Cultivating Dreams at HaSela Winery Amidst the Clutches of War

Solomon Simon Jacob: 0:09

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir. I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Before we get started, I ask that, wherever you are, please take a moment and pray for the safety of our soldiers and the safe return of all of our hostages. The following episode of The Kosher Terroir is an interesting conversation and wine tasting held on two occasions almost two months apart. The first was on January 9, 2024, three months after the war started on Simchator Hadei Shabbat, October 7, 2023.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 0:50

I visited the Hasella winery near Aragot Farms in eastern Gush with their husbands, Yoni and Eitan. On the northern and southern battlefields, Yisca and Neta were left to manufacture the wine while also caring for the vineyards as well as feeding and managing all of their children. It was a difficult time for the wives, but they worked diligently to keep the winery going as well as entertaining guests who wanted to visit, taste and purchase wine. The second conversation took place on March 3, almost two months after the first conversation. Yoni and Eitan were back from the war Yoni at least temporarily, as he has been told to be ready to get cold up again in the next few months. We explored how the two men became partners, how and why they decided to focus on winemaking in the first place and their experience from the battlefield, wondering how the family and the winery would make it through this challenging time.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 1:59

This amazing story was repeated countless times across Israel, with soldiers being cold up at a moment's notice, in the midst of our festivals, with their partners and spouses stepping up to carry out the double and sometimes even triple load of their day-to-day activities. What an amazing people. What incredible individuals each of them are. If you're commuting in your car, please focus on the road while listening in. If you're at home, please choose a delicious kosher wine. Sit back and join in on this remarkably challenging adventure of defending a country, worrying deeply about the safety of your spouses, raising and nurturing children, all while also making wine. So where are we here?

Yisca Glustein: 2:50

Okay, so you are right next to Ivay Nahal.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 2:54

Okay.

Yisca Glustein: 2:55

And what you can see from here is the beginning of Midbar Yehuda, Nahal Arugot. Okay, right on the other side is Nahal Arugot and we are right outside our beautiful winery.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 3:06

And I'm looking down at a vineyard on one side and a vineyard on the other side, and then over the hill is your bigger vineyard Right right as well.

Yisca Glustein: 3:16

So the other side, we have 35 dunams of Cabernet Sauvignon. Here we have Petit Verdot, seven dunams and 12 dunams of Merlot.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 3:25

Very cool.

Yisca Glustein: 3:26

All together about more than 50 dunams, and it's a lot of work.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 3:32

So welcome to The Kosher Terroir. That's really what I wanted to say. Welcome, for we're here at the Hasella winery. The reason how did it get its name?

Yisca Glustein: 3:47

Well, when we were walking around and getting to know the area around our house, which is here in Ibea Nahal, we bumped into the Sella which happened to be at the top of a water cave.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 4:01

Yeah, what you call it.

Yisca Glustein: 4:04

I think a sister, a sister.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 4:05

A cistern.

Yisca Glustein: 4:08

And yeah, so when we would do our walks around here and we would come and we'd see like a whole bunch of birds flying out and water and dirt and that's where our husbands decided to start their winery.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 4:22

So, speaking of your husbands, has the war caused anything? Has the war here caused any issues for you guys? No, I'm actually asking the question, but I super know the answer.

Yisca Glustein: 4:38

Yeah, Well, aside from the sadness and us feeling for everybody whose lives have turned around, our husbands had left that morning, Shabbat morning, straight out of dancing in the shul to the army and they haven't been home since. We've been here taking care of the kids and the winery and the wine and the vineyards on our own. Mi and Neta, Our Yoni and Eitan, are both in the army, since All the events that we had plans on for Acharechagim were all canceled.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 5:21

For the holidays?

Yisca Glustein: 5:22

yes, and we're here. We're trying to keep the things going, even though they're absent right now.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 5:31

So what does that really mean? I mean, I know they're in Gaza, so the winery just runs by itself, doesn't it? I mean, it's like, what sort of things did you have to do when they left here on that Shabbat morning?

