Explore every episode of the podcast VINTAGE LAND | Wine, Israel & Faith for Your Life

Long before Israel had a modern wine industry, one man was already dreaming of its vineyards.

In this episode, Daniel sits down with Adam Montefiore, often called Israel’s senior wine writer and the ambassador of Israeli wine. Adam is a fifth generation member of the Montefiore family, a 27 year veteran of the Golan Heights Winery and Carmel, the Wine Talk columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and the author of the Israel section of the World Atlas of Wine.

Over a table of Israeli rosés, Adam traces the thread that runs from ancient winepresses hidden in Israel’s forests, to his ancestor Moses Montefiore’s 1839 vision of Jews returning to the land, to the hundreds of wineries producing world class wine today. He walks through Israel’s wine regions, shares how the industry grew from about a dozen wineries into a global contender, and makes the case for why putting an Israeli wine on your table matters right now.

In this episode:

• Why Adam calls rosé the quintessential Israeli wine
• Moses Montefiore: a wine lover, a forerunner of Zionism, and the man who first suggested Jews return to the land through agriculture
• The vineyard of Moses and Judith, and the story behind the Montefiore Windmill in Jerusalem
• How the Golan Heights Winery sparked a quality revolution in the 1980s
• The boutique winery boom of the 1990s and where Israeli wine is headed next
• Carignan, Petite Sirah, Argaman, and Dabouki: the grapes that make Israel unique
• A tour of Israel’s wine regions: the Golan Heights, Upper Galilee, Judean Hills, Judean Foothills, Central Mountains, Coastal Plain, and the Negev
• How the war has affected wineries in the Golan and Galilee, and how you can support them
• The secret visit from one of the world’s most famous wineries
• Adam’s take on the wedding at Cana and why the best wine came last

Scripture referenced:

• Genesis 9:20 (Noah plants the first vineyard)
• John 2:1-11 (Jesus turns water into wine at Cana in Galilee)

Find Adam Montefiore:

• Articles and portfolio: adammontefiore.com
• Wine Talk column: The Jerusalem Post

Connect with Vintage Land:

• Shop our curated Israeli wines or join the club: israeligoodwine.com Follow us on Instagram: @israeligoodwine

If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave us a review, and share it with someone who loves wine, Israel, or a great story.

L’Chaim.

Three years after October 7, we return to the Golan Heights to visit Terra Nova Winery and winemaker Ilan Matalon.

Filmed in October 2024, one year after the attacks, this episode of Vintage Land begins with a time of remembrance for the lives lost on October 7, 2023, and for the families, hostages, soldiers, and communities still living with the cost.

Then Daniel sits down with Ilan on Moshav Kanaf, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, during Sukkot. With his visitor center empty and his staff gone, Ilan was running the winery alone and hand-delivering wine and olive oil across Israel. The day before filming, rockets filled the sky with smoke. Still, the grapes would not wait.

In this conversation:

- How the war affected Israeli wineries and farmers

- Golan Heights altitude, basalt soil, and minerality in wine

- Terra Nova's award-winning Israeli olive oil

- The Bereshit (Genesis) and Noam blends

- Life on a moshav, where a whole community fights fires together

- The 2023 vintage Ilan calls "wartime wine"

This episode is best watched on YouTube: Click here to watch.

Shop Israeli wines and join the Israeli Good Wine club: https://israeligoodwine.com

Vintage Land is an Israeli wine and faith podcast hosted by Daniel and Alana Elliott.

Before God called anything else holy, He called the Sabbath holy. In this episode, Daniel and Alana sit down at their own kitchen table to talk about Shabbat: what it is, where it comes from, and why it has become the most protected day of their week since 2016.

They walk through the biblical foundations of the Sabbath, from creation to the Ten Commandments to the words of Jesus, and unpack the two Hebrew words that anchor it: zachor (remember) and shamor (guard). Then they open up their Friday night rhythm: the candles, the wine, the bread, the blessings, and why they keep it without trying to be legalistic about it.

Plus: the night they cooked for 20 and 40 people showed up, and the four-year-old who couldn't wait for Shabbat because it meant Legos with Dad.

