Top 100 wines of Negev
Discover the top 100 best wines of Negev as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of Negev and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Negev
Negev desert wine region of southern Israel is one of the warmest and driest Vineyard areas in the world. It Lies at a latitude of between 31 and 29 degrees North, on the fringes of the Syrian Desert. For a northern hemisphere wine region, this is remarkably close to the equator; just a few degrees closer and it would be deemed a tropical wine region.
Negev only receives about 100mm (4 inches) of rain per year, much of which disappears in flash floods.
Modern computer-controlled irrigation is a necessity and water usage is understandably a major issue and is one factor why the wines of the region must reach a quality level to justify premium prices.
Despite its unlikely macroClimate, the Negev has been a vine-growing area since ancient times. It may well have been one of the world's very first wine regions – if an area could be seen as such 6000 years ago – and has been enjoying something of a minor renaissance since the 1980s, though it accounts for less than 5 percent of Israel's total vineyard area.
As demonstrated in the Judean Hills immediately to the north (and Galilee beyond that), high altitude is the viticultural antidote to low latitude.
Temperatures in the Negev reach great heights during the day but drop significantly overnight, which allows the vines some recovery time. High diurnal temperature variation is almost invariably a bonus for vineyard zones, but if the days are so hot and the nights so cool that the vines actually shut down, the chances of growing grapes with balanced sugars and acids are dramatically Reduced.
Thus the quality demands of modern wine consumers have driven Negev viticulture up into the hills, away from the extremes of the desert climate. Even at higher elevations, humidity is low in the Negev, but the vineyards nonetheless enjoy a morning blanket of mist before the heat of the day sets in.
News from the vineyard of Negev
Domaines Henri Martin – the spirit of family and terroir
The story of Domaines Henri Martin is that of a family business founded on a shared commitment, across generations, to produce wines with character, true to the quality of the exceptional vineyards and the history of the iconic estates they hail from. Descending from a family rooted in the Médoc for more than 300 years, Henri Martin was well aware of the potential of some of the region’s finest parcels. Motivated by this belief and by a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, he accomplished something q ...
Errazuriz wine photographer of the year revealed
Jon Wyand has been crowned Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year after impressing the judges with his beautiful shot of a Burgundian vineyard worker gathering prunings. The photograph was taken on a crisp winter’s day at Montagne de Corton Hill in the Côte de Beaune. ‘The winning image evokes with stark beauty the reality of wine growing – you are always at the mercy of nature,’ said wine writer Joanna Simon, one of the judges. ‘But there’s an extra element here: is he scruti ...
Vanilla is the ‘most pleasant’ smell, finds study
Vanilla was ranked as the most pleasant smell in a study involving 235 people and conducted by an international network of researchers, including those from the University of Oxford and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. This was closely followed by ethyl butyrate, ‘which smells like peaches’, said the researchers, who published their findings in the Current Biology journal. Vanilla notes can be found in several wine styles, such as some iterations of Chardonnay or Rioja, largely resulting from ...