“God made only water, but man made wine.”

And long before modern-day Israel, this land was covered with wine presses and wine making equipment in the time of the Bible, in the time of the Romans and in the Byzantine era. In fact, wine making is thought to have originated in the area between the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Sea of Galilee. 

Israel is the original “old world” wine region. The Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean was the cradle of the world’s wine culture thousands of years before the vine reached Europe. In 1800 BCE, there was a communication that the Land of Israel was “blessed with figs and with vineyards producing wine in greater quantity than water.” The prophet Micah’s vision of peace included every person sitting “under his vine and under his fig tree.”

Excavations all over Israel uncover ancient presses and wine storage vessels from the Golan Heights to the Negev Desert. During the Second Temple period, wine making was at its peak. It was a major export and economic mainstay. Ancient wine bottles from the Land of Israel were found all over the Europe continent.  However, upon the Arab conquest of the Land of Israel in 638 CE all the wine industry, due to Islam’s prohibition on alcohol was demolished.

And so, the wine industry in the Land of Israel lay dormant for another thousand years. It wasn’t until the 19th century when the Jews started to return to the Land, that the proverbial… vines and wines, returned to the Land of the Bible. As part of their great yearning to build the Jewish nation, great European philanthropists, the likes of Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Edmond de Rothschild, inherently saw the value of giving “life” to Israel’s almost abandoned, fledgling vineyards.

Building wine barrels in Zikhron Ya’akov, 1890s

The major agricultural revolution started by the establishing of the Golan Heights Winery in 1983. It spurned a colossal wine revolution in what was once only known as an orange and fig producing nation. Soon, Israeli wine makers were in abundance, learning the trade from experts in California, France, Italy, and Australia. Families whose ancestors had been growing grapes for generations, rebuilt their wineries – and wine, as we know it today, made a comeback- and has never looked back.

Fast forward 2000 years, and the Land of the Bible has quenched its thirst for the fruit of the vine. Now recognized worldwide, Israeli wines fill the shelves in stores around the world. Today, there are 35 commercial wineries in Israel, and over 250 boutique wineries.

Photo courtesy of Golan Heights Winery

For wine lovers, enthusiasts, and connoisseurs, Israel is fast becoming a world The 10 largest wineries in Israel, in terms of production volume, are Carmel, Barkan, Golan Heights, Teperberg 1870, Binyamina, Galil Mountain, Tishbi, Tabor, Recanati and Dalton.