Winemaking in the West Bank with Miriam Zouzounis of Terra Sancta Trading Company and Vicky Sahagian of Philokalia
On April 17, Pamela interviewed Miriam Zouzounis of Terra Santa Imports and Vicky Sahagian of Philokalia about winemaking in the West Bank, Gaza’s potential, and the impacts of war and occupation on Palestinian growers. You can listen to the entire 60 minute conversation or read an abbreviated version below.
Pamela Busch: Thank you so much for being here, Miriam and Vicki. Miriam can tell you tell everybody about Terra Sancta Wine Trading and the producers that you work with.
Miriam Zouzounis: Our portfolios are from the Eastern Mediterranean and Holy Land, the Levant to Armenia, and the Ancient World Wine Region. We're a small importer that focuses on indigenous grapes from those historic wine regions and processes that date back into our traditions and our cultures and are really the heart blood of our hospitality as Arab and, Southwest Asian, North African peoples. We really reiterate the high value of the wine that our Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian-made, and Palestinian American diaspora-made wines in these ancient regions. And with these indigenous varietals, how exquisite they are, and how they're received in the US market is really where we're at now. And we're so thankful, Pamela, for giving us a platform again. And it was great to chat with you on the radio a few weeks back as well. So that's kind of the short and sweet of Terra Sancta Trading Company and what we're excited about moving forward.
Vicky Sahagian: Thank you for having me. I work in Philokalia since 2016. I was a teacher for 12 years at Beit Jala, an American school. When I tried the wines I was like blown away because I never knew that good wine would make you feel this way. My first encounter with a really good wine made me think about it for days and days and days. And then, I had the courage and I texted Sari (Sari Khoury, Philokalia’s founder), and I said, “You know what, please, can I help you with this project?” I was lucky enough to really understand that winemaking is not only about making wine; it's a means to live your life, to evolve, and to have an impact on your society and even on the world.
This has been my philosophy working in the winery, that I always want to bring the best of what we can offer in this region, or at least in these circumstances, to the world. It gives me a lot of pleasure, just the idea of doing that. I feel that Philokalia is very unique. First of all, it's a natural wine. Our wines are (made) without any sulfites or any additives; they're alive. And you would think that I'm very naïve when I say this: our wines live with us, and they interact with us. Every time I open a bottle, you see the wines are celebrating with us.
Sari Khoury and Vicky Sahagian of Philokalia
Pamela: Why does Philokalia say indigenous grapes but doesn't divulge which ones?
Vicky: That's a good question and, honestly, everyone asks me, but the answer is very simple. Sometimes, a surprise element is the best element. Why do we have to always a (have) predetermined taste? If I tell you or the consumer there’s this kind of an indigenous group, he would not understand what I'm saying. So it's always, sometimes better, to let them discover the wine and evaluate the wine as they drink it. It should be a surprise to you because a lot of times, you have expectations out of that bottle and out of that grape, and sometimes you're disappointed. So it's better not to have any expectations, to be surprised fully.
Pamela: Will you tell me what the grapes are since I've already tried it?
Vicky: No, I would not tell you because I think that it's our R and D (research and development), and it's a research of Sari’s the last eight, nine years with these grapes. I feel that he has a lot to say about the grapes when it is time. We have one of the largest research about indigenous grapes in the area. It’s always nice to share your knowledge, but it has to be the right time.
Pamela: Can you talk a little bit more about the history of winemaking in the West Bank now, especially the modern history and the challenges you face?
Vicky: I believe that these years, let's say five, six years, there's this renaissance of winemaking in the West Bank. I think we're like six, seven wineries. There are a lot of challenges because, let's say Philokalia - we don't have any access to water and irrigation. We can't have a shed. So, whenever he wants to work in the land, he has to bring all his tools, and everything in the car.
It’s very challenging to have a vineyard or to have anything working in the West Bank because of all the political situation. When the war started, we were banned to go to the vineyard until recently. And for the last six months, not even us, the farmers, anyone that had land to cultivate or to prepare for the next vintage or the harvest, we didn't have any access to our vineyard. There's a settlement (Israeli) with a vineyard, and they had access to their vineyards. So, there are a lot of challenges, but it is what it is. We try to find, let's say, ways to bypass that and to make the best out of it because our intention is always to make the best out of what we can and not let anything like this affect us. I mean, it affects us, but, not to let it affect us in an extreme way.
Pamela: How would you say occupation has impacted winemaking for Palestinians throughout the entire area?
