Tzoof Winery: From a Childhood Experiment to Natural Wine in Arad
Can a bottle of wine begin with a nine-year-old child and a bag of grapes from the supermarket?
At Tzoof Winery in Arad, that unlikely experiment became the beginning of a family journey. In 2010, young Tzoof Bar-Sade asked his parents if they could make wine together. What started as childhood curiosity gradually developed into a small garage winery with a clear identity: natural wines, mostly made from organically grown grapes, produced with minimal intervention and a willingness to question conventional methods.
Today, Tzoof is identified as the family’s winemaker, supported by his father Eli and mother Dganit. Their winery operates beneath and beside the family home, turning a visit into something much more personal than a conventional tasting. Guests enter the Bar-Sade family’s world—one built around experimentation, hospitality, food and an infectious enthusiasm for understanding what grapes can become.
A family winery named after its youngest pioneer
The winery’s name preserves the moment from which everything grew. When Tzoof was nine, his request to make wine from supermarket grapes sparked a project that captured the imagination of the entire family.
Eli already had experience in wine and regional tourism, while Dganit brought her own hospitality and culinary talents to the family enterprise. Instead of treating the first experiment as a passing childhood activity, they continued learning together. Over time, their curiosity became a more serious exploration of fermentation, organic fruit and natural winemaking.
The result is a winery in which the borders between home, cellar and visitor experience are deliberately close. Tzoof leads the winemaking, while Eli and Dganit remain integral to the story and hospitality. It is an intergenerational project shaped as much by family character as by technical decisions.
Natural wine as an ongoing experiment
Tzoof describes itself as an experimental winery. For more than a decade, the family has explored how wine can be made with fewer additions and less manipulation, allowing the fruit and fermentation process to remain at the center.
The winery sources grapes from organic vineyards, most of them in the Negev. Fermentation begins spontaneously with wild yeasts naturally present on the grapes. According to the regional winery profile, the wines are made without filtration and without added sulfur dioxide or bisulfite.
This minimal-intervention approach requires careful fruit selection and close attention throughout fermentation and maturation. It can also produce wines that feel different from standardized commercial styles—sometimes textural, expressive and surprising. For curious visitors, the tasting becomes an opportunity not only to decide whether they like a wine, but to ask what “natural wine” actually means and how production choices shape what reaches the glass.
Natural wine is not a legally uniform category everywhere, and it should not be presented as offering health benefits. At Tzoof, its significance lies in the family’s philosophy: organic fruit where possible, spontaneous fermentation, minimal additions and an ongoing process of observation and experimentation.
Arad: high above the Dead Sea
Tzoof Winery is located in Arad, approximately 600 metres above sea level and around 1,000 metres above the surface of the Dead Sea. The city sits at a meeting point between the Negev and Judean deserts, with dry air, dramatic open landscapes and cooler conditions than the Dead Sea basin below.
Although the winery is located at the family home rather than within an estate vineyard, most of its grapes come from organic vineyards in the Negev. The wines therefore connect Arad’s intimate garage-winery setting with a wider network of desert growers and landscapes.
Arad is also a natural base for exploring the eastern Negev and Dead Sea region. A winery visit can be combined with Masada, Tel Arad, desert viewpoints, local art and culinary encounters, or the descent toward the Dead Sea.
Wines that invite conversation
Tzoof’s approach is less about creating a predictable product line and more about responding to the fruit available in each vintage. Published profiles have associated the winery with both red and white wines and with varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Syrah and Sangiovese. Some wines have also involved extended skin contact or techniques reminiscent of orange-wine traditions.
Because a small experimental winery’s portfolio can change significantly from one harvest to another, the current bottles should be confirmed directly before publication. That variation is part of the appeal: visitors may encounter a wine, blend or fermentation experiment that cannot be understood simply by reading a standard tasting note.
The most rewarding way to experience these wines is through conversation with the family—hearing why a particular grape was chosen, how the fermentation developed and why the finished wine was allowed to follow one path rather than another.
Visiting the Bar-Sade family
Tzoof Winery welcomes guests into the family’s home environment in Arad. Current tourism profiles describe tastings, visits to the barrel room, explanations of natural winemaking, wine workshops and picnic-style hospitality. Visits are arranged in advance, allowing the family to adapt the encounter to individuals, couples, families or organized groups.
One current Arad tourism listing advertises a two-hour visitor-center experience from Sunday through Friday, including explanations, barrel-room access, tastings and a generous cheese meal. As formats, prices and schedules can change, this should be treated as a useful indication of the experience rather than a permanent timetable.
The family is also known for a larger culinary event called the Tribal Fire Knight’s Feast. Hosted in their garden, it combines smoked and grilled meats, generous winery wine and storytelling around a shared table. This is a separate experience requiring advance coordination and should not be confused with the standard Negev Wine Card tasting.
Where wine, food and human connection meet
Hospitality at Tzoof is not an accessory to the wine. It is part of the winery’s identity. Eli and Dganit are described as pioneers of tourism entrepreneurship in Arad, and the experiences they have developed turn visitors into participants rather than spectators.
The garage-winery setting, family story and natural-wine discussion create an atmosphere in which questions are welcome. Why avoid cultured yeast? What happens when sulfur is not added? How does organic fruit affect the process? And how did a childhood experiment become a working family enterprise?
That combination makes Tzoof particularly suitable for travelers who want an encounter that feels local, informal and intellectually curious—not merely a polished tasting-room presentation.
Why Tzoof Winery belongs on your Negev journey
Tzoof Winery offers one of the Negev wine region’s most unconventional stories. Its appeal begins with the image of a nine-year-old asking to make wine and continues through a family’s long-term commitment to natural fermentation, organic grapes and generous hospitality.
Visitors come not only to taste wine, but to enter a conversation about experimentation, family entrepreneurship and the freedom of remaining small. In an Arad home high above the Dead Sea, Tzoof shows that a winery does not need a monumental estate to create a memorable sense of place.
Plan your visit
- Location: 3 Sayarim Street, Arad
- Setting: Family-run garage winery and visitor space at the Bar-Sade home
- Experience: Natural-wine tasting, explanations, barrel-room visit and possible wine workshop or picnic hospitality
- Extended experience: “Tribal Fire” Knight’s Feast with smoked and grilled meats, by separate advance arrangement
- Suitable for: Adults, couples, independent travelers, families, groups, team days and private events
- Group capacity: The Dead Sea regional tourism site currently lists visits for groups of up to 50 participants
- Opening arrangements: Visits by advance reservation
- Current Arad tourism listing: Sunday–Friday, approximately 10:00–12:00, for a visitor experience including tastings and a cheese meal; reconfirm directly
- Kosher: Not listed as kosher in the consulted official profiles; confirm directly if certification is required
- Accessibility: Listed as accessible by the Dead Sea regional tourism site; reconfirm individual requirements in advance
- Telephone and WhatsApp: +972-50-422-4777
- Email: eli@barsade.co.il
- Facebook: Tzoof Winery
- Regional profile: Negev Desert Wine
Opening times, prices, food, tasting formats, wines and group capacity may change. Advance coordination with the winery is required, particularly for meals, workshops, groups and private events.
Discover Tzoof Winery with the Negev Wine Card
Tzoof Winery is a participating partner of the Negev Wine Card. Use your card to discover a distinctive family garage winery, explore the world of natural fermentation and meet the people behind one of Arad’s most personal wine experiences.