we are making a difference here, and that our wine proudly carries an important message –and this center will certainly be its flagship. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with such a man. But I sense success is percolating, like Joseph smelling sweet smells while being taken captive. Good things are coming.”

An expanded version of this article may be found on the Shiloh Winery website.