"Mul Hatel" vineyard and winery
Our Story
We are Adi and Sima, a couple of wine lovers who always dreamed that one day we would be able to grow vines and produce our own wine. After decades of intensive work in the civil service, we felt it was time to turn to new and fascinating work. We turned to vineyard growing gstudies, red wine making, chemistry and laboratory, and making white and rosé wines at the Soreq School in Nachshon and discovered the magic of wine making proses. Then we made the decision to realize the vision of planting a vineyard and establishing our own small boutique winery.
Our residence in Moshav Mishmar Ayalon in the Gezer Regional Council allowed us to finally realize our long-standing dream and create a new and amazing agricultural reality in our land. We planted the vineyard in stages in a plot adjacent to the residential area facing and overlooking Tel Gezer and at the foot of the biblical city in the Judean lowlands - hence the origin of the name "Opposite the Tel". From this stage we are actually farmers and in addition to caring for the vineyard we have also begun to prepare for the establishment of a small winery and the preparation of unique wines from our grapes. Adi also completed a course for establishing and managing a boutique winery as well as a WSET international wine course and Sima completed courses in AI marketing and business Instagram.
Our Vineyard
Our vineyard covers the entire agricultural plot adjacent to the residential area, totaling about 8.5 to 9 Dunams. This is a very fertile plot of land, mainly heavy clay soil typical of the Judean slopes and the Ayalon Valley combined with limestone rock. The turning point of the skid is to the southwest (234 degrees) on a very moderate slope to the southwest. The rows of the vineyard are planted along the plot in a way that makes it possible to see from the main house and between the rows in the vineyard at all times, including at the stage of full growth, the biblical Tel Gezer in all its glory and all the historical significance related to the wine that accompanies it. We planted the vineyard in five stages from 2019 to 2023, and each time we learned more about the beautiful agriculture that accompanies growing a vineyard in all seasons, and added to our experience in cultivating our various vines.
The variety of varieties we chose to grow in the vineyard is large and unusual compared to a vineyard of this size.
We planted 15 different varieties of red and white wine grapes. The quantity of grapes and wine has never been a relevant for us, but rather the desire to experiment with a wide variety of vines. We have made an obligation to ourselves from the beginning to care for our relatively small vineyard as independently as possible so that we can cultivate it ourselves throughout the processes and seasons and without the involvement of other workers. At first we planted the classic varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and the special Tempranilloo, and later we added to the plant: Marcelan, Grenache, Muscat White, Merlot, Barbera, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc, Carignan, Tanat, Sangiovese and Gewerztraminer.
The multiplicity of varieties also allows us to experiment with a wide variety of vines and grapes and naturally also a wide variety of wines that can be prepared from these later, including interesting and unique blends.
All varieties grow very well even in the hot weather prevailing in our country. At the same time every year we make sure to place protective nets on the vineyard rows in a way that prevents injury from birds and the penetration of pests and flights, and helps reducing the direct radiation of the sun on the grape clusters, so that the grapes can ripen slowly and more thoroughly until harvest time. We also make sure to lightly stretch the passages between the rows at the beginning of the rainy season and later on we cut the grass between the rows in order to prevent pests in the vineyard and to block the return of the sun heat from the soil to the vine clusters during the ripening season.
We believe that proper and consistent cultivation of the vineyard ensures the quality of the crops at the end of the season, and from our point of view it is clear that the vineyard is the anchor, the beginning and the end of every bottle of wine we produce from it. At this stage, not all of our vine varieties are matured and ready for harvesting and wine making, but we are preparing ourselves and looking forward to this soon.
Our Winery
Our winery is an Estate Winery, all of whose grapes are grown on site and are used solly to produce our winery's wines. The vineyard and winery are located in the Gezer Regional Council in "Mordot Yehuda" wine region.
The name of the winery was chosen by the whole family because Tel Gezer is visible in all its glory from everywhere inside the vineyard. This takes on a broader meaning when we sit in the vineyard with a glass of wine and look out over Tel Gezer, the biblical city, a 4,000-year-old worship site given to King Solomon as a dowry by Pharaoh of Egypt.
At Tel Gezer there was found the "Gezer tablet" dated to the ninth century BCE, in which the tablet appears in ancient Hebrew script The most meager farmer exposed to date, who for the first time indicated the order of agricultural activities required in this area according to the seasons.
It was right and appropriate for us to return the crown to its former glory, and our vineyard would bloom at the foot of the historic Tel Gezer, and the winery "opposite the Tel" would produce fine wines only from the vineyard's grapes. Our winery will eventually produce a small number of bottles each year that will allow us to maintain its place as a unique family boutique winery. The winery is located in the heart of the small and well-kept vineyard so that during the harvest season we harvest the grapes by hand with the help of all family members and friends. The grapes go directly from the rows of the vines to the winery's workung area, in a way that greatly shortens the exposure time of the grapes after they harvested to heat and that prevents any possible damages to the grapes before the winemaking process begins.
We believe in making wine using traditional methods combined with modern technologies, while maintaining cleanliness and sterility, using quality materials, all in order to maintain the quality of the wines produced in it. In the coming seasons, we intend to focus on making white and rosé wines that we love very much in the family, alongside classic red wines and unique blends.