PHOTOS: Kurdish woman a local winemaker for 50 years in Erbil’s Shaqlawa

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Making local wine in a small home distillery has been the main livelihood for 70-year-old Fakhriya Elia, a resident of the Kurdistan Region’s Shaqlawa district.

She has been making her own distinctive wine for 50 years. For this, she depends on her grape orchard, famous in the rural district of Erbil province.

From planting the grapes, to using her decades of expertise to decide exactly when they are perfectly ripe, to the finished glass of wine, she does it all herself.

“There are several phases and particular times to be picking the grapes, depending on the type of wine you are making,” Elia said as she inspected and harvested grapes that go into her famous dark wine.

“You need three to four kilograms of selected grapes to make a liter of wine, and you need to store it for a certain amount of time to have quality wine,” added Elia, as she mentioned that she also makes wine using several other fruits as well.

She uses traditional tools and methods without relying on modern equipment, content to continue doing she has done so well for the last half century.

Editing by John J. Catherine