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Lisbon, Portugal | This bar in the trendy Chiado neighborhood, from one of Portugal’s oldest wine producers, offers a glimpse into the thrilling Portuguese viticulture scene. Come to get good grasp of the thrilling Portuguese wine scene and try some equally impressive food in a buzzy atmosphere that puts the spotlight on one of Portugal’s oldest wine producers.
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The ‘Wolf of Wine” Mr. Germaine Stone got some Cru Luv…
Snoop Dogg got some 19 Crimes Cali Rose…
And DJ Khaled got some ‘kosher’ Moscato…
Yes, Hip Hop can sell wine! Because it make you look smart! Because it’s for everybody! Have a glass, and Flava Flav will show you how he does it!
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L’ami intime (The Intimate Friend) by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte
$64 million at Christie’s on February 3, 2024.
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It’s difficult to sumarized in a few lines, the long and passionate history of the estate, it could be entitled “Once upon a time Château Margaux”.
Known since the XII century as “La Mothe de Margaux” (the Margaux mound) and, at that time, it didn’t have any vines. The old name didn’t happen by chance; in a flat region like the Médoc, the slightest “mound” was easily distinguished and the greatest wines are always produced on sloping land that ensures good drainage.
In 1152, Aquitaine fell to the advance of England until 1453 and so Bordeaux wines benefited from this new market. Bordeaux “claret” was adopted as a table wine by Richard the Lion Heart, King of England in the XII century.
The successive owners of “La Mothe de Margaux” were, of course, important lords but we had to wait for the arrival of the Lestonnac family to set up the estate as we know it today. Pierre de Lestonnac succeeded, in the ten years from 1572 to 1582, in completely restructuring the property as well as the vineyard and anticipated the general evolution of the Médoc that had started to abandon cereal growing in favor of vines.
At the end of the XVII century, Château Margaux occupied 265 hectares, land that wouldn’t be divided again. A third of the estate was dedicated to vines, which is still the case today.
England and Holland drank “claret”, a pale wine that didn’t age well. Château Margaux became the epitome for the art of wine-making and the hierarchy between the different Bordeaux growths was already being drawn up.
Through the generations and through the centuries, the skillfulness of one and the innovations of others, progressively made Château Margaux into a wine of excellence; we only have to remember the progress made by Berlon at the very beginning of the XVIII century.
Berlon was the first to vinify the red grapes and the white grapes separately. At that time, the vine stocks were mixed in the vineyard. He demanded that the grapes should not be harvested at dawn “because the grapes were covered in dew and that, if they were harvested in the morning, their colors was diluted and paled with excess humidity”. The beginnings of modern vinification were appearing.
Berlon equally understood the importance of the soil. He already knew the best plots. The influence of the terroir was emerging…
The permanence of these viticulture sites is only equaled by the genius of men, owners, managers, winegrowers and cellar masters who have known how to foresee and emphasized the exceptional nature of the terroirs.
In 1705, the London Gazette advertised the first auction of great Bordeaux growths: 230 barrels of “Margose” ! The 1771 vintage was the first “claret” to appear in a Christie’s catalogue.
The English Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, is an example of the predilection of the English elite for these Bordeaux first growths; he bought four casks of Margaux per quarter that he practically never paid for!
The renown of the “first growths” crossed the Atlantic and Thomas Jefferson, United States Ambassador to France, depicted the hierarchy that already reigned among the best Bordeaux wines, with Château Margau (sic!) in first place. He placed an order for Margaux 1784 on which he wrote “There couldn’t be a better Bordeaux bottle”.
The beginning of the XVIII century marked the expansion of the Great Bordeaux wines and their still informal classifications. That wouldn’t have been possible without the pre-existence, then the permanence, of the notion of a growth, that is to say, a terroir, its wine, its château. Joseph de Fumel, owner in the middle of the XVIII century, planted the “varieties of choice” on the best plots. He realized that only the gravelly areas that are found in the Médoc and in the greatest crus could produce quality wines. The French revolution put an end to this golden Bordeaux century. Elie du Barry, Count of Hargicourt and lord of Margaux, was taken to the scaffold during the Jacobin terror.
Château Margaux – its vines, its woods, its hawthorn forests, its meadows and its mills – was sold at auction by the revolutionaries as a national possession. Laure de Fumel, the last descendant of the Lestonnac, the Pontac, and the Aulède families, all related to one another and who had all looked after Château Margaux so well for three centuries, proceeded to buy back the estate from citizen “Miqueau” who had left it to dilapidate completely, even letting the orange trees freeze!
The years of the revolution got the better of her courage and her passion for her land and she put it up for auction in 1801.
Bertrand Douat, Marquis de la Colonilla, acquired the estate and judged the manor house not to be worthy of the renown of his vineyard. In its place, he built the property that we so appreciate today.
Bertrand Douat was a Basque who returned from Spain with a considerable fortune and title. He had been, amongst other things, a ship owner and an authorized Spanish government agent for the negotiation of an exchange agreement with Russia! He was more than fifty when he returned to France; he lived in Paris rather than Bordeaux. In reality he wasn’t really interested in the Château Margaux vineyard and, for him, it was only a means of consolidating his rise in society.
It was in 1810, when La Colonilla was already seventy years old, that the work on the château and the farm buildings that we admire today, started. La Colonilla died in 1816 without having ever lived in his château.
