Domaine des Tourelles Marquis des Beys 2020

Marquis des Beys is the prestige cuvée of Domaine des Tourelles, whose vineyards lie in the western Bekaa, in Lebanon, at 1,050 metres. Each year, the best plots of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty to twenty-five years old and planted at 3,500 vines per hectare, are selected to make it. The high-altitude Mediterranean climate, sunny but refreshed by cool nights, ensures full ripeness and fine tension.

The grapes are harvested entirely by hand, in crates, with rigorous sorting in the vineyard. Fermentation is carried out with native yeasts in concrete tanks for around ten days, then malolactic fermentation starts spontaneously. After blending, the wine is aged for eighteen months in French oak barriques, one third new, one third once-used and one third twice-used, which refines its tannins without masking the fruit.

This wine reveals notes of cedar, sandalwood, blackcurrant, blackberry, plum, black pepper, tobacco and cocoa. The ripe, vibrant black fruit is wrapped in oaky, spicy notes from the ageing. The palate, broad and compact, is powerful and polished, with tight yet silky tannins, fine balance and a long finish that will benefit from a few more years in the cellar.

The whole history of Lebanese wine goes back more than five millennia. It begins with the Phoenicians, an ancient civilisation whose strong culture of travel and trade was of considerable importance to the development of the first Mediterranean civilisation. Wine was a major export for this ancient culture and was shipped to Egypt in large volumes and traded for gold. Lebanon was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1517, and the strictly applied sharia laws allowed neither the growing of vines nor the making of wine, except for religious purposes. It was only when France inherited the mandate over Lebanon and Syria after the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, that viticulture would truly develop. Lebanon is therefore a Middle Eastern country with an ancient wine culture that has experienced a renaissance in recent decades. In 2011, around six million bottles of Lebanese wine were produced from 2,000 hectares of vineyards. Modern Lebanese viticulture has moved away from the old Phoenician port cities and shifted inland, to the fertile Bekaa Valley. There is also a handful of vineyards near Jezzine, a few kilometres from the southern end of the Bekaa Valley, just inland from Sidon. Most Lebanese wine is exported to the United Kingdom, France and the United States, where receptive consumers have encouraged healthy growth in Lebanon's modern wine industry. In 1998 there were fewer than 10 wineries in Lebanon; today there are more than 30. Red wines make up the largest share of production and are generally made from the classic grape varieties of southern France: Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. White wines may include Ugni Blanc, Clairette and Chardonnay.