Name: Chateau Ksara – Cuvée du Troisième Millénaire
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Cabernet-Franc, Petit Verdot, Syrah
Year: 2016
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: 4 December, 2022
Good wine in a good-looking bottle. Feels classic. Great to bring one with you when you’re invited for lunch or dinner. Deep purple. Full-bodied and playful. Notes of ripe strawberry, dried prune, and tiny hints of vanilla.
It scores 80/100.
Name: Domaine des Tourelles Red 2018
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Carignan
Year: 2018
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: 1 December, 2022
I bought this bottle a couple of years ago to make sangria with it. But I forgot all about it until last month when I decided to do a quick inventory of the wines I had. I don’t have a big inventory, but it seems I have enough to forget some of the bottles that I own. And the Domaine des Tourelles 2018 was one of them.
Forgetting is not always a bad thing, however, because, now, the wine had aged enough to be, what I believe, in its prime. We opened it right before it started to darken to a brown color. As I poured it into the decanter, I watched the beautiful magenta liquid slide down to the bottom. It looked nice and smelled nice.
After I let it rest for a few minutes, I poured a glass for my wife and another for me. We tasted it, and it was okay.
I got notes of dark fruits, wood, and olive oil. It was an expressive sip. Rich. But it wasn’t as good as I expected when I first smelled it.
It gets 72/100.
Name: Domaine de Baal – Le Petit Baal 2019
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon
Year: 2019
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: 6 November, 2022
Strong and full-bodied. Bold and powerful. Aged in French oak barrels. Tannic. Raunchy.
This is a wine that has a lot of character. I could smell the red fruits and taste the berries. I could also detect some earthy and leathery notes.
It deserves 86/100.
Bored Absurdist 