There are arguably few things more enjoyable than sipping on a good glass of wine after a long day. Selecting a brand of wine for that pleasure is not as simple as it seems though: from the quality to the appearance and the image that a specific wine invokes in your mind as a consumer, a lot goes into the choice of bottle.

Amidst a dynamic wine sector, Lebanese wineries are honing their marketing strategies to make sure their wine is the one that gets picked at the end of the day.     

The more the merrier

Following the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, Lebanon had only eight wineries. Today it boasts approximately 50.

The playing field has certainly expanded, yet older wineries insist that they welcome the addition of boutique wineries, explaining that it has benefited the Lebanese wine industry as a whole.

According to Zafer Chaoui, chairman and CEO of Château Ksara, and Edouard Kosremelli, director general of Château Kefraya, the growing number of wineries is a positive development because it has led to the increase of wine consumption in Lebanon.

Kosremelli explains that the increase in wineries has led to curiosity about wine among Lebanese, which in turn has increased consumption. He therefore doesn’t view the new wineries as competition to Château Kefraya. “Having more wineries in Lebanon is balanced by more demand for wine so this competition is not affecting Kefraya. The market is still growing and we’re not the only ones to have growth,” he says.

[pullquote]The growing number of wineries is a positive development because it has led to the increase of wine consumption in Lebanon[/pullquote]

Still, Chaoui sees that the rate of wine consumption in Lebanon is not on par with other wine producing countries and believes that a further increase would lead to a more dynamic wine sector. “As a country, we should focus on increasing local consumption per capita as this would be the best solution to an increased number of producers and would be a huge potential for the sector to develop in the future. Each winery has contributed to increasing the consumption per capita by pushing, relative to its size and capacity, for its wine to be tried all over,” says Chaoui.

Foreign is not necessarily better

The real competition for Lebanese wine in the local market, according to those interviewed, comes from foreign wines which are being imported into Lebanon at a higher rate than five years ago, fueled by the increased interest in wine and by the growing number of specialized wine retailers in the country (at least three have opened in the last five years alone).

The wineries interviewed explain that many Lebanese still believe foreign wine is better than local wine. “Some [Lebanese wines] are not good while others are great but on average we have really good wine and every single sommelier or wine specialist that has come to Lebanon is really surprised by this,” says Ixsir’s General Manager Hady Kahale.

The power of the vineyard

While each winery Executive spoke to has its unique marketing strategy, a few common themes emerged.

To begin with, all wineries agreed that, for a marketing campaign to succeed, first and foremost the wine has to be of high quality. “Wine is not only about marketing. If you don’t have a high quality product, you will sell well in the first year but then stop,” says Kahale.

Another common theme among the wineries interviewed is their belief in enotourism, or wine tourism, as an effective means of communicating their message. Those interviewed explained that, through visits to wineries, consumers get a feel for the winery’s unique philosophy and understand how wine is made while having a good time. By association, they will be more likely to select it in a store or at a restaurant.

The wineries also have their own marketing and development strategies based on assessments of their individual strengths and selling points.

Word of mouth

For Ixsir, according to Kahale, the most efficient marketing strategy is word of mouth where the consumers themselves talk about Ixsir and essentially promote it among their contacts.

To achieve this, Ixsir made sure it was where their target consumer would be most likely to consume wine. “For me, the best ambassador of Ixsir is Ixsir itself; people need to taste wine. The way we reached people is through having them taste the wine in a good setting – not supermarkets – such as exhibitions or events when they are ready to drink or eat,” says Kahale, citing Ixsir’s presence at bistro style restaurants, private and charity events.

[pullquote]All wineries agreed that, for a marketing campaign to succeed, first and foremostthe wine has to be of high quality[/pullquote]

Ixsir also created an association for itself with the arts, explains Kahale, making sure to be present at exhibition openings and art events across the city and also dedicating a section of their winery to exhibitions.

Ixsir was also among the first wineries to become active on social media, according to Kahale, who says it was a very important step for marketing their wine to younger consumers.

Ixsir’s marketing team is made up two people, including Kahale, who describes himself as a Jack-of-all-trades. While Kahale did not disclose the exact percentage earmarked for marketing from the winery’s budget, he placed it at somewhere between 10 to 20 percent.

