Doron fell in love in Italy with Italian wine, Assaf travelled to France to learn wine-making and Sharona started to draw up plans……

The harvest of 2001. A small quantity of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes serve as an experimental “trial run” with everything from the harvest to the bottling being done by hand.
This successful and highly acclaimed experiment led to the acquisition of advanced wine-making equipment and the work started in earnest.
Tours of wineries in France and Italy helped Sharona prepare the renovation plans for the old cowshed which had been built by Doron’s grandparents – amongst the first settlers in Kfar Vitkin – and turned it into the winery’s first location. We had started our journey.

Doron Belogolovsky
A grandson of founders of Kfar Vitkin, he grew up in nearby Michmoret and combines his love of the sea and wine, which according to Greek mythology came into the world together. In recent years Doron, who is married to Sharona, became a vintner as well. As an autodidact he is constantly learning from courses, books and his work in the family winery. Doron has “golden hands” and was responsible for the construction of the infrastructures of the new winery. He also builds all the furniture for the visitors center, mostly from our old wine barrels and other recycled materials.

Assaf Paz
Assaf began his career as a pastry chef and studied food engineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He continued his MA studies in wine-making in France where he was the first Israeli to study in the Faculty of Wine in Bordeaux followed by training internships at wineries in France, California and Australia. As winemaker at Vitkin he continues to experiment with small batches to produce unique flavors and original wines. Assaf is Sharona’s brother.

Sharona Paz-Belogolovsky
As an architect, after researching wineries worldwide, Sharona designed both the first winery and recently, the new winery and visitors center. She is the CEO of the winery and is responsible for everything not directly connected with the wine production process including general management, marketing, contact with customers and suppliers, packaging, branding and design.

Vitkin Winery with its on-site Visitors Center is situated between vineyards, fields and orchards, close to the Alexander Nature Reserve and the Turtle Bridge. You will be able to enjoy a variety of wine experiences in a pastoral ambiance.
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The Vitkin Winery vineyards are planted in Kfar Vitkin and throughout Israel, from the Jerusalem Mountains and Karmei Yosef in the south, through Zichron Yaakov in the center to the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee in the north, a literal Israeli Journey.
The winery works in close cooperation with our growers and maintains full and continuous control of all the details and stages of the agricultural process in our vineyards.
A wide range of grape varieties and vineyard locations enables the winery to extend the harvest season over three months to maximise the attention and the care given to the grapes that go into our wines.
This is a journey of a pure agricultural nature, inspired by our late great-grandmother Miriam Ruttenberg who used to work in our first vineyards, pulling out the weeds with her bare hands. Miriam was a true farmer who passed away in 2008, aged 98-years-old.