With many of the top kosher wine producers in London recently for Kedem’s annual food and wine extravaganza, the Anglo-Israel Association (AIA) seized the opportunity to celebrate Israel 75 with some of the country’s star labels at Pall Mall’s Royal Automobile Club.

In the Committee Room, Israeli Ambassador H.E. Tzipi Hotovely shared with a room full the audience that her great grandfather, from Georgia, used to make his own wine. She told the crowd that although proud of her Georgian roots, she needed to dispel the myth that her grandparents’ home country was the birthplace of wine.

“It was actually in the Middle East where wine making started — five thousand years ago in the bible you can see the beginning of that.” Something she said is also backed up by scientific research.

Other guests included Lord and Lady Palmer of Childs Hill; Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne; former MP Lord Ian Austin and several MP’s Andrew Gwynne, Tim Loughton, Damien Moore, Mark Pritchard, Nicola Richards, and Sharon Hodgson) plus His Majesty’s Ambassador-Designate to Israel Simon Walters.

Winemakers from Carmel, Matar, Razi’el, and Yatir spoke about their winemaking history and gave the room full of dignitaries and diplomats an insight into Israel’s varied and flourishing wine scene.

The AIA CEO Josh London said, “We decided that celebrating Israel 75 with Israeli wine would be very fitting and make for a fun change of pace, as the story of Israeli wine, in many ways, parallels the history of Israel itself, and it is an amazing success story.”

Attendees sampled a selection of wines from grapes grown across Israel including Carmel’s Mediterranean label — which was awarded a Gold Medal and 95 points in the 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards — and gin and a single malt whisky from Pelter.