Miriam Zouzounis of Terra Sancta Imports
Miriam: I think Vicki's narrative of their experience in Philokalia, making wine in Bethlehem, and trying to really bring a new level of excellence and really a renaissance based on our own history. And I think that's what's happening with the region as a whole. Our types of traditional spirit and winemaking traditions are becoming the trend: natural indigenous wines, looking towards a new climate sustainability, adapting to what the land gives you, and reproducing something back for that community, and building up that community. The European grapes, the European traditions, and even the European blights, like phylloxera, was brought to Palestine, and the indigenous varietals withstood it, but a lot of agricultural lands were destroyed. I mean, we're seeing occupation and ethnic cleansing on these historic lands as well. You will see new wine projects that are very much occupier narratives. I mean, that's how Palestine was settled initially; it’s “let's replant a land that's barren.” You know, like this narrative is embedded in the trauma we have in this industry. And so I think there's a reclamation of that ancient wine tradition that really is ours.
Vicky: I can add also that winemaking was part of this region. If you go to France, at the Louvre, you will see that Gaza was making wine. There are jars there called Abydos jars, and this is referenced from the French themselves. When the Ottomans came for 400 years, they eliminated the wine culture. And then, there was English with their kind of alcohol, which was the whiskey. And wine making became something that people forgot about until recently, and you realize that you have such a rich land and you have grapes, and you have a land that can produce the best wines.
Pamela: Would you say colonization has had any positive impacts on wine making specifically? For instance, has it increased access to equipment or information?
Miriam: I feel like Vicki can definitely speak to how there's not equal access to what is imported into Israel in terms of the economic apartheid that domestic producers there are dealing with. I can speak to the obstacles we even face with importing products from the region and how we're allowed to label them as opposed to Israeli other regions, which are very intentional about labeling an appellation. We don't have that luxury to actually be able to name them what they are on a label when we import into the United States, and that's because (of) State Department and other agency regulations and what they designate territories are, right? It is actually restricting a lot more than it has given us access. I mean, we have a market that is now interested in who we are, but we have to maintain our dignity in those conversations.
Pamela: Can you give examples of how you're restricted in what you can say?
Miriam: Sure. So, we're not allowed to say product of Palestine on any of our products. We have to go through several different agencies and to abide by the designated terminology and categories. There’s changing definitions around settlement products depending on the political climate and leadership in the United States. So, these are constantly moving goalposts of compliance. The Food and Drug Administration in the USA is now requiring our producers to have FDA numbers. They're not domestic producers, but now these things are required. So, there's a burden of compliance that also gets mixed up with the economic apparatus of the occupation, right? Because Israel now gets to mitigate all these layers of compliance. That means more money. That means third-party businesses that are now having to interact with our producers. And getting the paperwork in order, let alone the arbitrary shutting down at commercial checkpoints. That happens all the time.
Vicky: Bethlehem is dependent on tourism. When the war started or when there’s ongoing issues that are happening around here, it affects the economy and affects the tourism. It affects the restaurant business. And people won't buy wine. Wine is a luxury for them, you know. We are lucky that Terra Sancta is helping us bringing the wines to the US, at least. You diverse your market when things are not going very well in your region. I like people to buy the wine not because of emotional, how do you say, they want to help. I want also for them to understand that this is a good product, that it is worth their money. And it is a product that they should remember to buy it again and again and again. Because there's a lot of hard work in that wine.
Pamela: Vicki, are there other natural wine producers on the West Bank right now?
Vicky: No. We are the first winery to work with indigenous grapes. Cremisan also works with indigenous grapes, but not totally. We are the only winery in the region (that) works with indigenous grapes because we want wine to complement our food.
Pamela: How widespread is organic farming in the West Bank?
Vicky: I'm not very knowledgeable of that aspect of the work, because Sari takes care of the farming, and the vineyard. We always say that they didn't have any pesticides 6,000 years ago, and they still were growing grapes. How come now we need all this pesticide? So, there’s ongoing discussion every time we are at the vineyard when we are working with the grapes.
Pamela: Miriam, you mentioned that since October 7th, things have really changed a lot for the growers in the Golan, too.
Miriam: There’s Israeli vineyards in occupied Palestinian and occupied Syrian lands. We have Palestinian producers that are in the Galilee, so in the north, near the border of Lebanon. So, they are experiencing similar situations to what Vicki and Philokalia are in Bethlehem in terms of the proximity of the illegal Israeli settlements to their vineyards, creating militarized zones that prohibit their access. And settler violence, which is increased in the West Bank in what we call 1948 territories has increased parallel to what the escalations Gaza have been settler attacks on land and periphery communities, community surrounded by encroaching settlements. So, militarized zones and the increasing the encroachment of those are a very common tool of the is Israeli occupation.
