home | our wines | visit us | history | getting to beit-el | articles  

the beit-el winery

The Little Winery with a Big Jewish Tradition

When winemaker Hillel Manne moved to Beit El in 1996 he asked about agricultural land.  He was told that the shallow Terra Rosa soil on limestone, coupled with harsh winters, made agriculture here unlikely. 

That was when he got excited. 

With his experience managing the vineyard at Israel’s Kibbutz Shaalavim and studying agriculture at the University of California, he had a gut feeling that he was onto some excellent wine territory. 

He was right.  Israel’s warm climate ensures the right sugar level, and the cool evenings of Beit El (altitude:  2,854 feet) produce excellent acid retention.  The result is grapes maturing with the perfect balance between sugar and acid, a balance that preserves the wine naturally for years.

2,000+ Years of History

But is winemaking here really new? Hardly.

The countryside features hundreds of stone wine presses from the Roman and Byzantine periods, the time of the Second Temple (Talmudic-Gaonim).  Ancient winemakers poured their fermenting grape juice into clay jugs and stored them in the many caves around Beit El. 

As Hillel tells his guests, “We have an unsurpassed tradition to live up to.”

Impeccably Kosher

That tradition includes upholding a complex of Jewish laws to ensure that the wine is kosher.  If Hillel and his workers find wheat growing between rows of grapes, then those grapes must be uprooted and burned, under the prohibition of killim, mixing crops.  Also, for the first three years, the fruit is orlah and forbidden.

To make sure that the wine is kosher, only religious Jews work at The Beit-El Winery.  At a typical Israeli winery, almost all the pruning and harvesting is done by non-Jews.  Not so at the Beit-El Winery.  Here, all the labor, including planting, pruning, and harvesting, is done exclusively by Jews. 

The Winery is under the supervision of the local rabbinate as well as Rabbi Mordechai Unger. The wine is not pasteurized and has no additives, so it may be used for kiddush by those who hold by the Rambam.

We’re just 45 minutes from the center of Jerusalem.  Come visit us!

To BUY on Only Kosher Wine