Negev desert wine region of southern Israel is one of the warmest and driest vineyard areas in the world. Despite its unlikely macroclimate, the Negev has been a vine-growing area since ancient times. It may well have been one of the world's very first wine regions – if an area could be seen as such 6000 years ago – and has been enjoying something of a minor renaissance since the 1980s, though it accounts for less than 5 percent of Israel's total vineyard area.