A Bright Outlook for Israel

With a new focus on Rhône grapes and white wines, winemakers forge an exciting future for this emerging wine region

A woman picks grapes in the vineyard at Tzora.
Tzora was founded in 1993 in the Judean Hills and is the source of two outstanding wines in this report. (Arye Carmon)

Israelis have many strong and often divergent opinions, but they all seem to agree that their wine industry can be described in a series of definable epochs. “We made wine for 5,000 years and it was pretty awful for most of that time,” says industry veteran Adam Montefiore, one of the country’s most respected wine writers. “Good wine has only been made here in the past 20 to 25 years.” When Montefiore moved to Israel in 1989, there were 12 wineries. Today there are 350.

Read Wine Spectator's tasting report on Israel, including a deep dive into the stylistic changes charting a new course for the country's wines.

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