Lebanon in a wine glass
They may not be household names in wine, but for Lebanon’s smaller and newer wineries, that’s perfect fine. In the country that is oldest site for wine production I the world these new producers of the nectar of the Gods-Chateau Belle-Vue, Chateau Khoury, Chateau Marsays, Domaine De Baal and Karam Winery – are not necessarily aiming to become the next Ksara or Kefraya, their aim is to appeal to a niche clientele with a discerning taste.

Individually, even collectively, their productions are small – from 18.000 bottles per year produced by Chateau Belle-Vue to the 55.000 to 60.000 bottles sold by Chateau Karam or Chateau Khoury. And, while all have plans to eventually expand their production; the intent is to keep the numbers relatively small.”It’s important for us not to be everywhere, but to make good quality wine.” Says Jean Paul Khoury of Chateau Khoury . “In five years, we will double production and stay there, ”says Habib Karam of Karam Winery.”We produce more, because if you want quality that’s the maximum.” 		Smaller means more control over quality. Smaller means only using their own grown grapes and not buying grapes from others. Smaller means the ability to secure a niche market. And smaller means a more direct relationship with their clientele. In fact, many of these wineries’ sale are through direct orders Chateau Belle-vue wines for example, are sold only to their wine club members, while the others are sold directly to clients or through select specialty shops. Ad all these wines becoming increasingly available at fine restaurants and hotels in Lebanon and beyond. (For many , the United States and Europe are the biggest markets.)

What distinguishes these new wineries, which are all less than a decade old can be summed up in a work land (and, of course, the grapes which that land produces).

In fact, it’s the love of the land, in most cases their own village lands, which has propelled the families behind these family business into fine wine production. And each winery only uses the grapes it grows on its own land, reaffirming a connection to and nurturing of that land.
In the case of Chateau Belle-Vue, owners Naji and Jill Boutros wanted to reconnect with their land in the village of Bhamdoun and to life there after the traumas of the civil war," Their 38 different kinds of grapes, grown on several plots of land at different altitudes in Bhamdoun, help to employ, several local families, giving them a reason to stay on the land. Similarly Habib Karam, of Karam Winery grew up in Jezzine surounded by grapes (of the eating variety) and by vineyards making wine was a natural extension. And to make a special, different wine, to acquire a new taste, ”you have to plant a new land, which is what he began to do in 2003.

It was a French wine expert who told the Khoury family that the huge plots of land they had in Dour Zahle region were ideal terroir for vineyards. So, the family began to plant grapes in 1995, which the sold to various wineries. Several years later in 2003, they decided to begin using their own grapes to produce their own wine.

A respect for nature is foremost on the mind of Domaine De Baal’s Sebastien Khoury, who uses only his own organically grown grapes on his seven hectares of vineyards in the Bekaa 		to produce Domaine De Baal wines. That means no insecticides are used, “In Lebanon there is no need for insecticides.”

“Wine is foremost, the land” and “wine comes first from the vineyard” is the philosophy of the Saade family, whose Chateau Marsayas is the newest of the small wines in Lebanon, with 2009 marking the first bottles available from a project first envisioned over a decade ago. Even the name of the Bekaa Valley.

Like their larger contemporaries, these newer and smaller wineries offer wines tasting, mostly by appointment. Many have restaurants-in-the-planing, in order to encourage visitors to come for the day, to explore their vineyards and sample some of Lebanon’s more recent vintages.

“There is a story behind our wine-making, so people should come to tour the vineyards hear the story and taste the wine,” says Jill Boutros of Chateau Belle-vue, whose 2003 vintage won the Gold Best in Class at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.
MAY FARAH