Lebanonis a Middle Eastern country with an ancient wine culture that has experienced a renaissance in the past few decades. In 2011, roughly six million bottles of Lebanese wine were produced from 2000 hectares (5000 acres) of vineyards. Modern Lebanese viniculture has moved away from the ancient Phoenician port cities and inland to the fertile Bekaa Valley. There are also a handful of vineyards near Jezzine, a few miles beyond the southern end of the Bekaa, just inland of Sidon.
The majority of Lebanese wine is exported to the UK, France and the US, where the receptive consumer bases have encouraged healthy growth in Lebanon's modern wine industry. In 1998, there were fewer than 10 wineries in Lebanon; now there are more than 30. Red wines account for most of the output; these are usually made from the classic wine grapes of southern France; Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. White wines may feature Ugni Blanc, Clairette and Chardonnay.
The modern wine industry here can be traced back to the 19th Century. As non-Muslims living in a Muslim state – part of the Ottoman Empire since the 1500s – Christians living in Lebanon were permitted certain freedoms, one of which was the right to make wine for ceremonial purposes. It was on this basis that, in 1857, a group of Jesuit priests founded a winery in Ksara, a small town in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon's finest wine terroir.
Chateau Ksara warrants its own chapter in the annals of Lebanese wine history. The Christian community that founded the original winery effectively founded the modern Lebanese wine industry, and their efforts have been rewarded with the château's success as the nation's largest wine producer. Even today one in every three bottles of Lebanese wine is produced at Ksara, which also makes Arak, the anise-flavoured spirit that remains Lebanon's most popular alcoholic beverage. Chateau Musar and Chateau Kefraya are among the other notable, long-established wine estates.
