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Israel SEO Internet Marketing Specializes In Kosher Wines
"Since 1995, Leyden Israel SEO Internet marketing has served many industries including public relations, advertising, hi-tech, Jewish non-profit, venture capital, b2b, real estate, jobs, employment, Israel governmental public affairs, consumer business, foods, tourism and travel, foreign markets, banks, commerce, telecommunications, special events, start-ups, investment, computers, Internet, education, medical, legal, health care, textiles, automotive, celebrities, entertainment, crisis communications, reputation management and real estate," said Joel Leyden, CEO of Leyden Communications (Israel). "As a direct result of the Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succot, and the total lack of professional Internet marketing presence of Jewish kosher wines from Israel appearing on Google and Yahoo, Leyden has decided to concentrate on Israel kosher wines in addition to real estate and properties, Israel public affairs and e-commerce and e-business development and our many other industries." In the last few years there has been an explosion of kosher wine culture in Israel. There are many new wine stores all over Israel and numerous different types of kosher wine, grape varieties and wine growing regions. People in Israel are hungry for information, and wine and kosher wine appreciation courses are over subscribed. Many wine lovers in Israel have become wine makers, making their own wines, at home or in the garage. There are now well over 100 wineries in Israel – from those producing millions of bottles, to the garagiste producing a few thousand. The quality of these kosher and non Kosher wines is at worst international standard and at best, even world class.
Only in 1996 the wine consumption in Israel was 3.5 liters a head; by 2004 it had doubled to 7 liters a head. The local market is worth US $ 170 million a year. Exports of Israel kosher wines increased by 40 percent in 2004. It is a small, vibrant, and successful industry with a variety and quality that will surprise those who have not visited Israel recently. For the benefit of all the winemakers and the kosher wine lovers Israel Preker build an Internet site: www.israelwines.co.il . It seems as if the wine stories and inventions in the Israel kosher wine industry will never end – new wineries seem to open daily. In theory, all wine is kosher. There are no prohibitions against fruits or vegetables in the Jewish dietary law. If you’re walking along and you see a grape hanging from a vine, no matter how strictly observant you might be, there’s nothing preventing you from eating those grapes. The grapes require no rabbinic supervision and no trademarked logo to be kosher. And, yet, were you to ferment those grapes and throw them in a bottle, there is not an Orthodox Jew in Israel or anywhere on earth who would drink it without an okay from the rabbis. There are other Jews who might guzzle away without question, as different branches of Judaism have different levels of Jewish observance; many members of the Reform and Conservative movements would have no problem about drinking your wine. Tourists visiting the Carmel Winery south of Tel Aviv, Israel are often surprised to see bearded, religious men checking cooling tanks, tasting samples from wine vats and operating forklifts on the loading docks.
That's not all. Honoring a Jewish tradition known as terumot vena' aserot, Carmel Wines Ltd. intentionally spills on the ground or gives to charity 10% of its annual production. Other Talmudic laws prohibit Carmel from using fruit produced during the first three years of a grape harvest, while requiring all wine to be flash-pasteurized before bottling and allowing the land to rest every seventh year. None of this, however, comes as any surprise to Leslie H. Berman, export and import manager at Carmel. "From the vineyard right through the actual bottling line, everything must be done by religious, observant Jews," he said. "Some people go as far as to say that if a non-religious Jew even looks at the grapes, it's considered unkosher." Maintaining kosher standards is a priority for Berman, whose $57 million company last year exported 50,000 nine-liter cases of wine worth $1.6 million to the United States, a 35% rise over 1998. "The United States is our largest single market, based on its large Jewish population," Berman said, estimating total 1999 exports at $5.5 million. "Other strong markets are Great Britain, France, Russia, South Africa and Canada. Smaller markets like Japan are upmarket, whereas in the States and the U.K., we sell a variety of sweet kiddush wines and varietal reds." Today, Carmel accounts for more than half the Israeli wine market. Its biggest competitors are Barkan, also located in Rishon L'Tzion, and Yarden, headquartered in Qatzrin, a town in the Golan Heights. "People started becoming knowledgeable about wines around four years ago, aware of the fact that lots of other wines are available. They said, 'why can't we drink the wines that everyone else is drinking?' The minute Israel started improving the quality of its wines, people realized kosher wines could be just as good as non-kosher varieties." At present, the Golan winery produces around four million bottles a year - 21 percent of Israeli wine production and nearly 40 percent of the country's wine exports. Berman said that if Israel is forced to return the Golan Heights to Syria under a comprehensive Arab - Israel peace accord, it would put a big dent in the country's wine production. "On the other hand," he said, "an Israel pullout from the Golan wouldn't affect Carmel much. We are opening up extensively in Ramat Arad, just above the Dead Sea. We're opening a boutique winery there for Cabernet and Merlot. We're planning to produce 180 tons of grapes next harvest, going up to 450 tons within two to three years." Carmel's US importer is Parliament Wine Co. of Atlantic City, N.J., which has represented the Israel company for over two years. Sales of kosher wine from Israel are particularly heavy around Passover, when advertising campaigns in Jewish newspapers, radio stations and magazines push kosher wine from Israel to their audiences. But Internet marketing presence and professional SEO and SEM (search engine marketing) for kosher wine Websites from Israel is almost nonexistent. Today, the Internet is where everyone finds everything from B2B and B2C. "We're representing one of the most advanced technologically advanced wineries in the world, kosher or non-kosher," says Parliament's president and CEO, Jonathan Shiekman. "They have