"Ben Gale was born a Zionist with a sense of adventure and a taste for good wine. When his mentor Mar Cheshin returned to Jerusalem from New York, Ben followed him to the Jewish Homeland. Gale stowed away on the same boat in 1929, only to be returned to port in Boston, after being discovered. In World War II, Ben flew a U.S. B25 bomber. Once, while grounded in a sandstorm in the Negev, he made is way to Tel Aviv. Wartime Tel Aviv, with its little blackout purple lights and smell of jasmine and orange blossoms in the air made Ben dizzy with delight. After hopping from one nightclub to the next, he managed to cut in and dance with the lovely Zilla, who became his wife. Today, the happy couple has already celebrated more than 50 years of marriage. After returning to California after the war, he went to work for the Sebastiani family winery where he learned all the secrets of great wine. When he retired from the winery with honors, he returned to Israel, where he gathered the seeds for The Romance of Wine. END"