In vino veritas: An industry on the rise in a conflict-ridden country

Daniel Dawson
Jul 28, 2017 · 5 min read

The grape harvesting season is well underway in Israel, where both vintners and wine critics are optimistic about the future.

Photo credit: Studio Verbaska

“The rebirth of a wine industry and culture is taking place right now in Israel,” wrote Sadie Flateman, an Israeli wine buyer for 67 Wine & Spirits, in her blog. “The revitalization of winemaking reveals itself in nearly 400 wineries throughout the country.”

According to the Israeli Export Institute, wine production is also on the rise. The amount of revenue generated by wine exports increased steadily, from $19m in 2009 to more than $42m last year.

Adam Montefiore is a wine expert and industry consultant who has worked with some of Israel’s top vintners. He believes that the quality of the wines is increasing with the quantity.

“Israeli wine is certainly improving and we are on an upward slope,” Montefiore said. “We do not have the volume or finances to compete with other major world producers, so we can not really match those countries in output. However, in quality we will get there.”

Dor Amsalem is an Israeli vintner and agrees that the quality of Israeli wines is increasing, in part, because many wineries use small-scale harvesting techniques.

“Israel is not a mass production country,” he said. “You do see less mechanical harvesting equipment and more manual, which is considered better for quality wine making as opposed to bulk wine making.”

Amsalem worries a bit about the changing climate, but said that water shortages are nothing new in the region and wine has been grown in the arid Eastern Mediterranean country for millennia.

“There are concerns [about climate change] and more research should be done,” Amsalem said. “Of course, with Israeli weather, you more or less have to use irrigation throughout the year. However, the need to irrigate gives the vintner more control over water intake of the grapes and that affects the flavour of the wine.”

Rebecca Fineman is a wine critic for GuildSomm, an international organisation for wine experts, vintners, and enthusiasts. She said the wine industry in Israel is also unique because of its historical disconnect.

“Although Israel’s winemaking tradition is ancient, the current industry is still young.” Fineman wrote in a blog post for GuildSomm. “Israel has been widely recognized as capable of producing world-class wine, and growth is happening fast.”

People began growing grapes in the region between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. However, modern Israeli winemaking started in the 1980s when several Californian and Australian vintners moved to Israel, bringing with them their techniques for cultivating grapes in arid climates.

“In the 1980s, there began a technical revolution on Israeli viticulture and winemaking went through the beginnings of change,” Montefiore said. “Call it a New World revolution led by Californian expertise.”

The majority of wines being produced in Israel prior to the technical revolution were kosher wines, which can only be made by Sabbath-observant Jews.

A shift away from kosher wines began with the arrival of boutique wineries. Vintners started growing different types of grapes and producing more unique wines with a wider appeal.

“In the 1990s a boutique winery boom began,” Montefiore said. “Individuals started to make wines with character.”

Catherine Todd, an award winning wine critic, said boutique wineries started to produce non-kosher wines and diversify the market. She believes this diversification helped increase the quality.

“In my experience quality has greatly increased over the past 15 years,” she said. “I think it will continue to do so as more boutique, non-kosher wineries are popping up.”

Increased competition caused by the boutique winery boom created more competition in the fledgling market.

“Many of the larger wineries had to react and become quality driven,” Montefiore said. “Today, the majority of Israeli wine is made for and exported to the Americans […] and I think this will continue to be the main market.”

Israel shipped $27.5m of wine to the United States last year, a figure that represents 65 per cent of total exports and has steadily increased since 2009.

Over the same time period, the Israeli wine market in the European Union has shrunk. The amount of wine exported has declined since 2014 and the percent of total exports to the EU has steadily decreased since 2009.

Yiftah Curiel is a counsellor spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in London. He attributes the stagnation of sales and decrease in EU market share to a 2015 mandate that requires wines produced in occupied territories to be labelled ‘settlement’ wines.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria at the end of the 1967 war. The region is a key water source for Israel and has fertile land, which is perfect for growing grapes.

Some of Israel’s highest quality wines are produced in the Golan Heights and West Bank, both of which are classified as occupied territories by the United Nations.

“Even winemaking in Israel is controversial,” Curiel said. “For example, wine in the Golan Heights could be called rightfully Syrian.”

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is an organisation that lobbies on behalf of Palestinians through policies meant to disrupt the Israeli economy. One of the group’s many focuses is on Israeli wines.

Ziyaad Lunat is a BDS activist and helped author a report on the Israeli wine industry for whoprofits.org, a pro-Palestinian research organisation. He said there are at least 42 wineries in occupied territories.

“Our research demonstrates that all of the major Israeli wineries use grapes from occupied territory in their wines,” he wrote in the report.

According to Montefiore, most Israeli wines come from “undisputed Israel.” Neither his claim nor the claim of Lunat could not be independently verified.

Montefiore also said that the Golan Heights are different from other disputed areas because the region is separate from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lunat disagrees with this view. He believes an effective way to protest the illegal occupation is by boycotting the wines produced on that land. He praised the EU for the 2015 mandate on the labelling of ‘settlement’ wines, but said that more could still be done.

Montefiore is not bothered by BDS efforts to boycott Israeli wines and export statistics indicate that boycotts have only worked in the EU. Every other region of the world has seen an increase in the amount of Israeli wine they import.

“People who want to buy a wine do and those who do not, don’t,” Montefiore said. “The market adjusts itself to peoples’ views, preconceived ideas and politics. Sales do not seem to be affected by boycotts.”

Daniel Dawson

Written by

Writes about olive oil professionally. Occasionally blogs about football and traveling. @Cityjournalism grad. Tweet me @dmdawson91.

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