Tishbi Winery Tour
August 31st 2014
Tishbi Winery offers its visitors a happy marriage of wine and chocolate. What’s the connection? At Tishbi, they say that both wine and chocolate both begin from the ground, and together, they can be enjoyed harmoniously. At the Visitors’ Center, quality gourmet chocolate produced by the French chocolatiers from Valrhona are presented side-by-side with Tishbi Winery’s products, served in Reidel crystal glasses. The Visitors’ Center also houses a brandy distiller, made from copper and brass. Your first impression of the tasting center will no doubt be the floor to ceiling shelving, brimming with beautifully packaged wines and chocolates. Your sommelier will match chocolates and wines to enhance the experience of tasting them together.
The history of Tishbi Winery goes back to the late 19th century, when Baron Edmund de Rothschild sent a Jewish couple, Michael and Malka Chamiletzki, from Lithuania to Zichron Yaacov to plant and cultivate vineyards in the area. The famous poet Chaim Nachman Bialik was a guest of the Chamiletzkis, who had settled in nearby Shefeya. Bialik urged the family to take on a new Hebrew last name, one that would separate them from their Eastern European past. He bestowed upon the family the name Tishbi, which is an acronym for “residents of Shefeya in Israel.” And the name stuck.
Tishbi Winery is now run by third and fourth generation descendants of the Chamiletzki/Tishbi family. Each member of the family has a hand in some aspect of the business, from serving as the winemakers to managing the wine store and Visitors’ Center, to designing the labels and decorating the Visitors’ Center with original ceramic art.
The Zichron Restaurant is a dairy and fish restaurant on the winery’s grounds. It offers your choice of indoor seating in a closed-in porch or al fresco dining with a view of the Tishbi Estate vineyards. Don’t miss the chance to sample the award-winning brandy and to take home some of Oshra Tishbi’s exotic fresh fruit preserves and wine jellies in flavors like Fig Cabernet (great with roast beef) or Mango Chardonnay (great for grilled cheese). Also for sale is 100% natural wildflower honey and golden green virgin olive oil. All wines are kosher under the Badatz Beit Yosef.
