Israeli winery turns military bunker into wine cellar

A winery in the disputed region of Golan Heights in Israel has embraced its fraught history as a former battlefield by transforming a disused Syrian military bunker into a wine cellar.

Photo credit: Duby-Hadar

Built in support of the boutique Ein Nashut Winery, the military bunker now houses wine instead of wartime ammunitions, as reported by The Jewish Press. 

The bunker was discovered by the Kabalo family when they arrived in Kidmat Tzvi in the 1980s. The community was founded in 1981 on the ruins of a Syrian military outpost used during the 1967 Six Day War.

Abandoned in 1967 as it stood, for many years the bunker lay dormant, until the Kabalo family founded the Ein Nashut Winery in 2007. Needing a cool space to store their wines from the searing summer heat, the family set about renovating the bunker with the help of local farmers.

The Kabalos cleaned the walls, installed a new tile floor and converted its single ladder entrance into a stairway. Today the Ein Nashut Winery produces over 12,000 bottles of wine a year from vineyards planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Merlot, and Syrah wines – its cellar standing as a poignant reminder of the region’s past.

Golan Heights is a disputed region on Israel’s border with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Israel captured the region from Syria and occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967. It then unilaterally annexed the territory in 1981, though the annexation has never been recognised under international law.

Golan Heights’ volcanic soil is heavily planted with vines and the region is home to a growing boutique wine industry.