Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne. Today, southern France is synonymous with excellent wine. But during the Byzantine period (fourth–seventh centuries C.E.), great wine came from the Holy Land. Recent excavations at Tel Yavneh, located along Israel’s southern coast, revealed one of the largest wineries in the ancient world. The winery, excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority, covered 2.5 acres and produced as much as 2 million liters of wine a year. The wine was a high-quality white wine, famous throughout the Byzantine world as Gaza wine, since it was shipped from nearby Gaza to major Mediterranean port cities. Yavneh was likely […]
