Saint George Wine, Jordan – Omar Zumot

Though Jordan was one of the few regions to claim biblical origins for wine, it was nowhere on the world wine map.  Local wineries made their wines using normal grapes resulting in sub-standard quality.

We believe that Nature is the best engineer, since it has been taking care of vines for thousands of years. We decided to let nature take the lead. Our vineyard came to life in a patch of land in Madaba, near the historical Saint George Church, where we started growing the first wine grapes in Jordan.  In our three main viticulture areas, no pesticides or artificial nutrients were used for over 13 years. Instead nature balanced itself and gave us its exceptional bounty: Wines rich with flavor, depth, and complexity – wines with the true taste of Jordan at heart.

In our vineyards, lady bugs control aphids, wasps are nature’s pesticides, birds clean the vineyards of worms and pests, owls and falcons protect the vines and control smaller birds. Fish pond waters provide vine roots with the needed nitrates and nutrients and wild grass and thorns keep the soil rich, alive and aid with the rotation of the nutrients. Awassi sheep (a species native to Jordan) eat the vines’ dry leaves without hurting the trunk or grapes from November till early budding. Their saliva sterilizes vine trunks and their waste fertilizes the soil.

As a result, Zumot Vineyard received the Swiss IMO Certification for Organic Wine Grape Production in 2009 and in 2010 Zumot Winery received the Certification for Organic Wine.

Our wines, named after the Saint George Church near our first vineyard in Madaba, combine complexity, richness and depth. As we do not manipulate the character of our wine, each Saint George bottle is unique, filled with Jordan’s climate, soil, and spirit for that year.

From : EarthWine