Casablanca Wine Scene

Morocco's cosmopolitan commercial capital has a sophisticated wine bar scene. Unlike most Islamic countries, Morocco never banned wine, and urban elites drink openly. Excellent access to all Moroccan wines.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand on the Edge of Rome's World History · Free

   Where: The old port district around Place des Nations Unies and Bd Sour Jdid — the area immediately beside Casablanca's ancient medina walls, a 5-minute walk from Rick's Café.

   What: You're standing on Anfa, a port that Rome occupied around 15 BC under Emperor Augustus. This was not a legionary fortress — it was a commercial waystation, the middle link in a trade chain that ran from Sala Colonia (the Roman naval port, now the ruins at Chellah in Rabat) southward to the Iles Purpuraires off what is today Essaouira. From those offshore islands, Roman merchants harvested murex sea-snails to produce the rarest dye in the ancient world: Tyrian purple. Not decorative purple — the specific shade that colored the stripe on every Imperial Roman Senator's toga. Every toga stripe in the Roman Senate passed through this port. A 2nd-century Roman shipwreck salvaged from this coast contained 169 silver coins. Rome's most remote African province, Mauretania Tingitana, ran along this Atlantic coast — and its effective southern control ended roughly here. Below this latitude, Rome traded but did not rule. Casablanca was the last real waystation before the edge of the known world.

   How: No monument marks this. That's the point. Face the Atlantic and look west. Rome's ships came from there. Look at the medina walls — the settlement under them is pre-Roman Berber, then Roman-era Anfa, then Islamic. Three civilizations stacked in the same dirt. The wine you'll drink tonight grows from soil 90 minutes inland, on the same Atlantic plain Rome's merchants crossed. Spend 15 minutes here before the evening begins. Let the scale of what happened here land.

   Backup: If the port area is too congested, walk to the Corniche waterfront promenade and look north toward the Hassan II Mosque's minaret — the 210-meter tower built by a Muslim king on the Atlantic Ocean, directly above the seafloor where Roman ships once anchored. Two civilizations. Same water.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Watch the Muezzin Call Echo Across Africa's Largest Mosque Adventure · Free

   Where: The exterior plaza of Hassan II Mosque — Bd Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Casablanca. The mosque is impossible to miss: a 210-meter minaret (60 stories, one of the tallest in the world) pointing skyward, built literally over the Atlantic Ocean on a promontory between the harbor and El Hank Lighthouse. GPS: 33.6086, -7.6326. Free to stand on the outdoor plaza.

   What: This is Africa's largest mosque and one of the world's most audacious buildings — 105,000 worshippers at capacity, its floor built partially over the sea, with a retractable glass roof that opens to the sky on special occasions. King Hassan II commissioned it in 1986 with a quote from the Quran: 'God's throne was built upon the water.' French architect Michel Pinseau designed it; the civil engineering firm Bouygues built it. The minaret's laser beam points toward Mecca from 210 meters up. Here's the thing nobody tells you: the mosque shares a neighborhood with Rick's Café, some of Casablanca's best wine restaurants, and the Corniche bars. The call to prayer drifts across the water while wine glasses clink two streets away. Morocco is not a place where Islam erased wine — it's a place where wine and Islam coexist with full awareness of each other. This is not a contradiction. This is Casablanca.

   How: Stand on the plaza as the Maghrib call (sunset prayer) sounds. The acoustics across the Atlantic are extraordinary — the sound travels out over open water and returns. Non-Muslims can enter on guided tours (140 MAD/€13, tours at 9am, 10am, 11am, 2pm, 3pm — no Friday morning tours). The exterior plaza is always free. From the plaza, look south toward the Corniche restaurants — the wine bars you'll visit tonight are visible from here.

   Backup: If you arrive mid-day, the interior guided tour (140 MAD/€13, book tickets at the museum entrance on-site) reveals the mosque's hammam, ablution halls, and the glass floor sections showing the sea below. Non-Muslims cannot enter without a guide.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Order the Wine Named After Rome's Ruins at the Bar That Never Existed Wine · Price: moderate

   Where: Rick's Café, 248 Bd Sour Jdid, Casablanca, 20110. GPS: 33.6053, -7.6203. Reservation absolutely essential — email weeks in advance via rickscafe.ma. Dinner from 7pm; lunch 12-3pm.

