In Dabouki Land: Interdisciplinary notes on the cultural history of a landrace grape cultivar in Israel

Joshua Schmidt, Yuval Ben-Bassat and Guy Bar-Oz.

Journal of Arid Environments

Published in Journal of Arid Environments, the article presents archaeo-historical-ethnographic findings that emerged during the POC project to discuss the multiple roles the Dabouki grapevine played as a key cultivar in the agricultural regimes of diverse local farmers. While grown throughout Israel, the article concentrates on a single geographical location across a succession of historical periods to critically explore the inter-generational cultural pathways and assorted socioeconomic virtues of the Dabouki and its longstanding horticulture continuity. The article offers a timeline for this dynamic, outlining the continuity and change that characterizes the profound Dabouki viticultural heritage. Indeed, the Dabouki appears to possess kinship with archaeological pips that were discovered in a cave in the Negev desert and, via paleogenetics, were identified as belonging to local grape varieties that endure into the present day. A well-known cultivar in the Ottoman era when it spread across the region under various names, currently, Dabouki grapes are being revived by enterprising Israeli winemakers who are marketing their wines as authentic heritage-fused living artifacts.

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