A terrior, a soul, a great wine

For Kosremelli, Château Kefraya’s tagline “a terrior, a soul, a great wine” sums up their marketing strategy, which focuses on communicating the fact that Château Kefraya owns their vineyards, meaning it does not buy grapes from contracted farmers. This, according to Kosremelli, allows them to better control their grapes, in turn leading to the production of a higher quality wine.

Kosremelli explains that the idea of producing wine came to the late Michel De Bustros (he passed early August 2016) following the good feedback he received regarding the quality of the grapes he had been growing and selling to wineries since the 1950s. “Until now, we use only our grapes. This is what gave consistency to Château Kefraya and allowed the brand to grow. We have full control over our terrior, we understand them and each year we have a better understanding of what they can give,” says Kosremelli, explaining how the winery invests heavily into studying their soil in order to yield to the best wine possible. “The rest can take care of itself,” he says.

[pullquote]Château Ksara’s history, and consequently its reputation, is its strongest marketing strength, according to [Zafer Chaoui, chairman and CEO of Château Ksara][/pullquote]

Château Kefraya also engages in advertisements and promotions, spending 15 percent of its annual budget on marketing which Kosremelli says is “important for maintaining market share and increasing wine consumption per capita”.

Château Kefraya’s marketing is done through both traditional means – such as newspaper and magazine advertisements and some billboards – and the nontraditional means such as social media, tastings and events.   

Banking on history

Founded in 1881 by the Jesuit monks, Château Ksara’s history, and consequently its reputation, is its strongest marketing strength, according to Chaoui. “We have an excellent quality, reputation and history and this cannot but be taken into consideration,” enthuses Chaoui.

Being in operation for almost 160 years, Château Ksara’s challenge, according to Chaoui, is maintaining their position in the market. He explains that, “We maintained [market position] through investment and continuity. We invest wherever needed in a very good marketing strategy, a committed sales team, good quality and reputation,” says Chaoui.

Château Ksara spends 8 percent of its annual turnover on marketing, a percentage which Chaoui describes as “healthy”. The winery has a marketing manager with a team of three employees who all work closely with the sales team. Château Ksara does its own distribution which has the advantage of allowing them to be closer to their consumer base compared to those employing a third party distributor, according to Chaoui. “This costs more than if we had a distributor but it allows for a closer relationship between the customer and Ksara, which wouldn’t be the case if we had a third party distributing,” explains Chaoui.

Château Ksara also invests heavily in traditional advertisements such as billboards, newspapers, TV and radio ads and magazines, but doesn’t ignore the non-traditional ones such as social media, explains Chaoui.

There’s a popular joke in the wine industry which goes: “Do you know how to make a million dollars out of a small winery? Start out with five million!”

The joke illustrates why owning a small winery is perceived more as an expensive hobby or an act of passion than a money making venture. At the end of the day, however, a winery of any size is a business, albeit one that might not be easy to manage or profit from, especially in a country like Lebanon.

Small wineries by definition

The past 10 years has seen the number of wineries in Lebanon grow from around seven to almost 50. Many of these wineries, according to wine shop Les Caves De Taillevent’s General Manager Paul Choueiry, are considered small or boutique.

Although there isn’t one absolute definition for small or boutique wineries, the wine specialists Executive spoke to believe a small winery is defined by a low production (around 20,000 bottles or less per year) often with only one or two labels (or wines). They also tend to be family run.

Karim El Ghazzi, general manager of Zawya, a wine shop in Mar Mikhael selling only Lebanese wines, believes small or “independent wineries”, as he calls them, are also characterized by the winemaker being involved in the whole process from harvest to distribution. “There is something beautiful about the winemaker coming to distribute their wine to us with their finger stained red from having personally pressed the wine earlier that morning,” muses Ghazzi.

Good things come in small packages

Producing only a small quantity of wine usually translates to being able to better control the production process and wine quality. “Boutique wineries are interesting because producing 10,000 liters is different than producing 10 million liters. Micro-wineries work on a small scale so they can control every single kilo, every single bottle, the whole process,” explains Choueiry, adding, however, that without government regulated appellations on wine, the only way one can evaluate the vintage is through tasting it, comparing it to “Russian roulette”.

Micro-wineries have the benefit of working at an artisanal level in contrast to the large wineries, explains El Ghazzi. “When the winery grows with a production of over 50,000 they find themselves at a position of a corporation or company and then might have to take decisions at that level, such as sourcing the grapes from a cheaper source. The winery then becomes detached from the agricultural side of its production,” elaborates El Ghazzi, adding that it’s not wrong for a winery to function like that, but that it would not fit into the criteria Zawya has set for its selection of independent wineries.