La Colonilla, wasn’t the only owner of Château Margaux, both a stranger to Bordeaux and the vineyard, to leave so deep an imprint.
For the building of the château, La Colonilla approached Louis Combes, a fashionable Bordeaux architect. At Margaux, Combes realized his work of art. Often nicknamed the “Versailles of the Médoc” the château is a rare example of the neo-palladian style in France.
But Margaux isn’t just a refined, aristocratic, dwelling-house, it’s primarily, and especially, a farm. The genius of Combes was to be able to create a true small city of viticulture arranging, on both sides of the château, the buildings necessary for the production of one of the best wines in the world.
On one side, the tradesmen’s yard, with its houses and workshops, where the trades of plumber and mechanics are notably practiced ; the distance from Bordeaux made this necessary. At the beginning of the XVIII century, it was a good day’s journey.
On the other side, the cellars, the vat room and the cooperage. The large cellar, with its majestic perspectives and its tall white columns, evokes the spectacular image of a wine cathedral.
This is a complex that, progressively, visitors from all over the world are discovering when they arrive through the long avenue of one hundred-year-old plane trees that mark the entrance to the estate. It is one of superb and unique coherence.
This is a complex that, progressively, visitors from all over the world are discovering when they arrive through the long avenue of one hundred-year-old plane trees that mark the entrance to the estate. It is one of superb and unique coherence.
La Colonilla’s children weren’t interested in the estate and they sold it to Alexandre Aguado. Alexandre Aguado was the first banker to acquire a great Bordeaux château. His fortune was already immense and Château Margaux didn’t represent to him a chance to increase his fortune but rather an elegant property in which to live.
Aguado quite quickly abandoned his financial activities to become, amongst other things, the sponsor of Rossini, who would compose a zarzuela (a song) entitled…. “Château Margaux”!
He died rather young – in 1836 – having bequeathed his magnificent collection of Italian and Spanish pictures to the Louvre Museum. His essential legacy is the Napoleon III decoration, characteristic of this period, of which the main elements would remain in condition until the sale of the estate by the Ginestets to André Mentzelopoulos.
Empereur Napoléon III paid an important service to the great red wines of the Médoc by organising in Paris, in 1855, the Second Universal Exhibition. It was an occasion for him to glorify French products, among which were the prestigious Médoc wines.
He wanted the wines to be presented in the form of a classification. A blind tasting was organised in Paris which led to this official classification of 1855. It divided about sixty Médoc growths, and a property in the Graves, into five quality levels.
Four growths were classified “Premier Grand Cru Classé”; only Margaux was marked twenty out of twenty. This classification, which maintains its validity today, confirmed the qualitative hierarchy illustrated by the great price differences that had been practiced on the world market for a long time. In the XVIII century, the “first growths” were already being sold at twice the price of the “second growths”. Moreover, the 1855 classification succeeded over other more informal classification attempts like that of Thomas Jefferson in the XVIII century. Under the Second Empire, there’s little to say other than Bordeaux experienced a truly golden age, thanks to the building of a railway to Paris, but also thanks to the rapid expansion of commerce, facilitated by the agreements of free exchange inspired by the liberal ideas of the Emperor. It’s certain that Napoléon III had a lot to do with the upturn of Bordeaux viticulture.
In 1879, Emily Macdonnel, Scottish lady in waiting to Empress Eugenie and wife of Aguado’s son, sold the château to Count Pillet-Will. It was a difficult period for the Médoc, which was almost simultaneously struck by a great world recession and the incidence of cryptogamic soil diseases.
The joys and unhappiness of the XIX century contrast with the permanence of the vineyard that had been remarkably well-maintained by successive managers. However, a devastating calamity for the vines was appearing in the form of fungus, powdery mildew and later mildew. Powdery mildew is controlled by the use of sulphur and mildew by the spraying of copper sulphate, the famous “Bordeaux mixture”. Phylloxera, an insect that came from the United States, was a more terrible scourge and its propagation was unstoppable. It would have to wait for the solution of grafting the French varietals on to resistant American plants in order to save the Bordeaux vineyards.
The production of Château Margaux resumed when new treatments were found and replanting undertaken. The remarkable 1893 vintage was so abundant that they had to stop the harvest for six days because they didn’t have enough vats! Its production overtook that of the legendary 1870, the greatest year before the phylloxera.
Nevertheless, the young vines in the replantations weren’t able to produce grapes of optimal quality and part of the production was sold as “second wine”: that would be named the Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux in 1908.
In 1896, Count Pillet-Will found someone he could trust in the person of Pierre Moreau who would play an essential rôle at the property by managing it and bringing together all the future shareholders in Château Margaux.
He nominated Marcellus Grangerou for the position of cellar master who would be succeeded by his son Marcel and his grandson, Jean.
Pierre Moreau’s most important innovation was the obligation to bottle the wine at the château, adopted in 1924, and was a real guarantee of authenticity for the buyers.
Fernand Ginestet and his son Pierre came on the scene. Fernand had made his fortune in wine trading. It was one of his friends, the Mayor of Saigon, and a wine importer who sent him the funds necessary to buy the estate. The Ginestet family acquired the whole property in about 1950.
Fernand and Pierre patiently reorganised the vineyard. Pierre’s son, Bernard, looked after their trading business and developed one of the most respected wine trade establishments in Bordeaux.
