Much to the dismay of the wine industry, between the founding of the state in 1948 and until just five years ago, annual Israeli wine consumption remained at about 3.9 liters per capita. Compared to the 60 liter plus consumption of the French, Italians and Spanish, this was not very high. Nor was it high compared to the 11 liter figure of the United States.

Happily, things are changing, and as Israelis become more and more aware of the culture of wine, those figures have risen to between 6 - 6.5 liters and while this remains low, it seems that more and more Israelis share a growing appreciation of high quality wine. Like the rest of the world, Israelis are moving from semi-dry to dry wines, from whites to reds, from light to heavy and, most important, are moving towards higher quality wines. Twenty-five years ago, more than 80% of the wines produced in the country were sweet. Today, with more than 7,500 acres devoted to wine producing grapes and producing about 50,000 tons of grapes annually, nearly 80% of the wines produced are now dry whites and reds

Equally important, Israelis are also drinking an increasing number of wines from abroad and at the better wine stores of the country, wines from France, Italy, Australia, California and Washington States, Chile and Argentina are as readily available as are Israeli wines. Some see the increase in popularity of imported wines as having a negative impact on local wineries. Wiser men and women realize that these imported wines simply pose a challenge to the Israeli wine industry to continue to increase the quality of their own wines.

© Daniel Rogov