The original Bekaa Valley vineyards were planted with Cinsaut, which was subsequently joined by other French vine varieties. Most of these remain in Lebanon’s vinicultural makeup today: red Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and white Ugni Blanc, Clairette and Chardonnay.
History of wine production in Bekaa Valley
The oldest winery in the area is Chateau Ksara, which was established by the Jesuit Christians of Taanayel (Tanail), an ancient monastic settlement just down the valley from Ksara. The first vineyard there was planted in 1857, with plants brought from France via the colonies in Algeria.
At that time Lebanon was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, whose Sharia law condemned the production or consumption of wine except for religious purposes. Thus the initial winery was very subdued, and it was not until the French took control of the country after WW1 (under the League of Nations' French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon) that Bekaa Valley wine production began to expand.
Chateau Musar, founded in 1930, is another long-established estate in the valley and the most famous globally. A 1979 write-up in Decanter magazine by Michael Broadbent helped to open up export markets. By 1990, the vast majority of their production left the country.
This year marked the end of the Lebanese Civil War, which had lasted since 1975. As well as causing around 120,000 fatalities, around one million people left the country - the domestic wine market was of course decimated.
With the end of the conflict, the Bekaa Valley and the wider Lebanese wine industry could at least begin to work towards modernization and expressing its full potential. However, the country has since then had to cope with further challenges such as the spillover of the Syrian War, the explosion at the port of Beirut, and ongoing civil protests and economic crises.
Growing conditions in the Bekaa Valley
The long, narrow valley is a high-altitude (1,000m / 3000ft) oasis of agriculture and viticulture that runs north-south for around 65 kilometers (40 miles) between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains.
The mountains are the key factor in the terroir here. They protect the deserts to the east and the maritime rains to the west. The vineyards benefit from the rain shadow cast by Mount Lebanon (which is a 150-kilometer mountain range).
