The lack of water in the Negev desert helped vintners create a fruity grape that’s unique and easy to drink.

Now the dry, sandy landscape stretching from Kiryat Gat to Eilat is being officially recognized as the Negev appellation, an international wine region, placing Israel’s south and its distinctive desert terroir on the global wine map.

The recognition follows a four-year process in which a consortium of Israeli wine experts demonstrated that wines produced in the Negev have their own identifiable profile.

“If you want to create a wine region, you need to prove that you have something unique and specific to offer,” said Guy Haran, a wine tourism expert who has been part of the process since its inception.

That process included demonstrating that the region in question has vineyards, wineries, an ancient and modern culture of wine and community, and a specific terroir and soil that’s unique to the region and climate.

Haran and his fellow wine experts consulted with historians, geographers and anthropologists, aiming to show where the Negev terroir begins and ends, eventually compiling a 150-page paper on the region.

“We did official tastings,” said Haran, “including a blind tasting to prove that Negev wines have a specific flavor.”

The documentation was handed over to Israel’s Justice Ministry, which manages Israel’s inclusion in the Lisbon Agreement, an international treaty that enables producers of agricultural brands,........

© The Times of Israel