Israel
An ancient wine land, restarted in 1882, now working out what its own grapes are.
Wine was made in this land for thousands of years, and then largely stopped under Ottoman rule. The modern industry starts in 1882, when Baron Edmond de Rothschild funded plantings and built wineries at Rishon LeZion and Zikhron Ya'akov, importing French varieties and French practice. That is why Israeli wine is built on cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay rather than on anything local.
The best sites are the highest and coolest: the Golan Heights, at up to 1,200 metres on volcanic basalt, and the Upper Galilee. The Judean Hills, around Jerusalem, are the other serious area. Elsewhere the climate is hot and Mediterranean, and irrigation is universal.
The most interesting current work is archaeological. Researchers have identified and propagated indigenous varieties from old vines and from ancient sites, including marawi and bittuni, and a small number of producers now bottle them. Most Israeli wine is kosher, which imposes specific handling requirements but no restriction on grape or style.
What the label says
- RegionsFive recognised regions
- Galilee, Shomron, Samson, Judean Hills and the Negev. Boundaries only, without EU-style rules.
- KosherKosher certification
- A production and handling standard, not a quality or origin tier.
Signature grapes
our choiceKey regions
- Golan Heights
- Upper Galilee
- Judean Hills
- Shomron
- Samson
- Negev
A dashed outline is a region we describe but do not yet hold a page for.
Worth knowing
- The modern industry dates from 1882 and Rothschild money, not from antiquity.
- Kosher describes handling. It says nothing about quality.
- Marawi and bittuni are indigenous varieties recovered from old vines.
More in Asia
Sources
The description, the reading of the classification system and the choice of signature grapes are ours. Region and grape records are built from Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA 4.0). American AVA boundaries come from the TTB (public domain).