Wine is woven into the history of this land. Archaeologists have found ancient wine presses carved into the rock all over the country, and grapes appear on coins, mosaics and in the Bible, from Noah's vineyard to the spies carrying a huge cluster back from Canaan. In Byzantine times, wine from the Negev town of Gaza was exported around the Mediterranean.
Wine is also part of Jewish daily life. Every Shabbat and festival begins with Kiddush, a blessing over a cup of wine, and at the Passover Seder everyone drinks four cups. That is one reason kosher wine exists: it must be produced under religious supervision, and many excellent Israeli wines today are kosher without you ever noticing.
The modern industry began in 1882, when Baron Edmond de Rothschild supported vineyards and built large wineries at Rishon LeZion and Zichron Ya'akov. For a century, Israeli wine was mostly sweet and ceremonial. The turning point came in the 1980s, when the Golan Heights Winery, founded in 1983, brought in modern techniques and showed the world that cool, high vineyards could produce serious wine.
Since then a boutique wave has swept the country: hundreds of small wineries in the Galilee, the Judean Hills, the Carmel and even the Negev desert, alongside a revival of local grapes like Marawi and Dabouki. Wine bars in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem pour them proudly.
Want to taste it? Our Wine Tour of the North and Wine Tour of the South take you to the people behind the bottles. For the regions themselves, read our guide to Israeli wine regions.
Keep reading
- CulinaryOlive OilLiquid gold of the Holy Land: varieties, harvest season and where to taste it fresh.
- CulinaryFood Connects People!How a shared table crosses every line in this country.
- CulinaryMahane Yehuda: Eating Your Way Through Jerusalem's MarketA stall-by-stall food guide to Jerusalem's market, from morning coffee to Friday afternoon chaos.