(2024) An unusual blend of 55% Sauvignon Blanc blended with 25% Chardonnay and 20% Semillon, this comes from the high altitude vineyards of the Bekaa Valley. The Chardonnay component is fermented and given a couple of months maturation in French oak. It's a fresh, fragrant and zippy style, a peachy, nectarine ripeness cut by lime and just a small hint of gooseberry. The palate is textured, citrussy, dry and licked by a saline breeziness in the finish. A racy, fish and seafood friendly white that is medium-bodied and has a bit of substance too. Watch my full video review for more information.
(2024) Blended from 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Syrah, this has quite a bold and vibrant cherry/pink colour. Cranberry and reducurrant on the nose, a little hint of rose petal. In the mouth this is a sweet and forward style. I suspect a touch of residual sugar adds to the sweet juiciness. It has texture and concentration, hints of spice and good balancing acidity.
(2024) Paler than it's Sunset cousin, Grenache Gris dominates this rosé along with 40% Carignan. More subtle and mineral than the Sunset cuvée, and a year younger, red fruits and peach in the background. In the mouth it is drier than the Sunset, with more of a lemony thrust of acid at its core but there is still sweetness to the berry and stone fruit, and that drier citrus finish adds welcome balance.
(2024) A blend of Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Syrah, Lebanese producer Ixsir's winemaker Gabriel Rivero spent eight years at Sociando-Malet and says “IXSIR is fundamentally about new world winemaking in an old world country." With vineyards at 1,800m metres, each variety comes from a plot matched for climate and soil type. Pale, if not quite as pale in colour as some, it has plenty of fragrance, with watercolour paintbox and floral aromas, cherry and rose-hip. Quite a heady aromatic profile. The palate is dry, with a peachy, nectarine fruit, a little strawberry and good balance with a peach skin bite of a little grip, citrus acidity and good length.
(2023) The Vieilles Vignes – ‘Old Vines’ - here really are, the 100-year-old Merweh from a vineyard at 1,400m in the Bsharreh Valley, the 50-year-old Obeidi from Bekaa. Fermented with wild yeast, the wine was made in concrete tank. There's a bit of depth to the colour, and a fruit-skin character rather than fresh fruit aromas, light earthiness and a touch of orange peel. In the mouth it is bone dry and particularly spicy. Again it reminds me of citrus and melon skins, with that dry, savoury as much as sweet character, and plenty of zippy acidity. This is a bit different for sure, and I can imagine it matching mezze or tapas really well. Watch the video for more information.
(2022) These vines truly are vieilles, or 'old', here in the high Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, at 70 years of age. Cinsault was the chosen variety for the Jesuit missionaries who planted cutting here in the 19th century, a slice of Lebanese history in more ways than one. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts, from organically-grown grapes, and is aged partly in large oak foudres, and partly in concrete vats. There's a swirling, smoky, tobacco character as well as classic cigar-box notes to keen but ripe red and black fruits. In the mouth there's loads of fleshy plum, but with a lean and muscular edge. Spices and the oak component adding savoury, smooth tannins and crisp cherry acids to balance the sweet and ripe mid-palate fruit. A lovely wine.
(2021) Massaya is a partnership between the Ghosn family of Lebanon and the Hebrard and Prunier families of Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley respectively. An unusual blend of more or less equal parts Grenache, Cinsault and Tempranillo. Bright creamy crimson, it is moderate in density and offers aromas of pomegranate, spice and pepper. This does not appear to have seen oak. In the mouth there's a savoury, endive and liquorice twist to this. On the mid-palate more sweetness comes through, the wine is medium-bodied despite the 14.5% alcohol, the finish rather dry with a dustiness to the tannins.
(2021) The southern French variety grown in Lebanon, and this unoaked wine delivers a smooth, supple, quite plush spiced plum compote fruit, surging onto the palate with lovely sweetness of fruit. It is quite substantial and mouth-filling, yet the tannins are creamy and soft and the acidity gentle, so the overall impression is elegant and very easy to drink.
(2021) The first thing to point out about this new and exclusive listing in Aldi UK, is that it is available online only and is not in stores. It's a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, aged in French oak barrels for 12 months. With a few years under its belt, the colour is still vibrant, the nose deeply-scented with blackcurrant and a very attractive pastille quality, tiny violet notes in the mix. In the mouth it is juicy and sweet, the oak barely perceptible as plush black fruit on the mid-palate gives way to softer tannins and a nicely juicy acidity. It's not particularly long, and the finish feels a touch dilute, but it is very nice wine and a fascinating addition to the UK wine scene having a sub-£10 Lebanese wine in Aldi (online). Watch the video for more information.
(2021) First a caveat that this was only a sample of Musar, delivered to me in a miniaturised bag-in-box type format, which I did not have a chance to open for a few days after it arrived, so notes and scores taken with that caveat please. It's a remarkably dense and deep young Musar, depth of colour with immediately plummy and smooth aromas, a little cherry lift coming through as well as some smoky, tobacco spice. In the mouth the sheer abundance of fruit is almost shocking: masses of ripe berries and plum again, the underpinning of the creamy and cedary oak, smooth, chocolate-dense tannins and very nice, pert acidity. This is a particularly generous and full Musar vintage, and could well be worth more than my modest 92 point score, which I will update when I have a chance to taste from a freshly opened bottle.
