Obermorschwihr (France) (AFP)

"It was in Alsace that I fell in love with wine": in France since 2016, Haroon Rahimi, a 24-year-old Afghan refugee, fell in love with this drink, which was banned in his country of origin and dreams of reviving with "forgotten" Alsatian grape varieties.

"The most difficult period of my life was when I had to leave Afghanistan. The mentality didn't appeal to me, I felt very lonely ... I couldn't find my place, my life was in danger. ", confides in perfect French this elegant young man with a fine mustache, originally from Mazar-i-Sharif (north).

On this sunny July afternoon, on the peaceful heights of Marbach Abbey, in Obermorschwihr (Haut-Rhin), the din of this war-torn country seems far away.

Haroon strolls peacefully in the vineyards of the wine conservatory that this former priory has housed since 2013: 80 grape varieties banned for decades, like Saint Sauveur d'Alsace or Laska Bleu, have been replanted there on an experimental basis.

It is in this corner of Alsace, that of the Wine Route, that Haroon put down his luggage with his wife, an actress of Strasbourg origin, and their two young children.

- "Nobility" -

They met at Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil where the young man, who arrived in France in March 2016 thanks to a visa, was accommodated, after spending some time with uncles in the Paris region and then in a hostel.

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Haroon, who was eager to integrate, enrolled in a hotel school in Paris, worked hard to learn French, juggled classes and odd jobs ...

Until the click, in 2016: during the end-of-year celebrations spent in Alsace with his in-laws, he put together a competition and came across "on a site that spoke of a grape variety + grenache noir +": "I got Said + that corresponds to me well this world. + I found there poetry, love, the nobility of the language of Molière ... "

He obtained a professional baccalaureate in Narbonne, then went in 2020 to the wine school of Rouffach (Haut-Rhin) where he has just completed his first year of BTS in viticulture-oenology.

It was there that he discovered the forgotten vines of Marbach Abbey, thanks to his apprenticeship master, Stéphane Bannwarth, a specialist in biodynamics and winemaking in Georgian amphorae, the kvevri.

This seasoned winegrower is also a member of Vignes Vivantes, an Alsatian association which brings together 115 winegrowers and campaigns for a better knowledge of soils and terroirs.

She was originally from the Marbach Conservatory in 2013.

The grape varieties that were replanted there were banned "in the 1930s" because "considered not to be qualitative enough", summarizes Isabelle Kuntzmann, coordinator of the association.

Another click for Haroon who, "without thinking", asks to vinify the grapes.

"I gave him carte blanche," Mr. Bannwarth recalls.

“Stéphane helped me, I was like a newborn child,” his student nuanced.

- "Show the way" -

In the end, three blending cuvées of natural wines - Haroon swears by them - successful, baptized "Noah", "Lune Rose" and "H'wwa" ("alive", in Hebrew).

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"Lune Rose" goes very well with a Qabali Palaw, an Afghan recipe made from rice, carrots, raisins and beef, slips into a Haroon smile.

Obviously, there is no question of marketing the 70 liters of this purely experimental micro-cru.

But a good trial run for Haroon, who now has a 10-year residence permit and wants to get into viticulture: "My future is in Alsace. My goal is to find land to plant forgotten grape varieties and (them) vinify ".

"I want to prove that we can make good wines with them", continues the young man, inexhaustible on the qualities of "resistance" of these grape varieties to diseases such as mildew, which is currently wreaking havoc in the vines, but seems to have according to him relatively spared those of the conservatory.

"Appropriate grape varieties for the future" because they are able to withstand climate change, he still maintains.

It will be difficult, tempers Ms. Kuntzmann: it will take a very long way with the French authorities to prove that they can be cultivated again.

Complicated, but "not unrealizable", she believes, however.

Haroon, he does not want to deviate from his path: "I want to give another image of young winegrowers who are not seraglio. I want to show the way".

And one day, why not, rediscover the taste of his first glass of wine, taken years ago in secret in Afghanistan ...

© 2021 AFP