But the recession of the 1970s and the disastrous unsaleable vintages of 1972, 1973 and 1974 placed Pierre and Bernard in a desperate situation; nevertheless, they wanted to honour their commitments.
Their only negotiable asset was Château Margaux that they resigned themselves to selling. It took two years for Pierre and Bernard Ginestet to sell Château Margaux and when André Mentzelopoulos bought the property in 1977, the wine world was astounded. Whatever next? A Greek in the Médoc?
It was in 1977 that André Mentzelopoulos bought the property. The ionic columns that adorn the peristyle of the château reminded him of his native Greece and enabled him to grasp, thanks to his formidable intellectual acuity, the great volume of work required to bring Margaux back to first place, the only place that it was worthy of.
The exceptional life of this man is like a novel ! He was born in 1915 in Patras in the Peloponnese of a father who was a hotelier and who was adamant his children spoke several foreign languages so that they could realize the dream of so many Greeks; to go abroad and make their fortunes!
André would fulfill his father’s expectations. After studying literature in Grenoble he went to the Far East, to Burma, China, India, and finally in Pakistan where he made his fortune importing and exporting cereals.
On his return to Europe, he married a French woman and, in 1958, he acquired the Félix Potin company, founded in 1844, that owned eighty local grocery stores. With this company, André created a modern distribution enterprise with 1600 points of sale located in prestigious buildings in Paris.
This man, his accent still melodious – he spoke six languages – and who liked to quote Winston Churchill, fell in love with his Château Margaux.
In 1977, André Mentzelopoulos was a pioneer. Bordeaux wines were just emerging from a serious economic and qualitative crisis; investors weren’t interested in classified growths and owners couldn’t afford to develop their land.
André Mentzelopoulos was proactive and invested heavily without any hope of immediate return in a subdued market. This was a number of years before the new Bordeaux golden age at the end of the XX century.
He took spectacular action, be it in the vineyard, the cellars or the château. He put in place the drainage, the replantation… Under the passionate supervision of Emile Peynaud, renowned oenologist, he reintroduced the Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux by considerably increasing the selection, and he redefined the Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux. He introduced ageing in new barrels and he planned the construction of the first large underground cellar in the region, a technical achievement. The château, registered as an historic monument since 1946, was restored under the supervision of the inspectors from France Historic Monuments and was patiently decorated by the celebrated Henri Samuel who created the XVIII French rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In this way, André Mentzelopoulos orchestrated the reconstruction of the architectural and viticultural heritage of Château Margaux with the objective of enabling the terroir to once again demonstrate its fabulous qualities.
The 1978 vintage was immediately recognised as exceptional, proof of the efficiency and quantity of André Mentzelopoulos’s work.
He died in 1980, too early and too quickly to enjoy the renaissance of his Château Margaux.
The wine world that was so alarmed by the arrival of a “Hellene in the Médoc”, redoubled its concerns on the death of André Mentzelopoulos. This paradox is explained in reality by the fact that André Mentzelopoulos had convinced even the most pessimistic doubters by his energy and clear vision that, put into the service of his passion for Château Margaux, had, with almost spectacular speed, re-established the quality of the wine and the reputation of the estate.
His daughter, Corinne Mentzelopoulos, was immediately ready for the challenge. On the death of her father she was already established in the family group as management controller at Primistères, the company that manages the Félix Potin company. Surrounded by the team that her father had chosen, she followed the investment defined by the latter, so that Margaux was ready to take up another challenge, that of the extraordinary explosion in worldwide demand for Bordeaux wines from 1982. The Americans were the first to get enthusiastic for the classified first growths, quickly joined by the more traditional connoisseurs in Great Britain and Germany, followed by the Japanese, enthusiasts in Hong Kong or Singapore, the Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Brazilians….
The wines of Bordeaux, even though they’ve been appreciated for centuries, had never known such success; enthusiasts from all over the world came to visit, taste, compare and comment.
Bordeaux has been blessed with a succession of great vintages. At the same time, the Félix Potin company was transformed, the stores and the property were given up, and the group – from now on Exor – became the majority shareholder in Perrier at the time the world market leader for mineral water. So, Corinne Mentzelopoulos decided to find support in the development of a group which it seemed unwise to manage alone. At the beginning of the 1990s, Corinne Mentzelopoulos found an associate in the Agnelli family, then directed by Gianni Agnelli, the president of Fiat. This association lasted about ten years and, in 2003, when the Agnelli Group decided to dispose of the Château Margaux shares, Corinne Mentzelopoulos bought them immediately thereby becoming the only shareholder in the estate.
Château Margaux’s history and renown stem equally from the intrinsic genius of the place as from the contributions made by the various people who have served it for five centuries.
200 years ago, the Marquis de la Colonilla made his mark on the Estate through the construction, in honor of the wine, of a great architectural legacy inspired by Ancient Greece. The architect Louis Combes designed the Château’s peristyle as a tribute to the Parthenon – my father felt so much pride and joy at the sight of these Ionic columns which reminded him of his beloved Greece. Over 160 years later, my father in turn took the necessary steps to reclaim, in barely three years, the prestige that Château Margaux had lost during the long crisis that had struck Bordeaux’s wines.