While still considered a small crowd, Lebanon’s wine drinkers are showing an increasing interest in these boutique wineries, influenced by the global trend for the artisanal and independent wine producers. “There is a worldwide trend towards this small artisanal way of production, even in beer or food; there’s a different spirit and style of making or producing,” says Choueiry.

Najib Moutran, owner of the Wine Teller, features 35 boutique and medium-sized Lebanese winery brands in his shop and says he has seen demand for them increase in the past five years. “There is a great interest among the Lebanese for micro-wineries, though at the beginning they were a little afraid to try something new. But now these wineries have proven themselves in quality and consistency so people are trying them more,” explains Moutran.

Money woes

Owning a small winery, however, is not a smooth sailing course.

To begin with, there is the issue of expenses. Starting up a winery in Lebanon requires an investment of between $500,000 and a million dollars, according to the winery owners Executive spoke to.

[pullquote]While still considered a small crowd, Lebanon’s wine drinkers are showing an increasing interest in these boutique wineries[/pullquote]

Aside from owning the land, securing the grapes and contracting winemakers or specialists, which requires a sizable amount by itself,  this budget is spent on winemaking equipment, from the tanks to the bottling machine to the barrels themselves, all of which have to be imported, according to Moutran.

The cost of winemaking machinery does not change depending on the quantity of wine made, meaning that a small winery has to divide that cost among the limited amounts of bottles it produces annually, explains Choueiry.

Micro-winery owners face another problem when importing bottles, corks and barrels in that they only need small amounts of them, which makes the costs much higher in comparison to that of larger wineries which order these products en masse. “Costs for small wineries are [relatively] much higher than the big ones because we acquire small quantities. Everything is imported here,” laments Sebastian El Khoury, winemaker and owner at Domaine de Baal.

Managing finances

All the small winery owners Executive spoke to say they have discussed coming together to cooperate on reducing costs by investing in a mobile bottling truck (a common service for small wineries in countries such as France) and splitting the cost or even ordering materials together in bulk and dividing the shipping expenses.

However, according to Iris Domain’s Sarmad Salibi, this talk has not been followed up by action. “I’ve been looking at ways to collaborate together with some small wineries to cut down on expenses related to bottling and corking and collaborate on marketing issues. The intent is there, but when it comes to taking action, things are slow simply because everyone is busy with their own work and they each have their own financial capabilities,” says Salibi.

Although Kafalat offers start up loans to small wineries, which several of the wineries Executive spoke to have benefited from, other payment facilities or government support for this agroindustry sector is not available. Also, with Kafalat, loan beneficiaries are given up to six years to pay back the amount, a time period which, according to El Khoury, is too tight for wineries. He compares this with wine producing countries abroad where wineries are given up to 20 years to repay their loans.

Spreading the wine

Distribution is another area where small wineries face difficulties, again financially related. “As a small winery, you don’t have the same budget as the big wineries. We cannot afford the same marketing campaign, and distribution and marketing pose the main financial challenges,” explains El Khoury, adding that for wine, not only is the Lebanese market saturated, but the international one is also highly competitive.

One of the main problems with distribution of micro-wineries is that, because of their high cost of production, their prices are also high when compared to the bigger Lebanese wineries. “The high production cost is a big challenge in that it puts you in a price bracket which is sometimes a disadvantage. Some Lebanese consumers think that Lebanese wines are not synonymous with quality. So when they see a bottle at our price, they think it is too expensive and opt for foreign wine at a slightly more expensive price tag thinking it is of better quality, which is not necessarily the case,” explains Jennifer Massoud, communications and productions manager at Atibaia.

Moutran explains that alcohol distribution in Lebanon is typically done through big companies, which is a problem for small wineries. “The way distribution is being done in Lebanon is that you have this link between big distributors and brands of wine; if you don’t have this big distribution company, you don’t have penetration power in the market especially with the Syrian border closed and with a minimal export market for small wineries,” says Moutran.

Although some of the small wineries Executive spoke to have distributors, they say it is not enough to be competitive with the bigger wineries in the country. “While we have a distributor, we have an issue with how wine sales happen in Lebanon. The majority of wine sales happen in supermarkets and supermarkets want a product with a high turnover in order to maximize the dollar profit per square meter; so they want to have tastings, promotions…a boutique winery will not provide them with those things so they don’t list it or give you a small space with no visibility,” explains Massoud, adding that in the on trade sector (namely restaurants) the issue is mainly with restaurant owners pushing imported wine over the local wines because they can make higher margins.

