Israel’s first Master of Wine buys Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois

by Tal Sunderland-Cohen

Even before the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Eran Pick MW and Dan Sheinman, the winemakers at Tzora Winery, together with Golan Flam, the winemaker and owner of Flam Winery, both in the Judean Hills, started toying with the idea of acquiring a winery in Bordeaux.

Eran Pick MW is the CEO and winemaker of Tzora Winery, and became Israel’s first Master of Wine in 2016. A graduate of UC Davis, Eran worked in wineries in Napa, Sonoma, the Barossa Valley, and Bordeaux before returning to Israel. Jean-Claude Berrouet, long-term winemaker with Ets JP Moueix, has been consulting for Tzora since 2010, and this connection deepened Pick’s interest in investing in Berrouet’s home region. His colleague and fellow winemaker at Tzora, Sheinman, also has experience working in France, spending three years as assistant winemaker at Domaine de Montille in Burgundy after completing a degree in Horticultural Sciences in Israel.

The third partner, Golan Flam, is from the 2nd generation of Israeli winemakers: his father was the head winemaker at Carmel. Golan has a Master’s in Viticulture from the University of Piacenza near Milan, and worked at Carpineto Wines in Tuscany.

It took some time for the friends to conduct their search. Initially, they attempted to locate a winery on the Right Bank, but ultimately found the right property in the Haut-Médoc, featuring a good quantity of vines, proximity to the river, deep clay soil and, most importantly, a suitable partner.

‘We visited a variety of wine estates on both the Right Bank and the Left Banks of Bordeaux,’ says Sheinman. ‘The properties we found ranged from spectacular buildings with bad terroir to astronomically expensive with good terroir, but none of them met the parameters we were looking for’.

Their intention is to produce wines – including kosher wines – that showcase the region’s terroir, and this month have completed the acquisition of Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin, a Cru Bourgeois in Cussac-Fort-Médoc which has 10 hectares under vine and dates back to 1870. Its 6th-generation owner, Lionel Poitou, will continue to manage and operate the château.

‘The winery had previously covered 30ha of land, but family circumstances led to the sale of two-thirds of the land to a larger winery in the region,’ says Sheinman. ‘We reached out to Lionel through an agent, and were able to form a successful connection.’

According to Sheinman, the high inheritance taxes in France make it extremely difficult for the next generation to continue the family business, especially when there is no emotional investment in the land, the vineyard, and the wine. Lionel’s children were apparently not interested in continuing the business.

‘I have seen many vineyards, including famous wineries in the area, however I have not seen any like Lionel Poitou’s, a vintner of exceptional quality, with not a single vine missing from the rows. The vines are in excellent condition, and we are very happy that he has agreed to stay to work with us, bringing his expertise, knowledge, and passion for the place.’

Sheinman will take over as the primary winemaker at Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin for the initial part of the project, splitting his time between Israel and France, with Flam and Pick bringing their expertise. The three Israeli winemakers will concentrate on further rejuvenating the winemaking and vineyard, with assistance from renowned consultant Vincent Dupuch, who has previously worked with winemakers such as Denis Durantou and Château Lafleur in Pomerol.

This is not the first time that Israeli wineries have produced kosher or non-kosher wines abroad, however the acquisition of Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin is the first time that a historic Bordeaux winery has come under Israeli ownership.

The team has bottled a small amount of wine from the 2023 harvest, as an initial experiment. Their first full vintage is expected in 2024, with the expectation of reaching 50,000 bottles in the future.