At the beginning of the XXI century, Bordeaux wines are experiencing unprecedented success. The whole world seems to have their eyes riveted on Bordeaux, where the demand for these great wines never stops growing. This prosperity, as well as the rapid expansion of other regions in the world, has placed Château Margaux in a more competitive climate, and also allowed the underlining of its unique position: that of a First Growth classified in 1855, enjoying a terroir that has been shaped by the passing centuries.
But there is no room for it to rest on its laurels – it would be tedious to enumerate all the investments carried out in the property since 1977. It’s about being at the top of its inheritance, but never ceasing to question in order to improve and perfect that which can still be done, in acknowledgement of the heritage of Château Margaux.
The commercialization, in 2013, of a third wine in order to improve further the quality of our first and second wines, the numerous trials that have been carried out over the last ten years, by our Research and Development department, in particular the observation of the response of the vines and the wine to biodynamics, and the establishment of an authentication system for our bottles are all examples of recent progress, worthy of the history of Château Margaux whilst ceaselessly progressing so as never to disappoint the enthusiasts of the whole world.
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One of Portugal’s most endearing slices is the Douro River Valley, the winding, terraced region that produces the country’s beloved port wine. Unlike the Rhine, Loire, and many of Europe’s great rivers, the Douro was never a strategic military location. So, rather than castles and stony ramparts, visitors encounter farms and sleepy villages. The only thing fortified here…is the wine.
The Douro region stretches along the river of the same name, about 60 miles inland from the city of Porto. (The second largest city in Portugal, Porto is where the Douro River spills into the Atlantic Ocean.) Joy-riding through the region you enjoy steep, twisting valleys and tidy terraces as far as the eye can see. Depending on when you visit, the hillside can shift in color, from dusty brown in winter, to scrubby green in summer, to glowing red and gold in fall.
The Douro Valley is the only place in the world that can legally produce what’s called “port wine.” Visiting here, you can appreciate just how much hard work it was, and still is, to produce traditional port wine. Generation after generation, rugged farmers gradually turned these hillsides into vast terraces expertly crafted to let grape vines draw water from below and sun from above. To this day, the production of port remains a labor of love, as grapes are still generally picked by hand and crushed the traditional way — by foot — since machines are unable to achieve high-quality results.
Since port wine is a blend of several types of grapes, most port-producing vineyards, called quintas, grow a few different varieties of grapes. Unlike traditional wine, which undergoes fermentation in full, port is a fortified wine. During fermentation, brandy is added to port wine, thereby halting the process and preserving some of the sugars from the grapes. This is what gives port its signature sweetness.
The best way to fully experience the Douro Valley is to rent a car to visit several quintas. While some are private, many welcome travelers (and some rent rooms). Of the quintas that are open to the public, most offer a one-hour tour, followed by a tasting of several wines. Since some tastings are by prior arrangement only, it’s smart to call ahead. That said, it’s fairly informal — drivers can simply pull into any quinta marked rota do vinho do Porto and ask for a taste. If they’re not too busy, you may even be treated to a short tour.
Without a car, a slow but scenic way to visit is to take a boat from Porto to the heart of the Douro (a seven-hour trip). Trains run between Porto and the two main towns in the region: Peso da Régua and Pinhão. Neither town is particularly exciting, but both have hotels and make a decent home base for visiting the area’s quintas.
Régua, which feels more urban and functional of the two hubs, is home to two main streets and the Douro Museum, with exhibits that explain the landscape, industry, culture, and geology of the region. A rabelo — the traditional flat-bottomed boat that was once used to transport barrels of port downriver from Douro to Porto — is permanently moored to the rooftop. Pinhão — even smaller than Régua, with just one main street — feels more deeply rooted in Douro culture and scenery.
Compare quintas with the help of a guidebook, online research, or local advice. One good place is Quinta do Panascal, which produces the popular Fonseca port. Though a commercial operation, it feels special thanks to its tucked-away location — and because it’s one of the few places that lets visitors roam free among its terraced vineyards.
But my favorite ones to visit are the small and family-run quintas, where you get the chance to meet the latest generation of winemakers and appreciate the pride of these artisans, so passionate about their traditions and craft. I particularly like the welcoming, family-run Quinta de la Rosa near Pinhão.
If you have time, it’s worthwhile to spend a night or two at a quinta. You’ll be welcomed like a guest in a local family’s home, and you get to savor the beautiful countryside right outside your window. It’s a memorable experience, and the best way to gain an appreciation for this wonderfully drinkable bit of Portuguese culture.
– Rick Steves
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New energy, a return to indigenous grape varieties, and experimental techniques make it high time to explore the full spectrum of Lebanon’s wines.
Among industry-favorite wine producers like Champagne Jacques Selosse, López de Heredia, and Giuseppe Rinaldi, all from famous wine regions, there is often one outlier: Chateau Musar, a Lebanese wine producer that has amassed a cult-like following among U.S. wine professionals. But while Chateau Musar’s popularity within the wine trade has put Lebanon on the U.S. radar as a winemaking country, it has also barred many American wine professionals from getting to know the whole of Lebanon’s winemaking culture.
The reality is that Lebanon is home to a dynamic wine industry, one that has grown exponentially—in both size and style—in recent years. “A lot of what wine lovers want in their wines today are readily presented in this postage-sized country,” says May Matta-Aliah, a Lebanon native and New York-based wine educator, ambassador, and consultant who runs In the Grape. “High altitude cultivation, dry farming, organic farming, hand harvesting, and native grape varieties are all hallmarks of what Lebanese wines represent.”
