Wine Society sees record demand for one-off Lebanese wine case

The Wine Society has reported overwhelming demand for a mixed case of Lebanese wine that it launched to support the country’s wine industry following the recent explosion in Beirut, which has seen the merchant more than triple its annual sales of Lebanese wine in less than a week.

The society launched the mixed case on Monday, but said it had been “truly overwhelmed” by members’ enthusiastic response and although it had secured large uantities of stock, sales had exceeded its most optimistic forecasts, selling in record time and far outstrippingd its normal sales of Lebanese wines. It said it was working to secure more stock.

In an email to its members, the Wine Society’s director of wine Pierre Mansour said the company had been keeping a close eye on the financial, political and social crisis that had been unfolding in Lebanon in recent months, which culminated in the tragic explosion that obliterated the port of Beirut on 4 August.

He confirmed that two of its suppliers, Chateau Musar and Chateau Massaya had sadly both lost lives in the blast.

“Lebanon’s key export is wine so the more we sell to members, the more we can ship which drives cash back into the country,” Mansour explained. “Indeed, by putting this case together we have already increased our next order from Tourelles and Massaya.”

He added that although the case had been discounted, this in itself didn’t explain the extraordinary demand.

“We don’t sell big volumes of Lebanese wine, but this mixed case has resulted in us selling three to four times the quantity of these individual wines that we would sell in a whole year.”

The explosion in the port two weeks ago saw more than 200 people killed and more than 4,000  injured. It is likely to cause further impediments for an industry that has already suffering severe economic hardship which resulted in a popular revolution last October and the haemorrhaging of foreign money out of its banks which prompted financial restraints on bank accounts for ordinary citizens. International bank transfers have been banned since last year, with account holders only able to withdraw money in Lebanese Lira. This has impacted consumer buying power with the cost of cost of good, particularly imports rising.

A 2019 BlomInvest Bank Survey compiled in association with Union Vinicole du Liban (UVL), the country’s official wine producer association, estimated that Lebanon produced around 8.5m bottles of wine in 2018, and exported 50% to markets around the world.

Wine exports in 2018 were valued at $20m, up from $10.9m in 2010, or around 2,322 tons, up from $1,662 in 2010, the report said.

Last week the PR agency behind a long-running successful campaign for Lebanese wine announced the launch of a Bid for Beirut wine auction to raise money for victims of the recent explosion, which has been drawn support from The Wine Society, Majestic Wine, 67 Pall Mall, the Academie du Vin Library, and others in the industry. You can follow the auction’s progress here. Massaya’s UK importer Thorman Hunt, who supplies the Wine Society is also donating £10 to the Lebanese Red Cross for every case a wine merchant ships.