Yisca Glustein: 5:45

Right. So we were right. After the harvest so we didn't have to do that on our own, because that's a huge production. It's once a year and it takes a lot of effort. It's about a week that we harvest the grapes and bring them down into the winery. So that was that part we did already, and now the next stage was to take care of the wine and turn the grapes from grapes into wine.

Yisca Glustein: 6:10

Right and each stage has its own unique process that has to be done. So we got our guide from. His name is Itzyklotan, and he tells us what we have to do to make the wine, to produce it, and me and Etta we do the work, wow and take care of it.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 6:35

So that's punching down the grapes.

Yisca Glustein: 6:37

So there's the press that we did with the kids.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 6:39

Oh, that's even more so the pressing. I forgot all about the pressing.

Yisca Glustein: 6:43

So the pressing was a big thing, because we had a few chayaleem that came to this area part of their miluim and they said well, your husbands are miluim there and we're doing miluim here and you need some help.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 6:57

So here, Okay, very cool yeah.

Yisca Glustein: 7:00

so we had soldiers here helping us move the huge crates of wine and whatever and we did that part. The press was a big thing and then moving it into the barrels eventually and we had to three weeks after the press. We had to mix the grapes three times a day so we would come here with the kids and open it up and mix it and close it and make sure the temperature and everything's the way it should be and wow. The Chosa Khalila once again so now.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 7:33

Now they're in the barrels.

Yisca Glustein: 7:34

Now. So now at least they're in the barrels Right. Is this still work that you have to do?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 7:39

You put them to sleep, so right now they don't take as much daily effort, right, right, okay?

Yisca Glustein: 7:46

There are other things that we have to do here as a routine to keep the place going and take care. We have empty barrels that we have to take care of them so that they can be used in the future. We have to take care of them. Every month they have to go through things, and the vineyards are also. They're now asleep, but soon they're going to be waking up and there's a lot of work to be done. Yeah, I'm watching these vineyards here.

Yisca Glustein: 8:11

this year is going to be our first harvest after three years, and there's a lot to show.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 8:16

It's left to Urla Yep, so this will be actually producing.

Yisca Glustein: 8:19

They're young. They're three years old and they have to be pulled up. It's called Hadlaya.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 8:25

Yeah.

Yisca Glustein: 8:26

So we have to do that in the next few months so that when they wake up, everything is ready for them to grow onto.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 8:33

So it's. I tasted the wine. I tasted the Cabernet from 2020, which was your first year Right, and you made it in Binun winery, Right. So use the service winery in Binun to make it spectacular. It's really, it's delicious, it's just very approachable. It doesn't fight with you. It's just an incredible wine. It's just a delicious wine. And I also tasted the 2022 Rose, which is a lovely wine which is actually perfect for food. Really, it's got a nice acidity and it's and it'll do great with food. So bruch Hashem. So if people want to contact you about the wine, If you look us up, you can find all the information.

Yisca Glustein: 9:33

Okay, hasella winery.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 9:34

Yeah.

Yisca Glustein: 9:36

Yeke Vasella, we're here. Anyone who wants to come to visit and see the place and taste the wine more than welcome to come. And people get in touch and order wine. We have deliveries all over the country.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 9:50

People order and they get it to their doorstep and I strongly recommend at least doing that, because the wines are delightful, the wines are really delightful, thank you. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me. Thank you. So welcome to The Kosher Terroir and you're welcoming me here to Yekev HaSela. Tell me your name again please, Yoni Goldstein, pleasure. Simon Jacob, pleasure to meet you.

Yoni Glustein: 10:30

So this is the winery itself. Yep, we found this cave. It's an ancient water cistern, sister, yeah, and apparently it's perfect for making wine and for aging wine. It's cool, there's no air conditioning on it, yeah.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 10:46

It's just cool.

Yoni Glustein: 10:47

It's just humid. All your Humidity is perfect. Humidity is perfect, perfect for the core, exactly here we have, right here, we monitor the temperature and the humidity. So these are the barrels. Now, this is 2023, inside here, aging Great. We've got some new barrels, some old barrels. We're going to mix them together and we're making our rosé, still at Binun winery. Okay, Binun winery, they're actually kind of teaching us how to make the wine. Okay, that was one of the questions I was going to ask.

