Vineyards being tended at Château Kefraya in the Bekaa Valley.
Whilst in Lebanon I was surprised to find a broad range of grapes being used and more innovation than I had expected. I was especially excited by the use of Iberian grapes and I wrote an article for Catavino.net, the Iberian wine page.
You can read it by clicking here.
2009 Domaine Lupier El Terroir Garnacha
Bodegas Domaine Lupier, San Martín de Unx
Navarra, Spain
At first glance this wine might appear to be French – Domine Lupier might imply that – but actually it’s Spanish, from the under appreciated region of Navarra. What’s more, although it doesn’t say so on the label it is from the cool and mountainous Baja Montaña sub-zone.
The highpoint of Domaine Lupier, vines at 700 metres.
This producer only makes two wines, but they are both great. Both are red and both are Garnachas, but Garnachas with a difference. These are mountain Garnacha / Grenache, cool climate, Atlantic influenced Garnacha / Grenache and the difference shows. I have written about their top wine before, their Domaine Lupier La Dama – read about it towards the end of this long piece about Navarra – and it is a magnificent wine. Their ‘second wine’ El Terroir is also superb though and is more affordable too.
Map of Navarra – click for a larger view. High-res non-watermarked versions of my maps are available by agreement.
Since I first wrote about their wines I have met the owners – Enrique Basarte and Elisa Úcar – and they are as delightful as their wines. You can see their passion for their vineyards and their wines when they speak and that passion clearly ends up in the bottle. It is an amazing story too, Enrique and Elisa wanted to create a winery project of their own. Both have a deep appreciation of Garnacha and dreamed of finding a plot of old vine Garancha that they could nurture back to productive life. Spain has more old vine Garnacha / Grenache than anywhere else, but they are sadly declining. Eventually the search brought them to San Martín de Unx where the altitude and conditions really excited them and they managed to buy 27 tiny parcels of all but abandoned vines, some of which were planted in 1903 – the average age of the domaine is 76 years old. These were free standing bush vines growing at different altitudes between 400 and 750 metres above sea level, on different soils and with different orientations.
Elisa and Enrique in their vineyards.
Enrique and Elisa really wanted to ensure the vines were returned to perfect health and a balance with nature, so decided to farm using the biodynamic approach. This is sustainable and ensures that the vines get the attention and care that they need and personally I think that is the secret with biodynamics. I really do not know whether farming by the biodynamic calendar, or using various biodynamic preparations really works, but am willing to bet that the fact that it is so labour intensive that Enrique, for he is the viticulturist, is working in their vineyards everyday, inspecting and nurturing every vine, makes a massive difference to the finished wine. I have certainly never tasted Grenache like these and 2009 is only their second vintage released.
El Terroir comes from the lower slopes, between 400 and 600 metres above sea level, everything is hand picked and the wine was aged for 14 months in mixture of 500 litre, 300 litre and more normal 225 litre French oak barrels.
The wine
The colour is deep purple, but bright and vivid, not dense and not totally opaque.
The nose is fragrantly rich with sugar plums, fresh plums, sweet spice, earth and chocolate, while the palate is a joyful mix of rich plums and cherries, cherry stones, clove, anis and spicy oak. The fruit is succulent and juicy, but not even slightly jammy, in fact it is like succulent fresh fruit, red and black cherries with some raspberries thrown in that mingles perfectly with the earthy mineral characters. Also there is a lovely freshness and balance about the whole thing that makes it feel bright and elegant.
I have a sneaking suspicion I drank this a few years too early, as for a Garnacha it is very tight and firm in the tannin department, but hey it’s already delicious. If you want it softer give it 2 to 3 years more.
We are always told that old vines produce more intense flavours. Well this kind of proves the point, but it also proves another point, which is that old vines also have better inbuilt balance as they ripen with less sugar than younger vines – don’t ask me how, I’m not a scientist, but it is the balance that makes this wine so exciting and so delicious. A triumph – 91/100 points.
Available in the UK for around £15 per bottle – stockist information is here or from Fields, Morris & Verdin, their UK distributor.
2012 Janare Colle di Tilio
Fiano Sannio D.O.C./D.O.P.
Campania, Italy
This rather confusingly, but elegantly, labelled wine was a great find as it is utterly delicious, effortlessly classy and goes with fish perfectly.
