What should you pour at your holiday table this year? Daniel and Alana Elliott share three Israeli wines they love for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's, along with the stories that make each bottle worth talking about.

In this conversation:

• Why a great white wine is so hard to make

• Somek Chenin Blanc, from a family with roots in Israel going back to 1882

• Margalit Paradigma, a dry-farmed, hand-harvested celebration wine

• Elul Zemer, from a certified organic winery in the Judean Hills

• The winemaker who built a table first and then built a home around it

• What order to serve the wines and how much to buy

Get early news about our Black Friday sale, plus a special announcement for people on the list: https://israeligoodwine.com/blackfriday

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.

What does the Bible say about wine, and why did God create it? Most of us who grew up in church heard plenty about what wine does wrong and almost nothing about what it was made for. In this episode of Vintage Land, we go back to Scripture and ask the question directly, starting with Psalm 104:15.

Alana grew up in a Christian home where alcohol wasn’t permitted, and she shares what changed when she finally read that verse all the way through. Daniel admits this episode made him nervous to record.

We talk about:

• Why a grape is designed to become wine, with nothing added
• Wine and viticulture in Scripture, from Noah’s vineyard to the Prophets
• Wine’s place in Jewish life, from Shabbat to Passover to the wedding canopy
• The wedding at Cana, and why turning water into wine might be such a striking first miracle
• Wisdom’s table and Folly’s table in Proverbs 9
• The warning in Proverbs 23, and why abstaining can be wisdom too
• “Liquid prophecy”: vineyards returning to the land of Israel

Scripture referenced: Psalm 104:14–15, Genesis 9, Genesis 14, Genesis 49, Numbers 13, Exodus 7, Proverbs 9, Proverbs 23:29–35, Proverbs 31, John 2, John 15, James 1:5

On our table: Amphora Winery Med Red, from Israel

Find your wine: Not sure where to start? Take our wine quiz at israeligoodwine.com/quiz, or shop Israeli wines at israeligoodwine.com. You can also call, text or email our team and we’ll help you choose for your table.

Is drinking wine a sin? Where do you land? Tell us in the comments.

Daniel sits down with dear friend Hanan Elkayam in his new vineyard in the Elah Valley, the very place where David faced Goliath. Hanan’s story begins with Israeli irrigation technology and coffee farmers in Colombia, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica, who paid him in coffee instead of cash. That coffee became Agro Cafe, and now a small Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard is growing on ground he looks at from his own home. Along the way: a 2016 bathroom break that turned into a blessing, what it means to be “a tube” for what God wants to give, and why wine sits at the center of nearly every moment in Jewish life.

In this episode
00:00 Cold open
01:04 Standing in a vineyard in the Elah Valley
02:20 The gas station detour where we first met Hanan
03:49 Israeli irrigation, coffee farmers, and a 60% jump in yield
06:09 How Agro Cafe and Ten Boom Coffee found each other
07:40 Planting a vineyard where David met Goliath
09:39 What coffee and wine have in common
10:18 Answering the call on October 7
11:26 Resilience, and building anyway
15:58 Faith, wisdom, and being “a tube”
18:05 Wine, blessing, and gratitude at the Shabbat table
20:12 How you can be part of it
21:07 Visiting Agro Cafe in the Judean Hills

Scripture mentioned
1 Samuel 17: David and Goliath in the Elah Valley
Isaiah 49:6: “a light to the nations”
Psalm 136:1: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever”
Psalm 104:15: “wine that gladdens the heart of man”

Mentioned in this episode
Ten Boom Coffee: tenboom.coffee
Agro Cafe, Srigim-Li’on, Israel

Bring Israel to your table
Hanan’s wine is coming soon. In the meantime, you can pour a bottle from the land of Israel tonight. Explore our wines and wine club at israeligoodwine.com.
Not sure where to start? Take our quick wine quiz at israeligoodwine.com/quiz and we’ll help you find bottles you’ll love.

Vintage Land. Israel · Wine · Rest · Your Faith. New episodes every Wednesday.

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