Wine: Raising a vineyard in war-torn Lebanon

Published on Saturday 6 March 2010 12:42

THE vineyards that surrounded the simple brick house were shrouded in weeds, creating an impenetrable jungle between the arthritic, twisted branches of their vines. It was 35 years since Sami Ghosn had fled his family home at the start of Lebanon's civil war, and yet this place was as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.

"I was eight years old when we were forced to leave. My brother, my mother and I ran to the car when the shooting started. I remember looking out of the back window as we drove away and seeing our dog chasing after us, but it was too dangerous to stop. We found out later that she had been killed."

The Ghosn family, who are Lebanese Christians, finally settled in the United States in 1984, but despite many offers over the years, always refused to sell the land on which their family had grown grapes for generations. "I knew I would go back one day when conditions improved," says Sami. "The vineyards were a part of my family. They were our history and our future too. I never considered abandoning my home."

Situated in Tanal, in the heart of the Bekaa valley, the Ghosn clay-limestone vineyard stands 1,000m above sea level, on a fertile plateau between two mountain ranges that separate Lebanon and Syria. The valley has long, gentle summers, wet winters and almost 300 days of sunshine a year. The conditions could not be more ideal for growing grapes. "It is beautiful place," Sami says. "Perfect for making wine, but a paradise in other ways too. I wanted my daughter to experience the life that I enjoyed here before the war."

Conditions stabilised somewhat in Lebanon in the early 1990s, and Sami decided the time was right to pursue his dream of becoming a vintner in his home country, leaving a successful career as an architect in Los Angeles. "Some people think it is strange that I would give up a life in America, and all that meant, to come back," he says. "But those things don't matter when your country has been torn apart. I wanted to be part of the rebuilding process. I needed to be there."

During the family's absence, squatters had moved on to their land, leaving it in a state of disrepair, but Sami, and his brother Ramzi, who had been managing his own restaurant company in France, saw past this. "The vineyards were still standing and we knew we could breathe life into them again," Sami says. "We saw what might be, rather than what was. It was about hard work and perseverance."

The land worked its magic and Sami gave up everything in order to devote himself to bringing the war-ravaged vineyard back to life, entrusting marketing to Ramzi. The brothers opened their Massaya Winery in 1998, when Lebanon was still on the rebound from its civil war.

Their first alcoholic product was arak, a traditional Middle Eastern aniseed-flavoured aperitif that they packaged in eyecatching blue glass bottles, 100,000 of which are now sold every year. In addition to this, they also produce more than 250,000 bottles of wine annually, including a ros, a white and three reds.

Nowadays, Massaya is regarded as one of Lebanon's hippest wineries. But only one of them, because the Ghosn brothers are not the only ones to have taken advantage of the region's exceptional growing conditions. Wine-making has deep roots in Lebanon and has been prevalent in the Bekaa Valley region since Phoenician times, but the past decade has been exceptionally good for the industry, thanks to increased stability in the country. Exports have shot up, new wineries are appearing and tourism bosses have begun marketing Lebanese vineyards as an attraction for visitors. For these reasons, and the reputation of Lebanese wine overseas, the country is being lauded as one of the great upcoming wine regions.

But what of the future for the Massaya winery in this fragile part of the world? "I have two aims," says Sami. "The first is to carry on creating world-class Lebanese wine. Massaya means 'delicate beauty of the Bekaa's twilight' in Arabic, and we need to honour this potential. The other is to give something back to the environment that has given us so much."

Sami Ghosn will be the guest of honour at the Lake of Menteith Hotel's Lebanese wine dinner, in conjunction with Woodwinters, on 12 March. For more information, visit www.lake-hotel.com or www.massaya.com.

Stockists: Peckham & Rye (0141-445 4555); Peter Green and Co (0131-229 5925); Wine Society (01438 741177); Woodwinters (01786 834894)

&#149 This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, March 7, 2010