Israel Aims to Recreate Wine That Jesus and King David Drank

NY Times ^ | NOV. 29, 2015 | JODI RUDOREN

[SJackson]

HEFER VALLEY, Israel — The new crisp, acidic and mineral white from a high-end Israeli winery was aged for eight months — or, depending on how you look at it, at least 1,800 years.

The wine, called marawi and released last month by Recanati Winery, is the first commercially produced by Israel’s growing modern industry from indigenous grapes. It grew out of a groundbreaking project at Ariel University in the occupied West Bank that aims to use DNA testing to identify — and recreate — ancient wines drunk by the likes of King David and Jesus Christ.

Eliyashiv Drori, the Ariel oenologist who heads the research, traces marawi (also called hamdani) and jandali grapes to A.D. 220 based on a reference in the Babylonian Talmud.

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Wine being prepared for export at Shiloh Wineries, based in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh, this month.

E.U. Move to Label Israeli Settlement Goods Strains TiesNOV. 11, 2015

Kobi Tzafrir, owner of Hummus Bar in Kfar Vitkin, Israel, posted on Facebook that he would give half off every hummus plate to tables shared by Jews and Arabs.

Letter From the Mideast: Peace Deal Comes With Hummus at Israeli RestaurantNOV. 24, 2015

“All our scriptures are full with wine and with grapes — before the French were even thinking about making wine, we were exporting wine,” he said. “We have a very ancient identity, and for me, reconstructing this identity is very important. For me, it’s a matter of national pride.”

[faithhopecharity]

yes, it is AMAZING what the Israeli scientists can do...
including Making the Desert Bloom again...

here’s your 2,000 year old date palm...all nice and big and blooming beautifully....just as it did 2000 years ago...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150324-ancient-methuselah-date-palm-sprout-science/

[Nachum]

Love that. Thanks for the link.

[Mercat]

When Mr. Mercat and I were in Ireland in 2006 we were wandering around in the country side and came upon a wonderful folk park where they had hogs and sheep which they had backward bred. The boors were especially interesting. The babies looked like cute little barnyard piglets but the moms look like something out of Game of Thrones. (I haven’t seen the TV shows but read the first book). The sheep were combed and not sheared. Really cool.

[yarddog]

There are supposed to be sheep on one of the islands of the Saint Kilda group which are unlike any other in the world.

I have seen pictures and they don’t really look different. That island is very isolated tho.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

From the description of the wedding at Cana, there must have been variation in the quality (”You have saved the best wine for last”).

[Georgia Girl 2]

We do that too only we serve the good stuff first. :-)

[SJackson]

I can understand that, germinating ancient seeds, or attempting it. Obviously they'd want to look at the dna. The article only briefly mentions dna as a component in the technique, which made me think of backbreeding. But you're probably right that they worked from an ancient seed.

Of course everything is on FR

Tree From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Doing Well (Methuselah)

[dfwgator]

[SJackson]

Interesting, thanks.

[faithhopecharity]

You’re very welcome

[Wilhelm Tell]

https://youtu.be/VFevH5vP32s

[RitchieAprile]

Mad Dog was my first drink as a teen.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Maybe the royal wine was good, maybe it was terrible but all that was available to get a buzz. There is a tradition for this: Siberian shamans recycle intoxicants made from amanita muscaria mushrooms by offering their urine to others in the tribe.

[JEDI4S]

What happens if you...ya know...ah...smoke it man?

:-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

[COBOL2Java]

From the description of the wedding at Cana, there must have been variation in the quality ("You have saved the best wine for last").

Heh! Let's see them try to reproduce the wine that came out of those six stone water jars!

[Bigg Red]

Hope they can recreate what made the head steward at the Cana feast say, “you have kept the best wine till now”.

***
Um...do you think that Jesus is going to show up at this winery?

[Bigg Red]

Fascinating stuff.

[elcid1970]

Well, it’s not for me to say, since “with the Lord, all things are possible”.

If a latter day winery is trying to recreate varietals from Biblical times, a lesser miracle might lead to an outcome for modern wine tasters to conclude, “This is such as might have caught the head steward’s attention at Cana”.

Strengthening the Faith has many means & possibilities.

[Georgia Girl 2]

It would have to be well a miracle. LOL!