Mercifully, we were allowed a wee bit of a lie-in on Thursday morning and we were met by our driver for the day, outside the hotel at about 10.00am. Sami was working at the Massaya Fakra project and had decided to let us loose for the day. Our first destination were the wonderous natural caves at the Jeita Grotto at Nahr El-Kalb, about 18km. north of Beirut. These are one of the great natural wonders of the world and consist of an Upper and Lower cave. The Upper Cave is almost cathedral-like with its cavernous interior filled with an extraordinary concentration of limestone stalactites and stalagmites, forming a series of weird natural sculptures. As you proceed up the galleries, you climb higher and higher and this is definitely not the place to be if you suffer from vertigo (which this author certainly does!). The Lower caves were discovered by the American, William Thomson, in 1836 and you explore these by electric boat. They form part of an underground river system and the crystal clear water is as pure as it gets and is mainly used to supply the people of Beirut.

The Lower Cave at Jeita Grotto

As we walked back in to the bright sunlight after our tour, we were met by our driver, only to find that he had lost the keys of his car. Following a rather tense few minutes, he discovered that he had left them in the souvenir shop whilst waiting for us. Panic over and we headed off to the north and the town of Byblos. As we drove up the main highway, we encountered some of the most ‘exciting’ driving we were to see in the Lebabon. This is a busy and fast road and when we saw banks of red lights coming on in front of us, we knew that there had probably been an accident. As the traffic slowed to a crawl, we saw cars parked on the hard shoulder and in the slow lane of the highway and as we drew near, we expected to see a serious smash. Nothing of it, as what had happened was that a large number of cars had just decided to pull over and watch the equivalent  of stock car racing in a field on the side of the road! This is a country where anything goes and, in many ways, it is all the better for it.

The old port at Byblos

We had arranged with the driver to leave us at the old port of Byblos and from here we set off on a tour which, needless to say, involved a spot of lunch. Sami had recommended a couple of hostileries on the side of the port and we plumped for Chez Pepe at the Byblos Fishing Club. Pepe Abed opened the restaurant in 1963 and it soon became the place where the ‘glitterati’ of the world had to be seen when visiting the Lebanon. The walls of the restaurant are covered in photos of just about anybody famous from the sixties and seventies. Pepe died in 2006, in his early 90′s, but the restaurant, with its perfect position overlooking the old port and out to sea is still worthy of a detour. It serves deliciously fresh fish although its wine list is somewhat restricted (what, no Massaya?!).

Looking out to sea from Chez Pepe, Byblos

After lunch we walked up in to the old town which is dominated by the Crusader Citadel. Byblos dates back over 5000 years and is extraordinarily rich in history having been home to just about every Mediterranean civilisation over the years. Today, it is very much a Maronite Christian stronghold and the new town is a bustling, vibrant cultural centre. Our visit to the Old Souk (bazaar) was with the intention of finding some ‘goodies’ to take home to our families and there was certainly a wide range of produce to chose from. You can buy pretty much anything in the Souk  from fascinating fossils, local spices, clothes etc. down to matresses and broom-sticks.

Byblos Old Souk

Amazing spices in the Byblos Old Souk

As the day drew to a close, we met our driver who then drove us back to Beirut. Our cultural visit had not quite ended, as we planned to take a look at the Maronite Christian Cathedral of St. George in the centre of town, which is situated right next to the dominating, sky-blue domed Mohammad al-Amin mosque (locally referred to as the Hariri mosque). This ’new build’ mosque was financed by the late prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assasinated near-by in 2005,  by a massive truck bomb, leading to three years of political instability and sectarian violence. Built entirely from stone from Saudi Arabia, the imposing nature of the building is somewhat insensitive when one considers the Lebanon’s struggle for successful sectarian co-existence.  The 72 metre high minarets are similar to those of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, while the dome is based on the classic Ottoman-Byzantine design. Apart from the fact that the Hariri Mosque looks down at the Cathedral of St. Geoorge, it also seems to be shouldering out the residence of the Bishop of Beirut, which is a few metres away from it!

The Hariri Mosque dominates the Bishop of Beirut's residence (on the right)

Our last night in Beirut was to be a Sami Ghosn ‘special’! After a scrub and spruce up back at the hotel, Sami collected the four of us and headed off to the Gemmayzeh district of town and to a Cantina-Bar called Joe Peña, run by Steve Chahwah, a German-Lebanese. This is certainly a ‘happening’  bar where Tex-Mex meets Lebanon and where the ‘cool and hip’ young things of town meet for a ‘pre-lash’.