Yoni Glustein: 11:16

No, no, I'm sure we can sit down and talk about it.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 11:18

Yeah, no, yeah.

Yoni Glustein: 11:19

Other questions, but we, our background is growing the vineyards. We've been doing that for 10 years.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 11:24

Okay.

Yoni Glustein: 11:25

And we learned a lot about that. But everything has to do with the winemaking. We're rookie, so we're just starting, so we took we said we'll do it properly. We have a winemaker. His name is Yitzik Lothan. He's Binun's winemaker as well. Okay, he comes here and he teaches us everything. We send samples of the wine to him whenever he needs and so they have a lab, so they can analyze everything.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 11:46

They have a lab and everything Great.

Yoni Glustein: 11:48

They analyze and do it properly. Awesome, awesome. So what do you have?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 11:55

here that's going on percolating at the moment.

Yoni Glustein: 11:57

So this is our first wine Yep. This is.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:00

This is 2020. Okay, Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard, that's what I tasted.

Yoni Glustein: 12:04

This is. This is the ayno it's delicious. This is our best wine so far. It's delicious. Beginner's luck. Yeah, no, delicious, delicious. So we only have like not even 100 bottles left. We're going to stop selling it in a minute. Yeah, keep selling. Yeah, keep selling. Today, we're. This is 2022. This is what we're just going to taste now. Yeah, cabernet and we have a rosé. This is the end of the rosé of 2023. And we're going to be bottling our new one real soon, within two weeks.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:33

So this is the 2023 Rosé, not the 2022 Rosé. Sorry, it's the 2022 Rosé, 2022. Yes, I tasted it, I did I tasted it and I love it as well. And now you're going to.

Yoni Glustein: 12:43

Now we're going to be bottling 2021.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:45

No, perfect. Perfect Makes a lot of sense.

Yoni Glustein: 12:48

Exactly.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:49

Okay, very cool. And these are what.

Yoni Glustein: 12:53

This is the same. This is the 2022 Cabernet. This harvest, we're going to be harvesting two new species. That's the one.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 12:59

Two new species. We're going to have Merlot Varietals Varietals, that's what it's called, yeah, varietals. My English isn't. It's Don't worry, your English is perfect. It's a lot better than my Hebrew.

Yoni Glustein: 13:06

So we're going to have Merlot as well and some Petit Verdot, and we'll start doing some blends.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:12

So it'll be interesting, so we got in just in time. Is that rain? Yes, I think so, oh wow. I might be wrong, oh wow, but I'm listening.

Yisca Glustein: 13:23

Yeah.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:24

And it sounds like it's raining. Sounds like it's raining it is. We did walk in just in time. Wow, I made it in just in time. Thank you, kaddish Barfow. Do you want some water?

Yoni Glustein: 13:33

or something to drink, yeah.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:35

Actually, I'd like to taste this with you. So do you have another glass Sure, sure, we can do it together. Sounds good.

Yisca Glustein: 13:42

Wow.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 13:46

So tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you? You know that, you and your partner, but tell me how it came about. Sure, where are you from? You're from Israel.

Yoni Glustein: 13:54

So I was born in Israel, in Jerusalem. My parents are Canadian. Okay, so I grew up in an English-speaking house. Okay, my wife as well, she was born in Israel. Her parents are from the States. Yeah, also spoke English at home. Yeah, we came to Ibea Nakhal in 2012. We wanted to be part of a new Yashuv, that's, you know, starting to settle the area. So we came to Ivea Nakhal in 2012. And I always wanted to do something with agriculture, something, you know, with settling land. The Yashuv was very small. We were family number six at the time and then I looked for what I can do here agriculturally and we took samples of the earth and we checked it out and we asked around. We asked the kibbutzim and gushetsion that have been growing grapes here for years.

Yoni Glustein: 14:47

And it's an amazing, amazing place to grow grapes. We're at 800 meters above sea level, cool nights, hot days, very dry, perfect for quality grapes. And since, at the beginning, I thought, alright, so you put the vines in the ground and you add water and they grow, and we realized that it's a little more than that.

