(NYPost) - A drive northeast from bustling Casablanca — Morocco’s largest city — will lead you through land that’s beautifully lush: tall palms with deep-green leaves punctuate flat expanses thick with verdant grass.

Continue in this direction for 90 minutes and you’ll reach Domaine Ouled Thaleb — a 4,890-acre agricultural estate, where endless field workers dot the vast and similarly leafy terrain. I arrived at the peak of autumn’s harvest, and as I approached the laborers by foot, all I heard were the quick snips of scissors slicing plump grapes straight off the vine.

The fruit would neither be dried for raisins nor jarred for preserves. Ouled Thaleb, which was founded in 1923, is Morocco’s oldest winery. Those ripe purple grapes awaited their final destiny: to be juiced, fermented and ultimately made into wine.

You wouldn’t expect wine to be produced in Morocco, whose population is nearly 100 percent Muslim — a religion that strictly forbids alcohol consumption. But 40 million bottles are corked annually in the North African county (3 million of them at Ouled Thaleb alone), with 37 million of them ultimately enjoyed domestically. There are 15 Moroccan wine-producing regions stretching between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and together they make this northern African nation — along with Lebanon — the hottest spot for wine in the Arab world.

The nation’s wine industry is indeed on the rise, and its existence helps paint a fuller picture of Morocco as a modern and cosmopolitan destination. But as important as it is to experience Moroccan wine through taste, it’s equally as crucial to witness its production. Luckily, at Ouled Thaleb — located outside of the city of Benslimane — you can spend a day doing both.

First, have a guide whisk you through the farm by truck — weather permitting, of course — where you can drive among Ouled Thaleb’s 570 acres of planted vines, then step out for a close look. Nineteen varieties of grapes are grown here. Whites include the native faranah, plus sauvignon blanc and chardonnay; while merlot, syrah and grenache grapes help round out the list of reds.