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for sac-
ramental
purposes. The three
largest producers—Carmel
Winery, Barkan Wine Cellars
and Golan Heights Winery—ac-
count for more than 80% of the
domestic market. The United States
is the largest export destina-
tion. Even though it contains
only around one-quarter of the
planted acreage as Lebanon,
Israel has emerged as a driving force
for winemaking in the Eastern Medi-
terranean, due to its willingness
to adopt new technology and
its large export market. The
country has also seen
the emergence of
a modern wine
culture
In 1848, a rabbi in Jerusalem found-
ed the first documented winery in
modern times but its establishment
was short lived. In 1870, the first Jew-
ish agricultural college, Mikveh Israel,
was founded and featured a course
on viticulture. The root of the modern
Israeli wine industry can be traced to
the late 19th century when the French
Baron Edmond de Rothschild, owner
of the Bordeaux estate Château Lafite-
Rothschild, began importing French
grape varieties and technical know
how to the region. In 1882, he help
establish Carmel Winery with vine-
yards and wine production facilities
in Rishon LeZion and Zikhron Ya’akov
near Haifa. Still in operation today,
Carmel is the largest producer of
Israeli wine and has been at the fore-
front of many technical and historical
advances in both winemaking and
Israeli history.
One of the first telephones in Israel
was installed at Carmel and the coun-
try’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-
Gurion, worked in Carmel’s cellars in
his youth.
For most of its history in the modern
era, the Israeli wine industry was
based predominately on
the production of Kosher
wines which were exported
worldwide to Jewish com-
munities. The quality of these
wines were varied, with many
being produced from high-
yielding vineyards that valued
quantity over quality. Many of
these wines were also somewhat
sweet. In the late 1960s, Carmel
Winery was the first Israeli winery to
make a dry table wine. It was not un-
til the 1980s that the industry at large
saw a revival in quality winemaking,
when an influx of winemaking talent
from Australia, California and France
brought modern technology and
technical know-how to the growing
Israeli wine industry. In 1989, the first
boutique winery in Israel, Margalit
Winery, was founded. By the 1990s,
Israeli estates such as Golan Heights
Winery and Domaine du Castel
were winning awards at international
wine competitions. The 1990s saw a
subsequent “boom” in the opening of
boutique wineries. By 2000 there 70
wineries in Israel, and by 2005 that
numbered jumped to 140.
Today, less than 15% of Israeli wine
is produced