As intrepid and traditional winemakers explore the whole of Lebanon’s varied terroir, experiment with viticulture and vinification techniques, and resurrect the country’s indigenous varieties, it’s high time to explore the full spectrum of Lebanese wines—beyond Chateau Musar.
Why did Chateau Musar come to define Lebanon’s wine industry? After all, the country has an ancient history of wine production—the Phoenicians were making wine in Lebanon thousands of years ago—and several other quality producers have histories that equal, if not predate, Chateau Musar’s first vineyard plantings in 1930. Both Château Ksara, Lebanon’s largest producer, and Domaine des Tourelles date back to the mid-1800s.
It’s somewhat ironic that Chateau Musar is the best-known Lebanese producer in the U.S. because in Lebanon itself, it’s not very well-known. “It’s mostly international people who know Musar because locally, they aren’t as popular,” says Farrah Berrou, a Lebanese wine writer behind the B for Bacchus platform and podcast and Aanab Newspaper.
But there’s a good reason for this: During Lebanon’s Civil War, Chateau Musar’s winemaker Serge Hochar decided to focus on exporting wine to the U.K., leading to early recognition in the 1970s. Hochar continued to focus his efforts on export markets until his death in 2014, his charismatic nature—as well as the winery’s quality and slew of back-vintages—earning Chateau Musar many supporters throughout the years. The winery also featured a compelling story of perseverance in a war-torn country—a narrative that has stuck around and, according to some Lebanese wine champions and producers, now does Lebanon a disservice in being recognized as a quality wine country.
“We have remained for too long a ‘one-winery-story’ and it really is high time we revisit the narrative,” says Matta-Aliah. “It’s fine for Musar to be synonymous with Lebanon,” adds Chris Struck, the New York-based beverage director for ilili restaurants, “but it’s another thing for it to define Lebanon.”
But Chateau Musar is far from the only quality wine producer in Lebanon. Just five Lebanese wineries were still in operation by the end of the Lebanese Civil War in the early 1990s; today, that number has increased tenfold—at least.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the total number of wineries currently operating in Lebanon, as there is no official, regulatory body for the country’s wine industry. (The closest thing would be the Union Vinicole du Liban (UVL), which currently lists 24 members on its website, but many small producers are not members.) Matta-Aliah estimates the country to have around 50 producers, while Berrou estimated around 80 in a piece she wrote about the country’s wines last year. Matta-Aliah cited the country’s wine production as being around 10 million bottles per year.
Many of these new entrants are boutique wineries and upstart producers who stepped foot onto Lebanon’s wine scene over the past 10 to 20 years. But it can be difficult to find these smaller producers in the U.S. market because many simply aren’t available stateside. Confusing, state-specific U.S. distribution laws are difficult for small producers—who already have smaller quantities of wines to export—to understand, and without the support of the government or an official collective, the logistical and financial challenges of exporting from Lebanon can be a barrier as well.
Only a handful of Lebanon’s wineries have widespread distribution in the U.S.; in addition to Chateau Musar, Berrou points to Château Kefraya, Château Ksara, Domaine des Tourelles, Massaya, and Ixsir as the ones she’s been able to find reliably since arriving in the U.S.
However, more Lebanese producers are seeing the value—and necessity—of exporting. “In the local market … there’s just no purchasing power right now,” says Berrou. “It’s not a priority to purchase or spend a lot on wine.”
Though it’s relatively small—smaller than the state of Connecticut—Lebanon hosts a wide variety of microclimates, with elevation (the central mountain range called Mount Lebanon peaks over 3,000 meters) and proximity to the Mediterranean coastline playing key roles. The Bekaa Valley, with its clay-limestone soils and sunny, high-altitude vineyards, has traditionally been a hub of viticulture, but producers can be found across the country.
North of Beirut, near the coast and in the mountains that rise from it, Batroun is home to a number of wineries and vineyards, while a handful are popping up in the south as well. Berrou notes that wineries in Bhamdoun, located about a half-hour east of Beirut, are embracing enotourism and taking advantage of the area’s close proximity to the city.
But it’s difficult to categorize and compare styles of Lebanese wine by region, as the country does not have a legal appellation system, and the Bekaa Valley remains a key source of fruit even if producers are located elsewhere in the country. While this can be a good thing—producers aren’t constrained by “the appellation rules and rigidity of European countries, for example,” according to Struck—it also makes it easy to overlook terroir specificities or for newcomers to think of Lebanon as homogenous. Grape varieties and—perhaps even more so—producer philosophy are better indicators of wine style.
Lebanon came under French Mandate after World War I, and this French influence extended to the country’s wine culture. “All of this know-how and enological background of French wine communities came to Lebanon,” says Struck. This manifested in the grapes grown in Lebanese vineyards—Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot and Mediterranean varieties like Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, and Grenache—as well as the vinification techniques used, like oak aging. Though white wines traditionally took a backseat to powerful reds, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Chardonnay were planted as well.
Today, blends of these French grape varieties are important in Lebanon, often creating powerful, rich reds balanced with bright acidity. “You can blend Rhône grapes with Bordeaux grapes—that’s the norm, not the exception,” says Struck. “And because they are French grapes, the consumer knows how to pronounce them. It’s something they’ve heard of, but from a new country.” He’s quick to note that there’s a spectrum of styles produced, however; Struck often reaches for old-vine Cinsault as a light- to medium-bodied option.
