Wines

Well, welcome to my premier blog from Morocco. Perhaps February of my first year was not the best time to start this. A better time would have been in August, but yeah, that happened.

Let's just get the obvious out of the way: Morocco is a Muslim country. Followers of Islam are not supposed to drink any alcohol. One of the many things I can remember other friends telling me about their experiences in Egypt was that there were very few type of alcohol available. Yes, I realize that Morocco and Egypt are two different places. In this entry I purely use the two for comparison purposes. I remember them telling me you could buy hard alcohol from the Christians, but that there was pretty much just a couple types of beer and a couple types of wine. Being that I have never been to Egypt, thus no direct experience, I tell you this and advise you to take it with a grain of salt. My friends easily could have been exaggerating.

Morocco for all intents and purposes is a very liberal Muslim country. Coming here and speaking with others who had lived in other Muslim countries, made me see how many freedoms and liberties we have in comparison with those who live in other countries. Here in Morocco, I am able to buy almost any type of liquor in most grocery stores and numerous small corner stores. Yes, the beer choices are not that great, but one thing that is big here is wine! Morocco also has a bit more of a lax attitude when it comes to the holy month of Ramadan. Numerous people I know were able to buy wine during Ramadan through some pleading, showing of passports and a couple SVP's (s'il vous plait=please).

Almost every time I go to one of the major grocery stores you can see locals investing in some bottle of wine. Wine is so popular here that Morocco even produces numerous wines! The majority come from the area around Meknes. The wine brewing tradition goes all the way back to the Romans. While I do not invest in wine that often as even a small wine costs around $7, I have tried a few Moroccan wines with mixed results.

I'm currently enamored with Les Celliers de Meknes' Beauvallon Rouge Beni M'Tir. While it is nothing special, I think that is exactly what attracts me to it! A "fail" for me was Volubilis. I just couldn't love it.

Are Moroccan wines available where you live? Would you try one if given the chance?

Here are some more links to check out regarding Moroccan wines. The link above is good, too, though is for the specific company, and not more in general.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/morocco/100120/morocco-winemakers
http://www.volubilis2000.com/morocco-wine-moroccan-wine.html