Israel Hayom..
08 August '13..
The dramatic growth in size and quality of Israel's wine industry over the past 25 years is an exciting story. There are simply fantastic wines being produced in Israel and they consistently win international awards. If you have not yet done so, make a run tonight to the Israel Museum Wine Festival in Jerusalem, where you can taste the spectacular wares of 60 quality local wineries.
Unfortunately, European Union Foreign Affairs Commissioner Catherine Ashton and her acrid colleagues are going to miss out on many good glasses of Israeli wine. Many of the grapes come from beyond the EU-sanctified "Green Line," and for the EU this makes them forbidden and boycotted "settlement goods."
Ashton and company, I say, simply have a bad case of sour grapes.
Perhaps it bothers the EU that there are Biblical echoes resonating in every glass of good Israeli wine. The spies that Moses sent to scout the Land of Israel returned with miraculously giant grapes. Ezekiel prophesied, "But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they will soon come" (Ezekiel 36:8). And in the heyday of King Solomon's rule, we are told that "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba" (Kings I 5:5).
Indeed, archaeologists have found hundreds of ancient wine presses and wine storage amphorae from the First and Second Temple periods. Wine played a central role in Temple libations and celebrations. Sadly, the Muslim conquerors of the Holy Land in the seventh century literally ripped all grape vines out of the ground and put an end to wine production for hundreds of years.
So it is no surprise that the Jewish People's return to Israel in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries involved the reintroduction of vineyards and quality winemaking. Six thousand hectares (roughly 15,000 acres) of land is currently being cultivated as vineyards, mainly in the Galilee and Judean mountains, but also prominently in the Golan Heights and the Shomron (Samaria). The Land of Israel is coming alive and giving forth fruit to its indigenous people after 2,000 years of desolation and neglect!
Taste, for example, the deliciously crisp 2012 Sauvignon Blanc produced by Teperberg 1870 Winery from grapes grown in the Shomron mountains, near Shiloh. Or Teperberg's intense and well-balanced 2010 Reserve Shiraz from the same Shiloh vineyard. Of course, these wines are off-limits for Catherine Ashton. Too bad for her.
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