Alona Winery

Alona Winery is a family-run boutique estate founded in 2001 in Moshav Givat Nili, in the Alona region on the slopes of Ramat Menashe overlooking the Nahal Taninim valley — an area often called "Israeli Tuscany." It was started by two couples: physicians Ilana Rabau-Friedman and Micha Rabau, together with Fanny and Eli Azulai, second-generation wine-grape growers on whose land the winery sits. Every stage — grape selection, aging, bottling — is handled by family members, with the younger generation (Natan) now running daily operations. The winery makes roughly 9,000 bottles a year and was named Israel's best small boutique winery in 2007. The estate grows Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Grenache Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Marselan (reviewers also note Carignan and Colombard), bottled across three lines — Harmony, Original and Elegant — aged at least 12 months in French, American and Austrian oak with minimal filtration. Its wines have taken gold medals at international competitions (for example, Berlin and Seoul). A visit is a paid guided tasting and tour at the visitor center set among the vines, with indoor seating plus tables between the vineyard rows. A standard tasting of three wines with a cheese/mezze platter runs about 100 ₪ per person, with generous pours, and an on-site shop sells the wines by bottle and glass. There is no restaurant — the tasting is accompanied by a platter of cheeses, labneh, goat cheese with honey and za'atar, fresh pita, olives and spreads. The estate borders the Alona Park nature reserve.

Information updated: May 2026