Wines of the Eastern Mediterranean

Surely in these places there was the first man to approach wine. Then, no one knows how effective the followers of the Prophet began to prohibit the consumption, although the Caliphs and Sultans were not teetotalers. But only in the late nineteenth century, wine regained his homeland. In 1857 the Jesuits founded the cellars of Ksara in Lebanon, even today, are the largest in the eastern Mediterranean. In Lebanon, on the eastern slope of Mount Barouk, the Bekaa Valley and on the side of guns, there is a 130ha vineyard of Cabernet and Cinsault almost everything used to produce a superlative wine, aromatic, long-lasting for decades: is Chateau Musar Serge Hochar. Also in Lebanon Chateau Kefraya produces wines to be drunk young.


In 1880 Baron Edmond de Rothschild restored the vineyards in the wine cellars of Rishonle giving Israel-Zion and Zichron Yaacov, who produce three quarters of the national wine from grapes of the Caramel Valley. Until the ’80s but were only kosher wines since 1976 on the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee to Mount Hermon have started to plant vineyards in California and techniques, in 1978, has produced a stunning Sauvignon Blanc. The best labels Yarden, Gamla and Golan in order, sometimes with excellent wines that have forced wineries Rothschild to work hard to maintain their level.

Turkey remains the largest grower of the Middle East. By extension of vineyards is in fifth place in the world, but only 3% of the grapes is converted into wine, the rest is table grapes or raisins. In 1920 Kemal Ataturk built a winemaking facility in the hope of introducing the use of wine among his compatriots, but the Turks, which is 99% Muslim, seem difficult to convince, and only managed to keep alive the indigenous varieties of Anatolia . The country is divided into nine distinct wine areas with Roman numerals. The zone II and III of the Aegean, Thrace and the Marmara Sea produce three-fifths of the wine country. The monopoly status with 21 wineries is the largest exporter of wine cutting. Among the private firms and Doluca Kavaklidere are probably the best.

The Doluca work in Thrace with the excellent Villa Neva Villa Doluca and Anatolia. Kavaklidere is a concentration of typical varieties of Anatolia: Narince, Emir and the sultanas and white Bogazkere, Kalecik Karas Okuzgozu the red. Nestor Gianaclis in 1903 planted the first vines at Alexandria and was the return of life in Egypt. To the northwest of the delta of the Nile, Abu Hummus, are still active and its vineyards. Red grapes are one-fifth of the total, but three-quarters of white wine is distilled.