Teperberg has been on a journey of sorts over the last 15 years or so. Since Shiki Rauchberger took over in 2002, the winery has been transformed from a medium sized winery producing mediocre wines to one of Israel’s largest – producing professionally made wines through and through. In 2006 Olivier Fratty joined the team and, within a couple of years, helped move the winery into a more old-world style that was evident through the 2013 vintage. In my humble opinion, this was the winery’s heyday. Since 2014, following the lead of GHW, Teperberg has pursued a more new-world style. While personally I find less to like these days than I used to, one cannot argue with this strategy’s success in terms of sales. Teperberg is now Israel’s third largest winery producing more than five million bottles a year.

In 2016, Dani Freedenberg joined the winemaking team. As with Olivier before him, it has taken a couple of years, but his addition is now bearing fruit in a pretty direct way.  Teperberg is now releasing two wines that have been personal projects of Dani’s and have even listed Dani as the winemaker. The wines are a 2019 Grenache and 2019 Ramato of Pinot Gris. Besides the whimsical new labeling, both of these wines share many characteristics. They both are harvested by hand and are minimal-intervention wines that have spent 10 months in a barrel. But most importantly, these wines have a boutique feeling about them – as if they are not a part of the standard lineup or style that Teperberg is currently selling. It is almost like a small boutique line within the winery. This is an idea that I understand Teperberg has entertained in the past, ultimately deciding to focus on the primary brand and make any shifts in style in a uniform manner – until now. These wines are experimental and work well when viewed as a unit separate from the rest of Teperberg’s portfolio. In fact, the branding lets you know that. Rather than put the winery name up front, these wines stand apart and just have a “by Teperberg Winery” at the bottom of the label – with no Teperberg logo. I tasted these wines outdoors at Crave in Jerusalem. While the food is always yummy, I don’t really find it possible to take accurate notes on the nose of any wine in that setting. I am basically smelling the shuk and the food, so I didn’t bother including those notes here.