Dear Scholar,
Technically, no, sadly, we don’t have more details. I can’t point to a specific grape and promise you that ‘this is the Jesus wine.’ But we have some ideas based on research that has been done. There are some truly amazing wines made in Israel – the country looks more like parts of California than we think. I didn’t know anything about Israeli wines until I attended a dinner hosted by the IWPA (Israeli Wine Producers Association) in November 2021. I was blown away by the quality of the wines and my ignorance of them.
The Israeli wine industry has exploded in the past thirty years. We often think of Israel as a desert, but remember that it was described as the land of milk and honey. The western border is on the Mediterranean Sea. Their wine industry has worked with archaeologists to perform genetic testing on today’s native grapevines and on historical artifacts. Pulling DNA from pottery dating back to before 1 AD. This has allowed them to trace the grapes back to ancient times. Ancient indigenous grapes of Marawi, Debouki, Armagnan, and Bittuni have been identified as dating back to the time of King David. These grapes are still being grown today in Israel. Isn’t that just amazing? That we can drink wines that our ancestors drank.
So you can buy a bottle of Marawi (a white wine) or a bottle of Armagnan (a red). Very likely that these would be similar to what Jesus made at the end of the Cana wedding.
So go buy a bottle of history.
Cheers,
