Wine is thriving in Muslim Morocco

MEKNES, Morocco - The gently rolling hills planted thick with vineyards are an unlikely sight for a Muslim country partly set in the deserts and palms of North Africa. Yet the grapes, and the wine they produce, are thriving in Morocco despite Islam's ban on alcohol consumption.

Morocco has become one of the largest winemakers in the Muslim world, with the equivalent of 35 million bottles produced last year. Wine brings the state millions in sales tax, even though Islam appears to be on the rise politically.

"Morocco is a country of tolerance," said Mehdi Bouchaara, the deputy general manager at the Celliers de Meknes, the country's largest winemaker, which bottles over 85 percent of the national output. "It's everybody's personal choice whether to drink or not."

The Celliers have flourished on this tolerance. The firm now cultivates 5,189 acres of vineyards, bottling anything from entry-level table wine to homemade champagne and even a high-end claret aged in a vaulted cellar packed with oak barrels imported from France. The winery now dwarfs virtually any producer in Europe.

On paper, wine is Haram, or forbidden to Muslims. But Bouchaara said the firm's distribution is all legal since it only sells to traders authorized by the state, who in turn officially sell exclusively to non-Muslim tourists.

Statistics, however, show that Moroccans consume on average 1 liter of wine per person each year, and the Moroccan state itself is the largest owner of the country's 29,652 acres of vineyards.

The paradox illustrates Morocco's delicate balancing act.

The fast-modernizing country thrives on tourism and trade with Europe, but its people remain deeply conservative. The country's ruler, King Mohammed VI, is also "commander of the believers" and protector of the faith. Islamists authorized to take part in politics are the second-largest force in parliament, while support for non-authorized groups is believed to be even larger.

Despite this uncertain setting for wine culture, the Celliers' owner, Brahim Zniber, is one of the country's richest people. His group employs 6,500 people, nearly all of them Muslim, and revenues rose to about $345 million last year. Its three biggest sources of income are wine production with the Celliers de Meknes, hard-liquor imports, and Coca-Cola bottling.

Zniber's latest ventures include the new Moroccan champagne and plans to build a luxury hotel offering the country's first "vinotherapy" spa resort.

But the group has also tested the limits of the gray zone it operates in. The "wine festival" it helped promote in 2007 caused protests in nearby Meknes, a deeply religious city of 500,000 run until recently by an Islamist mayor.

"The festival was an unnecessary provocation," said Aboubakr Belkora, the former mayor who was slammed by his own Islamist group, the Justice and Development Party, for half-heartedly authorizing the gathering in the center of town.

Elected in 2003, Belkora was removed this past January by the Interior Ministry because of allegations of mismanagement and graft. He denies the accusations, saying they were politically motivated. Belkora doesn't think he was punished because of the wine festival, but he views authorities as wary of the Islamists' growing political clout.

"They don't want us to be too successful," he contended, noting that the administration picked his replacement from outside Islamist ranks.

The ex-mayor said that "for religious reasons," he uprooted about 250 acres of vineyards from his own fields but has no qualms with others making or drinking wine.

"There has always been an acceptance in Morocco, for wine, for homosexuality . . . you just don't need to advertise it," he said.

Others find some hypocrisy to the practice.

Hassan, a restaurant manager, who did not provide his last name, said he wasn't allowed a license to serve alcoholic drinks because he is Muslim. "But everyone knows we serve wine with our food," he said, pointing at the restaurant's patrons, both foreign and Moroccan, sipping their wine over dinner.

Another owner in Meknes, who also requested anonymity because of his practices, said he served wine in tinted glasses, kept bottles out of sight, and told clients to say they were drinking soft drinks if questioned.