Our European harvest tour actually started in Africa… in Tunisia in August 2017, where this time I was joined by a small camera crew to document the harvest in this fascinating country that sits at the crossroads of different cultures. With African, Arabic and Mediterranean influences, Tunisia is quite unique and offers a compelling exploration of one of the oldest wine countries in the world.
Wine production started in Tunisia over 2000 years ago and Carthage was one of the great sources of wine and viticultural knowledge during the times of the Phoenicians, Punics and Romans. This wine intel, developed in Tunisia, was taken by the Romans who spread it throughout Europe, giving birth to some of today’s most renowned wine regions. Tunisia was very much the seed of the wine world, and we hope that this short documentary will be the seed for a much larger video series visiting some of our other 80 Harvests destinations across the globe.
Without further adieu, here’s the documentary:
About the film – Around the World in 80 Harvests: Tunisia
We filmed over the course of a week during Tunisia’s wine harvest in August 2017 of viticultural, cultural and historical importance around the country.
The Crew
Gabriel Amiel – Camera, Direction & Edition
You’ll see a few nouns after Gabriel’s name, reflecting his multi-talented nature. Gabriel was our cameraman on location and edited and compiled the documentary in post-production. Aside from film, Gabriel has two major passions – travel and football. The former is what inspired him to join us in Tunisia, and the latter is what inspired him to make his own documentary on ‘The Other Maradona‘.
Marcos Ingenito – Executive Producer
Marcos is an experienced producer, and another football fanatic, from Argentina. On location, he also doubled up as our sound man (as you can see from the photo above). This isn’t his first rodeo in the world of wine, and he actively looks out for projects which will keep him well-watered on set, having previously worked on We, Somms, Familias del Vino, and other wine-related film productions with his own production company Egoland and with Cactus Cine.
Amanda Barnes – Creator, Writer & Presenter
Hello, it’s me! And I’ve given myself a few nouns here too. 80 Harvests is obviously my baby and I’ve been trying to convince a camera crew to join me in these exotic destinations for a while – they do a much better job than I can with my own amateur videos. As well as drinking plenty of wine on location, I scripted and structured the documentary post-production (while also drinking a lot of wine in Europe). Unlike the boys, this is my first rodeo in film.
Other 80 Harvests team members
Martin Eschoyez – Graphic Designer
If you’ve noticed our logo has had a bit of an update, that’s thanks to graphic designer and bonafide artist Martin Eschoyez. As well as snazzing up our logo, he provided wonderful animated graphics for the documentary.
Team of Translators
Thank you very much to Emiliano Velazquez, Alex Morozov and our own Marcos Ingenito for translating the subtitles into Spanish and French. It takes time and patience to listen to my voice over again, and again. If anyone feels inspired, please get in touch as we would love to translate the documentary into Arabic, Russian, German, Chinese… the list is endless!
Helen Conway
Thanks, as always, to the lovely Helen Conway who is our fastidious and dedicated sub-editor and also a regular writer for 80 Harvests. She has helped edit all the text surrounding our Tunisia trip.
Thanks to our many new friends in Tunisia
We had such a wonderful time meeting people in Tunisia and there are far too many to mention, but everyone we met was wonderfully hospitable and generous with their time, thoughts, and copious amounts of food! You can read my own thoughts on the generous terroir of Tunisia here.
In particular, we’d like to thank
- Kathy Bailey (who isn’t Tunisian, but is very much Tunisian at heart) who inspired us to go to Tunisia, organised and helped sponsor the trip. Check out Travis Wine Imports to learn more;
- Moaz from Ceptunes winery who drove us everywhere – and always with an eclectic soundtrack of reggaeton and Tunisian music;
- Domaine Neferis for showing us their vineyard on probably the hottest harvesting day of the last century, and sharing their wonderful wines and Tunisian hospitality with us;
- Ceptunes winery for showing us even more Tunisian hospitality with a great tasting of their wines at the winery and more delicious food;
- the Tunis Wine Tasting Club for hosting us one evening and sharing their own perspectives of how the industry has grown and changed – particularly including Edith Laszlo and Rym Jalali;
- Tunisia’s Ministry of Tourism, who set us up with our wonderfully informative and verbose guide in Carthage and also organised hotels across the different regions;
- Chef Mounir for sharing his passion for Tunisian cuisine and guiding us through excellent local dishes;
- Hamza Ayari who was an unexpected and wonderful guide in the Medina, I encourage you to check out his fabulous Instagram account;
- and all the other people we met on the road who helped us with insights and shared their stories with us (on and off camera).