Some of the wineries interviewed do have an export market abroad, but all wineries say they prefer selling in the local market as they make higher profits. “To us, we benefit more when we sell here because we can sell them at a higher price; outside we have to lower our prices because we have customs and transportation expenses,” explains El Khoury.

Some support, please

Again, the government offers no support for small Lebanese wineries. Boutique wineries that have paid the fees to be part of the Union Vinicole du Liban (UVL) (fees are proportional to the size of the winery) benefit from attending the international wine exhibitions with them under the Lebanese wines pavilions, explain El Khoury and Massoud.

Fees for these exhibitions are often subsidized by the Chamber of Commerce or the Ministry of Agriculture (the subsidies exclude airfare and accommodation) and so could be the only chance for small wineries to attend such events.

Locally, small wineries can market their wines through consumer festivals such as Vinifest or others which take place before Christmas and have a focus on wine, suggests Choueiry.

A different playing field

Small winery owners describe their venture as something they started out of passion, giving the impression that their wineries might not be all about the bottom line, and that they are content to stay at the size they are at.

Others assess the market as they go along, evaluating whether or not they will take the leap to become a medium sized winery. “This is why I started with only 5,000 bottles,” says El Khoury. “I started small so as not to have any left and increased the product number as the demand increased.” He now produces 15,000 bottles annually.

Regardless of their personal benefit, small and medium-sized wineries have brought dynamism into the Lebanese wine industry. “Before boutique wineries, all wine production in Lebanon was in Bekaa, but the nice thing was that with the new wineries mushrooming across the country, wine now has different microclimates and soils which lead to different profiles and tastes of Lebanese wine,” says Choueiry.

Now that is something we can all raise a glass to.

Atibaia

Production: 16,000 bottles per year

Region: Batroun

Jean Massoud’s family already owned a house in the mountains of Batroun but “fell in love” with a 17th century house in the vicinity and decided to buy it.

Daughter and communications manager Jennifer Massoud recounts that, because the family was passionate about wine, they decided to transform the house into a winery named Atibaia. They sent soil samples to France to see what grape varieties would work in the Batroun climate as there were few wineries in the areas back then.

“It was 2005 so there were still very few wineries if any in Batroun. It was quite a challenge for us, but at the same time we wanted to do a wine that we enjoy drinking and are passionate about,” recalls Massoud, stressing that their family’s interest in the winery was not commercial.

Indeed, Jean Massoud, who is in the distribution business, saw Atibaia as more of a chance for him to work in agriculture, a subject he is passionate about and had studied at university, and as a retirement project of sorts.

Today, Atibaia has three vintages under one red wine label, produced by winemaker Diana Salameh, and plans to release a white wine by next year. Sixty percent of Atibaia’s production is exported while 40 percent is distributed locally through their distribution company.

Atibaia can be found in the major wine retailers, select restaurants and a few upscale supermarkets. Massoud explains their presence in supermarkets with the following: “We are in high end supermarkets because it is a one stop shop for many clients who don’t go to wine retailers or cavists and just buy their wine from there. We are also in supermarkets in areas where you cannot find cavists.”

Domaine de Baal

Production: 15,000 bottles per year

Region: Zahleh, Bekaa Valley

Sebastian El Khoury says his family has always been fans of wine, having lived in Bordeaux, France for many years.

 In Lebanon, starting from 1994, his father had vineyards and used to sell grapes to wineries such as Château Ksara which furthered El Khoury’s fascination with wine.

As he recounts, he had studied business in university and thought of entering the wine export/import business, but decided to focus on winemaking instead. He went to back to Bordeaux for seven years where he worked in a winery out of the belief that hands-on experience would be the most useful.

In 2005, El Khoury returned and prepared his first vintage of 5,000 bottles. “Today, we produce 15,000, but we started out with only 5,000 and grew slowly. I plan to reach a maximum of 25,000 bottles because for me small is better: risk wise it’s more manageable that way as I have to think of distribution,” says El Khoury explaining that many wineries make the mistake of producing as many bottles as they can afford-sometimes up to a 100,000 from the first vintage without securing a market for them first.

Domaine de Baal is close to an organic wine although El Khoury prefers the term natural wine, meaning there are barely any additives to the wine (low in sulfur, no yeast or additives) and has both red and white vintages.

