It will be very interesting to see what the DNA turns up about the ancestry of the vines. One would think the origin would not be European because of the aridity of the Negev.
Grapes seem to have adapted to a lot of different places; I had thought that Muscadine was from the Middle East (Muscat, as in Muscat and Oman), and much to my surprise the muscadines (which include such colorfully named variations as Scuppernong) are native to the SE US, and were used to revive the fortunes of the French winemaking industry when it was hit by a disastrous fungal problem, and again after WWI when the vinyards were a little banged up. :’) Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the Muscandine grapes turned out to be genetically linked with the Negev wine grapes, proving ancient contact? Heh heh...