Our Story
Rota Winery is a boutique winery in the Negev desert. It is one of the single vineyard estates
planted in Halutza sand dunes along the banks of Nahal Revivim, a seasonal river traversing
the Negev plateau.
Established in late summer 2004 by Erez Rota––artist, wine viticulturist and winemaker–
Rota Winery gave Erez the opportunity to combine his long-standing dream of establishing
an agricultural estate and his love of the desert.
The winery, which actually came into being in 1999 in a small studio in Tel Aviv, would in
2004 put down roots on Negev soil on a site where the remnants of ancient agricultural
practices dating back to the Nabatean era were found and today form an integral part of the
Estate’s landscape. The vineyards were planted along the ancient terraces at a height of about
300 m. in silty loess earth containing river sand and pebbles, which facilitate good water
absorption and drain off. Desert climate conditions–cold and dry in winter, hot and dry in
summer, along with constant breezes and cool nights–form an optimal environment in which
to cultivate grapevines
Several varietals are planted in individual parcels in the vineyard: Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, Shiraz and Muscat Alexandria. The vines, which are grown organically to respect the
fragile ecology of the desert, are irrigated only with desalinated seawater that is transported
by pipeline from the Mediterranean so as not to deplete the local water supply. When
summer arrives, grapes are harvested selectively by hand during the cool night hours. Next,
they are brought to the winery for a controlled and measured process of maceration to extract
all the aroma and flavor from the skins. After a few weeks, the young wine is transferred to
French natural oak Seguin-Moreau barrels where it will mature for different periods
depending on the type of wine. The winery produces about 10,000 bottles annually.
Our terroir in the beautiful Negev Desert along with the precision and simplicity of our
winemaking and the discerning eye of an artist, Erez Rota himself, allow us to produce very
special, high-quality wines.
