As a wine region Israel might not have the cache of your Bordeauxs or your Napas, but they do have a wine history dating back to biblical times. And as the New York Times recently reported, some in the country are now trying to recreate those wines of old, including the kind of varieties Jesus may have drank – though when you can turn water into wine, I’m not quite sure how easy finding the right grapes will be.

Last month, Recanati Winery released a wine called Marawi, billed as the first modern Israeli wine made from indigenous grapes. The work was done in tandem with researchers from Ariel University who are using complicated techniques like DNA testing and three-dimensional scans of grape seeds found at archaeological digs to help identify these unique varieties. Lead researcher Eliyashiv Drori says the history of some of these grapes goes all the way back to A.D. 220 according to references they’ve found in the Babylonian Talmud.

Though Marawi is the first of these wines to be released, Driori is already working on his next project, a wine called Dabouki. He believes this particular white wine might actually be similar to a kind Jesus himself may have drunk during his life. “All our scripture are full with wine and with grapes,” he told the Times. “We have a very ancient identity, and for me, reconstructing this identity is very important. For me, it’s a matter of national pride.”