Joe Peñas' "pumping up the action"

The Tex-Mex selection was really rather good and had an infusion of the Lebanon in some of the flavours. What’s more, we moved away from Arak back in to the world of wine, finding that Massaya Rosé is a great combination with this type of spicy food. Leaving the beautiful young things of Beirut to continue their ‘jump-up’, our final destination for our last night out in Beirut was the Music Hall, a cabaret-style theatre that specialises in live music acts from all cultural backgrounds. Founded by Michel Elefteriades in 2003, this is one of the Middle East’s leading and trendiest live music venues. It is situated in a converted cinema in down-town Beirut, at the StarCo Centre on Omar Daouk Street and when we arrived at about 11.00pm, was nearly full with locals of all ages.

Beirut Music Hall or "Beirut's Got Talent"

About a dozen acts played on Thursday night last week and some of them, as you can imagine, were better than others. In the main, it was the performers with the more ‘Middle Eastern’  bias that came over the best, whilst there were some curious and unusual ‘covers’ of  the likes of Pink Floyd and Boney M (“By the Rivers of Babylon”!). Some of these would be candidates for a Simon Cowell version of “Beirut’s Got Talent”! The Music Hall is certainly a great fun venue and by midnight, the whole audience was on its feet, dancing the night away. Towards the end of the evening, we were joined by Ramzi Ghosn (who had a 2.00am flight to catch to New York!), Walid Ataya (from Bread) and Joe Peña’s Steve Chahwah. The UK wine trade acquitted themselves with certain style and panache on the dance floor and exhausted, we were happy to get to bed as we had a fairly early flight to catch back to London.

The sun rose over the hills at Fakra at about 5.00am on Wednesday morning and the team of James, Averil, John and myself were ready for another long day, taking in the sites, smells and noises of this crazy and beautiful country. Our first ‘mission’ was to meet Sami and Ramzi on the building site next to our hotel. Massaya’s new project is the construction of  new cellar, restaurant and cellar-door facility, situated in the heart of the ski-resort and overlooking the Mediterranean, far away in the distance. This is very much an eco-friendly construction, using local sandstone blocks with the facility cut into the steep hillside. There will also be a small ‘garden’ vineyard planted with Chardonnay which, at 1550 metres altitude, will certainly be ‘edgy’ when it comes to production. The heavy stone work is being carried out by locals but both the Ghosn boys are very much involved in the day-to-day operations and not just over-seeing the ground works.

View from the Massaya Fakra project towards the Mediterranean

The Fakra facility will make Massaya wines more accessable to the inhabitants of Beirut as it is only 50 minutes drive from the city, compared to a near 2 hour drive from Beirut to the Bekaa Valley. It will also be well used during the ski season (December through to the beginning of April) and by the summer tourists. It may well also be somewhat of an ‘insurance policy’ in a country when you can never be quite sure what is going to happen next when it comes to potential invasion – and the Bekaa Valley has always been in the ‘front-line’ when things turn nasty.

Our next destination on Wednesday was the World Heritage Site at Baalbek, back down in the Bekaa Valley. Us four Brits squeezed in to Ramzi’s pick-up and headed back east, through the nearly thawed snow fields of Faraya, with the ski lift pylons clearly revealing the extent of the ski station. We overtook numerous quarry trucks, chuntling through the few remaining snow ‘alleys’ on their way down to the numerous construction sites that can be found in the Bekaa.

A truck edging its way down one of the season's last snow alleys

As we drove down into the Bekaa Valley, we had our first encounter with the Lebanese army (no photos available!) who have numerous check points set up throughout the country. They were a very courteous bunch but with a job to do. The Bekaa has long been an area where hashish production is prevalent, although this is now mostly centred in the northern part of the valley where the authorities have less sway as certain warlords are still in control in the region. The army is always on the alert for strangers dealing in hashish and we guessed that this might be the reason for the stop and search routine that they went through. With our first ‘military’ experience out of the way, the next job was to buy some local bread to nibble on before we headed off to visit some of the Massaya vineyards. Ramzi knew of a roadside hut where a couple of local ladies baked local markouk - which are thin sheets of bread cooked on a saj, or a metal dome. UK Health and Safety authorities would have had a hey-day if they visited their breeze-block hut which must have been over 50 degrees centigrade inside with extremely hot open fires burning wood! The bread was absolutely delicious and the two ladies were charming, especially when they saw the playback of John’s video that he shot of them!

