Lebanese Wine Guide: Château Musar, Bekaa Valley & What to Try
Lebanese wine has quietly become one of the most interesting corners of the wine shelf, and the reason is simple. Lebanon grows two white grapes almost nobody else does, Obaideh and Merwah, which have adapted to Lebanese conditions over centuries and give whites you will not find anywhere else. The easiest way in is still the country's most famous red. Château Musar 2018 comes from the Bekaa Valley, blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault at 14% ABV, and costs £47.95 for a 75cl bottle. This is a friendly UK guide to everything behind that bottle. We have put it together drawing on years of helping customers at our independent shop in Portobello, Edinburgh, and it covers Lebanon's three key regions, the grapes worth knowing, and five wines to try from our range of more than twenty Lebanese bottlings. What makes Lebanese wine different? Two things set Lebanese wine apart. The first is those indigenous white grapes, which we come back to in detail below. The second is...