Rimon Winery ( he, יקב רימון) is an Israeli
winery specialized in producing
pomegranate wine, with over a dozen varieties. Rimon is the Hebrew word for pomegranate. Rimon Winery was the first company in the world to make wine from pomegranates.
At
Kosherfest
Kosherfest is an annual, two-day trade fair for the kosher-certified food industry held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey. Established in 1989, it includes an exhibition hall, lectures, cooking demonstrations, a culinar ...
2007 Rimon Winery won "Best New Wine, Beer or Spirit", upon its expansion into the United States. In 2008 Rimon Winery expanded into the United Kingdom, debuting at the
London International Wine Fair.
History
In 1996, father and son, Gaby and Avi Nachmias, developed a new strain of pomegranates that they claim is "sweeter, deeper in color and richer in vitamins and antioxidants than other varieties."
The Nehemias bottled its first pomegranate wines in 2003, 2,000 bottles of pomegranate dessert wine
They founded Rimon Winery the following year, including a commercial production line. By 2007, they offered dry, port, and dessert wines.
Rimon produces their wine by crushing the fruit, fermenting it in stainless steel, and then aging the wine in French oak barrels.
The Nachmias are third generation farmers at
Kerem Ben Zimra, a
Moshav
A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...
in the
Upper Galilee and there developed their special pomegranate species, which has exceptionally large and very sweet fruits. The high concentration of
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
in these fruits, similar to the sugar concentration in
grapes, makes this species suitable for wine making.
Rimon Winery was established in 2004 at the
Dalton Industrial Park in the
Upper Galilee and was the first to produce pomegranate wine commercially. The winery distributes its products in Israel, United States, Japan, Canada and China.
In 2012
OK Kosher Certification stripped Rimon Winery of their
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
certification due to various kashrut issues.
Wine production process
The first stage in the production process of pomegranate wine is the separation of
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
s from the peel. Then the grains are compressed and the resulting juice is
fermented between two and four months. Finally, the wine is transferred into
French oak barrels
Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation or aging periods, or as free-floating chips or staves added to wine fermented in a vess ...
for further
aging
Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...
.
Prizes
In 2007 Rimon port won the bronze medal in the categories best fruit wine and best wine priced at New York's Finger Lakes wine competition in New York. In 2006 Rimon dessert wine won a gold in the category fruit dessert wine Puerto Rico's Curibe Vinos 2006 competition.
See also
*
Israeli cuisine
References
External links
Rimon Winery website{{Alcoholic drinks
Wineries of Israel
Food and drink companies established in 2004
Israeli companies established in 2004