Tag: Lebanon

Review of Lebanese Wines by a top Lebanese Wine Reviewer: Chateau Ksara Le Souverain 2019

Lebanese Wines: Chateau Ksara Le Souverain 2019

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Name: Chateau Ksara Le Souverain 2019
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Marselan, Arinarnoa
Year: 2019
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: March 21, 2025

I’m not very familiar with the grape varieties of this wine, but the spirit of cabernet sauvignon is in it, and I can taste it. Notes of black fruits, licorice sticks, and aphrodisiac spices come together to fill my mouth with poetry. I want more… but I don’t want to drink too fast.

I scrupulously enjoy and savor the wine, but I’m afraid I uncorked it too soon. The tannins are strong. I could have aged it a couple of years, and then I would have something much, much better. Much, much deeper.

Out of nowhere, I remember a sentence from Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus. It says, “If the world were clear, art would not exist.”

That’s why I sometimes blur the world with wine, I think — to make it less clear and be able to appreciate life as a work of art.

A clear, one-dimensional world is unfit for the soul of man…

Review of the wine of Bzommar, the Chateau

Lebanese Wines: Couvent Notre Dame de Bzommar Cuvée des Moines Chateau 2012

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Name: Couvent Notre Dame de Bzommar Cuvée des Moines Chateau 2012
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon
Year: 2012
Country: Lebanon
Region: Keserwan
Date Consumed: March 9, 2025

Headquarters of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate, Our Lady of Bzommar has a special place in my heart. It is the place where my parents got married, the place where I was baptized, the place where I got married, and the place I plan to baptize my son. Imagine then if I don’t speak well of this wine. The wine, too, has a special place in my heart. It is a wine that makes my soul smile. I uncork a bottle on special occasions. This time, the occasion was the birth of my son.

Review of the Lebanese wine Chateau St Thomas Les Emirs

Lebanese Wines: Chateau St Thomas Les Emirs 2018

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Name: Chateau St Thomas Les Emirs 2018
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah
Year: 2018
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: February 26, 2025

An excellent, well-balanced, saporous blend. This smooth, full-bodied wine has the complexity and the necessary attributes to be the main wine of a feast. If you’re inviting family or friends for a Sunday lunch or dinner, you can open a few bottles of Les Emirs instead of the usual go-to Lebanese wines that you find on most Lebanese dining tables. I’d also pair this ruby red elixir with biftek, the easy-to-do straightforward Lebanese thin-sliced beef steaks that I frequently enjoy with the wife…