It was poignant to be tasting a small selection of wines from Château Ksara just as Lebanon was plunged into yet another crisis. On their doorstep the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Palestine has been raging for over a year. Within Lebanon, the sudden escalation of September 2024 as Israel began an offensive against Hezbollah has taken danger to a whole new level. It seems like it has always been thus of course. The story of Lebanon’s wine producers harvesting their crop whilst shells exploded around them has been told many times. When I visited Lebanon, the winemakers I met were such friendly and hospitable people, resigned to doing their best despite sometimes overwhelming odds. I wish them and the country well.
Château Ksara
One of Lebanon’s oldest wine companies founded in 1857, Ksara is also its biggest. With a production of up to three million bottles annually it accounts for a quarter to one-third of the country’s entire wine output. I last visited them in 2012 at which time I wrote in detail about the country’s wine history, geography and state of play as well as profiling a dozen estates including Château Ksara.
Ksara’s many vineyards in the Bekaa Valley have an average altitude of 1,000 metres, and produce a broad range of wines from both indigenous grapes like Merwah and Obeidy, and from French varieties that remain the mainstay thanks to Lebanon and Ksara’s long history of French wine influence.
The different styles of wine this terroir is capabale of producing is mind-boggling, from full-bodied and lavishly-oaked deep reds, to crisp and fragrant whites. Here I had the chance to taste three of their lighter wines, two rosés and one white. The wines are imported into the UK by Berkmann Cellars.