Archaeologists and oenologists are in general agreement that the first wines, made from figs, dates and watermelons, were probably made in the Mesopotamian Valley about 50,000 years ago. Highly intoxicating, with an alcoholic content as high as 30%, these wines were thick and syrupy sweet and, in order to disguise what must have been their truly terrible taste, winemakers relied on a wide variety of additives including pepper, honey, resin, oregano and other herbs to make their wines palatatable. By today's standards most of these wines would be considered undrinkable.

Men and women quickly learned that wine could be made from a large variety of fruits, grains and flowers, but it was not until about 15,000 years ago that some great but unknown genius realized that wine could also be made from the juice of grapes. It did not take long after this to realize that wine made from grapes was enormously more pleasing than that made from other fruits.

Even though many now insist that "real" wine can be made from grapes, fruit wines have maintained a certain popularity throughout history. Eleanor of Aquitaine enjoyed wine made from pears, Leonardo da Vinci always kept large stocks of fig and peach wine close at hand, and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini had a special fondness for wines made from hibiscus leaves. Even today, a great many people in England, the United States and Scandinavia bottle their own fruit wines at home, several small wineries in those countries continue to produce wines from apples, pears and other fruits, and a number of rural restaurateurs bottle and sell wines made from whatever fruit happens to be growing in the nearest orchard.

The unavoidable reality that the best wines come from grapes has not discouraged a few people from trying their hand at producing the first "great fruit wine". In 1989, under the leadership of Jeff Marks, the young winery at Kibbutz Ammiad, which sits on the Lake of Galilee in Israel, in introduced kiwi wine to the local market. Since then, the kibbutz has added wines made from fejoya and honey, kumquat and other fruits to their output.

Although most true wine lovers will scorn them, as fruit wines go, these are quite good. The dryest of the wines from this young winery is a not at all dry kiwi wine. With its minimal bouquet and marked taste of the fruit, the wine has a certain similarity to white, semii dry Emerald Riesling. The fejoya wine, labeled as semi dry is classified as a red wine by the winery but, like the kiwi wine has a color best compared to the pale pink of the well inown Rose d'Anjou. Unlike that unpretentious but pleasant wine, the sweetness of the fejoya version tends to dominate the palate. Too sweet to serve as a companion to a sophisticated dinner, this wine will probably serve better as an aperitif or dessert wine.

The third and fourth current offerings from the winery are sweet and semi-sweet honey wines, both known as mead. Unlike the cloudy, thick, highly spiced drink so adored by Odysseus and many of the ancient Greeks, these versions are smooth, clear in color and make no attempt to hide the pure fla vor of honey. Those with a passion for a high level of sweetness in their alcoholic beverages will probably find this an acceptable dessert wine.

© Daniel Rogov