WINE > Domaine de Bargylus Vin Rouge, Grand Vin de Syrie 2014 (90/100)

It is not often someone says to you, I have a really interesting wine for you to try its excellent and it comes from Syria. Syria, like near Lebanon? War torn, beautiful, predominantly Islam country, I can’t even imagine how they could make wine there. Ok wow, for sure I would definitely love to try that.

The wine in question is grown high in the mountains at an altitude of over 900 meters over looking the port of Latakia in Syria’s north east. It is a blend of 60% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot. The grapes are hand picked and twice sorted in the winery before pressing. The crushed grapes start fermentation in stainless steel and the wine is then matured in French oak for 14 months (a third of which is new each year) and the result is delicious. A spicy and aromatic wine with layers of complexity and finesse.

The finest wine in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Jancis Robinson MW

VINEYARD

Brothers Karim and Sandro Saadé have developed the winery Domaine de Bargylus on the slopes of Mount Bargylus. It is a region that produced notable wines during the Hellenistic and Roman periods and right up until the rise of Islam.

The Saadé family started works on the winery in 2003 with the first vintage in 2006 and engaged the renowned French vineyard consultant Stéphane Derenocourt in the development.

The soil is predominately limestone with some clay with relatively high rainfall. Grapes grown in the vineyard are the Cabernet, Syrah and Merlot for this wine as well as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

 It’s dark black, almost opaque. There’s incense spice and rich black fruits; the palate, though, is dry, firm, authoritative, even brooding, with prominent acidity and firm tannins. The intensity of this fine, still-youthful red wine is almost electrifying. There have been seven vintages since, and it’s impressively consistent: more treats ahead. (2014)

Andrew Jefford, Decanter Magazine 2023

The story of this wine is of course so much more than just a delicious wine from a remote part of the world. Syria has in civil war since 2013 and at one point in 2014 the fighting came to within 200 metres of the vineyard. The Saadé family have been unable to visit the vines since 2011 but they have managed to run the vineyard and winery remotely.

Using taxis 125km from Beirut in the south they deliver wine barrels, receive early grape samples as the harvest ripens and duck around the ISIS patrols, miraculously they have not missed a vintage. The Saadé family home was located next to the port when the massive port explosion occurred in August 2020, with the house destroyed it took them an hour to crawl out of the ruins. But the wine making continued. In 2023 the Turkey / Syria earthquake hit and caused devastation in the homes around the vineyard impacting workers homes and causing major damage to buildings but the wine making continues.

Give up the vineyard? Many would have. Move abroad? ‘It never crossed our minds,’ ‘It’s about land, vines. It’s a commitment. You can’t put it on your back and just leave.”

Karim Saadé (Decanter 2023)

TASTING

Drinking this wine at the excellent V Wine Salon in Bourke Street Melbourne it was rich spicy with flavours of plum, black fruit and olives. Fig jam and cassis. Spicy gingerbread and cloves there is a lot going on in the glass. And it is not often you get to drink a wine with such an incredible story.

EAT > IDES, Melbourne