There is rarely any advantage to having adoring fans overstate your abilities. I keep reminding folks that I am a decent cook but not a chef; that I like my wine, spirits, and coffee but I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert in imbibation – if that’s a word. On the other hand, if people take you too seriously, at least they won’t forget about you at critical moments. As in: friends of ours were zipping around The States, and Shoshana wound up in Teaneck, NJ, our old stomping grounds, just in time to pick up a copy of the Jewish Link Summer Food & Drink supplement to their Shavuot edition. She gave her copy a quick perusal, then thought to herself, This is more than I need, but I’ve gotta bring it back for Fred, which she did. And therein is the beginning of a story, which will unfold, providing that you have a modicum of patience and a little bit of time.

You’ve all come across newspaper or magazine supplements, usually with text cobbled together from press releases and a collection of random recipes, all as an excuse to showcase the real attractions, the ads that pay the bills. But this one seemed a little more on the up-and-up, so I graciously accepted my copy and shortly thereafter gave it a looksee. Oh my! ‘MEET THE MOST EDUCATED PERSON IN KOSHER WINE: Greg Raykher Earns Wine Diploma.’What is that about, I wondered and continued on. Well, if nothing else, the next time someone accuses me of being an expert, I can show them what a real one is like.

OMG, he sounds just like Alex, one of Tina’s Russian family, both of whom arrived in The States at a tender age from the Former Soviet Union and went on to bigger and better things. It’s just that some people are chronic overachievers. (Maybe it’s genetic.) Alex became a partner in a prestigious hedge fund, and Greg is the managing director at KingsRock Advisors, ‘focusing on the complex tax aspects of renewable energy, zero-carbon projects and structured finance.’ And like many overachievers, they are over-energized. What do most of us do after a hard day’s work? What do over-energized people do? They’re just getting started.

It’s likely that when Greg met Daphna Roth, his wife to be, he couldn’t tell the difference between a corkscrew and a screwdriver. But she was not going to have her spouse make kiddush over Kedem grape juice or some such swill. And so he joined her on a mutual wine journey.

Some people would have been content merely to join fellow feinschmeckers at the Bergen County Rosh Chodesh Club (‘a regular gathering for those interested in tasting fine aged wines’) or similar activities. But overachievers are not content to leave well enough alone. Greg and Daphna ultimately enrolled in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust program, a three year commitment, and now Greg has done it, completing the level 4 diploma program, which is sort of equivalent to getting a Ph.D. (…He even had to  master the geological history of wine regions, such as how the ancient Montana flood carved out the Willamette Valley in Oregon to create its unique soils.) Can you imagine?

I should also point out that our man was doing it the hard way, evaluating non-kosher wines that he can’t swallow, sort of like covering up half of one’s taste buds and going from there. Daphna, I should mention, is not far behind, currently enrolled in the Level 3 program. (And the author of the article, Jules Polonetsky, is a Level 3 graduate, as well as being the CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum, ‘a global tech policy think tank.’) These overachievers…

Let’s see, what else is there in this magazine? Their panel of legitimate experts selected ten wines for ‘Your Summer Rosé Wine List.’ I gotta get this list to Barbara Levine; there are four Israeli wines on the list. There’s an article entitled ‘How to Love Legumes.’ Definitely a crowd pleaser. Then there’s ‘New Standards for Kosher Beer: Guidelines for Consumers.’ It seems we need a ‘more stringent approach.’ Can you imagine; Who would have guessed?

The final article that caught my eye was ‘Yotam Sharon Joins Binyamina Winery,’ written by Joshua London. How about, ‘Sharon is clear about his mandate: “I look at my role as driving the quality up throughout the range.”’ I love it. You’re trying to explain that you’ve inherited a semi-disaster, which they’re paying you the big bucks to fix, without insulting your predecessors, who made the mess. ‘It’s going to take at least three to five years.’ Call me when you’re ready!

There’s a little bio about Mr. London at the end of the article, mentioning his twenty years of experience ‘writing, consulting, and speaking professionally about kosher wines and spirits,’ giving a link to joshuaelondon.substack.com/. Maybe I’ll check it out.

Sure enough, a week later, I found in my inbox the following article: ‘Personal Terroir: Itay Lahat’s Culinary Vision of Wine’ written by Joshua E. London (I forgot the ‘E.’), which appeared in the 2025 issue of the ‘Summer Food & Drink’ supplement.

Let me dive right in: ‘My approach with my wines is what I call personal terroir…Of course, it begins with the land, [as] every vineyard has its own voice,…[but] it’s also my interpretation, the way I choose to bring that voice to the final wine.’

I think I get it. Each vineyard has something to offer, and the winemaker has to figure out what that is and then relate it to his or her own vision. This is what I want to produce, and this is where I can do it. Of course, it involves ‘spacing, direction, pruning, trellising and growing strategy.’ Details, details…

But who is this guy, Itay Lahat? Let’s see what it says. So he worked as a teenager, purely by chance, on the bottling line at the Carmel Winery, then went into the army and did the semi-obligatory trek through India and Nepal, after that, enrolled at the agricultural school at Hebrew U., and talked his way into a research assistant position at the Israeli Wine Institute. After he graduated from Hebrew U., he worked at Barkan, who sent him to Australia to ‘deepen his knowledge.’ Back at Barkan, he worked as a vineyard agronomist (whatever that is!) and winemaker. He was also working on an MBA at Hebrew U., ‘writing papers late at night after long days in the cellar.’

Just to keep busy, he started his own consulting firm in 2008, working with some of Israel’s smaller and mid-sized wineries, finding time to teach at Ben-Gurion U., Kinneret College, and finally act as academic director of the “Cellar Master” program at Tel-Hai College.  (I’m getting tired just thinking about all this. Where does he get the time and energy?)

Then I read the following about the Lahit Winery: ‘The winery’s logo – an acorn – was sketched by his wife, Sharon, inspired by the oak groves surrounding their home in Har Halutz, not far from Mitzpe Hila.’ Jumping Jehosophat, The Levines have mentioned that there is a winemaker living in their tiny yishuv, but I never knew who it was. I always assumed it was some garagista, an ambitious soul who makes wine for his own amusement and enjoyment, not someone of stature in the wine world. I forwarded the article to our friends, and Richard responded, We know him. That’s kind of ambiguous. It could mean, We’ve seen him around, or it could mean, We had him over for dinner two weeks ago and... Perhaps somewhere in the middle…

Well then, what are my takeaways from what I’ve read? The depressing part is the realization that there are some people out there with a lot more energy, initiative, and plain get-up-and-go, than the rest of us, and they make me (and maybe you) feel as if we’ve wasted a lot of valuable and limited time dealing in narishkeit.

But maybe there’s something we can share with our over-achieving friends and neighbors, and that is their passion and some of what they have learned while they are busy over-achieving. (“Much of Sharon’s vineyard thinking is aimed at careful refinement: a patient observational approach to viticulture, closer in spirit to gardening than agriculture.”) If this guy says he wants to ‘increase drinkability,’ I want to be around when he, Lahit, and others like them have worked their magic. If you’re smart, you’ll be on line with me (or ‘in line,’ if you’re not from New York). Just don’t be in a hurry; it will take a while.

Meanwhile, I received the following Whatsapp message recently from Steph(anie) from Power CoffeeWorks: ‘Hiya, Are you coming in tomorrow. I have some new beans and I would greatly appreciate some tasting notes on them. To which I replied,’ I am planning to arrive with a smile on my face.’ As I’ve tried to indicate, I am not an expert on liquid beverages, but I always try to do my best. Which I did, but that’s for another day. (Just don’t be in a hurry; it will take a while.)