Yisca Glustein: 15:08

A little more than that. So I teamed up here with my partner.

Yoni Glustein: 15:12

Eitan Lacks, who came a few months after me to the Yashuv. We didn't know each other at all. He also was asking around if we can do anything Haklaut and stuff like that and we just teamed up without knowing each other before and it's been an amazing partnership. We've been partners for 10 years. So we planted our first vineyard 35 dunum of carbonis of vignole, which was a big step to start with. It's pretty big for us. It's huge.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 15:37

It's huge, it's not a pretty big, it's huge, it's a big step, especially if you're coming into the wine business. I think in the correct way, coming in from the culture perspective, where you're growing vines and you're caring for vines and you're seeing what you need to do to take care of them. I just noticed you guys are now we're pruning them, you're pruning them. We got out just in time.

Yoni Glustein: 16:06

I was in the army until now, until three weeks ago. My partner got out two weeks ago from Gaza. I was up north just in time for the pruning, so I was here January 10th, 9th or 10th, and your wives were here valiantly Working away.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 16:26

They did the whole thing. It was incredible. We were sure that it's unbelievable. We just finished the.

Yoni Glustein: 16:31

HaKatzer the harvest right before Yom Kippur. It was like last minute. And then we were off to the war and we said, all right, dispatch or whatever. Hefker, hefker, not going to have wine this year, we'll have next year Basil at the Shem. And they, just they did everything. It's amazing. They got in touch with our winemaker Yitzik. He came here, which was also amazing. He came here a lot more than a year ago, more than he committed to. He showed up every time. He helped them. He helped them do from everything From the, you know, from the Before the press, even filtering and checking it and the whole thing. But he got into the barrels.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:06

I remember them saying they moved a barrel down the stairs and I'm going. You did what. We have a video of it.

Yisca Glustein: 17:11

She said well, yeah.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:14

It was on a cart and I'm going yeah. But they weren't full, it was an empty barrel. I said, yeah, I know it's an empty barrel. That's huge. How in the world did you do that?

Yoni Glustein: 17:25

And everything. They started getting online sales going, something we didn't have here, because we would only have groups come here and we would sell here the wine. We're not in stores yet. We're too small.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:33

Yeah.

Yoni Glustein: 17:34

And they got the online sales going and started working on Instagram and Facebook and really getting. I told my partner we can move on to the next project. They, I think they got it. They got it handled.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 17:43

Yes, no, they were really special, really accommodating. It was amazing. We did a tasting. It was an amazing time and I spoke to your wife, because she was the one who spoke English, and we sat down and I interviewed her a little bit For maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and I said I got to come back when the boys are back.

Yoni Glustein: 18:10

So I'm back for a little April. I'm heading back already. You have to go back again, but we still have another month here. So after we planted, we realized that we need professionals with us. Yeah, so we connected with Miguel Oz, which is the Key Boots in Gushetion. We've been growing grapes for many years and we hired them on a monthly basis. They would come and we would do the checked leaves and we would check the soil and we would decide which fertilizer to put in and the whole thing. But we learned that and after a few years already we started doing it on our own. We already learned.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 18:43

So initially you grew the vines, and then somebody else was buying the grapes from you.

Yoni Glustein: 18:48

So until today most of the grapes still go to a winery called Chavron Heights Winery Sure and Chavron. We send most of the grapes and just a little bit we're keeping to ourselves and starting to make our own wine. But, as you said, it's interesting coming from the agricultural side into the wine world, which is another, as you know, whole world, and also here, just like we did there, we take professionals to teach us. And on one hand we're a very small winery Only 3,000 bottles, next year 4,000 bottles but we're doing it by the book, with a lab and with proper machinery. And I think also the fact that we can control the way the grapes are grown, you know, gives us a big advantage. It's a huge deal Growing your own grapes, understanding how to control them, if it's with the water and if the timing and all the things you can play around with, and we can choose from all those Exactly what we want and make the wine with it. And it's funny I don't know if I should say it on a wine podcast.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 19:52

I edit. So if you don't want to say it, I can pull it out.

