Making French style wines in Israel
Jacques Capsouto is a Francophile. He expresses his objective of making French style wines in Israel, not New World Wines.
He called his winery Jacques Capsouto Vignobles.
The French word Vignobles means ‘Vineyard.’ His labels purposefully look like Cotes de Rhone Village labels, but instead he writes Cotes de Galilee Village and on every label the description ‘Mediterranean blends’ is part of the logo. Some of the blends are unique to Capsouto, and he is leading a new trend for Mediterranean blends in Israel.
The vineyard was planted in 2011 near Peki’in in the Galilee. The first vintage was 2014 and the first wines were released in 2015. There were five wines: two whites, two reds and a rosé.
He makes the wine at Kfar Tivon, using his own temperature controlled tanks within the facilities of Tulip Winery. The winery is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and the most advanced, up to date technology.
Capsouto wines immediately caused interest because they were high quality and represented a different direction. The rose was regarded as arguably the finest in Israel and the whites and reds were received positively by both wine lovers and connoisseurs, because they did not exhibit the tropical fruit of whites, and the over ripe fruit and sweet oak flavors associated with many Israeli wines. The Capsouto Cuvee Samuel received a very impressive 92 points the first time it was sent to the Wine Enthusiast. This is a very good score for an Israeli wine.
The wines are distributed in Israel by Handcrafted Wines of Israel, founded and managed by wine industry veteran Oded Shoham. It is a small consortium featuring prestigious boutique wineries such as Margalit, Clos de Gat, Bar-Maor, Gros-Shoham wineries, as well as Capsouto. Jacques Capsouto is still resident in New York part of the year but comes to Israel to oversee his vineyard, harvest, winemaking and bottling and for wine events like the Sommelier Exhibition and Jerusalem Wine festival, where he insists on pouring his own wine.
Capsouto wines may be found in Israel’s best restaurants and finest wine stores. They are exported to the USA and Japan, amongst other places. The wines are Kosher and Kosher Passover.
