Jerusalem festival to wash those winter blues away
Annual Sheon Choref offers weekly wine tasting, beer brewing and more throughout February in the nation’s capital
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
For anyone who’s ever wanted to brew beer, understand wine or learn the difference between single-malt and blended whiskeys, Sheon Choref, Jerusalem’s annual winter festival, is calling your name.
Held on four successive Monday evenings, on February 8, 15, 22 and 29, it’s a winter festival of arts, food, drink and general revelry.
While the target audience is often the city’s younger folk, students and twenty-somethings (and thirty-somethings), everyone is welcome to join the municipality-sponsored event held in different neighborhoods each week.
“The number of participants has grown each year,” said Yoram Braverman, who directs the cultural department at City Hall. “It proves that culture and arts are an engine for real economic growth, and our model of cooperation with the proprietors and business owners in the city is unique.”
This year’s Sheon Choref highlights include:
- Beer brewing at Beerateinu, a new downtown pub (3 Yannai, Feb. 8, all night, free entry)
- A wine workshop at Picolino’s with the Barkan Winery, where you’ll find out why wine is often described as having the flavor of bark (that’s the tannins), and how it has ‘body’ (12 Yoel Solomon, Feb. 15, 8-9:30 p.m., free entry)
- Whiskey tasting to find out what is the difference between single malts and blended, and taste different types of scotch (4 Shamai, Feb. 22, 7 p.m. — midnight, pre-registration necessary, NIS 40 per person, call 052-836-5323)
- Mixing your own cocktails at Gatsby, where senior barman Kfir Bachar will teach you how to shake, mix and even light up drinks (18 Hillel, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m., NIS 30 per person, pre-registration required)
- A wine event with the Tavor Winery at Cafe Paris (1 Ben Maimon, Feb. 29, 8 p.m., free entry.
Sheon Choref isn’t all drinking and booze. There are also musical master classes, dance parties, literary chats, cooking classes, concerts, art exhibitions and more.
Find out more about the Sheon Choref events on its Facebook page, or at the Sheon Choref website.
