Ashkar Winery

The Ashkar family are originally from Iqrit, a small village in the Upper Galilee where winemaking goes back thousands of years. As a family they made wine there for generations until this came to a halt in 1948.

The family in 2010 re-established a winery, in the village of Kufur Yasif.

Nemi Ashkar, the founder, is from the second generation of the inhabitants of Iqrit that had been displaced in 1948.

“When I saw more and more vineyards being planted around Iqrit, I felt as if I was pierced by iron nails” he said. “I believed that if I were to make wine, it must come from its marvelous vineyards. I knew I could bring in grapes from many other places, but I found no salvation in doing so. Indeed, I believed that salvation is to be found in wholesome work in a beloved land; and Iqrit is my beloved land, precisely because it is my homeland. Everywhere else I feel an exile, but in Iqrit I always feel at home. Ashkar Winery is only another step in my struggle for fulfillment. My object in life is to have a publicly recognized and legally secured way of returning to Iqrit and there re-build the winery.”