In 1882, the first commercial winery in Israel in about two thousand years was established in the town of Zichron Yaakov, by a group of some 200 Jewish family from Romania. Today, the Carmel vineyards produce award-winning wines which rival the world's best labels. Newly discovered historical records from the winery's early days tell the tale of how a European-style enterprise survived in pre-state Palestine despite the Ottoman empire's rampant corruption and difficult living conditions.