Whether Israeli wines and the wine awareness of the public have undergone a revolution or merely an awakening is something for linguists and wine lovers to debate over in their free time, but there can be no question that the wine that put Israel firmly and squarely on the international wine agenda was the 1983 Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon from the then fledgling Golan Heights Winery. When that wine was first released most people could not believe that the wine was Israeli. It was simply too good.

In the intervening years, the winery has released a host of wines of various varietals in their various series (Katzrin, Yarden, Gamla and Golan) and although the winery may no longer be the "new boy on the block", they continue to produce wines that often attain acclaim for their excellence. To the Golan winery goes credit for two major advances - first for demonstrating that Israel was definitely a part of the New-World wine phenomenon and second that there is no inherent contradiction to producing fine wines that happen to be kosher.