Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Desert Wine Guy - Israel And Wine - The History And Current Day Of Wine In Israel










   Since almost the beginning of the world Israel has played an important role in the history of mankind. In this article we will deal with Israel and it's importance in relation to wine. Many people do not know that since biblical times Israel has been producing, using and selling wine. The bible even comments that the kings of Israel had vast vineyards. Wine is thought to have reached the country of Israel from the Caucasus/eastern Turkey regions in 5,00-6,000 BC era. Archaeologists have actually discovered wine presses dating back to 100-400 CE and wine cellars have been discovered dating back to 700 CE in the area of the city of Gideon. Israel would also ship wines to the countries of Egypt & Rome in the late Byzantine and early Islamic period however the wines were thick & sweet. Being that we are blessed today with great wines available it sounds like we probably wouldn't want to drink the wines produced back then. The wine was so bad that they would season it with honey, pepper & juniper berries to make it drinkable. Even with all the flaws Israeli wine had, the average Israeli family drank an average of 92 gallons of wine a year. Today that average has dropped and is around 2 gallons. Israel has two ancient and traditional wine growing regions; the Shomron (Samaria region) and Samson (located between the Judean Hills and Coastal Plain) regions. There are a few different schools of thought on exactly where grapevines originated. Some believe that the vines originated in the mountains of Arat or modern Armenia while others believe that they originated in the Shiraz region of Persia (Iran). During the Muslim conquest of 636 AD wine presses (see above) were destroyed and wine production and grape cultivation activities for wine essentially ceased for about 1200 years, except among Christian monasteries.  

    The next evolution in wine for Israel was many years later in 1870. Wine again began to be produced with the help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild who brought over European varieties of grapes as well as helped finance the planting of vineyards near Rishon Le Zion on the coastal plain and sent teams of experts from Bordeaux to advise new local wineries on making fine wine. He also financed the construction of wineries of the Jewish settlements, first in Rishon Le Zionin 1882 and Zichron Ya’acov in the Mount Carmel area in 1890. Rothschild’s vision was to make the “Holy Land” a source of kosher wines for Jews everywhere and to sustain the local Jewish settlers with a viable industry. This idea didn't work out as planned when hard times ended his dream. In the mid-1890’s the vine disease Phylloxera, which had come over from France devastated the region’s vineyards. In the period that followed the Bordeaux varieties were uprooted and replaced with cuttings of Carignan, Alicante Bouschet, Clairette, Grenache, Muscat, and Semillon and the so called "proper root stocks" that experts considered more suitable for the hot climate of Palestine. Before Phylloxera took its toll there were about 7,000 Acres of vineyards in Israel; by 1914 there were only 880. 

   In the 1960's Carmel Winery and other producers reintroduced Bordeaux and Rhone Varieties. In 1972 Oenoligist Professor Cornelius Ough from U.C Davis went to the Golan Heights and saw the future in wine making in Israel. His advice created the Kibbutz named Moshavim and in 1982 the first grapes were harvested from the Golan Heights and a professor by the name of Peter Stern (again from U.C Davis) was hired to design a new Golan Heights Winery. The winery came online in 1983 and with Professor Sterns help they released their first critically acclaimed wine. Professor Stern also brought in other wine professionals such as a Israel Flam who later became Chief Winemaker of Rishon Le Zion in 1995. With him moving to Israel he played an important part in the success of the Israeli wine industry. Today Israel has five wine regions. They are Galilee which is Israels northern-most wine growing region. This region extends from the Lebanese border south. The Samson region which runs parallel to the Mediterranean Sea and includes the coastal plain southeast of Tel Aviv and the hills between the Jerusalem mountains and the coast. The third region is Judean Hills. This region surrounds the city of Jerusalem. It extends from north of of Jerusalem to the Yatir Forest south of Hebron. Then there is Shomron which is located near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa and includes the Carmel Mountain range. Finally we end with the region of Negev. This region is an arid & dry one. Comprising about half of Israels land area. This region is actually in two sub-regions of Ramat Arad in the Northwest and the central Negev Highlands. 

    Israeli wine stayed like that until around 1983 when the Golan Heights Winery was established. This came after Israelis in large numbers started traveling to California and Australia & Europe. The Golan Winery soon discovered that the wines of the Grenache, Semillon, Petit Syrah and Carignan grapes would make the Israeli wine industry popular. Finally Israel had was about to be put on the wine map by a Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1984 vintage. That wine won a gold medal at the International Wine and Spirit Competition. The Golan Heights Winery produces 4.5 million bottles of wine a year. There are now over 200 wineries in Israel today. Today wine in Israel while popular and profitable, wine is another source of contention in the land. While the Jewish people of the land incorporate it into their religious ceremony's On the Jewish side there are places in their holy books such as Psalms 104 ”And wine will rejoice the heart of man”. There is also "And wine gladdens the hearts of man" (Psalms 104:15) that indicate that Alcohol is permissible in the Jewish religion. I can also find no prohibition for it in the Jewish bible other than it being against being drunk The Muslim Quran is unclear on the topic of Alcohol. There appear to be conflicting Muslim scriptures on the subject. In an article dated September 2 of 2012http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/arab-israelis-erect-protest-tent-to-battle-planned-wine-festival-near-mosque-1.462261 in the Haaretz newspaper there was a wine festival held near a Mosque and “Muslim groups expressed outrage” and called the festival “unforgivable sin” and erected an protest tent. There are passages in the Quran such as 16.67 “And of the fruits of the date palms and the grapes, you obtain alcoholic drinks and goods. Verily in that is a sign for a people who use their understanding.” that indicate that Alcohol may be acceptable in the Muslim religion. There are however there are also places in the Quran that state Alcohol is bad such as Quran 5:90 “O you who believe! Intoxication's and gambling, (dedication of) stones and (divination by) arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handwork: so avoid it that you may prosper.” On the other hand there are examples in the Hadiths such as Muslim 3753 “We were with the prophet of Allah and he was thirsty. And a man said: ‘O prophet of Allah, do you want to drink wine?’ Prophet of Allah said: ‘Yes’. The man went to get the wine. The prophet of Allah said: ‘Make it intoxicated’. And he drank.”. There is also the following passage Quran 16.67 “And of the fruits of the date palms and the grapes, you obtain alcoholic drinks and goods. Verily in that is a sign for a people who use their understanding.” In ending this article I wanted to point out that there are the beginnings of cooperation between the two major religions in the Middle east area. As proof of that i will leave you with the fact that There is a Winery named Mony Winery which is owned by an Arab-Christian family and is located in Dir-Rif’at.

   Whatever the two religions believe or don't believe, alcohol seems to be just another divisive issue in the Middle East. Who is right and who is wrong? Well I guess that depends on your own point of view.

                                                                                  The Desert WIne Guy

                                                                                                                    





















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