Ophélie Neiman transcribed by Louise-Adélaïde Boisnard 4:56 p.m., December 4, 2021

To pay tribute to Riad Sattouf, the guest of La Table des Bons Vivants on Saturday 04 December 2021, Ophélie Neiman tells the story of the very last wine producer in Syria.

A strong commitment to maintain the thousand-year-old know-how of Syrian winegrowers in a country at war for ten years.

Syria is one of the oldest wine-growing lands in the world, wine production started there almost 6,000 years ago.

However, the activity has been fully subscribed with the civil war which has been wreaking havoc for ten years.

More than 350,000 people have died as a result of the conflict.

But a family decided to maintain this know-how at all costs: the Saadé.

18 hectares in the middle of the bombs

Johnny Saadé and his two sons, Karim and Sandro Saadé manage Château Bargylus in the north west of the country, in the Orontes valley.

The father created this domain, and another in Lebanon, the Marsyas castle, in 2004 and 2005. In Syria, the family trains around thirty people to take care of the production.

The grape varieties present are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot.

Except that in 2011 war broke out ... but the family resisted and continued to work.

No harvest has been forgotten since the start of the conflict.

The Château even exports 45,000 bottles per year to some thirty countries.

The craziest thing about this story is that the Saadé manage everything remotely because they live in Lebanon.

They lead their team by phone, video or WhatsApp.

Before each harvest, samples of the grapes from each variety and each plot are taken by taxi to Beirut for analysis.

Hold on despite the bad luck

Fate seems to be hitting these Syrian winegrowers at times.

Their offices were blown away by the port explosion in Beirut last year.

Johnny was seriously injured in the process and Sandro's leg was crushed.

However, they continued to manage the harvest from the hospital.

When Ophélie Nieman asked Karim Saadé why they were continuing, he replied: "Syria and Lebanon are countries where you can make great wines. So you have to produce excellence, whatever the crisis. It's gratifying. And then, it's our therapy, it's our way of overcoming the psychological shocks of life. "

A link with France

The vinifications of Château Bargylus are monitored by a French advisor, Stéphane Moreau, by videoconference.

Syrian bottles are also sold in France as at Alain Ducasse's restaurant Spoon.