SOURCE: ANSA (ALFONSO NERI, AUTHOR) - SERBS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER FORGET WAR IN BOSNIA. ITALY HELPS RECOVERY OF DESTROYED VINEYARDS, THE COOPERATIVE IS WORKING

Zilavka and Blatina. These are the names of the will to live and work together in Bosnia, where Serbian farmers, Muslims and Catholics have recovered the vineyards destroyed by war and deliver their grapes to a Cooperative farm: to make one wine. It was impossible to make one’s own wine here, so the few who have tried to heal the wounds civil war has left are forced to sell the grapes to the few private traders and merchants and of course, at bargain prices.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has contributed to building a wine cellar using the technologies needed today to produce a quality wine. It is a small investment, but for the local farmers it would have been impossible. So, “Daorson wine” was created, which was presented at Vinitaly, the largest international exhibition of the wine industry, thanks to the Umbrian Caprai winery, which relaunched Sagrantino di Montefalco in the world.

“It is exciting to know that where until recently the land had been devastated by bombs,” said Marco Caprai, the wine grower who rediscovered the Umbrian wine Sagrantino, a landmark project in Italy and testimonial of the first bottles of ”wine of peace”, “today there are once again lush vineyards and people who care for them: sustainability means to support others in a recovery process where agriculture can play an extraordinary role”.
Of course when I went to Bosnia to see the status of the project and offer some advice,” remembers Caprai, “I found the situation was still difficult: 20-30% of the land, obviously not where the Cooperative is working, is at landmine risk”.

The Umbrian wine grower is now putting Italian distribution in contact with the Cooperative, which will soon be able to sell its first bottle of wine. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Italian NGOs, Cefa (European committee for education and agriculture) and Oxfam (Oxford committee for famine relief), are working on the project together and are supporting the production of three typical products of Herzegovina: honey, cheese and wine. The Cooperative is based in Stolac, an area of ancient winemaking traditions, where new vineyards were planted on 15 hectares of land, grafting cuttings were furnished (the young plant of the vine), as well as material for the support structures of the vineyard: poles and wires. Professor Leonardo Valenti of the Faculty of Agriculture in Milan that has always worked with Caprai and is the real motivator of the initiative offered his expertise, too. The 2010 grape harvest produced 200 liters of wine. Within a few years, when production of the new vineyards begins, they will be able to produce 1.000 hectoliters of wine.