A brief history of the Israeli wine industry

As a child growing up in London, I always remember that the Israeli contribution to the wine list for Friday night dinner was the sweet, potent and alcoholic wine that was poured from the Palwins bottle for Kiddush. If my father wanted to offer something of caliber, then it usually came from somewhere in Europe, probably France. In my teens, something rather interesting started to happen. Every now and then, a bottle of Israeli wine would appear at the table, and it would be surprisingly palatable. During Passover especially, we were regaled with new wines from the Golan Heights and the Galilee, they were not only drinkable but really quite good. What I was witnessing at the dinner table was Israel’s transformation from a producer of cheap, sweet and often sub-standard wines, to a member of the “New World” winemaking community, capable of producing top quality wines. What is surprising is that this transformation took so long.

It should come as no surprise that wine is produced in Israel after all, wine has been made there since the dawn of civilization and is an integral part of Jewish ritual. Tourists to Israel can visit a variety of wineries, even one near Ein Avdat in the Negev Desert, which was built around 2000 years ago and formed part of the Nabatean Spice Trail.

However, the Muslim conquest of AD 636 put an end to all winemaking activity for about 1200 years, until Baron Edmond de Rothschild came to Palestine in the 1880s and planted new vineyards in Zichron Ya’akov and Rishon Le Zion. The new vineyards required a winery to process the grapes and so, towards the end of the 19th Century, Rothschild built a winery, which was the precursor to the Carmel Mizrachi Winery to process, the grapes, signaling the rebirth of the wine industry in the Holy Land.

However despite all of Rothschild’s efforts, for 100 years or so, the wine coming out of Israel probably didn’t taste much better than the brews that the Nabateans used to drink.

It took the concerted efforts of the several Kibbutzim and Moshavim in the Golan Heights, to bring about the transformation in the Israeli wine industry to which we are witnessing today. In the mid 1970s they identified that the soil and the climatic conditions in the Golan and the Galilee were similar to some of the finest grape-growing regions around the world. They planted vineyards, and initially sold the produce to the larger cooperative wineries in Israel, however small batch trials to produce wine showed very promising results, and the decision was taken to establish a winery in the area. In 1983 the Golan Heights Winery was established, incorporating modern winemaking techniques from California. The project was a success, and with the birth of this new winery, people began to take Israeli wines seriously.

Since the 1980s Israel has seen a renaissance of its wine industry. The increasing affluence in Israel has meant that more Israelis are traveling abroad and discovering that wine is not only for Kiddush (Sanctification). A new generation of consumers has been exposed to better quality wines to those they had at home, increasing their expectations from domestically produced wines. The discovery of the “French Paradox” (where the consumption of red wine is said to reduce cholesterol levels) also boosted the demand for wine in the country. As a result the existing wineries in Israel were forced to take note and improve their winemaking efforts, some more successfully than others, and a slew of new boutique wineries emerged promising quality wines, names such as Dalton, Soreq, Tzora, and Castel. Many of theses new wineries offer guided tours of their facilities followed by a tasting of their wines.

One of the more successful of these new wineries is the Dalton Winery, located in the Upper Galilee. Dalton was established in 1995, the creation of an English family of Olim (new immigrants) who recognised the potential of establishing a winery in one of the most picturesque regions of Israel, overlooking the Mount Hermon and the Hula Valley.  Sourcing its grapes from the nearby vineyards of the Upper Galillee, Dalton is a small world-class winery run along New-World lines producing quality kosher table wines. The wines have been well received throughout the world, receiving prizes in competitions in Bordeaux, London and New York. Visitors to Israel can visit the winery, near Safed, as it is open every day except Shabbat. Tours and tastings are offered for a modest charge.

Even the Negev dessert has once again regained its appeal to the winemaker and in recent years new vineyards have been planted in Arad (near Be’er Sheva), Mitzpe Ramon and Sde Boker. I just wonder how much the Nabateans would recognize the place they used to travel if they were to return today.