The Wine Nation Israel
Israeli wines have got an impressing history. Even in the Torah / Old Testament, one can read how Noah grew wine in the Holy Land after the Great Flood (Genesis (8:1-19). He is even credited by some as the inventor of wine!
The wine history of modern-day Israel reaches back to the late 19th century, when for example the wine plantations of Rishon Le-Zion were planted. Modern-day Israel has produced wine since the late 1870s. Following the Muslim conquest in 636 AD, wine production was forbidden for many centuries. The first steps to re-introduce wine plantations in Israel were taken in the mid-1800s. Initially, the wines tasted quite sweet. When the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Benjamin Disraeli in 1875 got a bottle of red wine from the region, he had a few sips and then allegedly said that it tasted ’not so much like wine but more like what I expect to receive from my doctor as a remedy for a bad winter cough’.
Carmel Winery
Carmel Winery was founded in 1882 by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Rishon Le-Zion and Zichron Jacob. In the Bible, the story is told of how the spies that Moses sent to the land of Canaan returned with a cluster of grapes so heavy that they both had to carry it. This became part of the Carmel Winery logo.
Golan Heights Winery
The real break-through for present-day wine cultivation came a hundred years after production was re-started. In 1983, the Golan Heights Winery was founded.
Today, the company exports under the labels ‘Yarden’, ‘Gamla’ and ‘Golan’. ’Yarden’ is Hebrew for the Jordan River. The label is a symbol from the ancient Israel – an oil lamp, decorated with mosaics.
The Golan Height Winery usually produce very high-quality wines, and frequently win international recognition for this.
Barkan Wine Cellars
Barkan Wine Cellars is the third-largest wine-exporter of Israel. Production was started in 1990, and not only includes wines, but also spirits.
Further reading.