Lebanon’s 2024 vintage will be remembered for all the wrong reasons because of Israeli bombing that has disrupted the lives of winemakers and their teams. Graham Holter talks to four Lebanese producers who say they have no choice but to show resilience, despite the ongoing bombardments

These are frightening times for Lebanese winemakers. At a moment when their thoughts should be focused entirely on the 2024 vintage, the prospect of being hit by Israeli bombardments is the number one concern.

“We are no longer able to reach our Cap Est vineyards located in the north eastern part of the Bekaa,” says Sami Ghosn, winemaker at Massaya, which he owns with his brother Ramzi.

“During harvest, we were constantly scanning the sky, not to predict the weather, but to look out for drones. At times we didn’t know if we would be able to go to the vineyards.”

Many of Lebanon’s vineyards are in areas adjacent to towns being targeted in Israeli strikes. At Domaine des Tourelles, the team was close enough to one bombardment to take a picture of the explosion from the winery. Chateau Rayak, an artisanal winery popular with tourists, has reportedly been put out of action by bombing.

The reality for wine producers is that life, and work, must go on.

George Sara, co-owner of Chateau Ksara, sums up the mood. “Talking about selling wine when people are dying might sound harsh, but this is the only way we can fight this terrible aggression,” he says. “We have to keep going.”

Sara has moved his family to France for the time being, but he and his 130 employees remain.

“It’s yet another very tragic time for the region and the country but we have been here before, most recently in 2006 when we last had conflict with Israel,” he says. “We can adapt. I tell everyone that as long as the roads, airport and port are open we can continue to do business.

“Our winery is nearly 170 years old and we have lived through war, famine, social upheaval and political instability. During the 1975-90 civil conflict our staff faced kidnapping every time they drove to work; the winery was occupied by armed militias and our French winemaker had to give instructions over the phone from France. 

“We live with war, conflict and instability. We factor all these into our business model and our mental state. We are very good at problem-solving.

“There have been air attacks in the area around the winery so we are very cautious about venturing into the vineyards. But thankfully the harvest is completed and the juice is in the tanks. This has made life easier.”

Berkmann Wine Cellars, Ksara’s UK importer, has been “amazingly supportive and understanding during this extremely difficult period,” Sara says.

“There is so much more to Lebanon than sadness, instability and war. Wine is a great vehicle for promoting positivity.

“I was in London recently promoting the wine and our country, and our message of civilisation, history and tradition. Not to do so would be to surrender to this terrible situation. We have 130 mouths to feed.”

Domaine des Tourelles

Co-owner and winemaker Faouzi Issa says that “physically, everyone is fine” but “morale is low”.

He adds: “Everyone is under a lot of stress with the fear of what will happen, worrying whether their families are safe, worrying about their kids. Everyone is on edge as no one knows where the next hit will be.   

“We are more conservative and not taking any risks: for example, not sending teams to work in vineyards that are away from the winery,” he says. 

“The domestic market has been severely impacted in the most important sales period of the year, which is a worry for us. We are focusing more and more on exports to make up the shortfall. 

“Thankfully shipping has not been impacted and the port is still operational. However the cost is higher because insurance has increased. Export is running OK, in fact even better than normal because of the support of all our beloved partners around the world, who want to support us and fill the void left by the drop in domestic sales. 

“They have been amazing and have been running tastings in store and on Zoom to help drive sales for us.” (UK importer Boutinot co-ordinated one such tasting for indies on October 30, and is hoping to organise more.)  

“We are so grateful for all this support as it is no exaggeration to say that it is our lifeline at the moment,” says Issa. “Many families depend on Domaine des Tourelles for their livelihoods and we are determined to keep our business strong to support them. Everything our partners, sales teams and customers are doing to support Lebanese wine will make a difference.”

Chateau Musar

“Our team is fine to date,” reports Musar managing director Gaston Hochar. “The winery is in a region less subject to shelling, and our offices in Beirut are also in an area not bombed yet. Our vineyards in the Bekaa are also in villages which have not been impacted to date. 

“The 2024 harvest started early due to the early ripening of the grapes, and we were lucky to finish the harvest of our Bekaa vineyards mid-September, before the outbreak increased.

“The attacks have greatly affected the local sales of wine and arrack, with drops in sales of over 75%. There are no more tourists; no more visitors at the winery.

“Normal trade is continuing on a much smaller scale in the areas which are not under attack. Supply chains are functioning at the moment, as the airport and the port are open. However, ministries and public services which were located in the attacked areas have been relocated, with a downgrade in service. For example, issuing shipping documents and certifying them would normally take three to five days and it now takes two to three weeks.

“Other wineries have had much bigger issues to deal with.”

Massaya

“Thankfully, the Massaya family is OK,” says Sami Ghosn. “We were able to salvage the wine harvest that came in somewhat early, but we were unable to fully harvest the Obeidi grapes.

“This has been a promising, if at times frustrating, harvest but we have had exceptional conditions, unfailing solidarity and a magnificent setting even if we were racing against the threat of man-made aggression. We remain hopeful. 

“We are used to working with geopolitical tension and our trusted colleagues keep us up to date with the latest security developments.

“We have taken precautions by transferring as much stock as we can to our Vieux Télégraphe partner’s warehousing in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in order to ease the logistics issues to the best of our abilities.”

UK importer Thorman Hunt is donating 5% of Massaya sales revenue to the Lebanese Red Cross until Christmas.