Where to Buy Israeli Wines Columbus OH

Israeli Wines Can Now Compete on the World Market

Two ancient winemaking countries are now attempting to gain recognition for their wines beyond their borders--on the world marketplace.  It's quite ironic, actually, because both of these Mediterranean countries have a winemaking history that goes back--in what is now Israel--5,000 years, and in Greece, perhaps 4,000 years.  (Many wine historians believe that wine was first made in the Mideast, although both Armenia and the Georgian region of Russia also claim this honor.)

Both Greece and Israel had their winemaking interrupted by foreign influences.  First, the Roman Empire, and then in 1453 the Ottoman Turks effectively stifled Greek wine production.  And the spread of Islam, beginning in 636 AD, wiped out winegrowing in the Holy Land.  The Moslem conquest was so devastating in the eastern Mediterranean that all native grape varieties that existed then have become extinct in modern-day Israel.  The big difference today In Greek and Israeli wines is that most Greek wines are made from indigenous varieties (over 300 varieties have been recognized), whereas Israel uses only international varieties, primarily French.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild (of Château Lafite-Rothschild) imported grape varieties and planted the first modern vineyards in Israel in the 1880s--hence the French connection.  The first two wineries he founded later merged, and in 1957 became part of the Carmel cooperative (still the largest winery in the country); this marked the beginning of modern Israeli winemaking.

There's a common misperception that Israel is too hot, too much of a desert, to make fine wine.  True, Israel is dry, with rain falling only in the fall and winter.  But with the use of well-controlled irrigation and the discovery of good vineyard sites in the higher altitude northern regions--such as Golan Heights and Upper Galilee--Israel is now making fine wines, especially red wines.  It was, in fact, a visiting Viticulture professor from the University of California at Davis who in 1972 first suggested Golan Heights as ideal for wine grape growing, based on its soil and climate.  Four years later, the first vines were planted in the Golan, and in 1983, Golan Heights Winery sold its first wines.  Its best line of wines is now known as Yarden.  In the early 1990s, new wineries sprung up in the Upper Galilee, to the west of Golan Heights.  And almost all of these new wineries have hired internationally trained, experienced winemakers.

Today, Carmel and Golan Heights Winery are the biggest exporters of Israeli wine.  Other new wineries to watch in Israel include Dalton, Galil Mountain (majority owned by Golan Heights Winery), Recanati, Tishbi, and Domaine du Castel.  Bear in mind, however, that Israel, about the same size as New Jersey, and with only part of its land able to support vines, will never be a huge winemaking reg...