new wine presses from Germany, any, stainless steel extensively, they use American, French and Slovenian oak. Their vineyards are managed by students who have gone to enology schools throughout the world, and their winemakers are French- and California-trained." Shiekman says that "white Merlot and the Private Collection have all increased dramatically, but the Concord business will be down. White Zinfandel is in the process of being discontinued, and a better wine has been introduced, the Vineyard-Selected White Merlot, which is taking advantage of the current Merlot mania. It's a beautiful wine, with a salmon color, gorgeous bouquet and soft tannins and served chilled with a touch of sweetness. At $5 a bottle, it represents real value." Berman says that about 20% of the estimated six million American Jews regularly drink kosher wine, mainly at weddings, circumcisions, bar-mitzvahs, funerals and at the Shabbat dinner table. Most of them live in the New York metro area, though Carmel is also shipped to other locations throughout the United States and Canada. "All Carmel wines are flash-pasteurized, meaning that for a second it's heated up to 82 degrees C. and immediately cooled, so that a non-Jew can pour the wine for a Jew. This is one of the factors that sell our wines. However, our wines have technologically advanced to the point that our wineries can be compared to any other in the world. We are the only company now producing kosher additives such as tartaric acid, which we export to Eastern Europe and all over the world." He adds that "soon, you'll be able to buy, in the United States, kosher wines supervised by Carmel but produced in third countries like Australia and Chile." Berman presides over blind tastings of Carmel wine and its competitors every Thursday. He says that at present, Israel boasts around 30 kosher wine brands, with kosher wines also being produced in Estonia, Georgia, Australia, France, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Germany and Spain.
Parliament's Shiekman says that Carmel controls around 50% of Israel's wine export market, and between 50 percent to 70 percent of the grapes cultivated in Israel. The reason for the growth is a combination of several social factors, says Udi Kaplan, who manages Ella Valley Vineyards near Beit Shemesh. "Over the past ten years. Israelis started to travel around the world more, and tasted more fine wines in cafes and restaurants. At the same time, they also started to learn more and understand good wines. That led to a rise in local consumption. Meanwhile, more wineries started making good wine, and that raised awareness of wine and increased competition. These factors together have caused the industry to grow from every side," he told ISRAEL21c. Wine production on Israel lands began thousands of years ago, perhaps even prior to the Biblical era. However, the kosher wines that were made during this time often tasted so bad that bottles shipped to Egypt were garnished with anything that would add flavor. People tossed in everything from honey to berries, from pepper to salt. The bottles from Israel were sent to Rome, though not lacking flavor, were so thick and so sweet that anyone who didn’t have a sweet tooth, or a spoon, wasn’t able to consume them. The Israel wine was of such poor quality that when Arab tribes took over Israel in the Moslem Conquest of 636, putting a stop to local wine production for 1,200 years, disappointment didn’t exactly ferment. In the late 1800’s, wine production began again in Israel. Determined to let Israel grapes have their day in the sun, a Jewish activist and philanthropist name Baron Edmond de Rothschild began helping Jews flee oppressors, eventually helping them adapt to their Palestine settlements. He then began to help them plant vineyards. Because of this, he is known as a founder of Israel’s wine industry. For some, talk of Israel kosher wines brings up images of sweet, syrupy wine tolerated primarily for ceremonial use by religious Jews. Until the late 1970s, that was all Israel had to offer. From before the state's founding until then, a single cooperative had a monopoly on the industry. Conceived by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in the 1880's in an effort to boost Jewish industry, the group, which was renamed Carmel Mizrahi in 1957, built massive wineries in Rishon Lezion and Zichron Yaacov that would serve as the nation's main wine facilities for more than 100 years. However, notes expert wine maker Eli Ben Zaken, Carmel's trade agreement with Israel's grape growers was one that encouraged quantity over quality, and for years, there was no financial incentive for anyone to produce higher-quality wines. Thus, from the state's founding in 1948 until just several years ago, local wine consumption was stagnant at about 3.9 liters per person per year, with little cultural interest to anyone.
The seeds of change were planted in the 1970s, when experts discovered that the soil and climate of the newly-captured Golan Heights in Israel were ideal for raising wine grapes. Vines were planted, and in 1983, the Golan Heights Winery released its first wines to the public. Some economic setbacks would follow, but it quickly became clear that Israelis had the capabilities to produce world-class wines. Golan Heights is now the second-largest wine producer in the country, after Carmel, and is widely credited with putting Israeli wine on the map. Its Katzrin facility, which offers tourists a multimedia tour and wine tasting, still produces some of the best wines in the land. Today, it is estimated that 7,500 acres of vineyards around the country produce about 50,000 tons of grapes a year, and nearly 80 percent of the wines produced are dry red and white types. The local market is estimated at some $150 million, after growing more than 10 percent a year in the past few years. "My bottom line is simple," says Leyden. "Through powerful and effective Internet marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) we will gradually see more and more kosher wine from Israel entering restaurant menus from New York, Paris and Los Angles to Montreal, London and Tokyo. Conventional localized printed ads and long time established distribution channels from Israel are history. The Internet had become the main distribution channel for kosher wine from Israel and Leyden Communications is now meeting with all of the major kosher wine manufacturers to get their Websites optimized for the search engines and their business to business and business to consumer marketing modernized for the 2007 Jewish holiday season."
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