Roadside baker at El Hadet - Health and Safety eat your heart out!

Now well-equipped to stave off any hunger (something that rarely seems an issue in the Lebanon!), our next port-of-call was to visit the more northerly Massaya vineyards where Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Syrah are grown. Massaya has about 50ha. of vines under plantation with 40ha. of these being red varietals. These are grown on the ‘homestead’ vineyards but they also have sustantial holdings further north in the Jabal Sannine foothills.

Massaya Mourvèdre vineyards, west of Baalbek

Although none of the Massaya vineyards are certified organic, they might as well be as the hot, dry breezes that gently blow down the Bekaa Valley means that there are no fungal attacks, few insects and ploughs deal with unwanted ground cover. Vineyards have been part of the life of the Bekaa for over 5000 years as the Phoenicians, the ancient dwellers of Lebanon, were tending vineyards, making wine and using it as a trading ‘chip’ with other Mediterranean peoples. From then on, the Romans took up the baton and further developed viticulture and the fact that the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek is so dominating and impressive is a clear sign of how important wine was (and still is) to the region. It would be safe to say that the wines of Lebanon combine the antiquity of the old world with the modern wine making techniques of today; it is where tradition combines with modernity.

Ramzi had to head off back to HQ at Tanail and had arranged for a local driver to take us on to Baalbeck so that we could tour the ruins. A delightful chap he was too, but with the disadvantage that he did not speak a great deal of English and our Lebanese Arabic was somewhat limited as well. Ramzi had organised for us to stop off at a local café on the highway leading in to the town of Baalbek – just in case we were thirsty after the dusty ride and on the off-chance that we might like a bit of a ‘snackette’ before we launched ourselves on the Roman temples. Now, it’s worth pointing out that Baalbek is something of a Hezbollah stronghold and the Iranians have invested in the area to increase their influence, which includes the construction of the impressive new north-south highway through the region. So when the English ‘contingent’ arrived on the scene, we somewhat stook out in the crowd, especially when the Devon ‘boys’ ordered a couple of beers (remember John Mills in “Ice Cold in Alex”?). The Lebanese café owner explained that although he was somewhat of a ‘drinker’ himself, he didn’t sell alcohol, as the majority of his customers were Hezbollah and he would loose them overnight if he did. No worries, as good old water can often do the same job. When entering the café to visit the ‘facilities’, it became clear that this indeed was a Hezbollah hang-out as a shifty group of gents at the bar were all carrying side-arms, something you don’t see these days in the Lebanon.

A thank you note to the Iranian Ayatollahs outside our café at Baalbek

Leaving the plate of kebbehs (ground beef and crushed wheat shells stuffed with ground lamb, beef, pine nuts and almonds) almost untouched, we headed off with our driver to what was the cultural highlight of our Lebanese tour. The monumental Roman temples of Baalbek are literally out of this world and are one of its true ancient wonders. We were lucky enough to have an excellent guide, Charbel Saliba, who spoke near-perfect English and took us through the maze of temples revealing his great depth of knowledge.

The Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek

At Baalbek, there are three temples, Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus (only the first two are open for visits) and the Temple of Bacchus is the best preserved Roman temple in the world. Charbel told us that tourist numbers this year were 60% down on 2010 because of the problems across the border in Syria, where a great deal of there visitors come from.  

The sacrificial alter at the Temple of Jupiter

We spent a good two hours at this remarkable home of the Gods and said our farewells to Charbel before heading off to rendezvous with Sami for our drive back to Beirut. In all the excitement, we forgot that we had not had lunch and that we were due to have a mezze of Mediterranean fish on the coast! We headed off at full steam on the main highway towards Beirut and then headed north in the direction of Byblos. Eventually, after an hour and a half’s drive, we arrived in the village of Ghazir, with the aquamarine blue of the Mediterranean as a backdrop. This is the home of the iconic Lebanese winery of Château Musar. We had no idea that Musar was so far way from the Bekaa Valley and its vineyards but as Serge Hochar writes: “when fully ripened, the grapes are hand-picked in the early hours by Bedouin tribe’s people and driven around 70km. over the mountains to the winery at Ghazir. It’s during this rugged journey that the grapes gain their ability to produce wines that can age for so long – that by their exposure by to air by truck and fermentation in concrete vats, is essential to the ‘Musar style’ and inoculates the wines against oxidation.”