Forty percent of the wine is distributed locally by Fawaz Holding through their wine shop La Cave de Joël Robuchon and the remaining is exported.

Domaine Iris

Production: 6,000 bottles per year

Region: Bhamdoun

Being around vineyards has always relaxed Sarmad Salibi. Growing up, he would hang out with his father while he tended to his vineyards and while living in South California, USA, he would always head to Napa Valley and stroll around the vineyards whenever he wanted a relaxing taste of home.

It is no wonder then that Salibi loved wine. Upon his return to Bhamdoun, he would often visit a friend who was producing wine and enjoy the smells and sights of wine making. That friend gifted him several hundred grape vines and this is what began pushing Salibi into starting Domain Iris.

The final shove, says Salibi, was that he had land and a house in Bhamdoun that were abandoned during the Lebanese civil war, but that he wanted to revive, lest they be bought by investors.

So, in 2003, planting for Domain Iris started, and soon after Salibi was able to enjoy the first vintages of his hard work. Today Salibi produces 6,000 bottles which he distributes locally at the major wine shops, a few premium restaurants and what he calls the five major hotels in Beirut.

Salibi handles market and distribution himself and says that times have been hard, in line with the economic situation in Lebanon, since, at the end of the day, he is selling a luxury item and not a basic necessity.

Salibi admits that the winery is taking up most of his time “because I love it” but says he has another line of business which helps make ends meet. “Small winery owners can be called passionate fools. If the project is self-sufficient and financed then it is enough for me; it is something for the soul,” concludes Salibi.

Deir El Ahmar, a Christian village in the northern Bekaa valley’s Hermel-Baalbek region, is more notorious for its marijuana plantations than it is for great wines. But winemaking is precisely what the Coteaux d’Heliopolis Cooperative now wants their village to become known for.

The birth of the Cooperative

Having never really felt the government’s support or presence, planting hemp was just “the way things have always been done in Deir El Ahmar”, explains Charbel El Fakhri, the legal representative of the Cooperative and the son of its current president. It was also among the few choices of livelihood in the region: “Before it was either planting tobacco or weed or you leave the village because there is nothing else to do, and if you didn’t find a seller [for the weed], it would be a disaster,” recounts Fakhri.

Since marijuana is illegal in Lebanon, profits from its sales were inconsistent and fraught with risk; for a period of time, for instance, police would destroy the growers’ crop on an annual basis. So, in 1999, four hemp growers thought of substituting their plantations for wine producing grapes which they could sell to wineries. They formed the Coteaux d’Heliopolis Cooperative which was supported technically and through grants by the French region of Oise and encouraged by Zahle’s Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

Grape statistics

From the start, Deir El Ahmar’s hemp growers were intrigued by the Cooperative which grew more or less steadily each year reaching a total of 207 grape farmers in 2016. Among them, they farm approximately 240 hectares of land and produce 700 tons of grapes.

While the Cooperative first started distributing grapes only to the wineries in their immediate vicinity, demand quickly grew and they began to provide grapes to wineries in Zahleh, Qanafar and Bhamdoun. Today, 80 percent of their production is sold to wineries across Lebanon.

According to Fakhri, the Cooperative’s grapes are in high demand because of their superior quality due to the region’s altitude (which varies from 1,050 meters to 1,600 meters), its climate and its lack of pollution, compared to areas such as Zahle and the West Bekaa where vineyards are often adjacent to the street.

This quality comes with a high price tag with prices ranging from $1.05 per kilogram to $1.45 per kilogram, depending on the grape variety and style of planting. “Lots of wineries complain about the prices and not all of them buy from our cooperative, but what we stand for is quality and this is what we tell them,” insists Fakhri.

Change of guards

For this high quality to be consistently maintained, an organized management team was needed, something that was lacking in the early days of the Cooperative. While Fakhri is appreciative of the Cooperative’s first board of directors’ success in starting it up and recruiting growers, he says more organization is now needed for further development.

[pullquote]“It’s good to sell grapes but it’s more interesting to have your own wine as a cooperative and be able to export it around the world.”[/pullquote]

In 2013, the current board of directors was elected and immediately set to work restructuring the Cooperative. They hired a full-time financial auditor to keep track of their accounts and a six-person management team to handle quality control, distribution and marketing. They also set in place standards that differentiated the selling price of grape varieties according to which produced better wine and which were grown in a more efficient manner (instead of having all grapes at the same price, regardless of their quality or varietal significance). “These may be small details but they are very important for the Cooperative to keep on growing correctly,” says Fakhri.

