Vine & Views: Lebanon’s Wine Bars and Wineries | LYVV

Vine & Views: Lebanon’s Wine Bars and Wineries | LYVV

Import Export, Gemmayze

Import Export

Gemmayze

Deli, bar a vin and bar a cafe in one Gemmayze room, which is exactly as useful as it sounds. The wine list is long, Lebanese-leaning and poured by the glass without ceremony, and the deli counter means you can eat properly while working through it. The best first stop on any wine evening in the city.

Levain Wine Bar, Achrafieh

Levain Wine Bar

Achrafieh

The first wine bar and boutique dedicated entirely to Lebanese wine, which for years nobody had thought to do. Levain pairs the bottles with food built to match rather than food that happens to be on the menu. You can drink a flight, eat a full dinner, and leave with the bottle you liked under your arm.

Ixsir Winery Tour & Tasting, Batroun

Ixsir Winery Tour & Tasting

Batroun

A working Batroun winery that opens Tuesday to Sunday all year, harvest included, which is when there is most to see. Visitors can walk it themselves or take a guided tour and tasting. The building alone justifies the drive, set into the hillside with the vineyards running away below it toward the coast.

Chateau Ksara Winery Tour and Tasting, Ksara

Chateau Ksara Winery Tour and Tasting

Ksara

Lebanon's oldest winery, founded by the Jesuits in 1857, with Roman cellars running beneath it. Ksara offers tours and tastings through the Bekaa year-round, and the scale of the place takes a moment to register. Whatever you make of the wine, the tunnels are among the more remarkable things you can visit in the country.

Château Kefraya Winery, Kefraya

Château Kefraya Winery

Kefraya

A terroir, a soul, a great wine, in the estate's own words, and it earns them. The Bekaa vineyards sit beneath Mount Barouk, the tasting room looks straight out across them, and the range is wide enough that you will find something you were not expecting. Make a day of it rather than an hour.

Domaine Des Tourelles, Jdita

Domaine Des Tourelles

Jdita

A Lebanese winery since 1868, and one of the very few that never stopped. Domaine des Tourelles in Jdita makes wine and arak with the same continuity, on equipment that predates everyone reading this. The tasting is unhurried and the people pouring know the history because their own families lived through most of it.