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>> News » The 2005 Harvest

Dudu Baram, Director of the Israel Wine & Grapes Board, reported a decline of 15% in the 2005 harvest. The total Israeli harvest for 2005 was 45,483 tons of grapes as against 53,513 tons in 2004. Therefore the size of the harvest more or less returned to being close to those of the previous three years: 2003 – 45,242 tons; 2002 – 43,007 tons & 2001 – 44,684 tons.   Regarding the grape varieties, the relative percentages were encouraging. The growth of quality varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Shiraz continued despite the overall decrease. Conversely Carignan & French Colombard took a fair share of the decline. The main grape varieties harvested were:   Red Carignan 9,201 tons Cabernet Sauvignon 7,967 Merlot 7,154 Argaman 1,818 Shiraz 1,470   White French Colombard 3,912 tons Emerald Riesling 2,723 Muscat of Alexandria 2,150 Sauvignon Blanc 1,956 Chardonnay 1,951   The main wineries were: Carmel  18,908 tons  Barkan  7,078 (+ Segal 484) Golan Heights 5,783 Efrat 3,305 Binyamina 2,852 Tel Arza 1,179 Tishbi 1,101 Dalton 712 Galil Mountain 708 Zion 706   Including joint ventures, the largest three wineries – Carmel, Barkan & Golan -  harvested 75% of the total crop. Five wineries harvested over 2,000 tons of grapes. They together represent 84% of the total harvest. The eleven wineries harvesting more than 500 tons (those listed above plus Recanati) control 95% of the harvest!