It is made by La Guardiense which is a large cooperative in Italy’s Campania region, Benevento in fact, where a great many exciting wines seem to be made – read about more here. Their main label is the stylishly packaged Janare range whose aim is to protect the local grapes – especially the wonderful Falanghina and Aglianico and to perfect modern style wines made from them. The Janare Cru range of wines, of which this wine is part, come from specific places so are more terroir wines than varietal wines.
wine map of southern Italy – click for a larger view
Fiano is a wonderful grape that comes from Campania and it usually offers nice weight and roundness, even some waxy characters as well as lovely aromatics, often with a honeyed and floral quality. Apparently Fiano was originally called Vitis Apiana, which means vine beloved of bees. The grape is traditionally famous for producing Fiano di Avellino D.O.C./D.O.P. wines, well Sannio is just 12 km or so to the north of there and shares similarly volcanic soils to produce enticingly mineral, yet rich wines.
It is unusual for me to be confused by a wine, but none of the terms on the label are explained at all, so if I had not known that Fiano was a grape I would have really been struggling. So, it needed bit of decoding, Colle di Tilio is an area in Sannio which was a historical and geographical region of Italy, inhabited by people known as the Samnites in Roman times. Today it is the region around Benevento in Campania. As the wine is made in Sannio from Fiano it is a Fiano Sannio D.O.C – D.O.P. in the modern parlance.
None of which matters at all. All that is important is, do I like and do I think you will?
Well, yes, I do like, enjoy and admire this wine – I think it’s really rather fine.
The nose is aromatic, floral and lemony with lemon pith herbs and enticing stony mineral notes together with that touch of honey so beloved of bees.
Actually it smells like a being in a garden in the Mediterranean in summer.
The palate gives a wonderful combination of crisp mineralality, lively, bracing acidity and some texture, rich lemony fruit which means it has poise, elegance, richness and a bracing quality, all of which makes it dry, medium-bodied and full-flavoured.
All that means balance, finesse and elegance and it is a lovely dry white wine and quite superb with a bit of swordfish – 89/100 points.
Which brings me to where you can buy it:
The Wine Society stock it for the stunning low price of £8.95 – hence the high mark.
If you are not a member of the Wine Society then Jeroboams sell it for £12.50 per bottle, which is still well worth it.
I hope you like this new Wine Of the Week feature, let me know? I will try and publish a weekly post about anything interesting that has come my way, please leave a comment.
There is so much wine available from so many different places that it must be hard for most casual wine drinkers to decide what to drink. Which is presumably why so many people I know stick to a very narrow range of favourites.
There is no need to get stuck in a rut though, even with tried and tested wine producing countries or companies. Here are details of four delicious and exciting, for different reasons, white wines that have come my way of late. At first glance on the shelf they might not seem all that different, the first two are from the famous and always excellent Villa Maria in New Zealand while the second pair are from Chile, one made by Álvaro Espinoza in the Casablanca Valley and the other by Errazuriz.
What sets these wines apart and makes them a little different and exciting is that they are made from slightly more unusual grape varieties, or in the Chilean case blends. I love championing less famous grapes as there is a great deal of pleasure to be found in many of them and so I think it is a great shame that so many drinkers limit themselves to such a tiny palate of grapes. There are hundreds of grape varieties out there and many of them can make very good wine indeed.
All it needs is to be slightly adventurous and try something new. I always tell my students that at least once a month they should buy a bottle of wine that they have never heard of or thought of drinking before, that way they experience lots of new things. In addition I tell them to buy at least some of their wine from a proper independent wine merchant, which can give advice and usually stock the more interesting things too.
It is so good that wine producers are still trying to offer consumers wines that are a little bit unusual and more interesting than the normal run of the mill wines that fill the shelves. Especially so as both New Zealand and Chile have long focussed on a narrow range of commercially successful grapes, so it is good to see such exciting experimentation. In recent months I have also seen Grüner Veltliner from New Zealand too, all we need is an Albariño, a Godello, a Fiano and a Falanghina and I will be a very happy bunny indeed!
Remember to click on all the links – and leave a comment too.
New Zealand
Sir George Fistonich at harvest time. George founded Villa Maria 1961 and runs it to this day. Photo courtesy of Ste Michelle Wines.
