Author: Chris Khatsch

There must be a little art in everything I create, even if my creation is as cold as a machine and follows empirical data.
Lebanese Wine Review: A Red Wine by Couvent Rouge

Lebanese Wines: Al Dayaa 2014 by Couvent Rouge

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Name: Al Dayaa 2014 by Couvent Rouge
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon
Year: 2014
Country: Lebanon
Region: Deir El Ahmar, Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: February 2, 2025

An interesting discovery. This is good quality wine, and I’m happy that I tried it.

I bought it a while ago from a small mouneh shop located near the Monastery of Saint Maron in Aannaya. They had a selection of wine, and I just picked the one I was unfamiliar with. (You know me. I’m on a mission to try every red wine made in Lebanon.)

I uncorked the bottle on Sunday when we were having dinner with the family in an Airbnb apartment in Faqra. And all those who tried it liked it. It’s a smooth, easy-to-drink wine with notes of ripe red fruits and tiny hints of tomato and tobacco.

Unfortunately, since it isn’t really one of the famous wines of Lebanon, I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet. However, I got enough information about the bottle from the label — it mentions the name of the grapes used (Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo) and where it was bottled.

It was bottled in Couvent Rouge, and I’ve tried one of their wines before.

Lebanese Red Wine Review: Chateau Oumsiyat Syrah

Lebanese Wines: Chateau Oumsiyat Syrah 2018

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Name: Chateau Oumsiyat Syrah 2018
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Syrah
Year: 2018
Country: Lebanon
Region: Mount Lebanon
Date Consumed: January 26, 2025

I can imagine emptying a whole bottle by myself on a Friday evening after a long workweek. This is a nice wine to pair with long breaks and full-bodied Nicaraguan cigars. It’s also a nice wine to pair with philosophical texts. I can taste darkness and depth. I can smell pines and petrichor. I can see words sinking in a purple ocean…

Review and Quotes from Richard Dawkins' The Selfish

Notes and Quotes from Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene

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The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is one of the most important science books of the 20th century. When I read it in 2024, I wished that I had read it earlier. I opened the book looking for the origins of the concept of the meme, but I got much more than what I hoped to get. Not only did I learn about the meme (and that we’re gene machines), but I also learned to play the game of life a little better. (Trust me when I say that you’ll even gain an understanding of dating strategies and tactics by reading this book.) Most of all, I was happy to discover that, scientifically (or statistically) speaking, nice guys can finish first. And that’s good news, isn’t it?

Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Selfish Gene:

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

… even with selfish genes at the helm, nice guys can finish first.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

When we die there are two things we can leave behind us: genes and memes.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene