Tishbi – An Israeli Family Winery Makes History

By / Magazine / April 9th, 2009 / 1

The Tishbi winemakers family has been associated with viticulture in Israel for over 125 years. As immigrants at the end of the 19th century, the family was among the pioneers that carried out the vision of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and revived the age-old wine culture in the holy land. This tradition is continued today with the fifth generation of the family-owned winery.

“In the year 1882 my great-grandfather settled down here in the region of Zichron Yaakov to make his living. He was personally commissioned by Baron Edmond de Rothschild to plant and cultivate vineyards on his own land”, says Jonathon Tishbi. For over a century, his forefathers were wine growers and grape producers, until Jonathon Tishbi, along with his family, decided in 1985 to vinify the grapes from their vineyards themselves. The winery was founded at that time under the name “Habaron” in memory of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and was later renamed “Tishbi”.

Today, this modern winery near the city of Binyamina, produces about a million bottles of wine per year under four labels: Special Reserve, Estate, Vineyards, and Tishbi. The grapes largely come from their own vineyards in the area of Zichron Yaakov at the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, an area that benefits from the proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. But the family also cultivates vineyards at higher elevations in the north and in the Negev Desert, where winegrowing has rapidly developed in recent years due to irrigation technology.

Despite modern technologies in the vineyards and cellars, the Tishbi’s see themselves to this day as a kosher and ecological winery of the old family tradition. In the past few years, cellar master Golan Tishbi has won international recognition with his wines. For example, the Shiraz 2005 was distinguished as wine of the year in 2007 by the “World Association Wine and Spirit Writers and Journalists.”

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