Yoni Glustein: 19:55

I'm still learning to enjoy wine and to like wine. Most people that start a winery have a big passion for drinking wine, and then they want their own winery. Both myself and my partner came from loving the land and wanting to do something to settle the land.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 20:09

That's the proper way to get into it. To be honest, that's really the proper way to get into it, because otherwise you're dreaming but it's not particularly practical. So you're definitely coming to the, I believe, the better approach into the winery business. I hope so.

Yoni Glustein: 20:36

I did take a course from. Misal de Reklout had a course about starting a renegabilitik winery it was called, and the last Shekev. The last was don't start a winery, because they looked at all the economic aspects and the cost and they say it's just. Unless it's like one of your biggest dreams, don't do it.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 21:02

Yeah, it's very hard for people to make money in it. I know some people who do, but it's very hard to make money in it and it's also. It's an enormous amount of work. It's not a little deal where you've invested in something and now you're looking for the returns. You have to invest every single day and you have committed wives, partners in this that all of a sudden, when the war broke out, it didn't just go half-care. You were able to, they were able to take care of everything, including kids and including everything.

Yoni Glustein: 21:42

Including everything everything kids, the work and the winery. It's crazy. It became something nice. At the beginning it was more me and my partner A-Town Running Things and it really became a family business two families, which is nice. We have the kids here when we have events, so my son's working the coffee machine and my daughter's labeling bottles.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 22:02

Yeah, I even labeled bottles. I labeled bottles when I was here for the bottles I wanted. I labeled them. But it was great, it was absolutely amazing, awesome, very cool. So you said you've expanded the varietals. So which varietals you bring in? Today we have Cabernet Sauvignon only.

Yoni Glustein: 22:21

That's also our rosé's Cabernet Sauvignon. This summer we're going to have some Merlot and some Petit Verdeau Cool and hopefully we want. When you drove down we saw on both sides of the road.

Yoni Glustein: 22:35

We want to make their vines Kind of like the kind of Italy style where you drive in and you have the vineyards on either side and there we'll be able to play around with smaller amounts, maybe do different varieties and interesting stuff. We're now trying to do all the pruning and on a regular year we have a team of like 10-15 air workers from the area here and we're trying to do it with Jewish workers. This year. It's been a big challenge. We've found two workers you can sit them down here that will come and do it every day, and we're bringing bigger groups of volunteers just to do like the Présznirah, Because it's hard to teach them to really prune properly. It takes a few hours to really get it, so they're just doing like the first. How do you say?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 23:20

Présznirah. Yes, the first clipping. They're not actually worrying about which ones to leave.

Yoni Glustein: 23:29

They're not choosing how many to leave, they're just cutting down the big stakes. So is that where?

Solomon Simon Jacob: 23:34

you were this morning? Were you doing that this morning? Eitan also said this morning.

Yoni Glustein: 23:39

Both of us also work full-time jobs until this place is really functioning enough for us too. So I'm the portfolio manager on sitting in front of a computer. Eitan has his own business of ginon, so we're trying to juggle everything.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 23:57

You started with a growing. When did you decide that you were going to start a winery? So what started?

Yoni Glustein: 24:07

that what started that? It's a good question.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 24:10

So you started that win.

Yoni Glustein: 24:13

So 2020 is our first vintage for the winery. It came again Also. First of all, we realized that the grapes were really special.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 24:24

Really, really good. We're going to try it.

Yoni Glustein: 24:30

I'm going to try it yeah it's lovely, it's lovely.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 24:41

That's the Cabernet. It's a 2022 cab. Very good, very good.

Yoni Glustein: 24:50

Okay. So first of all, we realized that we have really really good grapes, very high quality grapes, and again, we found the place. We found this ancient water system and we wanted to keep on expanding and building something and settling this area and it kind of fit together. We said we have amazing grapes, we have this interesting place that we want to turn into. You know, we want to bring people here. That's a big deal. That's also another reason why we're not really in stores yet. A were too small. It doesn't add up, the numbers don't add up. We can't give such huge discounts to distributors etc. And B we want to bring people to this area. I think it's special definitely to come overlooking the vineyards.