2013 Villa Maria Private Bin Arneis
East Coast G.I., New Zealand
If you have never heard of the Arneis grape variety before, well you can be forgiven as it is only a speciality of Piemonte in north west Italy. It makes the wines of the Roero Arneis D.O.C.g, and D.O.C. wines in Langhe too. In its native country it seems to make wines that are quite floral and aromatic, but is usually too low in acidity for me, so I am generally more keen on Nascetta or Gavi’s Cortese grape. Somehow it seems that the New Zealanders are able to compensate for this lack of acidity and produce fresher, more lively versions than the the original – just as they do with Viognier. Historically Arneis was considered very hard to grow as it is so delicate, hence the name which means ‘little rascal’ in Piemontese and so the grape almost died out in the 1970s with only two producers left by 1980. Luckily – as with so many white grapes – modern know-how has swept to the rescue and limited plantings are now found in Liguria and Sardinia, as well as California, Oregon, cooler parts of Australia and New Zealand’s North Island.
This wine has the East Coast Geographical Indicator, because the vineyards are in more than one region. In fact the grapes are grown at 3 vineyards sites between Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.
Villa Maria’s Private Bin wines are their fruit forward more easy drinking range.
This offers a gently aromatic and slightly floral nose with touches of pear and very delicate peach.
The palate is juicy, delicately succulent and textured with soft acidity and lots of fresh and lively orchard fruit – pear – and is nicely flowery too. There is also a fresh seam of acidity keeping the whole thing together and lively, without dominating.
All in all a really good approachable take on this grape making it a sassy and enjoyable easy drinking wine that goes well with almost anything, what’s more it only has 12.5% alcohol making it an ideal quaffer too – 87/100 points.
Map of New Zealand’s wine regions – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.
2013 Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Gris
Marlborough G.I., New Zealand
Sauvignon Gris is a grape close to my heart. I became very fond of it in Chile over ten years ago and am very pleased that it is now being grown in New Zealand too. Sauvignon Gris is thought to be either an ancestor of or a mutant clone of Sauvignon Blanc – for some reason it is not clear which came first, which reminds me of a joke – and makes fatter and less aromatic wines than its more famous relation. In France they are historically blended together to give more texture and richness than Sauvignon Blanc would have on its own. Personally I think Sauvignon Gris is potentially a very interesting grape and others clearly agree as there appears to be renewed interest with this ancient grape in Graves and parts of the Loire. Sauvignon Gris can sometimes be found blended into the finer examples of Sauvignon de Touraine and is something of a speciality grape of the tiny Touraine-Mesland sub-region. The grape has a long history in Touraine and it is often referred to there by its ancient local names of Fié or Fié Gris or even Sauvignon Rose.
Villa Maria’s Cellar Selection wines are more concentrated, complex and so perfect with food. This particular wine is actually from a single vineyard in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley – Fletcher’s Vineyard.
The wine has a pale pear juice colour that hints at succulence, while the nose offers pear and delicately smoky peach.
The palate is by turns stony and peachy with a rippled texture of occasional fleshy succulence, nectarine lingers on the finish together with blackcurrant leaf and some tropical passionfruit too.
It is dry with a freshness of acidity and little cut of citrus too, but acidity is much less dominat than in Sauvignon Blanc, indeed in many ways it is like a bigger, fatter Sauvignon Blanc. A lovely wine with real finesse and elegance that will go with almost any fish or lighter dish perfectly – 89/100 points.
UK stockist information for Villa Maria wines is available from the distributer – Hatch Mansfield.
US stockist information for Villa Maria wines is available from the distributer – Ste Michelle Wine Estates.
Chile
Emiliana’s beautiful organic vineyards. Photo courtesy of Banfi Wines.
2012 Signos de Origen Chardonnay-Roussanne-Marsanne-Viognier
Emiliano Organic Vineyards
D.O. Valle de Casablanca, Chile
Casablanca is a beautiful place, one of the best bits of Chile to visit the wineries. this is because it is near both the main cities of santiago and Valparaiso and so is home to some excellent winery restaurants as well as some very good wine producers too. For a long time Casablanca was the undisputed premium white wine region of Chile, this is because the lack of mountains between it and the ocean ensure it is cooler than the wine regions to the south – like the Maipo and Colchagua Valleys. Nowadays Casablanca has competition from the equally cool San Antonio and Leyda Valleys as well as Acocagua Costa and Limari to the north, but is still a great region.
I love interesting blends and this is a wonderful combination of classic Rhône Valley white grapes – Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier – with the more lush style of Chardonnay and it works perfectly. The grapes are organically grown and the grapes were partly fermented in stainless steel tanks at low temperatures before being moved to French oak barrels to complete the fermentation – this technique gives subtle richness and texture to the wine. 90% of the wine then aged in those barrels for 6 months, while 10% was aged in egg shaped concrete tanks, which are very trendy right now and do good things – you can read about them here.