In this episode

• What Shabbat is and why you should care
• Genesis 2 and the first thing God called holy
• Why the biblical day starts at sundown, and what it means to begin with rest
• The Sabbath as a covenant sign, and the land's Sabbath rest
• Zachor: remember the Sabbath (Exodus 20)
• Shamor: guard the Sabbath, and why it's really about freedom (Deuteronomy 5)
• Manna, double portions, and the invitation to trust
• Delighting in the Sabbath, and "the Sabbath was made for man"
• How we keep Shabbat as Gentiles, without legalism
• Candles, Kiddush, bread, and why wine represents abundance
• Blessing each other, Proverbs 31, and the woman of valor
• The Friday night blessing over children
• Flexibility, and closing Shabbat with Havdalah
• Isaiah 56: the Sabbath is for the foreigner too
• The night 40 people showed up for dinner
• Why we invite others into Sabbath, and a nephew's Lego story
• Your challenge: take one step toward rest

Scriptures referenced
Genesis 2:1-3 · Exodus 20:8-11 · Deuteronomy 5:12-15 · Isaiah 58:13-14 · Mark 2:23-28 · Proverbs 31 · Isaiah 56:6-7

Links

• Stock your Shabbat table: israeligoodwine.com
• Or if you're not sure what wine to choose let us help you: Israeligoodwine.com/quiz
• Watch our conversation with Jacob of Jezreel Winery on the Sabbath: https://youtu.be/1yjo_bdYY7Q

Try this week: Start with one dinner. Phones away, everyone at the table, nowhere else to be. Then tell us how it went. We'd love to hear from you.

If this episode encouraged you, follow Vintage Land and share it with someone who could use more rest in their life.

L'Chaim!

Everything Is a Miracle: More From Shiloh Winery with Amichai Lourie

In part two of our conversation at Shiloh Winery, Amichai Lourie takes us somewhere we didn't expect. Daniel asks him for one miracle, just one story from the vineyard or the winemaking room that he can point to and say, that was God. Amichai can't narrow it down. From vines planted on bedrock everyone said would never grow, to a harvest that keeps producing more wine than the math says it should, he makes the case that once you're paying attention, the ordinary stops looking ordinary.

This episode continues our conversation from Part 1 with Amichai, and If you haven't listened to part one, start there.

In this episode:

• Why Amichai couldn't give a single answer to "name one miracle"
• Planting vineyards on land everyone said was impossible
• The sixth-year harvest that consistently defies expectations
• A close look at the grammar of a Jewish morning prayer, and what it reveals about gratitude
• Faith and resilience during wartime in Israel

Learn more: Visit israeligoodwine.com to shop Shiloh Winery's wines and explore more of the Vintage Land podcast.

Find your Israeli Wine Soulmate: Discover which Israeli wine best suits your wine tastes. Visit israeligoodwine.com/quiz

What does it take to prove a 2,700-year-old prophecy is coming true, one glass at a time?

In this episode of Vintage Land, Daniel sits down with Amichai Luria, a dear friend and one of the finest winemakers in Israel, at Shiloh Winery's brand-new visitor center. Daniel and Amichai first crossed paths back in 2018, when Shiloh was still operating out of a converted 1970s warehouse. Today it produces half a million bottles a year and has earned recognition from James Suckling, Decanter, and Wine Spectator. But how did a stretch of land that travelers once called desert and swamp become one of the most celebrated wine regions in the world?

Amichai takes Daniel, and listeners, into the archaeological evidence buried in the hills around the winery: ancient Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years before Jerusalem became Israel's capital. Then the conversation turns to something bigger. Could the mountains of Israel blooming again be the fulfillment of a promise written by the prophet Ezekiel nearly three millennia ago? And what does it mean to run a modern winery according to laws written for ancient farmers, including a sabbatical year for the land itself and a tithe that one accountant swore would bankrupt the business?

It didn't. Find out why.

Find your Israeli wine soulmate: https://israeligoodwine.com/quiz

Every bottle has a story, and this episode traces one of the biggest: how a 2,000-year-old exile ended up rebuilding one of the world's most exciting wine regions.

Daniel and Alana dig into the connection between biblical prophecy and the modern rebirth of Israeli wine — starting with Jesus's first miracle at the wedding in Cana, and the surprising historical fact that wine was one of ancient Israel's major exports.

In episode one, Daniel and Alana Elliott share how a 2017 wine-tasting trip to Israel turned into Israeli Good Wine, and why they believe God is still fulfilling ancient promises through the land's vineyards.

Welcome to Vintage Land. Hosts Daniel and Alana Elliott, co-founders of Israeli Good Wine, take you behind the scenes of the winemakers, stories, and faith that shaped their journey; starting with a 2017 trip to Samaria that changed everything. They talk about the winery owner who left a career in tech to fulfill a promise from Jeremiah, why wine appears almost 1,000 times in Scripture, and how the Sabbath tradition transformed their family's week.

Order Israeli wine at IsraeliGoodWine.com and use code VLPODCAST for 10% off your first order.

What if a glass of wine from Israel could teach you something about God's promises? Vintage Land is where wine, faith, and the land of Israel meet, one bottle and one story at a time.