Viticulture in Morocco

The viticulture in Morocco and the planting of the primary vineyards date back to the Phoenicians and the Roman colonisation. In precedent days, the main centre of wine production was concentrated around Volubilis, within the region of the present-day city of Meknes.

Morocco stays considered one of the last lands wild vines on earth. As early as antiquity, Pausanias the Periegete noted that the inhabitants of Lixus, a city founded by the Phoenicians on the appropriate bank of the Loukkos wadi, consumed the fruit. Louis Levadoux indicates that ‘The Berbers don’t neglect this complement: when autumn comes, the people of Guergour go high up into the forests of the Atlas to select the grapes from the trees, which they eat fresh or dry on racks’.

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The ampelographer was in a position to find, within the valley of the Oued Titria, these lambrusques referred to as Aneb djalia. He notes that “Some of them bear a powerful resemblance to the grape varieties cultivated by the Berbers”.

The first wines were produced across the second century BC through the installation of Phoenician and Greek trading posts.

It was the Roman colonisation that developed viticulture in Morocco, allowing the wines of Mauritania to be presented on the patrician tables. This province corresponded to the northern a part of present-day Morocco. It prolonged from the north, to Salé , to Volubilis within the south, and to the east within the Oued Laou river. The important cities were Volubilis, Tingis (Tangier), Lixus (Larache) and Tamuda (Tetouan).

The Muslim conquest didn’t make the North African viticulture disappear. It privileged the table grape. The Moroccan, Islamized, Berbers, after they arrived within the Iberian Peninsula, brought their varieties. One of those remains to be cultivated in Andalusia, it’s the white Faranat of Tunis, known in Spain as Majorcan. In Al Andalus, many Muslim agronomists described viticulture, different Andalusian grape varieties and their cultivation methods. The vineyards continued to provide wine, to which was added palm wine, comprised of dried grapes and thought of not prohibited. All the emirs and caliphs of Moorish origin were great drinkers and the palaces of Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Medinaceli and Almeria were famous for his or her wines and the drinking that took place there.

In Morocco, the varied Muslim rulers tolerated the Jewish communities that resided of their neighborhoods, the mellah. It was there that Jews could drink wine but were forbidden to sell it. Many had their very own vineyards. Al Hasan Ibn Muhammad Al Zayyati Al Fasi Al Wazzan, referred to as Leon the African, noted in 1525 that in Taza, this was the case for five hundred families. The communities settled in Demnate, Mogador and Marrakech had the identical rights of ownership and vinification.

The same licenses were granted to resident Christians. Firstly, to the Sultan’s mercenaries, a militia that had been created as early because the seventh century, and secondly to the consular corps. At the start of the fourteenth century, the members of the Genoa Consulate had Fondouks in Ceuta, Arzila, Larache, Salé and Anfa. The taverns there sold wine from the countries of the northern Mediterranean. In the statutes of Marseille, 1228, it’s mentioned that the Manduel sell wine from Provence in Ceuta. Leon the African, within the sixteenth century, estimated the variety of these drinking establishments in Fez at 2 hundred. He also noted that “some men had wine on the market of their homes, and every man could use it in peace without the court taking offense.

In Portuguese Morocco (August 15, 1415 – March 11, 1769), the Portuguese planted vines after they settled in Azemmour, Safi and El Jadida, a foreshadowing of today’s Doukkala vineyards.

For the Moroccan Jewish community, wine production continued until the twentieth century. Vines were grown within the gardens. However, it was reported that at the top of the protectorate the standard of this kosher was unsatisfactory: “Kosher red wine is abominable, especially the Dahlia wine made by the cousin Salomon Amar. There is not any valid kosher wine production.”

With the colonization of the twentieth century, the French developed viticulture in Morocco in addition to in Algeria and Tunisia. As phylloxera had ravaged many of the European vineyards by 1875, vineyards were created in North Africa by French merchants to produce themselves with wine. They were quickly joined by their Spanish and Italian colleagues.

In Morocco, the selection of land was preponderant and the vines planted within the sandy soils of the Chaouïa, Trifas and Sahels regions were proof against disease, because the insect couldn’t live within the sand. Some French grape varieties were grafted, the culture became intensive and, from 1880, whole boats arrived in Europe loaded with grapes. It was from 1905 that the primary pinardiers left Casablanca and unloaded in European ports.

Four grape varieties had been chosen as being probably the most suitable for the terroirs to provide the specified wines. These were Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault and Alicante Bouschet. This was the start of the mass production of Moroccan viticulture and the era of high grade medical wines utilized in mixing. Before the First World War, 80,000 hectares were cultivated with vines, which offered them a big outlet. Production was then based on volume slightly than quality, with many Moroccan wines being sent to Languedoc to counterpoint the alcohol content of the mass production of table wines on this wine region. Hence the selection of grape varieties from the Midi and Spain, large producers, introduced by the colonists

In 1923, a Belgian company arrange a winery near Ben Slimane, within the Casablanca region. The first harvest took place in 1927. This was the start of recent Moroccan viticulture. Thalvin-Ebertec is the owner of this estate and bears the name of Ouled Thaleb.

In this era of prosperity, the vineyard area exceeded 55,000 hectares with a production of three,500,000 hectoliters. Domains of several hundred hectares around Meknes, Rabat, Tiflet and Khemisset. The cellar of Aït Souala, in Meknes, stays the witness and symbol of this euphoric period.

By the top of the Fifties, the world planted with vines exceeded 65,000 hectares and more controlled yields had reduced production to three,000,000 hectoliters.

In 1956, with independence, the Moroccan kingdom inherited these wineries and vineyards, but viticulture reduced its hold for each cultural and non secular reasons.

In addition, in 1967, the Treaty of Rome prohibited the mixing of European community wines with those from abroad, and Morocco lost this market and faced a crisis of overproduction.The vines were uprooted and the cellars closed, the viticulture fell into decay.

However, this measure gave a recent impetus to Moroccan production, they’ve forced wine growers to desert the majority to show to the bottle. This was the looks of recent production units where they made more qualitative grape varieties as chardonnay, roussanne, syrah, cabernet…

In the early 2000s, 12,000 hectares were cultivated for a production of between 350,000 and 450,000 hectoliters.

The region of Meknes alone representing nearly half of the Moroccan vineyard. This period is marked by the arrival of the French Castel and the creation of the Domaine de la Zouina. The official laboratory for chemical evaluation and research for wine is situated in Casablanca. Since then, Morocco is a member of the International Organization of Vine and Wine. In 2008, it produced 35 million bottles.

Since 2011, the brand new government , has created one other political climate that’s less favorable to wine consumption by Moroccans themselves. The increase in taxes on alcoholic beverages had a nasty effect, since 85% of the production locally.

Despite this restrictive policy, wine stays a booming economic sector, with a production of over 40 million bottles per 12 months. This makes Morocco the second largest wine producer within the Arab world. In addition, the wine sector generates 20,000 jobs and brought, in 2011, 130 million euros.