the story
A Journey Back to the Roots
Sept Winery is, at once, “l’aboutissement” et le “début”: the answer to a long journey of pursuit and the first chapter of a new life of passion. A decade of daydreaming, questioning, and hard decisions finally leads to a dream project coming true in 2017. When Maher leaves to France at the age of 17, little does he know that his true destiny awaits him in the land of his father. While trying to make sense out of a fast-paced life in Paris, a new feeling of happiness slowly unfolded with every glass of wine he poured. Each glass was a moment of encounter, of exchange, of discovery.
The rural life of French winemakers living and sharing their passion every day, that’s the life he wanted. One shared over a good glass of wine. The vision becomes clear and the heart, full. Maher leaves his career in mathematics and returns to the roots, where the memories he cherished with his father were most alive.
where
The Village: Nehla
Nestled in the Northern mountains of Lebanon at 900m from the sea, Nehla is a small hidden
village that had been long unheard of. Like its neighboring villages, it is known for its old
wild-grown fig and olive trees and for its ancestrally-planted indigenous grape varieties.
Maher’s hometown, it is where he spent his best childhood moments playing in nature, walking
in the wilderness, picking grapes with his father, and learning from his grandfather and
grandmother all about agriculture. Recently home for Sept Winery, this little forgotten village
has become on the international map of wine tourism, attracting visitors from across the globe.
honoring the ancestors
The First Biodynamic
Vineyard in Lebanon
Reviving the land he inherited from his father was the most beautiful tribute he could give him, with each of the 5,000 vines he planted with his bare hands.
Maher’s dream project had yet another mission: to honor ancestral wisdom by endorsing ancient agriculture practices he learned in his village while growing up. This is how he transforms his terraces into the first biodynamic vineyard in Lebanon.
THE NAME
A Life-Path Number
With a core education in mathematics, numerology isn’t an unknown world to Maher. Yet, he only discovered the truth behind his favorite number when looking to name his brand. Number Seven - “Sept” in French - wasn’t randomly present throughout his life nor randomly inked on his wrist: 7 was his life path number.
The big discovery was when knew that he shared the same life path number with his father. As a spiritual seeker of life’s mysteries, Maher could not disregard the signs: there was no better than number seven to represent the intense metaphysical connection he always had with his father. “Sept” was born.