Morocco has become one of the largest wine producing nations in the Muslim world, with the equivalent of 35 million bottles produced last year. That is around 3 times the total wine consumption in India.
"Morocco is a country of tolerance," said Mehdi Bouchaara according to the news report in Associated Press. He is the deputy general manager at the Celliers de Meknes, the country's largest winemaker, bottling over 85 percent of national output.
The winery cultivates 2,100 hectares of vineyards and ferments entry-level wines as well as high level Claret aged in a vaulted cellar packed with oak barrels imported from France as also a sparkling wine.
On paper, wine is haraam (forbidden) for Muslims. But Mehdi says their distribution is all legal since it only sells to traders authorized by the state, who in turn sell exclusively to non-Muslim tourists. Statistics show that Moroccans consume on average 1 liter of wine per person each year; Moroccan state itself is the largest owner of the country's 12,000 hectares of vineyards.
Despite this uncertain setting for wine culture, the Celliers' owner, Brahim Zniber, is one of the country's richest people. His group employs 6,500 people, nearly all of them Muslim, with revenues of € 225 million last year.
A restaurant manager, who did not want to reveal his last name, said he wasn't allowed a license to serve alcoholic drinks because he is Muslim. "But everyone knows we serve wine with our food," he said, pointing at the restaurant's patrons, both foreign and Moroccan, sipping their wine over dinner.
Another owner in Meknes, who also requested anonymity because of his practices, said he served wine in tinted glasses, kept bottles out of sight, and told clients to say they were drinking soft drinks if questioned. "Police rarely come, and if they do they never look inside the glass," he said.
These practices reflect a much more lenient culture than in other Muslim countries. Part of the reason is its history; winemaking soared during the French colonial era, which lasted over 50 years until the country's independence in 1956.
When the EU banned blending wine from elsewhere to its production, Morocco turned to creating its own labels. The king of Morocco offered land at a bargain price to foreign wine growers, and Zniber, a Moroccan, created his own empire — tax free because Morocco has frozen taxation on agriculture until 2010.
Most of the group's dozen brands are cheap wines sold domestically. But the Celliers also heavily invested in improving quality, conducting private research since the government won’t sponsor studies on a near-forbidden product. The chief oenologist, a Moroccan, has nearly free reign to try out new techniques and grape varieties in the factory-like winery packed with stainless-steel vaults.
Complete article at Associated Press
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