This is a serious white wine with complexity, structure, texture and finesse.
The fruit drives it with rich apricot and peach characters giving succulence and texture as well as the fresh herb characters of the Rhône grapes. Ripeness and oak give honey and nut tones too and an overarching richness, even a touch of oatmeal at times. There is freshness and stony minerality too though giving some tension and balance.
A glorious wine, dense, concentrated and fine, perfect with cheese, rich poultry or pork – 91/100 points.
UK stockist information is available from the distributer – Boutinot.
US stockist information is available from the distributer – Banfi Wines.
Map of Chile’s wine regions – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.
If you want to try Rousanne, Marsanne and Viognier without Chardonnay, try another great Chilean blend:
2011 Errazuriz The Blend Marsanne-Roussanne-Viognier
Viña Errazuriz
D.O. Valle de Aconcagua, Chile
Another thrilling blend from grapes that originate in France’s southern Rhône. This comes from a little further north than Casablanca in the Aconcagua proper – Casablanca is politically a sub-division of the Aconcagua Valley – about halfway between the cool Aconcaua Costa and the warmer eastern end of the valley where Errazuriz traditional produce their red wines.
25% was fermented in third use French oak to give delicate richness while the rest was fermented in stainless shell to give freshness. 25% was also aged for 6 months in French oak.
This wonderful wine has a rich, earthy nose with wild herbs, honey, rosemary, spicy toasty oak and nuts too, it is savoury but with rich underlying fruit.
The palate is succulent with rich juicy fruit and a touch of minerality and acidity keeping it fresh not cloying. Herbs, apricots, peach, stones, a touch of oily texture and even cream together with a bite of tannins and nuts on the finish. Another glorious and exciting wine that is perfect with roast pork or rich poultry dishes – 91/100 points.
UK stockist information is available from the distributer – Hatch Mansfield.
US stockist information is available from the distributer – Vintus.
So you see, there is plenty of excitement and lots of different, but still delicious, wine out there if you are prepared to be a little adventurous. There really is no need to get stuck in a rut or keep drinking the usual suspects.
In the interests of full disclosure I should tell you that I do some work for both Villa Maria and Viña Errazuriz from time to time. However, the views that I have expressed about their wines are completely honest and unsolicited.
The Bekaa.
Lebanon has long fascinated me, both as a country and as a wine producer.
My wine interest was first sparked 30 years ago when the company that I was working for listed a Lebanese wine. The whole idea seemed exotic beyond belief and completely off the wall, but then I tasted it and the 1977 Château Musar totally won me over and I have loved the idea of Lebanese wines ever since.
Another thing that captured my imagination about Lebanon was when I heard about the ‘Zagwill’, a fisherman’s song from ancient Phoenicia – which is now Lebanon. Carved into a tomb near Biblos this is believed to be the oldest song lyrics the human race possesses.
These two things struck a chord with me and made me determined to see Lebanon one day and to learn something about this fascinating part of the world.
So, recently when I was invited to Beirut to attend the Horeca Food and Wine Show and to judge at the Horeca Wine Competition I leapt at the chance and I enjoyed every moment. I had some wonderful experiences, met delightful people who seemed only too happy to show me their stunning country, enjoyed some superb meals and tasted many excellent wines.
The Horeca Show during the round table wine discussion.
The fair was terrific too. It is an annual showcase for Lebanon’s food and drink industry and as well as boasting hundreds of stands showing off the products of the region, there were chef’s competitions and cocktail making competitions and the wine competition with which I was involved.
Beirut from my hotel.
Me in a thoughtful moment during the wine judging at Horeca. Photo courtesy of Paul Op ten Berg.
I know that technically Lebanon is in Asia, but when you are there it doesn’t feel so very different from the European countries of the southern Mediterranean. In fact apart from the Arabic script on the signs, Lebanon often reminded me of Spain, Greece or Sicily. Beirut and the other towns I saw seemed chaotic and boisterous in much the same way as Seville or Catania in Sicily. The landscape too was very similar to these places and of course the food has a lot in common with Greek cuisine and I even noticed some similarities to Sicilian cooking as well. The national dish is kibbeh, which I love, and if it isn’t a first cousin to Sicily’s arancini then I would be amazed.
The centre of Joünié.
