Lebanese puts art and soul into winemaking

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

KEFRAYA, Lebanon (Reuters) - In the early October sunshine warming Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, laborers snip deep purple grapes from the vines of Chateau Kefraya to complete what wine-maker Michel de Bustros reckons is a promising harvest.

Last year, there very nearly wasn't one.

War raged between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas for nearly five weeks until mid-August, threatening the picking season.

"It stopped just in time," said Michel Faky, a manager at Kefraya, as he drove up a track to the 300-hectare (741-acre) vineyard's highest point at 1,100 meters (1,202 yards) on the eastern slopes of Mount Lebanon. "Any longer and it would have been catastrophic."

This year there was no Israeli bombing to scare away the Kurdish and Bedouin workers who come each year from neighboring Syria to pick Kefraya's grapes for about $10 a day.

About 30 men, women and youngsters in worn but colorful clothes crouch among the green leaves tinged with autumn gold, filling boxes with juicy clusters to empty onto a trailer.

Used to coping with violence and instability, Kefraya has grown into Lebanon's second-biggest wine producer since de Bustros sold his first bottles in 1979, four years into a decade and a half of civil wars and invasions.

"I don't know if at that time it was wise to start. It seems wise now," the sprightly 78-year-old smiled as he watched grapes slide from the trailer into a churning press. "Not many people were starting any sort of business. It was really adventurous."