Where Did All The Grapes Go?
by Richard ~ July 15th, 2008. Filed under: Articles, News.Many thanks to Eitan, who commented in response to an earlier post, essentially asking….Where have all the grapes gone?
It’s a good question. So, you may be wondering, if it’s true that people were producing wine in Israel 4,000 years ago, if Noah really did plant a vineyard immediately after getting off the Ark, then where have all the indigenous grapes gone?
While it would be nice if Israel had a lengthy roster of indigenous, unpronounceable grape varieties like Greece does to work with, she doesn’t. Period. (I say to my wife all the time when she slaps me down from dreaming my dreams , “Let’s not dwell on the facts, honey.” But the facts remain facts, nonetheless.)
Occasionally, I’ll hear people on various wine forums or in person complain about this and plead for someone to Do Something to fix this fact, but Israeli winemakers for the time being must work with the European grape varieties we are all familiar with.
History Lesson: When the Muslims conquered the region in the 6th-7th century, being the kind of folks who do not drink alcohol (I know, it’s weird to me, too) they uprooted and destroyed all the vineyards they could find.
And so in an instant an entire world of indigenous grapes had their lights turned out.
But an artist must work with the available tools.
And that’s what the best Israeli winemakers are doing, often very creatively, too. They’re taking available European varieties and making them taste like Israel, pushing Israel through the grapes into the bottle.
The sunshine, the spice, the desert air, the herbs, the dirt, the volcanic remains, the sand…
Here’s what we have that IS indigenous, though.
We have the valley where David killed Goliath.
We have the Carmel Mountains near where the prophet Elijah heard a still, small voice.
We have the hills around Jerusalem where King David and Jesus walked.
(Wait til you see our t-shirts!)
We have an ancient wine land that’s only recently come-to-life again, paralleling Israel’s rebirth as a modern nation a mere 60 years ago.
What does the Israeli terroiruniquely DO to modern European varieties (and since taste is SO subjective when it comes to wine anyway, let’s expand terroir at least for this post, to include the MEANING that a drinker might assign to PLACE)?
The Israeli wine sector, like everything else Israeli it seems, is the combination of the Old and The New.
It’s the OriginalWine World meets modern grape varieties and cutting-edge winemaking technique.
It would be wonderful for some Professors to stumble upon a fossilized seed from an indigenous variety and resurrect it a-la-Jurrasic Park, but let’s not hold our collective breath.
Meanwhile, we need the winemakers to make the best wine they can, and the drinkers to drink, and the critics to critique, and the marketers to market.
Let’s everyone focused on the hard work of experimenting until we find the BEST place in Israel to make the BEST Shiraz (for instance), the one that actually tastes like ISRAELI Shiraz… and the best hill up north somewhere for making a Pinot or a Sauvingon Blanc that tastes like their Israeli versions.
I am not sure we know what “Israeli wine” tastes like yet. This is our time!
Cheers!
Source for photo: Micah Vaadia, Galil Mountain winemaker
July 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Coming from a peninsula of a countless number of indigenious Iberian grapes, I am sympathetic to your plight; however, I’m not convinced that a wine region needs to have native varietal to be considered “regionally authentic”. Regardless if your vines are (god forbid) foreign, you have countless other factors that brand it Isreali, and authentically so. Sadly, my experience of Isreali wine has been limited at best, but I hopefully, I can change that in the future.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Richard, I agree with Gabriella. Whether it’s Manischewitz and Mogen David or the other producers, Concord grapes don’t exactly make fine wine.
I admit that I, too, am interested in finding out what the varieties (and even species) these grapes were, but it’s entirely possible that the wines could have been Concord-like swill.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I agree with both of you.
A Place should be able to shine through any of these grapes!
Gabriella – we need to get you some Israeli wine!
Richard
July 17th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Richard,
Thanks for your article in response to my comment.
I agree with you that Israeli wine makers work with what’s available to them. And it seems that international varietals are what’s available, but I still wonder.
