Le Colombier 2020

For over 5,000 years, viticulture has been present in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. Michel Ghosn bought the Tanaïl estate as a countryside retreat in the early 1970s, but it was abandoned due to the Lebanese civil war. Returning in the early 1990s, brothers Sami and Ramzi Ghosn reclaimed and revitalised the land to start a vineyard and Arak distillery. The Ghosn brothers visited wineries in France to learn more about viticulture and soon partnered with Bordeaux’s Hebrard family and the Brunier family of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. After the civil war had ended, there were only a few wineries in Lebanon. Today, there are over forty-five. Massaya was the first new winery established in 1998 and marked the beginning of a winemaking renaissance in the country.