Tag: wine review

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

Lebanese Wines: Chateau Ksara Le Souverain 2019

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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.

Reviewing Chateau Ksara's Old Vine Carignan Wine, vintage 2021.

Lebanese Wines: Chateau Ksara Old Vine Carignan 2021

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Name: Chateau Ksara Old Vine Carignan 2021
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Carignan
Year: 2021
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: February 21, 2025

A medium-bodied red wine that pairs nicely with Lebanese barbecue and mezza.

I like it, and it’s affordable, but let me tell you that it’s not the best Lebanese wine out there…

If you’re new to Lebanese wines, don’t start here. Not a lot of things can make up for a bad first impression.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Chateau Ksara’s Old Vine Carignan is not a bad wine. It’s just not a great wine. Therefore, it cannot speak on behalf of other Lebanese wines.

This Old Vine Carignan is merely a wine that I wouldn’t mind having occasionally in casual settings.

Drinking the Bacchic juice from this bottle, I got notes of red fruits, black fruits, and spices.

Overall, the wine was pretty smooth and easy to drink, but its acidity left citrusy traces in my throat.