Many of the producers who have launched over the past two decades are offering their own interpretations on these classic grape varieties as well, often venturing into new areas of production. Chateau Belle-Vue, for instance, has created a following from its home base in Bhamdoun. Jill and Naji Boutros moved to the small town in 1999, planting vines the following year and becoming known for Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blends, as well as Syrah and Viognier. In the mountains above Batroun to the north, Atibaia started crafting its super-premium, small-production Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot blend in 2007.
But there’s also a growing contingent of experimental producers looking to reclaim Lebanon’s identity in its wines, both through its terroir and its native grapes.
“We started to question the whole philosophy of colonizing and monopolization of our industry,” says Eddie Chami, an Australian native and the founder and winemaker of Mersel Wine. “So I started to look for our Lebanese roots in winemaking. Why were our roots and heritage not talked about like other regions, and recognized as being just simply Lebanese?”
Like Chami, many of these small, new-wave producers take a low-intervention approach to winemaking, moving away from heavy extraction and new oak aging—a philosophy that is increasingly attractive to U.S. buyers and consumers. “So many beautiful, natural, organic wines are coming from Lebanon,” says Rose Previte, the owner of Maydan and Compass Rose in Washington, D.C., who is Lebanese-American and is launching a wine company with Chami later this year. “All the things that are trendy to us in the U.S. market are coming out of Lebanon right now.”
At Mersel Wine, Chami experiments with different styles like pétillant-naturel (dubbed “LebNat”), skin-contact whites, carbonic maceration, and amphora aging. But he isn’t alone—Maher Harb founded Lebanon’s first biodynamic vineyard at Sept Winery, which is based in Batroun and was launched in 2016. Harb also sources grapes from organic vineyards around the country, using experimental techniques to produce terroir-driven wines. Vertical 33, which produced its first vintage in 2014, aims to reclaim the terroir specificities of Lebanon through low-intervention winemaking.
Though many of these producers rely on the same Bordeaux and Mediterranean varieties as the rest of the country’s wineries—albeit using different techniques to create unique wine styles—they are also focused on highlighting the country’s indigenous varieties.
“It wasn’t like this five years back,” says Chami. “Now the [artisanal] winemaking, with [a] focus on our varieties, is catching on thanks to well-traveled Lebanese [winemakers] and consumer awareness.”
Two white varieties, Merwah and Obaideh (also spelled Obeidi or Obeidy) have gained a foothold among Lebanon’s winemakers, though it isn’t just the new guard that is championing them—Chateau Musar blends both grapes into its Chateau Musar White, and Château Ksara launched the first varietal Merwah with their 2017 vintage. “These two grape varieties today are producing some of the most interesting white wines coming out of Lebanon and are being embraced by a range of producers,” says Matta-Aliah.
Both Obaideh and Merwah were historically used to craft the local spirit arak, distilled from grapes and aniseed, and tend towards higher-alcohol, lower-acidity wines. But as producers get to know these native grapes, the results can be fascinating, with Obaideh’s creamy, honeyed characteristics and Merwah’s nutty, floral notes.
“You have to pick it at just the right time—its sweetness can be too much if you don’t pick it at the right time,” says Previte of the Merwah grape. “But when it’s done right it has beautiful floral notes—I swear I can often taste tamarind and rose water.”
The challenge to Lebanon’s wine industry isn’t a matter of quality—it’s a matter of awareness, recognition, and support. “I believe they are already making competitive-quality wines, competitive to the best in the European market,” says Previte, “but without a bigger voice and a platform, and some stability and financial support, the world will never know.”
Regardless of the industry, being a business operator in Lebanon comes with incredible difficulties due to the country’s economic crisis, political corruption, unstable supply chain, damaged infrastructure, and beyond. This makes it both increasingly necessary for producers to export their wines—to bring in cash flow—yet creates barriers to export logistics. Both Jason Bajalia, the owner of Terra Sancta Trading in Jacksonville, Florida (which imports Mersel), and Previte recall times in which restocking Lebanese wines has been slow.
“We have to 86 wines all the time just because we can’t physically get it in house, though it’s eagerly awaiting us—stuck somewhere in a governmental backlog,” says Previte. One of her solutions? Going all-in on wines she’s passionate about by purchasing the entirety of a SKU’s inventory in the U.S.
Indeed, it’s the passion of the people who sell these wines—whether they are sales reps or buyers—that has helped to give these wines a foothold here in the U.S. “Eventually the efforts of our distributors and sales reps, who were really passionate about the [Mersel] wines, began to pay off and we sold out relatively quickly,” recalls Bajalia. Fueled by her passion for her home country, Berrou has amassed a solid selection of Lebanese wines at Woodland Hills Wine Company—and she works to hand-sell them to consumers.
With a widening spectrum of wines coming to the U.S. from Lebanon, there has never been a better time to explore the full array of this winemaking country—beyond a single, well-known producer. “I think the market really needed to see what other wines can come out of Lebanon, and not just what’s mainstream,” says Chami. “Consumers really need to seek and drink the Lebanese identity.”
“I challenge, I implore other restaurants, retail outlets, and online wine clubs to keep buying, marketing, and preaching the good word of Lebanese wines,” urges Previte. “There is so much going on there and so many people dedicated to this market’s success that I think it’s really exciting to be part of.”
