Profile: Lebanese Fine Wines

There are few companies who can claim to have retained every single listing during the economic downturn, but Lebanese Fine Wines is one of them.

Founded in November 2008 by Elias Khoneizer, from Lebanon, with his British wife Lucy, the company secured listings in 35 stores across the UK in its first year. Impressively, it has not lost a single listing during the downturn.

Lebanese Fine Wines represents Clos de Cana and Domaine des Tourelles and focuses on the independent retail sector.

At lunch with the winemaker of Lebanon’s oldest estate, Domaine des Tourelles, and his UK importers, the drinks business found out what Lebanon has to offer the world of fine wine.

Although largely unknown in the UK as a whole, certain Lebanese wines are making their own mark with a number of independents.

The rarity of the wines are making them popular with consumers looking for something different – there’s more to Lebanon than Château Musar.

Those retailers who took the plunge with Lebanese Fine Wines, including Lea & Sandeman and Vinopolis, have seen a lot of interest in the products as well as returning customers looking for more.

Jane Cuthbertson, owner of Barrica Wines near Preston, has had a lot of success with the Lebanese wines in her portfolio, selling over 100 cases of such a niche product in less than two years.

The wines fit in well with the character of her shop, which look like good value-for-money wines and Lebanese Fine Wines offer products from their two producers ranging from £8 to £45.

Cuthbertson said: “I think the wines are brilliant, they have their own unique character and during the (initial) tasting the quality exceeded what I expected.”

On the other hand, Lebanon’s geographical position in such a troubled region does not lend it a particularly good image and disbelief is usually the response from consumers when told the country produces wine.

Lucy Khoneizer talked of the problems they face: “The difficulty is getting people to try them and it’s largely the perception of taking something new from an unknown market,” she said.

“However, where we are selling them we are selling a lot of them,” she continued.

Elias Khoneizer also noted the positive response of people to offers and tastings: “The amount of people turning up for Lebanese wine tastings is just unbelievable,” he said.

The Lebanon has much to offer wine lovers looking for a change. Its Mediterranean climate, international grape varieties and vineyards situated at 900-1000 metres above sea level in the hills and mountains of the Bekaa Valley, all add up to classically Old World, yet steadfastly original, wines.

Estates tend to remain very French in orientation and have labels that don’t tax the consumer with a bewildering and unpronounceable array of Arabic names and foreign grape varieties, which is important (if embarrassing to admit for consumers).

Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscat dominate the vineyards although native varieties such as Obaideh and Merwah, which are used by Château Musar in their white wine, are also present.  

Domaine des Tourelles’ reds in particular, full of flavour they may be, are low in tannins and high in acidity and offer a good food-wine option, especially with spicier foods.

Lucy Khoneizer said she often deliberately pairs their products with cuisines other than Lebanese to stop it being pigeonholed and the spice and sweet and sour flavours of oriental food are a good match, as db discovered.

Then there is the history of the region’s winemaking which, lying as it does in the fertile crescent of the Levant, can lay claim to be among the oldest wine producing countries in the world. There is speculation that 6,000-8,000 years is not an unreasonable age to pin on the region’s winemaking pedigree.

Domaine des Tourelles is Lebanon’s oldest commercial wine estate, founded in 1868 by Frenchman François-Eugène Brun. It remained family owned until the grandson, Pierre Louis Brun, died in 2000.

It was then bought by Nayla Kanaan Issa-el Khoury a relative of the Brun family and Elie Issa.

Issa’s son, Faouzi Issa, is today the head winemaker. He gained a Masters degree in enology at Montpellier and spent several years working in the Côte-Rôtie and at Château Margaux, before returning home to the family vineyard.

“There is something very crucial I learned in France,” he said. “It is not all quantity but quality and regularity. Even with all the wars we have in Lebanon we keep on fighting to keep up standards.”

One has to admire the tenacity of the country’s wine growers, faced as they are with the threat of conflict with Lebanon’s neighbour Israel. 1982 was possibly the most dangerous example but 2006 also saw a short war between the two states.

Indeed in 2006 the harvest started a mere day after the war finished and not a moment too soon. Apparently, the smell of the grapes sitting on the vine hung in the air they were becoming so ripe.

Muslim extremists or a hard-line state, determined to wipe out the evils of alcohol, actually pose less of a problem than they do even in other secular countries such as Turkey. In fact the Lebanon is one of the most tolerant and liberal in the Middle East.

Its president is a Christian, Muslims own wineries and indeed work on wineries belonging to Christians. Arak a grape brandy and the national drink along with other spirits and beer remain popular in all walks of life regardless of religion.

Wine drinking is growing in popularity though. The UK, US, Canada, France and Brazil all have strong Lebanese communities and when they return home they bring back their tastes in wine.

This has seen supermarkets increasing their wine aisles dramatically throughout the country but 85% of the market is still dominated by just two native estates: Kefraya and Ksara. Nevertheless, competition is growing, today there are 30 wineries in the country whereas in 1998 there were only five.  

Issa acknowledges the need for greater wine “education” among the domestic market for it to develop but says that a market like the UK, which has much more wine awareness, is therefore very attractive for Lebanese producers.

“In the Anglo-Saxon markets (UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc) we believe we have a lot of potential. We see England as a nice place to market our wines.

“In France they know how to make wines but they don’t know how to choose wines like they do in England and they don’t have the same choice,” he said.

Because of the problems at the moment and reluctance of some retailers to bring on new listings, Elias Khoneizer said that perhaps now wasn’t the time to expand his own offerings.

He believes that a product with such a small base cannot really work in supermarkets and the success so far has lain with the expertise and tastings independents can offer.

“Now we just want to get the wine exposed as much as possible,” he said. “In the recession we weren’t expecting to sell that much, we just wanted to get the taste out there. We did the boutique wineries tasting last year, for example, which was really good for us.”

As for those that argue there is no market for such esoteric wines at the moment: “To bring someone new in now, you have to offer them something new,” he concluded.

Rupert Millar, 25.03.2010