One of Lebanon’s rising winemakers, Eddie Chami of Mersel Wine, is making his field blend in the dark. In a recent video Chami posted on his Instagram, he is in an unlit room around 10 pm, with sounds of trickling water in the back, his headlamp the only source of light, looking visibly exhausted.
“There is no power, there is hardly any life on the streets, I’m trying to make wine with a headlamp and that’s just how it is,” Chami says in the video. “I never in my harvesting career have been through what I’ve been through this year.”
Chami’s vineyards are at high elevations in the Bousit, Wadi Qannoubine and Maksar Mersel Regions in northern Lebanon. In the ongoing war, winemakers in the country did not expect the conflict to reach the north.
Chami says the Israeli military bombed the main road leading to his Mersel vineyard this week. He is mid-harvest, with Merwah, the most important indigenous variety in the region, still on the vines.
“I have to go through a road that’s further south,” Chami says. “What used to be a 45-minute drive is now a three-and-a-half-hour drive.” Moreover, he says the alternate road is unpaved and rugged, which makes driving harvest trucks on it difficult and a major risk.
“And even if a truck can go on the road, it looks suspicious. The drones are up in the air, always. They can shoot at the truck … Do you hear it, listen,” Chami says, as rumblings of airplane jets can be overheard during our phone interview. “I’ve lost count of days now.”
In our earlier report about Chami in April, the winemaker speaks of creating a Lebanese wine identity that transcends wartime conditions. Chami and his family work with more than 50 local grape farmers. He’s also helped a new generation of Lebanese winemakers launch their own careers, including Laila Maghathe of Love Letter, Abdullah Richi of Dar Richi and Amman Alsaqqaf of Cloud Amman.
“We never wanted war in our life,” Chami says. “But I think life continues during war, as hard as it may seem.”
Vast Uncertainties
Israel says it is sending more troops to southern Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, in response to the missiles fired by Iran at Israel. Chami says the north has taken in refugees fleeing from the south of the country. According to Lebanon's Health Ministry, more than two thousand people, including 127 children, have been killed over two weeks of Israeli strikes across Lebanon.
“The situation overall is unpredictable and scary. We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow or in an hour,” says Claudine Lteif, who, with Chami’s wife, Michelle, started a women-led production of Heya Wines in 2022. “We didn’t harvest all our grapes; the workers are afraid to work in the land.”
The winemakers are continuing with limited electricity and water, figuring out ways to harvest and press grapes, claiming the work is therapeutic.
“We spend the night just looking at the news,” Michelle says. “Working at the winery keeps us sane. It keeps us busy. Otherwise, it will break you apart.”
Chami says he may not get to pick some of his vines. He’s also losing out on shipments. An order of Mersel Wine headed for Singapore was halted because delivery trucks refused to drive to the winery in current conditions. Harvest festivals are canceled and restaurants have turned into community feeding centers.
The Lebanese-American wine educator May Matta-Aliah was scheduled to meet Chami at his vineyard on September 19. She flew in from New York City on September 17 and spent the day harvesting and tasting at Chateau Ksara, working her way through winery tours.
“At 3:30 pm, I’m in the tasting room and one of the girls comes in and says, ‘Have you seen what’s going on? There’s stuff blowing up. Pagers are blowing up.’” Matta-Aliah says. “And I said, ‘Pagers? Who has pagers?’”
That day Israel carried out detonations targeting Hezbollah by planting explosives inside thousands of pagers sold to members of the Iranian-backed group, according to Lebanese security officials. Similar walkie-talkie explosions happened a day later. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including children, and injured about 3,000 more, according to Lebanese health authorities.
“Beirut was chaos: it was unfolding as we were coming down,” Matta-Aliah says, who ended up rushing to the airport moments after harvesting at Chateau Ksara, missing her meeting with Chami. “I could get out, and that’s a privilege that a lot of people don’t have.”
Wartime Experience
Matta-Aliah adds that, unfortunately, winemakers have worked through war many times before.
“For some of the old timers, this is not the first time they’ve had to make wine in these conditions. This really is a throwback to the Lebanese civil war (1975 to 1990),” she says. “At the time, Musar was making wine, Ksara was making wine, even Chateau Kefraya. When you drink wine from those times, you’re drinking history.”
As for the current vintage, more than the impacts of terroir and climate, Chami says, 2024 will be “the year of gunpowder.” With the war taking new turns daily, it is hard to predict how much wine will come from the region.
“All our wines are like our babies. Sometimes you have a child who needs more attention. This is the same with this year’s wine,” Michelle says. “We know what we’ve gone through. It’s been tough and hopefully, we can come out and say we did it. You’re basically living minute by minute.”
More Wartime Coverage
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- Wine is political, according to this Ukrainian activist.
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Published: October 7, 2024