– Courtney Magrini
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Italy has lost its cherished crown as the world’s biggest wine producer.
This year has been challenging for winemakers in Italy causing production to fall by 12 per cent compared to 2022. Extreme weather conditions and fungal diseases have ravaged vineyards causing output to drop below 44 million hectolitres in 2023. Winemakers are expecting the smallest harvest in six years. The situation is slightly better in northern Italian regions including Piedmont, which have recorded a small 0.8 per cent increase in production, according to Italian wine lobbies UIV and Assoenologi, a wine experts association. Even so, the overall drop means France will reclaim the top stop for the first time in nine years.
Production is set to drop by 20 per cent in central Italian regions and around 30 per cent in southern regions like Sicily and Basilicata, according to harvest forecast data. The slump is due to the combined effect of poor weather and damage from a fungus called plasmopara viticola. The fungus causes one of the most devastating diseases of grapevines and is also known as grape downy mildew. In warm, humid conditions, white fungal growth spreads over leaves and fruit often causing portions of the plant to die. This year, it has particularly affected central and southern regions of Italy due to increased rainfall. “The harvest we are facing is very complex, characterized above all by the effects of climate change which at the end of spring and beginning of summer caused pathogenic diseases such as downy mildew, floods, hailstorms, and drought,” said Riccardo Cotarella, head of Assoenologi, in a statement. The drop in production will not affect the quality of the wine, Cotarella added. “From the 2023 harvest we will certainly obtain good quality wines, with peaks of excellence,” he said.
France has taken over the top spot as the world’s largest wine producer, but it hasn’t necessarily been a victory for vintners. The French government recently announced €200 million earmarked for the disposal of surplus wine production in a bid to bolster winemakers struggling financially. The money was “aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again,” agriculture minister Marc Fesneau told reporters in August. He emphasised, however, that the sector also needed to “look to the future, think about consumer changes and adapt.”
– Euronews
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Sitting pretty in the Shaw Centre penthouse, wine bar 67 Pall Mall finally opens its doors after a four-year delay (exacerbated by the pandemic). The members-only bar is spread over level 27 and 28, with a commanding view of Orchard Road and an elegant interior done in a Shanghai art deco style.
Expect to find a selection of 5,000 bottles of wine (1,000 of which are available by the glass) – boasting the largest and most diverse collection of wines in the country (as well as the region at large) – and supported by a team of 15 sommeliers, lead by head sommelier Roberto Duran. The food menu is also worth a look, featuring signature dishes from the original London club, as well as East-meets-West creations to in line with local tastes.
Different membership options are available, with a S$2,400 joining fee applicable to all categories (excluding Under 30 and Lifetime membership). Signing up for the Lifetime membership at S$250,000 grants you access to all 67 Pall Mall branches across the world (London, Verbier, Beaune, as well as Singapore).
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There are no easy vintages – and that was especially true in Chile this year. The widespread drought that has been affecting the country for several years – and the forecast of a dry and hot summer – indicated that 2023 would be a challenging year.
But in mid-January the situation dramatically worsened, with voracious fires in Maule, Ñuble, Itata and Bío Bío, where more than 50,000ha of forests were devastated. The fire took towns, vineyards, wineries and at least 24 human lives in its wake. A tragedy.
The final balance estimates that 600 small wine producers were affected, with losses of some 470 ha of vines. Most of those vines were centenarian and an irreplaceable part of Chile’s ancestral wine heritage.
Meanwhile, what was left standing was overtaken by smoke and ash. Producers today are evaluating the effect of smoke taint on the wines they have made. They are also looking to the future, in hope of preserving the winemaking traditions of a region with five centuries of history.
The high summer temperatures made 2023 one of the hottest vintages of the last 70 years. This meant that viticultural teams had to work particularly hard to determine the right time to harvest the grapes. However, beyond the hard data and readings from the meteorological stations, this vintage is turning out to be more nuanced than expected, with each valley behaving differently.
‘I’ve never seen so many variations in the same year. The vineyards on the coast had a quite different year to those in the Andes and the Central Valley, which are a long way from the sea,’ said Marcelo Papa, winemaker and technical director at Concha y Toro.
‘While in Limarí we had fewer degree days and plenty of cloud, in Maipo we experienced higher temperatures for sustained periods and the harvest had to be brought forward 10 days,’ he added.
Best to start at the beginning, however, and Héctor Rojas, agricultural engineer at Tabalí, is a great help with that. ‘The 2022 winter was especially cold with more rainfall, as much as 140mm in Limari – the average is between 60 and 80mm – and 380mm in Maipo,’ he explained.
‘Then we had a cold spring that notably held back some of the phenological development, together with vigorous leaf growth thanks to the wet soils after the rainy winter. But, very abruptly, from the end of December onwards and throughout January, we saw a sustained rise in temperatures that shook the plants out of their lethargy and rapidly accelerated ripening. It was a year that kept you on your toes.
Because of the hot summer temperatures, the harvest windows shrunk. Some varieties were ripening at the same time, when generally this occurs weeks apart. Of course, this presented a logistical challenge and good coordination between the teams in the field and in the winery was crucial.
