GOLAN HEIGHTS WINERY
This cooperative of 4 kibbutzim ranks as the 4th producer in volume of the country. It's definitely not one of the many boutique wineries but a company working on an industrial scale.
The foundation of the winery was quite a gamble. Almost all the grapes used are coming from a dozen of sites located on the Golan heights on which for reasons the visitor will soon understand, there was no vineyard until 1967. The company decided also to go resolutely in the direction of high quality, not only by using state of the art equipment, but also by recruiting world class wine makers. The fact that all the wines were also to be strictly kosher was may be the easiest of the constraints to deal with.
After only a little more than 15 years of operation, the winery is nowadays not only the reference of quality wine in Israel, but it still makes the pace of the evolution of fine wines in the country. Along the remarkable Cabernet-Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling, etc... the company released once the only "Vendange Tardive" ever made in the country, or an "Height Wine" (Beautiful name for an Eisswein), also with no equivalent elsewhere in the country...
The problematic aspect is that the Israeli Golan is in fact a Syrian territory occupied since the 1967 war and that the conclusion of a peace treaty with Syria which would leave it to Israel seems as probable as my own chances to be once owner of the lands of Chateau Pétrus... If the Golan was to be returned to Syria, it seems also doubtful that the winery would be able to go on working as the Islam doesn't really sponsor wine making and even vine growing for wine...
As a conclusion the Golan height winery delivers superb wines, innovates and stands in front of much uncertainty for it's future which may last between a few years to no limit.


 



 

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