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LIVE 24-SEVEN L E B ANE S E WINE S A REGION USED TO STRIFE AND CRISIS


I can’t help feeling that “Dry January” is a bit wussy and that, if you are fond of wine or alcohol in general and want to test your willpower then Lent is the time to do it! I think it’s pretty hardcore – 40 days (or 46 depending on when you begin and end the fast). It occurs in quite a social part of the year, early spring, and it can be quite difficult to abstain when family and friends may be sitting in the warm sun pouring wine freely.


Easter seems to have become a wine-buying occasion second only to Christmas and yet while the focus of the festivities is likely to be a Sunday lunch large enough to make an oak table creak, it made me think of wine produced in Lebanon – a region used to strife and crisis – with only five wineries surviving the crippling 1975-1990 civil war: Château Kefraya; Château Ksara; Château Musar; Château Nakad; and Domaine des Tourelles.


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The late Serge Hochar was the first to draw attention to Lebanese wines, when he showed his Château Musar at the Bristol Wine Fair in 1979; his wines have certainly endured and when showing on point, are sublime, but there is much more on offer from Lebanon than this iconic wine.


The Bekaa Valley is Lebanon’s most important wine region; forming a border with Syria, its wild and almost biblical beauty is mixed with police checkpoints and old bunkers where Syrian refugees would shelter and hide, plus there is the commercial reality of how to move forward within the international wine market.


Highlighting high quality indigenous white grapes such as Obeideh and Merwah will be a clear point of difference (Château Ksara Merwah varietal is almost impossible to find and sells out immediately on release). There are no indigenous red varieties in Lebanon and so, continuing with European varieties such as Cinsault, Grenache, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah for the reds is very important, plus Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for the whites…


Little known fact: Merwah is thought to be the original Semillon variety, but it is the Obeideh that many winemakers think that consumers will eventually identify Lebanon with, just like Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand. For the reds, it is the Cinsault that seems to be the dark horse and to express the unique terroir in Lebanon most profoundly. However, it makes common and commercial sense to piggyback in the lesser known indigenous grapes (Merwah and Obeideh) on the reputation of those we are already familiar with.


If I was a betting person (and sometimes I am) it would be Lebanese Syrah that I would put my money on. I think that here, the Syrah grape achieves a different dimension and style altogether from classic Rhône or Australian styles.


What about the soil and terroir? Vines were planted because winemakers recognised ideal growing conditions; iron-rich limestone, gravel soils, overlaying clay at an altitude of around 1,000m with about 240 days of sunshine a year and natural irrigation by melting snow from surrounding mountains. The only other place with similar vine growing conditions is Mendoza in Argentina and with skilful winemaking, will give high acidity, but with fantastic structure.


Latourba and Batroun Mountains have made Lebanon’s first sparkling wines, released in 2018 and 2016 respectively – and you know how close anything sparkling is to my heart


As you might expect, the Syrian civil war has impacted both economically and socially on the country, but it is nothing short of astounding the way the Lebanese have kept going and endured conditions that would have made many other wineries give up the ghost and run for the hills! The winemakers here say, “…we didn’t miss a single vintage during the civil war and we don’t see any reason to do so now”!


You will be hard pushed to find a bottle of Lebanese wine for under £10, but what you get for your £10 and above represents superb quality and value across all price points and it is that which is one of Lebanon’s key strengths.


LIVE24-SEVEN.COM


WINING & DINING WINE EXPER T


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