UNMIK ON AIR

02 October 2003

WINE MADE IN DECANI MONASTERY

(By Zoran Culafic and Sputnik Kilambi)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi

The monks at the Decani monastery have more than one trick up their sleeve – apart from communing with God and serving as intermediary for the faithful, they are also producers – world-renowned hand-painted icons, authentic beeswax candles, and of course, wine.

Wine making has been a central aspect of monastery life since medieval times – every monastery had its own vineyards.

The Decani monastery’s wine cellar is situated in Velika Hoxha, a Serb enclave near Orahovac/Rahovec, some 30 kilometres from the scenic town of Prizren. Wine producing in this region dates back to over 800 years – today’s wine store, explains Marko, the monk responsible for wine production, was built on the original wine cellar of the Serbian King Dushan. The story goes that a pipeline took the wine all the way to Prizren, no small feat all those centuries ago.

The Decani wine is famous for its lack of additives and sugar – it is also a kind of bridge between Serbs and Albanians.

Marko: Given the fact that Serbs here have no opportunity to sell their grapes on the market, they keep some of their harvest for themselves and bring us the rest. So we also meet their needs and buy all the grapes they offer us, if we need more, we buy it from our Albanian neighbors; on the other hand, Albanians have a lot of vineyards, but they have no market to sell it in. The wine cellar in Orahovac is in such dire financial straits, that the factory cannot afford to pay for the grapes, they haven’t been paid for 3 years now, so the Albanians are forced to come here and ask me to buy some grapes from them, which is normal trade. We don’t offer very high prices, but at least they get their money at once

Some 750 Serbs live in Velika Hoca today, down from a pre-war population of 1500. The villagers, explains Marco, work only 20 percent of their vineyards, because of security concerns.

Marko: they cultivate only the vineyards close to the village, and therefore safe. 80 percent of the vineyards are situated a bit far from the village and people dare not work on them for fear of attacks. Those vineyards are ruined and the Albanians come and steal wine poles, burn them or allow their cattle to graze there

Most of the wine produced by the Decani monks is sold in Serbia. There is much demand there, says Marco, from the monasteries and churches, especially for communion and family feasts.

The production capacity could easily be increased if the Velika Hoca villagers could also cultivate their wine yards – unfortunately, says Marco, they are being forced to sell of their wine poles because most of their land is not safe for Serbs.

Marco: That is very sad indeed, that they have no opportunity to cultivate their own vineyards and are obliged to get by anyway they can. They say, it’s better you buy it because we’ll never be able to work on that land again …the people are so demoralized and no longer hope that they we’ll be able to go back to work on their vineyards again, which are just one or two kilometers away from the village. People are working on the vineyards in the hills that you can see, those are safe, but the land on the other side is not safe and they do not go there.

Decani is not only known for its wine – it also produces top quality grape brandy, the famous rakija, the first drink served to you along with a glass of water should you visit the monastery.

Marco: We make grape brandy mainly from white grapes; we don’t use white grapes for wine, we buy them from the people of Velika Hoca who have different kinds of white grapes, mainly Smederevka …these are not appropriate for high quality white wine but perfect for good grape brandy and it’s very popular with the people.

You know, the rule is for monks to drink only two fingers of wine, that is half a glass. Ordinary people I think should drink one glass of wine after lunch, but not much more than that particularly our wines, which are very strong. This year they will contain over 15 percent of alcohol, it was a very good year for wine, lots of sun, little rain; so I can see even now that our wine will have an alcohol percentage of over 14 and maybe up to 16 percent.

All the more reason to consume the wine with moderation – as they say, one glass is fine, two glasses, well…. if you must, but look for the red light once you’re on your third!

That does it for this edition of UNMIK ON AIR.

Thanks for listening.