Palestinian wine

Wine in Palestine has been in production for several years. In the region of Palestine, the use of wine was not only an important factor in Jewish religious ritual, but also a necessity for social interaction, general dietary consumption and medicinal purposes.^[1] During the Byzantine period, large-scale production led to international commerce in the commodity, and Palestinian wine was exported around the Mediterranean region. Production by Christians diminished with the Islamic conquest in the 7th century and was temporarily revived with the settlement of Frankish Christians under the Crusades in the 12th-13th centuries. Jews continued to cultivate vineyards in the late 15th century into the Ottoman period. The first modern wineries were established by German settlers at Sarona (now a neighborhood of Tel Aviv in Israel) in 1874/5 and by Jews supported by Baron Edmond de Rothschild from France at Rishon LeZion (also in Israel) in 1882.