I suspect this European feel is partly because Lebanon has a mixed population of Muslims and Christians and enjoys a complex system of power sharing to ensure that no single part of the community dominates the other. As a consequence the place seems very free and easy to the casual observer with alcohol being readily available, lively restaurants and street life with attractive bars everywhere. In order to preserve this balance no official census has been taken since 1932, in case they discover there is a higher proportion of Muslims or Christians than they had thought.
Beirut’s glamorous marina.
It is strange, but true, that on returning to London I saw more Muslim women wearing head scarves than I had in Lebanon.
I found it very interesting that despite France only governing the country for a little over 20 years, 1920 – 1943, French is spoken everywhere and the French influence lives on in almost every aspect of life. Other than the badges on the customs officers uniforms, one of the most obvious examples is the wine names. All the wine producers are Domaine this or Château that and the wine styles often have a very French feel to them too.
We tend to think of Lebanon as a new wine producing country, but the Phoenician’s were among the world’s first maritime traders and exported wines from Tyre and Sidon all over the Mediterranean world and so helped to spread wine to western Europe. This trade continued well into the middle ages when the territory we now call Lebanon was briefly controlled by Venice.
Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990, so the country has enjoyed over 20 years of relative stability punctuated by sporadic turmoil caused by their neighbours – either directly or indirectly. I was told many times that Lebanon is fortunate in everything, except its neighbours. As Lebanon borders Syria and Israel, you can see their point – how unlucky can one country be?
This stability has been enough for wine making to really start to flourish and for the longer established producers to consolidate the markets for their wines. If Lebanese wines were a novelty thirty years ago, they are much more normal today.
Over the last ten years or so wine drinking has become much more the norm inside Lebanon and this too has helped growth. Sadly though, with some exceptions, I was told that the local wealthy almost totally ignore Lebanese wine and assume that imported wines are inherently better. One evening at dinner – at the excellent Mario e Mario Italian trattoria – I tried to wean two Beirutis off their imported French wine and on to the far better value local tipple. Sadly I failed, but they promised me that they would try more Lebanese wines in the future and not just take it for granted that foreign is better.
On the subject of restaurants, I feel that I should tell you about two other Beirut eateries that impressed me. Babel serves superb Lebanese food in a setting that takes your breath away. Built to look like a ruined biblical tower of Babel it resembles a set for a D.W.Griffith epic. I was also very taken with the more casual Al Falamanki on the Damascus Road. Although only a few years old it had a very traditional feel with courtyards and comfortable rooms furnished in different ways. When we were there the joint was jumping with happy diners of all ages together with groups of men drinking arrack, playing backgammon and enjoying their hookahs. It was so atmospheric I could well imagine them filming parts of a remake of Lawrence of Arabia here, oh and the food was delicious too.
Château Ksara.
The oldest wine producer in the country is Château Ksara which was founded in 1857 by Jesuit monks who quickly recognised that the Bekaa Valley was a suitable place to grow grapes and brought in a trained viticulturist monk to create and tend their vineyards. His plantings of Cinsault, together with those at the nearby Domaine des Tourelles in 1868, started the Lebanese wine revival which is still with us to this day. Ksara had a bit of luck in 1898 when an extensive Roman cave system was discovered underneath the winery and it was expanded and repaired to become Lebanon’s only natural cellar system. It keeps at a steady 12˚C so is perfect to mature wine, as well as being an amazing place to visit.
The caves at Château Ksara.
The First World War ended with Britain having defeated the Ottoman Empire which had ruled Lebanon for hundreds of years. The region was given to France to govern as a League of Nations Mandate and French administrators and soldiers soon arrived who expected to drink wine as part of their every day diet. This must have given real impetus to the fledgling wine industry and expansion quickly got under way. Château Nakad, the modern Bekaa pioneer was founded in 1923, while Lebanon’s most famous winery, Château Musar was founded soon after in 1930. Fitting the same pattern, Almaza, the country’s leading beer brewer also dates from this time.
Map of Lebanon including the wine regions – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.
All the early wine production was in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country and although there are now some other regions, it remains the centre of production. This was partly because it was already established as the principal agricultural region of Lebanon. Given that we think of wine as flourishing in areas where nothing else will grow, I was astonished to see just how green the Bekaa is. I was expecting a hard, biblical landscape of scrub – a desert almost – but instead found a fertile valley full of fruit and vegetable production.
The Bekaa.
The Bekaa.
