Wine with Leslie: Show your support for Lebanon — and its winemakers
Panorama Valley The Fourzol, Landscape Beqaa Over Of Lebanon
The world of wine is having a tough 2024 with every weather problem you can imagine from drought to floods to hail. But please spare a moment to think about winemakers in one of the world’s oldest wine regions, the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
The Beqaa is just 30km east of Beiruit and the source of around 90% of Lebanese wine.
There is evidence the Phoenecians made wine there, and before them the Canaanites, and undoubtedly the people before them.
During the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, tanks arrived at the door of the Hochar family’s Château Musar winery on more than one occasion, but wine kept being made every year.
Once again wineries and vineyards are being shelled and many vineyard owners and workers have been forced to evacuate, but at least the grapes are harvested.
Most growers are finished and Château Ksara, Lebanon’s oldest and biggest winery (quoted on Wine-Searcher.com), say that 90% of their 2024 harvest is picked.
In the 1980’s Ksara was occupied by troops and a relative of the owner George Sara was kidnapped, but he is refusing to leave this time as there is work to be done in the cellar.
We forget sometimes how small Lebanon is, it is around the same size as Cork and Limerick combined. Following the explosion in 2020 and political and financial instability this war could not come at a worse time.
Three excellent wines from Lebanon this week. I was stuck for stockists outside Dublin so if your local independent wine shop doesn’t have anything from Lebanon please ask them why not?
There is little we can do to stop this war on Lebanon but the least we can do is buy their wines, it is a small gesture but one that will be appreciated.
The Musar Jeune range are designed to be drunk younger than Château Musar red and white. The red has bright cherry and crunchy blackcurrant fruits while the white is aromatic and weighty.
Viognier, Vermentino and Chardonnay blend with croissant and passionfruit aromas, peachy tropical fruits on the plate tempered by minerals and chalk.
Founded by Jesuits in 1857 Ksara is Lebanon’s oldest winery and also its largest. Grapes are grown at 1000-1300m and this is a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Bright red fruit aromas, ripe and fruity on the palate with anise and herbal touches and a black fruit finish.
Ixsir is not from the Beqaa but from Batroun mountains in the north of Lebanon. Batroun is one of the world’s oldest cities.
This is fully mature but has plenty of life left, baked fruits with a touch of earth and leaf — savoury and elegant, with soft berries and dard
Michael R. O’Boyle of Donegal’s Baoilleach micro-Distillery is someone to watch — I recommended his gorgeous Mountain Dew last year so time for his poitín.
Made with barley and potatoes in a copper pot the poitín has banana, pear and herbal aromas, smooth tropical fruit flavours and a spicy finish.
The smoky heather peat barrel-aged version is even better if you can find it.