Yoni Glustein: 25:28

We have the down here is a Petit Verdun and then, we're right under the winery and it kind of was a natural stage to you know, to grow in the direction of making the wine from your own vineyards, being able to have a place to bring people to see the vineyards, to see the wine making. We do events here. We cancel them all now because of the war, but we have Simfus here and Bar Mitzvah's. I brother had his wedding here.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 25:53

I saw some of the pictures on your website. Your website is beautiful, very cool, all right. So when was that? That must have been 2018, 2019.

Yoni Glustein: 26:03

2019, we started building the place. Our first 2020 bottles we made at Binod. We didn't have the whole facility up and running, so we brought the grapes there. We came there every time, for you know all the different stages in decision making and so this 2023 is actually the first batch that we're actually making here in our facility.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 26:27

So that was a big step. So the girls made the first one.

Yoni Glustein: 26:30

Yep 100%.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 26:32

I know I'm calling them girls, but they're definitely moms. You know, the moms made the first one. Wow, wow, that's amazing. What are you thinking about the future? Where do you want it to go? Are the more varietals in order to do blends, or in order to do single varietals, or what are you thinking of?

Yoni Glustein: 26:52

So again we're. As I said, we came less from the professional wine making knowledge side of things. Any question like that. We sit down with Itzik and plan the next years. We do have a meeting with them in a few weeks to plan this this year. So still, our Cabernet Sauvignon is our flag. It's really everybody who's tasted it has really enjoyed it. I say my wife likes it and she doesn't like wine, so that's like a good indicator.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 27:23

No, I'm telling you, there are people who don't like wine. And I say, okay, I hear you, this is a cab, but it's kind of special here, try it. And there hasn't been anybody who's ever said oh, this is not for me. Every single person says I really like this. This is amazing.

Yoni Glustein: 27:42

So we're a kitchen, we also. The way the pictures that we put on the labels is always something that connects to the place. So here on the cabs we put the picture of the cave and on the rosettes, which we can taste also, I hope I have one in the fridge. I love that label.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 27:59

It's this yeah, it's right over there, it's that corner. It's that corner there and we didn't plant any of these Vine.

Yisca Glustein: 28:07

They just go through. They just go through Right.

Yoni Glustein: 28:10

So, again, we like bringing people here. So someone was here and he saw the place and he's leaving with a bottle that reminds him of the place, of the area it's like the rosettes.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 28:17

It's like the rosettes, people love it. In the summer they come here, they just sit and drink it and it's great, they love it. As you come through this, what have you learned? I mean, like if you could talk to yourself back when you were going to take this on. I mean, would you say don't do it. Or what would you've told yourself? What did?

Yoni Glustein: 28:43

you. What have you learned? I 100% would have told myself don't do it, and I hope that I wouldn't have to listen to myself. I think that would sum it up.

Yoni Glustein: 28:53

We definitely took on big risks here that we didn't know, like we didn't really know what we were getting into. One example even is the virus we had lethal three, the petivodol and mellow had to be uprooted completely Weight a year, poison each, one, weight a year and then replant them, which was a huge, huge loss. And other also challenges being in your condition when did you get the stilim from? We got it from a from the north, but the Chomeribu came from Israel and sadly we're in the lawsuit with them for many years already. I don't know what's going to be with that, but they're not taking responsibility.

Yoni Glustein: 29:33

And other challenges being in Yudav Shemon, we've had thefts. You know the Bedouin in the area. They come for the metal. They steal the poles, which is the most expensive part of the of the vineyard. And just just a lot of challenges. As you said before, it's tons of work. People don't understand like, all right, it grows and it grows by itself. It's tons of work. Even the vineyard is tons of work. The winery is tons of work. But again, going back to my first answer, I hope I wouldn't listen to myself because Bemed it's been an incredible journey, also also as partners. Getting along for so many years so amazingly is an accomplishment.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 30:13

I can imagine coming back from the Tzava where the four of you were back together again with the kids and everything but the four of you were back together again and able to like, just come and sit for a little bit Must be an incredible bonding experience. It's just incredible situation.

