An Interview with Dalton Winery CEO Alex Haruni

By Dr. Kenneth Friedman

The Story of Dalton

The year is 1995. British father-and-son immigrants to Israel, Mat and Alex Haruni, establish what is to become the landmark family winery known as Dalton.

After more than a quarter of a century building a reputation for excellence, Dalton Winery today exemplifies the quality and scope of a large winery while maintaining the attention to detail and innovative, handcrafted winemaking technique of a boutique winery.

Nestled in the scenic heights of Israel's Upper Galilee, Dalton’s expansive growth has allowed the winery to build a talented team focused on producing the best from the varied Israeli terroir while remaining a true estate winery.

In 2015, proprietor Alex Haruni was named CEO and president of Dalton, an interdisciplinary new role in the family winery. Dalton now produces over 1,000,000 bottles of wine while maintaining over 200 acres of its own vineyards.

Dalton’s wine catalog represents the diverse styles of the ancient and the modern Israel while offering a bottle for just about any wallet:

• Canaan: Fresh and accessible, ready for fun.
• Estate & Estate M: Fruity and soft, with minimal intervention
• Alma: Creativity, curiosity, and craftsmanship of Dalton’s signature blends
• Reserve: Blended from premium estate lots with the utmost potential, complexity, depth, and expression of the Galilee region
• Single Vineyard: Produced in limited quantities, and reflecting the nature, story, and essence of their source.

With each wine that bears its name, Dalton prides itself on bringing the best to each consumer, and Alex Haruni perpetuates this lofty standard. We were privileged to spend some time with Alex discussing Dalton’s past, present, and bright future.

An Interview with Alex Haruni, Dalton Winery CEO

Alex, tell us about your family background and how the path of winemaking was chosen.

"We set up the winery some 25 years ago. We wanted to open an agri-tourism business in the Galil with the focus of bringing tourism to the north of Israel and especially the Galil. I think that by and large we have been successful. We have expanded our business from a few thousand bottles a year to over a million, we have a flourishing Visitor Center and COVID-notwithstanding there is now a flourishing tourist scene in the north."

What do you love about your job?

AH: I like the variety of roles within the job. One day I can be out seeing customers, another tasting wines, and another developing new wines and new concepts. Every day brings something new and it keeps the job interesting.

How did you pick the location in the Galilee for Dalton? How about the locations of the vineyards?

AH: As I mentioned above, as we were looking to develop tourism in the Galil, wine fit very well and always acts as a great ambassador for a region, and this area is famed for its vineyards. As new olim (immigrants to Israel), we didn’t know much about the area until we were brought here by a representative of the Jewish Agency who was responsible for bringing investment to the area. 

Dalton ticked all the boxes we were looking for as a base of operations. The region is perfect for growing grapes, and within a short period of time we were planting vineyards all over the Upper and Western Galilee, where the elevation and soils provide ideal conditions for growing the finest wine grapes.

Tell us about your vision at Dalton. How does that change as the winery grows and the market constantly changes?

AH: At Dalton we believe that in order to make great wine you have to grow great vineyards. We are one of the few wineries in Israel with a full-time viticulture staff, we tend to our own vineyards, and grow the grapes that supply the winery. Without this direct link to the land you cannot strive for perfection as you will always be in conflict with a grower who isn't you.

Dalton has always strived for excellence and value, and I think we offer it at every price point. We try very hard not to be greedy in our pricing, and I believe that our customers can pick up any of our wines and they will not be disappointed. The value proposition has always been our guiding light, and we strive to offer the best possible wine at any given price point, and I think we have succeeded at that.

In addition, we must constantly look to the future, judge trends, and try to adapt to them. In the cellar we have to satisfy a new generation of consumers who have changing tastes and desires, and in the vineyard we have to adapt to a changing climate that provides us many challenges.

What does the future hold for Dalton? Any exciting news we can leak to our readers?

AH: I hope that the future is good for us. We have a young and dynamic team that excels in what they do. We make fabulous wines that fit a broad range of tastes and values and we intend to keep moving forward and innovating along the way. Regarding exciting news for the future, we have some interesting projects this vintage which involve some ancient winemaking techniques, and we have a new wine to be released after the holidays with lots of bubbles in it.

Thanks for your time, Alex. Continued success to you and Dalton!

Shop Dalton wines today up to 20% off and enjoy a taste of Israel's Upper Galilee in your glass.