In terms of acquiring more land, Cremisan, as Vicki noted, are an institution. They're not just a small plot trying to do high-level, experimental kind of piloting of, of growing. They're an institution, and they still had the Israeli apartheid; the security wall goes straight through their lands in an attempt to cut them off from their estate vineyards. And the Vatican had to get involved in order to kind of push that checkpoint line a little back. So what's happening now is not new, but it is impacting; we lost an olive harvest. And, if you look at our producers and their social media, they're speaking very clearly about what's happening in terms of their fear of losing a harvest for this upcoming year because of their inability to tend to the land. If you even do have access, it's a matter of fear and operating still in a militarized situation. So, that's the reality. And our producers in, in the Galilee are facing the same problem.
Vicky: Yes, there's this constant danger that you go to the vineyard, you don't know if you're going to work or not, if you're going to be approached by soldiers or not, or settlers or not. So, it's very bad actually.
Pamela: Miriam, you mentioned that Gaza has incredible potential, too. Do you mind just talking about that a little bit?
Miriam: I can talk about it from my perspective. I'm a Palestinian Christian that grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church. Wine is a sacrament. We've partaken in wine, and wine production is something that has always been part of the historic legacy of the Christian communities in the region, including Gaza. So, there probably is some small degree of production going on there, whether that is important to focus on in this context or not; I think it's important to recognize that what is happening in Gaza is strategic because of the fertile nature of the land, because of the proximity to the water.
For all Palestinians, Gaza represents light and our future because it represents the steadfastness of us and our connection to the land. When you go to the region as a whole, you can kind of very easily tell who understands the importance of the relationship to the land. You'll see young kids on birthright trips from somewhere in the USA, and they're throwing olives at each other or something. You don't understand that as an appreciation of the land. I think I mentioned that Israel already has 70% of its agricultural production in the lands right outside of Gaza. The US’s goals to build a port there are very tied to the land, but who knows how to operate on that land, who knows how to tend to that land? Our Palestinian farmers represent our culture. I mean, that is one of our cultural symbols and it's also one of our symbols of resistance. And I think I had told you that they had found, and Vicki mentioned as well, remnants of amphoras in Gaza. This was an ancient winemaking region, and it continues despite the ecocide that is happening right now. It will always be a fertile land and signify that for Palestinians.
Vicky: I just remembered that there’s a Palestinian artist, his name is Nasser Soumi. He helps us with the labels. He just finished a book of 40 years of research. It’s about 40 years of wine in the region, and he included Gaza because Gaza's merchants were selling wine to Bordeaux. And this is according to the French archives. Again, there's a lot of richness in this land. Although the book is written in French, it is going to be translated, hopefully, into English. It’s called Le Vin et la Palestine.
Pamela: Are there any collaborations or information sharing between Palestinian and Israeli winemakers and growers, and if so, has it changed over the last six months?
Vicky: I could say that there was none from the beginning, and it did not change anything in the last six months because from the beginning, collaboration is with two equal people, with people who have equality to land, to water, to facilities, and we don't have that from day one. No, I'm sorry to tell you that we don't have any collaboration.
Miriam: The example I gave you in our first interview was about Ashkar Winery. They’ve had to buy back their ancestral town, their ancestral family land, the grapes from those vineyards, from Jewish settlers, Israeli settlers on the land, on their land. So that's an example of forced collaboration where they wanna be making wine in their historic town, but this was the only way they were able to access their own land. Also, you see, Israeli wine projects are not doing what we're doing. They're not using indigenous varietals. They're not creating something that's based on the sustainability and sovereignty of the land.
Pamela: How has or how is climate change impacting winemaking in the West Bank?
Vicky: We try to make wine according to the grapes of that year. These decisions, Sari takes them. But he evaluates the grapes according to the climate. But again, because we work with indigenous and indigenous grapes are very strong, they can survive climate change. Let's say if there's extreme heat, the roots of the vines are very strong that they can handle these things.
Pamela: Miriam, have any of your other producers talked to you about how climate change is affecting them?
Miriam: Our Lebanese operations have moved completely into the mountains. They're high-elevation wines now and some of the highest-elevation wines in the hemisphere. The valleys are getting hotter. Because of the dry farming, it requires you to make sure all the factors are in place. It's taking a lot more intentionality and long-term planning for our producers. I think the harvests are coming early. We'll taste it in the new vintages that we're going to see from some of the higher altitude, vineyards and what they're trying to learn in this new climate and new terroir. It's gonna be very interesting.
For more information, please visit https://terrasanctaimports.com or @https://www.instagram.com/terra_sancta_wines_and_spirits/ on IG, https://terrasanctaimports.com/product-category/palestine/philokalia/, https://www.instagram.com/philokalia_wines/