Yoni Glustein: 30:38

It's getting through tough times together is what makes it special. I remember myself coming back for one. I came back for like 48 hours and I parked the car, got in the house. It was already like nine o'clock at night. The kids were sleeping. My wife was like great, you're here, come to the winery. We're doing. We have three orders to pack, still in Madin, like packing up. But I just like you see what I do after the kids go to bed. This is where I go.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 31:00

You're coming here too Non-stop it's non-stop.

Yisca Glustein: 31:03

It's non-stop, but when you?

Yoni Glustein: 31:04

have a winery and you're not in stores, so you're also doing the branding and you're doing the, the Pilsum and the Chivouk and the whole. You know you're doing everything. So and also it's not like the person who knows how to grow the grapes isn't always the best you know, marketer. It isn't good at marketing or isn't good at social media, or isn't good at so it's.

Yoni Glustein: 31:25

you know, you kind of have to be a jack of all trades and you have to be on top of the financials and be on top of cash flows, which is the life, you know, that's the life of every business. But the winery we started doing online. And how do you ship that Exactly? So, for a lot of work, we found a, a that will take the wine for us in Israel. We didn't find the way at the ship overseas. We're too small.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 31:50

Yeah.

Yoni Glustein: 31:51

I don't think it's an option right now. So we sell people that just order and we sell to them and we started getting some clients that are large companies that are like buying shai lachag for their employees, for their clients. That's a great place to be Because that's like you know a hundred bottles order, you take it to one place Bar khashem, are are packaging. We're getting a lot of compliments from just the way the bottle looks. I know a lot of people. A lot of people understand wine and appreciate wine. A lot of people buy the wine because it looks pretty. Yes, 100% 100%.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 32:27

The packaging and your rosé is gorgeous. So the person who did.

Yoni Glustein: 32:31

It is Neta, is Etan's wife, my partner's wife, her sister, her sister's, our did, our logo does everything. She's just an amazing job, really amazing job.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 32:43

It's pretty because the color of the foils fits in with the rosé and I know, you know she said something like it wasn't planned to do that, but it did and it just is perfect. It's absolutely perfect. It looks great. If people want your wines, the best place to find them is to come here, I guess.

Yoni Glustein: 33:03

Physically, even though now the wine, the visitor center is still closed, since the war Like we're.

Yoni Glustein: 33:07

Every minute we have. We're either in the vineyards or taking care of the wine People can. If you Google us and you press, we're still building our website. Actually, she's building our website also. But even if you press where you should have a website, it takes you to a online place where you can just order our wine directly and we'll deliver it directly. So that's one way to help us out Just order wine over the internet and companies or anybody who has like, who's working in a company and wants to order for their employees or for the for Pesach.

Yoni Glustein: 33:40

Now we're getting orders, or even already towards Oshe Shana. That's also a big deal, and towards the summer we're even planning and opening it up Fridays, making a little mini restaurant. We have a coffee machine. We have outside pizza oven Pizza oven and we have meat smokers that my partner's brother made out of wine barrels. Just this week my partner brought his pluga here from there. They were together in Gaza. They did like just like a meal here and they put lots of meat in the meat smoker and it was. It was incredible. It was amazing. So once we're up and running again, we have we host events here. We host events for we had companies come and do like their the Chaim for Oshe Shana startup company here in Gushetion we had companies come from even the Americas.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 34:21

Overall we had we had a company in Gush Etzion that was a it was a very special company and It was I mean to get the equipment here and to get it into that cellar must have been a pretty big deal.

Yoni Glustein: 34:32

Again. Luckily that was before the war. We just brought a whole pile of friends from the issue of this. Six or seven of us lifted the press and walked on the stairs and brought it and yeah it was a big deal getting all the equipment together and getting it here. I think what's unique here is, on one hand we're like the size of a garage winery. You know that people kind of do at home in their basement. On the other hand, we're doing it like as professionally as you can. We have hired a serious winemaker, we're buying all the proper equipment and we're controlling the way the grapes are grown. So I think on the one hand you have really like garage winery style care, like we know every what's going on in every single barrel and we're really on top of things, and on the other hand it's done professionally, it's not like just a hobby.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:22

How much of the, how much of the grape production do you keep for yourself now?

