The flavor of rooibos in wine of Bekaa Valley
Discover the of Bekaa Valley wines revealing the of rooibos flavor during the olphactive analysis (nose) and during the gustative analysis (mouth).
The Bekaa Valley is the heartland of modern Lebanese wine. Almost 90 percent of Lebanon's wine is made here, as is a respectable proportion of its Arak, the anise-flavored spirit that remains the nation's favorite alcoholic drink.
The original Bekaa Valley Vineyards were planted with Cinsaut, which was subsequently joined by other French vine varieties. Most of these remain in Lebanon’s vinicultural makeup today: red Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and white Ugni Blanc, Clairette and Chardonnay.
The oldest winery in the area is Chateau Ksara, which was established by the Jesuit Christians of Taanayel (Tanail), an ancient monastic settlement just down the valley from Ksara. The first Vineyard there was planted in 1857, with plants brought from France via the colonies in Algeria.
At that time Lebanon was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, whose Sharia law condemned the production or consumption of wine except for religious purposes. Thus the initial winery was very subdued, and it was not until the French took control of the country after WW1 (under the League of Nations' French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon) that Bekaa Valley wine production began to expand.
Chateau Musar, founded in 1930, is another Long-established estate in the valley and the most famous in global terms. A 1979 write-up in Decanter magazine by Michael Broadbent helped to Open up export markets. By 1990, the vast majority of their production left the country.
This year marked the end of the Lebanese Civil War, which had lasted since 1975.
How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that. He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries. None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the fou ...
The latest edition of Liv-ex Power 100, which lists the most powerful fine wine brands, shows that the period between October 2020 and September 2021 experienced a rebalancing of the market, with a number of classic labels returning to prominence. Château Lafite Rothschild re-entered the top 10, moving from 11th to 2nd place, while fellow First Growths Mouton-Rothschild and Margaux have also risen, to 6th and 10th place respectively. Petrus also re-entered the top 10, now at 7th place after a ye ...
Spend a day tasting top wines from around the world and attend exclusive masterclasses at the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter NYC right in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District on Saturday, 18th June. One truly unforgettable and unique masterclass will feature the iconic wines of Château Margaux and is hosted by family member Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos, the estate’s deputy managing director and Decanter Premium editor Georgie Hindle. You will taste an extraordinary line up of five stun ...