Negev - Vineyards in the Desert
Less than 2 hours driving south of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, you are surrounded by desert. The last place you'd expect to find excellent wines. Barren landscape, scarce low vegetation, dust, scarce rainfall. The stark contrast between the views of healthy green vineyards and the surrounding desert is stunning. At the southern-most corner where the desert meets the Red Sea, we reach Eilat. Nothing better than to enjoy the sunset, in a seafood restaurant by the clear blue water of the Red Sea shining against the yellow desert and the red mountains in nearby Jordan, peacefully sipping a glass of cold white wine or rose produced in Negev. Welcome to Negev!
Topography, Soil and Climate
The desert covering more than 50% of Israel, is called “Negev”. Negev Highlands is 300 - 900 meters above sea level. It is bare, with few plants, mainly where some humidity is close to the surface. The days are dry and hot (reaching 45+ Celsius in summer) and the nights are dry and cold (dropping near zero in winter, sometimes snowing) with occasional misty mornings. Rainfall is scarce.
The soil is fast-draining loess and sandy with some gravel. The dry climate protects the vines from diseases, however, for any vines to grow, it is necessary to complement the scarce rainfall and morning mists with controlled drip irrigation and to protect the vineyard from drying up.
Water and Desert Agriculture
Israel has limited natural water resources. The short rainy season is insufficient to fill the aquifers. Towards the end of the 20th century, Israel launched a huge effort to build desalination plants and water recycling facilities. Not a moment too soon. Today, over 50% of water consumption in Israel is based on desalinated water of the Mediterranean. Most of the agricultural water consumption is supplied by recycled and reclaimed water.
Negev was initially an experimental playground for individualists and visionaries supported by Israel’s innovative agricultural and water technologies.
The groundwater in the northern Negev is naturally saline. Today, the agriculture of Negev is based on a combination of desalinated, recycled, reclaimed and saline water. As rainfall is insufficient for any plants, all fields are irrigated. The quality and flavor of grapes, olives, tomatoes growing in the Negev area, is surprisingly high with unexpected sweetness and concentrated flavors.
Global Warming
In a way, Negev is a glimpse to a world where global warming is shifting the rains away from traditionally rainy areas, and temperatures increase significantly. Indeed, delegations from established wine regions are coming to Negev for education and research purposes.
Camel Territory
But not only humans enjoy the green vineyards of Negev. It is possible to see an occasional hungry camel, straying from a Bedouin tribe, passing by the vines and becoming pleasantly surprised by the opportunity to munch on an unfortunate vine.
Negev Wineries
Then number of Negev wineries is constantly growing. There is a mix of established commercial medium/large wineries and boutique wineries, each of them producing wines that reflect and express Negev characteristics, the life philosophy and values of the producers.
Although each winery tells a different story, yet all of the producers have recently united in a collaboration to make Negev an officially recognized wine region, with its own appellation, and a wine tourism destination.
Typical to Israel, most of the the wines are red, rose and white produced from the traditional varieties, with indigenous varieties slowly appearing to increase the wine spectrum. There can be found organic, biodynamic and/or natural wines.