Kate Hawkings on...
MIDDLE EASTERN WINE
O’s wine expert explains why wines from this part of the world are worth exploring
Wine is often referred to as coming from the ‘New World’ – countries relatively new to wine production such as Australia, New Zealand, the Americas – and pretty much everywhere else that’s not those countries in Europe (France, Italy, Spain and the rest) we label ‘Old World’, which have been making wine for centuries.
In fact, wine has been made in the Middle East for far longer than that. There are copious references to wine in the Bible – when Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, now in modern-day Turkey, the first thing he did was to plant vines on the mountain’s slopes; and when Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land in the 13th century BC, they found not only milk and honey but bunches of grapes so large they needed two men to carry each one. Wine became an important part of religious and social life but when this region was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century AD, alcohol was prohibited and wine production almost entirely ceased. The modern wine industry in Israel dates from 1882, when Edmond de Rothschild, owner of Château Lafite in Bordeaux, planted French grapes and imported French wine-making expertise. Now today’s generation of Israeli winemakers, many of whom have worked abroad, are making some great wines with a contemporary touch. Some but not all is kosher, meaning everybody involved in its production must be observant Jews. In Turkey, wine production by non-Muslim minorities was tolerated (and taxed) throughout Ottoman rule, and was encouraged by the reforming leader Kemal Atatürk when he came to power in 1923.
The industry further flourished after privatisation in 2004 but over recent years has suffered from draconian taxes and laws against advertising and availability of alcohol, so the country’s winemakers are increasingly bringing their wines to grateful export markets. Lebanese wine has been highly regarded for millennia. Around
2000 BC the Phoenicians were exporting wine from what is now Lebanon to ancient Greece and Rome. French settlers established wineries in the 19th century and, despite the country’s turbulent history, wine-making in Lebanon has continued uninterrupted since then. Wines from these countries rarely appear on supermarket shelves so are best sniffed out online. This demands a degree of bravery from the buyer: I recommend buying a case of six different bottles and keeping an open mind. As food from these regions becomes ever more popular (check out our Tel Aviv recipe feature on page 34), it’s time to explore what we should perhaps now refer to as ‘Ancient World’ wines.