The need for wine

As Fakhri puts it, it is almost a must for a wine grape growing cooperative to have its own wine and winery. “It’s good to sell grapes but it’s more interesting to have your own wine as a cooperative and be able to export it around the world,” enthuses Fakhri.

A more practical reason for having a cooperative wine is having a ready and reliable market for the grapes produced. “At a certain point in 2012, a ton of grapes were thrown away because there weren’t enough deals with wineries to sell them and the growers were not paid; it was almost a disaster. So we saw it as a necessity to have a winery that would ensure that the grapes produced would actually be used,” explains Fakhri.

The cooperative dabbled with wine in early 2009, producing it in wineries whose space they rented, but there was at first some inconsistency in production (with several years being skipped) and the wine was rebranded Coteaux des Cedres in 2013.

Having a winery in the region is also important, according to Fakhri, in order to conduct the tests needed on the grapes to assess alcohol levels and determine prime harvest time. While they used to send the grapes to Zahle for this, having a winery on the premises would definitely make the process both faster and smoother, says Fakhri.

Deir El Ahmar’s winery

However, the Cooperative’s budget was too tight and its time too stretched with its existing duties (such as managing the vineyards and maintaining standards) to add starting and running a winery to its agenda – Coteaux Des Cedres continued being produced in rented wineries at that time.

Fakhri and his partner Walid Hobchy (one of the original members of the Cooperative) needed a winery for their own private label, Couvent Rouge (which translates to Deir El Ahmar) which they started producing in 2010 – in a Zahle winery called Coteaux du Liban that they had rented – following Fakhri’s return from studying winemaking in Bordeaux. Their idea for this private label was borne out of curiosity for what could be done with the grapes they were already planting as part of the Cooperative.

So, in 2014, they decided to set up a winery in Deir El Ahmar which could also be used by the Cooperative. They secured the $1 million needed for the construction and equipment by taking loans from Kafalat and a private bank, selling shares (5 percent were sold to the Cooperative) and contributing some of their personal funds.

The winery, which is in its final stages of construction and will be ready to welcome guests in 2017, has been producing Coteaux Cedres and Couvent Rouges since 2014.   

Wines of Deir El Ahmar

Couvent Rouge produces 20,000 bottles per year and are mainly distributed locally in restaurants. Fakhri says they still want to enter the local wine shops and delicatessen market, as well as the export market through their website and online commerce.

But the duo is not in a hurry and want to play their cards right with their wine. “We want to finish the winery and so [we] are taking it slow. We want to be able to receive people [at the winery] and teach them about the wine; we don’t want to be present in the market just for the sake of being present,” says Fakhri, explaining that working with wine has taught them to be patient.

Fairtrade

Meanwhile, Couteaux Des Cedres has been going strong with 100,000 to 140,000 bottles produced annually. The Cooperative’s wine is Fairtrade certified and Fakhri himself has been appointed chairman of Fairtrade Africa and is a member of Fairtrade International.

According to Fakhri, Fairtrade provides an eager international market which he prefers to the saturated Lebanese market-centered in Greater Beirut. “Beirut is an interesting but challenging market since there is a wine culture, but it’s a small city with low consumption, even when compared to another small city abroad. We are aiming for more than that because we have a village behind us; we have many advantages. If we have the demand for it, we can go up to 600,000 bottles from one year to another because we have the village vineyards, so instead of selling the grapes to a winery that year we keep them for the Cooperative and produce more wine,” explains Fakhri, adding that it is currently distributing to the UK, Japan and Sweden.

The village’s label

While Deir El Ahmar’s growers may have embraced wine grape production, their alcoholic beverage of choice remains whisky.

In order to promote a culture of wine drinking and show the growers that there is more to their vineyards than just a source of income, the Cooperative introduced in 2015 an Arabic wine label El Day’a, fully labelled in Arabic, and made it available only in their region. “We wanted the villagers to have pride in their product and be aware of what they are doing in the process,” explains Fakhri, adding that the locals are enjoying that wine and consuming it on an almost daily basis, not just on special occasions.

With the satisfied farmers working with the Cooperative, the winery and the three wine labels, the Cooperative and its board can sleep well knowing that their initial dream of transforming Deir El Ahmar into a wine producing village instead of a hash producing one is well on its way to being realized.