Nine Glasses of Wine on a Wednesday Evening – only ASF could make that happen

When we arrived, Jonathan immediately introduced us to his “small” wine collection. In the kitchen alone, around sixty bottles were scattered around — which, as he said, was just his basic stock, “nothing special.” But the real collection was downstairs: shelves filled with bottles from all over the world. And as if that weren’t enough, he casually mentioned another 300 bottles waiting for him in Tel Aviv. No surprise that he writes a weekly wine column for an Israeli newspaper.

Despite the impressive numbers, it was far from a formal wine tasting. We simply enjoyed the evening together — pouring, guessing, commenting, and laughing. No fancy terminology, just honest impressions: “tastes good” or “doesn’t.” As Jonathan put it, that’s what really matters. And that simplicity made the whole evening wonderfully relaxed.

Between glasses, our conversations turned to topics even more captivating than the wine itself. Jonathan spoke about his father, who fled from Germany via England to Israel; about his own activism in the 1970s on behalf of Soviet Jews, which led to several months in a Russian prison; and about life in Israel today — its contradictions, daily realities, and the role of faith. It was a lively, open exchange, where wine was merely the excuse for genuine dialogue.

By the end of the night, I walked home with that rare feeling you get after an evening you couldn’t possibly have planned: a warm heart, a head full of wine, and a stomach full of mezze — including Jonathan’s own homemade pickles and olives — making the way home a little lighter and slower than usual.