Viviana Navarrete, chief winemaker at Viña Leyda, explained: ‘In the Leyda Valley, the harvest began slowly, delayed by 12 to 14 days compared to the 2022 season. It was difficult to get the grapes to build up enough Brix. Sugar accumulation in the grapes was slow, accompanied by high acidity that remained until the end.’
‘The Sauvignon Blanc ripened late. There was a very short window, so we had to act fast in the final days of March when the temperatures were high and the Brix accumulation curve accelerated,’ she continued. ‘There was a lack of rainfall but the challenges in the vineyard remained because we had high humidity resulting in a bout of powdery mildew at the beginning of the season and then isolated pockets of Botrytis cinerea.’
Every producer seems to have their own account of how the season developed and its eventual results. But they all agree that it was a hot year in which harvests began and ended as much as three weeks earlier than normal in the inner valleys. By the end of April, most producers had brought their grapes into the winery and fermentation had begun.
In the Cachapoal Andes, Gabriel Mustakis, head winemaker at Viña San Pedro and the VSPT wine group, reported: ‘Although we expected the grapes and wines to be affected by the high temperatures, we were very pleasantly surprised. We managed to naturally get the grapes to ripen early, which allowed us to harvest earlier, resulting in good balance, mild alcohol, good acidity and elegant, vibrant tannins. In general, it was a very varied, interesting and attractive harvest.’
Francisco Baettig, winemaker at Errazuriz, shared his final verdict. ‘Nationally we’re seeing lower yields due to frosts in Casablanca and loss of fruit from dehydration in the warmer areas, as well as the forest fires in Itata and Bío Bío. Speaking for ourselves, we had a fairly early harvest with good volume and quality,’ he said. Some figures show that the 2023 harvest saw yields 15% lower than average.
Aurelio Montes of Viña Montes, meanwhile, shared his predictions for the kind of wines we can expect from 2023. ‘This year was quite unique as the reds have shown excellent colour but are also very mild. The aromatic profile can be described as rich ripeness with very few green flavours. Which is to say that so far it’s been a great year – something I didn’t expect, to be honest – but that’s the wonderful thing about oenology. One plus one doesn’t always have to equal two. For the whites, I’d say it was a year of low alcohol and very fruity expression.’
In all, a brief overview tells us that 2023 augurs well for whites from the coastal areas that enjoyed the cooler, cloudier climate. Expectations for the Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays are particularly high, although in some areas such as Limarí the Pinot Noirs are also promising great things.
In the interior and Andes regions, the heat forcibly brought the harvest forward for the most prominent red varieties in Chile – Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère and Cabernet Franc – and this suggests rich, easy-going wines with good freshness and balance.
-Decanter
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Sotheby’s Wine is kicking off its summer auction series with a single-owner collection from the cellar of Lewis Chester.
Set to close for bidding on June 1, the online auction represents only a fraction of one of Europe’s most comprehensive private cellars, curated over decades by Chester. Best known as a fine wine and rare spirits writer, Chester—the founder of the “Oscars of Fine Wine”: The Golden Vines Awards—is a prolific, determined collector.
“Today, my collection is far too big to contemplate consuming it all, although I have been giving it a good crack! Further, I own some incredible wines in large quantities, making perfect sense to let some of these be available for other fine wine lovers to enjoy,” he said in a news release.
With an estimated total value of more than £1 million (US$1.2 million), the 776-lot sale includes 251 lots of Burgundy, including bottles from the great Burgundy domaines—Rousseau, Dujac, Roumier, de Vogüé, Leflaive, Raveneau, and Dauvissat. The wines are being offered without reserve, meaning Lewis is not requiring a minimum price to sell.
Most of the collection was bought when the wines were released to the market—either direct from the respective producers via allocation or from reputable U.K. merchants. Lewis immediately cellared the bottles in professional temperature-controlled storage.
“The extraordinary quality of the wines on offer in this auction will undoubtedly appeal to both new and seasoned collectors, with the no reserve aspect adding an exciting new dimension to the sale,” Gary Owen, head of auction sales, U.K., for Sotheby’s Wine, said in the news release.
As a collector, Chester began by focusing on Bordeaux en primeur, Champagne, and Burgundy, before branching out to acquire top labels from elsewhere in France as well as Tuscany, Piedmont, California, and Australia. (“Provenance has always been of utmost importance to me,” he said.)
Champagne lovers can peruse 91 lots of Krug and Dom Perignon, from the very rare Clos of d’Ambonnay and du Mesnil to P3 vintages and large formats. Another 70 lots encompass the finest cuvees of Vilmart, Philipponnat, and Pol Roger, among others.
The selection also features exceptional wines from Bordeaux—including first-growths Lafite, Latour, and Margaux in addition to wines from the Rhône, the Loire and Mosel Valleys, Piedmont, Tuscany, Switzerland, and California’s Santa Cruz Mountains.
Earlier this year, Sotheby’s Wine announced a new multi-year partnership with The Golden Vines Awards and the Gérard Basset Foundation, both co-founded by Chester. Sotheby’s will conduct the Golden Vines Live Auction, which raises money for the foundation’s work around diversity and inclusivity in the wine, spirits, and hospitality sector.
– Eric Grossman for Barrons
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Based in South Africa, Thandi is the first black-owned-and-operated wine collective in the world and also the largest black-owned exporter. Kashfi Halford visits the vineyards in the Southern Cape to meet the people who have grown the brand.
Vinum Vine 