Amid bombs and bullets in Syria, a vineyard blooms
BEIRUT — As the U.S. was bombing Islamic State militants in Syria last week, eight wine experts were invited to the Ledbury, a two Michelin-star restaurant in West London, to sample the latest vintage from the Syrian winery Domaine de Bargylus.
For these red and white wines, it was the culmination of a remarkable journey that began in soil that was once a cradle of winemaking but now is the site of a bloody civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people in the past three years.
Domaine de Bargylus, founded in 2004 by Lebanese-Syrian brothers Karim and Sandro Saadé, has not allowed the country's civil conflict stop production, at least for the time being.
Their wines may be thrilling international wine experts, but the war has made winemaking a daunting and dangerous task. Constant fighting, kidnappings and confiscating raw materials — even the wines themselves — have slowed the movement of people and goods. The airstrikes on Islamic State positions by the U.S.-led coalition have not helped.
"We are confronted to the hardest conditions a wine producer may face today," Karim Saadé said.
Indeed, the civil war in Syria, triggered initially by a wave of peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad, has decimated the economy.
"I can't visit the vineyard anymore," said Stéphane Derenoncourt, the winery's internationally renowned French consultant who communicates with the staff via Internet and Skype calls.
The emergence of extremist groups in Syria also means an increasing number of kidnappings that target foreigners.
In 2004, the Saadés, who also own Chateau Marsyas in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, planted their first vineyard in the hills above the port of Latakia, rekindling a culture that thrived during the Roman Empire but largely fell into decline during Ottoman rule in the 16th century.
The winery, a four-hour drive from Beirut, is in a relatively stable area, although its building sustained mild damage last year from nearby fighting. Deciding when to harvest the grapes involves driving refrigerated samples to Beirut by taxi. Meanwhile, shipping costs have skyrocketed.
Domaine de Bargylus currently exports 30% of its 60,000 bottles, mainly to Lebanon, but also to the United Kingdom, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, France and Canada.
The road to Beirut is too dangerous to ship the wine from there, so it now goes from Latakia to Damietta in Egypt, then to Antwerp, Belgium. "Cost of transport and insurance has increased drastically," Sandro Saadé said from the London tasting. "But we believe such sacrifices are worth it."
The rapid advances made by the Islamic State extremists and the Nusra Front radical group threaten to make things even worse. The Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, bans alcohol in regions it controls, including Raqqa or Deir Zour and rebel pockets in Qalamoun and around Damascus. "Of course this is one of our major concerns as wine producers in Syria," Karim Saadé said.
For the time being, talk still centers around what's in the bottle. Award-winning Lebanese wine writer Michael Karam, who attended the London tasting, said Domaine de Bargylus adds a new dimension of taste from what is a rapidly emerging wine region.
"We need versatility, and the hitherto untested Syrian terroir has yielded exciting results. The reds and the whites are simply stunning," Karam said. "The world should not only sit up and take note, but applaud the determination and ingenuity of the Saadé family to produce us these wines in such appalling circumstances."