   What: Rick's Café Américain was a fictional bar in a 1942 film that was never shot in Morocco — the entire movie was filmed on a Burbank soundstage. The real Casablanca of 1942 was a city of wartime refugees, Nazi agents, and Allied intelligence. The film won three Oscars, became one of the most quoted movies in English, and gave the city an identity it had to build backwards — the real Rick's Café opened in 2004, built by an American diplomat named Kathy Kriger who wanted the city to finally have what the world assumed it had. The bar is a recreation of a set of a film about a bar that never existed. Order the Volubilis red wine. Volubilis is the name of Morocco's greatest Roman ruins — a UNESCO site 90 minutes north in the hills above Meknès, where mosaic floors still show dolphins and Bacchus, the god of wine. The wine named after those ruins, poured in the bar named after a fictional film, in the city built on a Roman port. Three layers of story in one glass.

   How: Moroccan wine bottles run 450-800 MAD (€45-80). Ask the server specifically for the Volubilis label — it's a Domaine de la Zouina red: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Tempranillo. Rich, smooth, mocha and concentrated red berries. The kitchen handles seafood and meat well (grilled sea bass, prawn starters). Cocktails start at 100 MAD (€10) — the French 75 is the film-era choice. Live piano most evenings.

   Backup: If Rick's is fully booked (common), La Brasserie Bavaroise (14 Rue Najib Mahfoud, near Marché Central) has been a Casablanca institution since 1968 — they specifically stock Domaine de Sahari vin gris, and the basement has a speakeasy called La Bodega.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Taste the Wine That Phoenicians Brought, Romans Drank, and France Almost Destroyed Wine · Price: low

   Where: La Brasserie Bavaroise, 14 Rue Najib Mahfoud, Casablanca 20250 (near the Marché Central). Open daily noon to midnight. A Parisian-style brasserie since 1968 — Casablanca's equivalent of a Left Bank institution.

   What: Vin gris. The wine style most associated with Morocco — not quite rosé, not quite white, a pale-pink pressed from Cinsault and Grenache grapes with almost no skin contact. Winemaking came to this Atlantic coast with the Phoenicians thousands of years ago, Rome amplified it, the Islamic conquest of the 7th century ended it, the French protectorate (1912-1956) rebuilt it at industrial scale (3 million hectoliters per year at its 1950s peak — Morocco was one of the world's largest wine exporters), and independence in 1956 triggered a collapse. In the 1990s, King Hassan II invited French investors and expertise back. The vin gris that La Bavaroise pours — Domaine de Sahari, €8-13/bottle, made in the Guerrouane region — is the direct heir to a winemaking tradition 2,500 years old on this soil. Ask for it by name: 'Domaine de Sahari Vin Gris.' Pair it with the oysters from Dakhla or the steak frites. If you go to the basement afterward, the speakeasy La Bodega plays music until late.

   How: Prices are moderate: brasserie-level, not luxury. The wine list covers both Moroccan and French options — tell the server you want something Moroccan. A glass of vin gris will be around 60-80 MAD (€6-8); a bottle 180-250 MAD (€18-25). The restaurant is open noon to midnight, 7 days.

   Backup: Any restaurant on the Corniche Ain Diab serves vin gris — it's Morocco's default white-fish pairing. Ask for 'vin gris marocain' and you'll get something local.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Watch the Hassan II Mosque Dissolve Into the Atlantic From the Oldest Restaurant on the Corniche Wine · Price: high · Optional

   Where: Le Cabestan Ocean View, 90 Bd de la Corniche Phare d'El Hank, Ain Diab, Casablanca 20050. GPS: 33.6079, -7.6553. Reservation recommended: +212 (0)522 39 11 90. A 10-minute taxi from Rick's Café or the mosque area along the Corniche.

   What: Le Cabestan opened in 1926 — it has been watching the Atlantic from this promontory beside El Hank Lighthouse for nearly a century. The Hassan II Mosque, built between 1986 and 1993, appeared in its view like a new neighbor. From your table, you're looking east toward both the mosque's 210-meter minaret and west toward open Atlantic. Order the gris de gris — Morocco's pale rosé — and watch the sky change. The moment as the last light hits the minaret and the sea simultaneously, and you have a glass of wine that Phoenicians first made on this coast, served in a restaurant that has been here longer than Morocco has been independent — this is the scene. This is what the Roman Odyssey ends on: the western edge of the ancient world, a wine culture that survived everything, and an ocean that goes all the way to America.

   How: Fine dining level — plan €50-80 per person for food and wine. The menu focuses on French-style refined seafood: fresh Atlantic sole, oysters, crustaceans. Ask for the Moroccan wine section of the list. If Château Roslane Premier Cru is available, order it — Morocco's benchmark red (Shiraz/Cab Sauv/Merlot, Atlas foothills) — with the meat course. Sunset times vary by season; ask the maitre d' which table faces most directly west.

   Backup: For a more accessible version of the same vista, the Corniche promenade (free walk) offers the same view from outside. The View Hassan II restaurant (nearby on the Corniche) is mid-range and specifically designed for mosque views — a solid alternative if Le Cabestan is full.

   Log Memory