I don’t believe that the conquering muslims uprooted all the vineyards. The moors in Spain did not uproot the vineyards and allowed Jews and Christians to continue making wine through the rein in Spain.
Further more grapes and raisins are common in the cuisine of the region from Morocco to Iran. In-fact Turkey, a predominately Muslim country, is the world’s fifth larger grape grower.
So what varietals are these? and can you make wine from them ?
When Baron Rothshield sent his wine experts to start a new wine industry in the Holyland back in the 18th century, these experts brought the vines they were comfortable working with from Bordeaux. Later in the 70′s and 80′s Israelis influenced by the wine industry in California and Australia continued working with the same grape varieties. I understand that business-wise it is less risky to work with C.S , Chardonay, Merlot, Shiraz etc. but i would be interested to know if anyone gave real thought to trying to cultivate indigenous grapes and make wine from them. It would be great to not only drink a wine that was made where king David once roamed, but to drink a wine that he may have actually drank (and we know he loved the wine)…
September 9th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I’ve been wondering this, too, and I agree with Eitan – grapes are for more than wine and used widely in Mediterranean cuisine. There must also be some small vines somewhere, that are growing in the wild…??
I would love to somehow find and produce the indigenous Israeli grapes into a purely unique Israeli wine… How might we find them?? Do you think there would be an organization that would fund that research?
I just can’t accept that they were all destroyed. I’m also a dreamer, by nature.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:06 am
As far as indigenous grape varieties go, there’s a town in southern France that has a day that they celebrate the arrival of grape vines indigenous to the Holy Land to their town. Seems that hundreds of years ago the Crusaders took back vines native to Israel and they were planted in southern France and were developed and now serve as the basis for that area’s wine industry. I forget what town in France that was. So it may well be that the Vinifera varieties that Europe has been raising for centuries may well have their ancestors in the indigenous grapes that were once native to Israel and especially Judea.
I live in Gush Etzion and the Arabs have been cultivating Vinifera varieties up here that they call “baladi” or “common” in Arabic. They are table grapes and as far as flavor goes, are bland and useless for making wine. As far as wine grapes I introduced the first European wine grapes into Judea and with the good results I got with my research trials the orchards that previously dotted the landscape up here in the heights has been converted to vineyards for wine.
I presently am running trials on American cultivars with more varieties en route from the states. I hope to test their suitability to our soils and climate in Judea. Since our soils and climate up here are spectacular for wine grapes I’m encouraged by the excellent results I’ve had so far, so I hope for the same good news with other American varieties. Come spring I expect to be involved in my own grape breeding program utilizing American cultivars.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Richard:
While reading “Wine Route of Israel”, I came upon a grape new to me, Argaman. It is a cross between Souzao and Carignan though it seems it may not have made good wine yet. Have you ever had a good wine made with it?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Per Rogov, “Argaman: An Israeli-inspired cross between Souzao and Carignan grapes. Possibly best categorized as the great local wine failure, producing wines of no interest. Many of the vineyards that were planted with Argaman continue to be uprooted to make room for more serious varieties.”
September 25th, 2008 at 9:03 am
@Dale: (re: S. France celebrating arrival of grapes from the Holy Land): How did you come across the information? I am extremely excited about that! I would like to learn more.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Hi Tevi,
I got this from a friend, neighbor and former coworker of mine from the days when we worked together in the orchards if Gush Etzion. The orchards have been replaced by wine grapes and he now works in the new vineyards of Gush Etzion. He and our local principal grape growers went on a field trip to southern France grape district for about 10 days last winter to see the vineyards there and learn a great deal about how the French manage their crops. He was told this bit of history by their guide when he was on that trip. He couldn’t remember the name of that town in France but he said that every year they celebrate/commemorate the day that wine grapes arrived there from these parts, and they deeply appreciate the fact that the basis for their industry and livelyhood has it’s roots in the Land of Israel.