William Fevre’s name is synonymous with prize-winning French wine. But what most connoisseurs don’t know is that the eighty-one-year-old Catholic-born vintner, whose fascination with Judaism has made him a patron of little-known Israeli wines, has used his own funds to uncover and reconstruct an ancient Jewish synagogue in Chablis — buried for five centuries in this village once thriving with Jewish winemakers.
Mention “Chablis” and the image conjured up is cocktail hour and clinking glasses filled with chilled white wine. But wine connoisseurs know that true Chablis is only produced from Chardonnay grapes around the town of Chablis in northeast France and that the Grand Cru the best vineyards in the area all lie on one small slope just north of the village. And they know that William Fevre is the man credited with giving real Chablis wines the exclusive status they enjoy today.
While William Fevre’s name is synonymous with prize-winning wine however what those connoisseurs don’t know is that the eighty-one-year-old Catholic-born vintner is a lover of Judaism and has used his own funds to uncover and reconstruct an ancient Jewish synagogue — buried for five centuries in Chablis an area empty of Jews for as long.
Five hundred years of Juif-rein. But on this upcoming Purim thousands of bottles of kosher wine will be exhibited here in Chablis in the renovated synagogue cellar courtesy of wine king Fevre himself.
William Fevre was born in Chablis to a famous vintner dynasty that goes back fourteen generations. When he was born though the phylloxera epidemic — infestation by the microscopic root louse — nearly destroyed the vineyards of France and the villagers’ traditional source of livelihood was practically wiped out. His parents wanting to give him a better chance at life sent him to Paris for academic studies but wine was in his blood. He says that when he returned to the vineyards his father didn’t speak to him for several years.
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