Lebanon has a hot climate, with some 300 days of sunshine a year, so although ripeness is not a problem, excessive heat is and fine wine production would be very hard if the country was not so mountainous. Although the Bekaa is a valley – sandwiched between the Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges – it is very high with most of the vineyards planted at around 1000 metres above sea level. The finer wines tend to be produced at higher altitudes and increasingly the new plantings are edging up to 1100 – 1200 metres. Up there the air is cooler allowing for slower ripening and better retention of acidity, freshness and balance in the wines. Large temperature drops between night and day conditions also helps retain acidity and freshness in the grapes. The Bekaa is also blessed with ample water from the snow melt running off the two mountain ranges.
There is huge variety in soils, but they tend to be limestone, with some sandstone too, so are generally well drained, but can offer great variety of colour, texture and weight – which is partly why all styles of wines can be produced here.
Looking down on the Bekaa Valley – Syria is in the distance.
Apart from Châteaux Musar and Ksara, important producers from the Bekaa include the wonderful Château Kefraya, the beautiful Domaine des Tourelles, founded in 1868 this is the second oldest producer in the country, Massaya, Château St Thomas, Château Ka and Domaine Wardy.
In recent years some new wine regions have begun producing wines and most of these are higher than the Bekaa Valley. With vineyards planted between 600-1300 metres above sea level, the beautiful southern area of Jezzine is where Habib Karam’s Karam Winery is crafting some very fine wines that show the cooling effect of the climate and altitude – try the Rosé Arc en Ciel and the Saint John. The northern region of Batroun, planted at 400-1300 metres above sea level, is equally promising for cooler climate wines, Batroun Mountains produce a fresh Chardonnay and zippy Riesling that are quite delicious.
Me hogging the microphone at the post judging round-table discussion at Horeca. Photo courtesy of Paul Op ten Berg.
In Chouf, 800-1100 metres above seal level, south east of Beirut, Château Florentine produce a very promising range of wines including the best Lebanese Sauvignon Blanc that I have tried and their elegant Château Florentine Grand Vin blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah.
Ixsir – named for Al-Iksir or Elixir, a secret potion that grants eternal youth and love – produce a very attractive range of wines from a wide range of vineyard sites from Jezzine to Batroun and the Bekaa. Their Ixsir Altitudes wines are good and drinkable, while their Ixsir Grande Reserve red and white are more ambitious, complex and fine.
Lebanon’s French influence is very apparent in the varieties they grow. Grapes from the French Mediterranean dominate the country’s vineyards, with most traditional reds being blends that include Cinsault, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Grenache, together with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and increasingly some Syrah too.
The white wines, which impressed me enormously are often blends including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Clairette and Viognier, but I also came across some decent Riesling and astonishingly good wines made from Obaideh and Merwah, which are both indigenous white grapes.
I found much to like in Lebanon and thought the wines were generally very good indeed, with many more high spots than lows. The wineries that I have mentioned all make very good wines with balance and elegance in their differing styles, but there were also some producers who made wines that didn’t excite me quite so much. A few seemed quite old fashioned in style, with little in the way of bright fruit. I tasted some that clearly need more work in the vineyard to tackle the raisining and green tannins, while some wines were volatile or bordering on dirty. None of this is unique to Lebanon of course, I can say the same about almost anywhere and for those producers I do wonder if they should change their points of reference for wine. It is quite clear that Lebanon looks to France as its rôle model, you can see it in most of the wines, but I wonder if some of the wines at the lower price points should become a bit less French-centric and take a peek at who else is making good wine in the Mediterranean world.
I really hope that over the next few years those producers will look at how places like Spain’s Jumilla – with a similar landscape and climate to Lebanon – have completely revolutionised their viticulture and vinification techniques to produce modern, clean and vibrantly fruity wines at the lower price points. Perhaps the locals would be more easily won over by wines of this type, as well as casual wine drinkers in places like the UK.
Recent growth though has been strong and with local and foreign demand both growing the number of commercial wineries has increased from just 4 in 1990 to 47 today. What is more, quibbles aside, they are producing wines that are always good and often very impressive indeed. I didn’t try anything that I did not find palatable and found the vast majority to be very pleasurable indeed.
Gone are the days when Lebanon produced wines with mere novelty value to provide a touch of the exotic. These are good quality wines that can be taken on their merits and enjoyed on their own terms.
I will be writing more about some of the wineries that I visited very soon, but in the meantime I would urge people to visit Lebanon, it really is a fabulous country full of wonderful sights, lovely people, great food and superb wines. See you at the Horeca Show next year?
More information is available from the Union Vinicole du Liban website and for the UK from Wines of Lebanon.
Quentin Sadler's Wine Page 