Yoni Glustein: 35:27

Just about three tons, three, four tons Okay.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:30

Out of how much how many tons do you produce?

Yoni Glustein: 35:33

That produces about 34 tons, the Cabernet about 34 tons, and this summer we're going to be producing another well, it's not the revised, so usually we don't reach it. We don't reach a ton of tuna, but that's our objective, about a ton of tuna. So it's another 21 tuna. This year it's probably going to be less, maybe 700, 800 kilo tuna, and we're hoping to plant more varieties on top of the winery and then it'll be all for us. Everything that we're going to plant here is going to be just for our winery.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 35:59

I really thank you this is wonderful.

Yoni Glustein: 36:02

This is really wonderful. Thanks for coming all the way out here.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 36:05

No, it's. It's where in Canada did you come from? Originally my mother's? From Toronto, Toronto.

Yoni Glustein: 36:10

My dad's from Montreal. How long have they been here? How long did they? I was born here, so they my dad, came here even for Yeshiva before they were married. Yeshiva Takotel did Hester army. My mom came to Dushuotlumi at Rav Tsvania Drori Okay. She lived with his father in Katzmuna.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 36:26

Looking out over the view from here. This is facing south.

Yoni Glustein: 36:31

This is facing south. Yama Melach is right over there. You can see it from the other vineyard. From the vineyard you see Yama Melach, so that that would be east west north, north.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 36:41

You can see the Shalai from here.

Yoni Glustein: 36:42

That would be south.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 36:44

Thank you very much for being on the culture. Thank you Do you want me.

Yoni Glustein: 36:48

I usually every person who comes here I read the last Psyukim of Amos to a Shadyrita I would love to. Well, first of all, yamos, this area is Amos and Abiz area. The Shuvneks store is called Mal-e-Amos. There's Nakh-al-Amos right by here and even Tkwa-e-Nok-Dim, which are a little north from us. The book starts Div-Rey-Amos, mit-kwa-e-nok-dim. That's where those names are from. So this is really like the area of the Navi Amos and you've heard them already three times. You know these Psyukim, but we, we feel really connected to these Psyukim. Inay-ameem, ba'im, neu-mashem and Igash-Khooresh, bekotser and Dorech-Navim, be-moshech-aza'ara and Tifu-Hairim, assis the the mountain tops will flow with Assis. What is Assis? Assis is wine. Assis is, after the grapes are crushed, what comes out of them. And when we started our vineyard, then we, we started a company and we called it Kerem-As-Is-Sarim. That's tilted, that's what we have. An Ar-Kesh-Boni'at Wow, it's as Kerem-As-Is-Sarim from.

Yoni Glustein: 37:44

From these Psyukim, t'ashavti, et'shvut'ami, israel, and I'll return. My people rate U'banu'arim, nashamot. They will rebuild the towns. Be'anachana is being built. If you drive through the Yishuv, we're still in caravans. We've been waiting many years to be authorized. We were a few years ago and now people building houses. Everything stopped and Semchatorah Right, but the houses are being built. We ashevuv'u v'nat'u keremim, and they will plant vineyards of ashetu'u ti'aynam and they will drink their wine. Asu'u ghanot v'achlut bre'un'ta'atim al-ad-dmatama we'll plant them under land. We'll never again be uprooted again from this land. So when people ask us, why did we do all this? That's honestly where we came from. We, I confess, before I wasn't some big wine lover for many years. We just really wanted to be part of this nivu in this area. Look at what's going on Dukhtadim ushev'u aron lukh azach. I didn't have this privilege.

Solomon Simon Jacob: 38:44

Where in the world did we get the privilege to be here for this? It's so special, it's so awesome, so it's really an amazing place. Rakhashem, please, god, you should have had sa'ha'a-sa'a-rahmane. This is Simon Jacob, again your host of today's episode of the Kosher Taw'a. I have a personal request no matter where you are or where you live, please take a moment to pray for our soldier's safety and the safe and rapid return of our hostages. I hope you have enjoyed this episode of the Kosher Taw'a. It was exciting and informative for me as well. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you're new to the Kosher Taw'a, please check out our many past episodes.