Propagating Terroir Revival in the Negev: How the Wine Industry Can Amplify Its Resilience to Climate Adversity through a Deeper Understanding of Historic Dryland Viticulture

Abstract

Based on an examination of the outlooks and practices held by past and present Negev desert viticulturists vis-à-vis their environs, the article offers insights into how the wine sector can bolster its response to current climate adversity. The discussion fuses bio-archaeological research on the evolution of ancient grape cultivars (Vitis vinifera) in the Negev with an extensive ethnographic inquiry into the ongoing wine revival in arid southern Israel. Ancient DNA analysis of relic grape material led to the identification of an historical Negev viticulture lineage. The findings provide a temporal framework for contextualizing tphe interrelated anthropological data obtained on contemporary dryland viticulturalists and wine makers in Israel. Since the climate in the Negev has remained relatively stable over the last several millennia, it makes for an apt point of comparison via which to gauge the outlooks held by both historical and modern viticulturalists towards the local landscape. We suggest enacting two evidence-based adjustments to counter ecological instabilities: the holistic revival and applied renewal of historical cultivars, and the attendant agronomic routines that sustained their growth in the past. A more nuanced understanding of the unique terroir arid viticulturalists are operating in, together with the learned incorporation of the hardy genetic traits of age-old cultivars, will benefit wine growers to attune their responses to the array of challenges wrought by climate change on the wine industry. It is therefore our hope that the research methodologies and heritage-oriented horticultural perspectives we present in this paper will prove beneficial to broader wine growing regions (pax-Mediterranean and beyond) who are fortunate to likewise possess their own rich viticultural histories and lineages.

Keywords

• Negev desert
• terroir
• climate change
• <i>Vitis vinifera</i>
• endemic grape cultivars
• historical arid land viticulture