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.
Reviewing the Lebanese wine by Ardoum called the Red Four

Lebanese Wines: Ardoum The Red Four 2020

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Name: Ardoum The Red Four 2020
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Grenache, Merlot
Year: 2020
Country: Lebanon
Region: Mount Lebanon
Date Consumed: October 7, 2025

I brought a 1.2 kg eye of round home with me yesterday, and I decided to make a braised roast. For that, I needed a good red wine. If you know me, you’d know that I no longer use “cooking wine” to cook. If it isn’t a wine I can drink, then I won’t allow my food to drink it either. I’m the one eating the food that’s been cooked with that wine, after all… And so, that’s how I ended up uncorking the award-winning blend by Ardoum called The Red Four. (Obviously, it’s called The Red Four because it’s made of four grapes: cabernet sauvignon, syrah, grenache, and merlot.)

Ardoum’s The Red Four 2020, once poured in the glass, displayed a lovely ruby dress. Full-bodied with supple tannins, I got notes of ripe black and red fruits and hints of tobacco, spices, and a tiny bit of leather.

Overall, this wine was much better than what I remembered it to be, even better than their Cabernet Sauvignon 2018.

While we’re here, and since I got so much pleasure out of The Red Four 2020 last night, allow me to also share a quote from a book I’m reading now — Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer:

Pleasure is, so to speak, nature’s vengeance.

Driving in a Sea of Clouds

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A sea of clouds beneath us.
Mountain chains
like frozen shadows
of surging waves.
The setting sun sinking into the fog
reminds me of the
yolk of a hard boiled egg.
And then, there’s the silhouette of
a mountain, like an island in the middle of
the sea of
clouds, and its peak reminds me of
the tip of
an iceberg.

The steering wheel of the car I’m driving
suddenly feels like the helm of a massive ship,
and I am the captain of that ship.

And now, the car dives like a submarine
into the fog.
I turn the headlights and the fog lights on.
I turn the hazard lights on,
and
its
clicking
sound
becomes our metronome.

I drive slowly,
very slowly.

My wife is in the back seat
next to my seven-month-old son,
who’s sleeping peacefully
in his car seat.

I keep on driving,
and
I drive slowly, very slowly.
And the fog
never
ends.
We can’t see anything.
“I can’t see anything,” my wife says.
“Please, be careful.”
Will the fog ever
end?
And the fog never ends
until it suddenly
finally
ends,
and
we can see
the road ahead of us
again.



Review of the Lebanese wine Massaya Le Colombier by a Lebanese connoisseur, or, more precisely, a dilettante

Lebanese Wines: Massaya Le Colombier 2020

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Name: Massaya Le Colombier 2020
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Grenache Noir, Cinsault, Tempranillo
Year: 2020
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: October 3, 2025

Young, balanced, and affordable. Massaya’s Le Colombier is amalgamation of red fruits, strawberry lollipop, and spices. It’s a smooth wine and is imbibed so easily that the bottle empties a little too quickly. One bottle isn’t enough for two, and two bottles is a little too much. Therefore, I suggest you do whatever you like with this information to derive maximum pleasure.

This wasn’t the first time I try Massaya’s Le Colombier, but it’s the first time I truly appreciate it. It’s one of those affordable, entry-level Lebanese red wines that everyone must try.