Château Musar at Ghazir

By about 5.00pm, we had arrived on the shores of the Mediterranean at Aamchit, a small village about 2km. north of Byblos. This was going to be a very late lunch indeed but looking at the fabulously fresh fish and seafood available on display as we arrived, we realised just how hungry we really were. Sami selected a range of dishes for us to graze from and we settled down with a bottle of (guess what?)…Massaya Arak! This was the perfect way to end the day as the restaurant, Chez Zakhia, was nearly empty as lunch (for most normal people) had finished and dinner wouldn’t start for a couple of hours. The deep blue sea lapped on the rocks below and the sun was still high enough to be hot. James Tanner was the only one of us who had come prepared with a particularly fetching straw hat which made him stand out from the crowd – especially when we had been in Hezbollah country in Baalbek! After shuffling tables around in the shade, a procession of sushi-style prawns and fish arrived.

Fabulously fresh fish at Chez Zakhia, Aamchit

There can be no doubt that Arak does go with a wide range of foods and certainly when it comes to a classic mezze selection but when it comes to fish, Massaya White is a perfect partner, which is where we decided to head this time round (after an opening glass of Arak!). Then came the hot fish courses which were stunningly fresh and beautifully cooked. However, there is absolutely no chance of us remembering the names of the fish.

Chris, Averil, James & John (L:R) relaxing at Chez Zakhia

We finished lunch at about 7.00pm and drove back into down-town Beirut for a brush-up before going out to supper. When Sami arrived to pick us up, all four Brits were more than keen to point out that supper was absolutely not a priority. Sami’s plan was to take us down to Hamra Street in West Beirut and meet his friend, restaurateur and baker, Walid Ataya. Walid is one of Beirut’s characters who owns a number of restaurants and an artisan bakery that supplies his own and other restaurants. Once an architect, he is now a highly successful self-taught chef (he prefers the word ‘cook’) and restaurateur who is widely regarded as amongst Lebanon’s most talented chefs. Walid is also president of the Slow Food movement in the Lebanon and cooks with only organic and local produce. Hamra Street is almost the main street of Beirut with an extraordinary mixture of local and multi-national shops but where. most importantly, you see a cross-section of Lebanon with Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Druze and foreigners all living together. It is just up from the American University and the influx of students from all over the world adds to the polycultural feel of the area.

Outside Walid Ataya's "Bread Republic" in Hamra, West Beirut

Bread Republic is not a fancy restaurant; it is more of a bar-bistro with a bakery shop on the side. Most people eat outside and Walid tempted us with a kaleidoscope of different ‘tapas size dishes – all totally original with the aromas and flavours of the Levant. Walid is passionate about his food and is very knowledgable about wine, with a deep interest in the wines of Italy. This is a destination that any serious foodie visiting Beirut should head for as soon as they get their bearings!

Late night Beirut from the roof-top bar at the Palm Beach Hotel

By about 1.00am, we were all beginning to fade a bit, although James T claimed that he had got his second wind! As a result, we headed back to our hotel for a final sharpener whilst looking at the lights across the bay as Beirut continued to party the early morning away! Another long but fascinating day had come to an end.

Arriving at Beirut airport at near-enough midnight last Monday, we were whisked through immigration and security by the head of airport security – something which could only happen in this mad, crazy and fantastic country! As with so many things in the Middle East, it’s not what you know but who you know. Massaya’s co-owner, Sami Ghosn was waiting for us outside in his huge American 4-wheel drive gas guzzler and drove us to our hotel in down-town Beirut. It might have been a Monday night, but this is a city that ‘pumps up the action’ on an almost twenty-four hour basis. We dumped our bags at our hotel and then made a dash for the roof-top bar at the next-door Vendôme. Luckily, tiredness was beginning to set in all round and a beer later, we headed back to our hotel and bed.

The next morning, we were up bright and early and Sami drove us off up into the beautiful heartland of Mount Lebanon south-east of Beirut, high up in the Chouf, passing through the beautiful village of Deir El Kamar and then on to see some of the few remaining Lebanese cedars (the national emblem) at the Chouf Cedar Reserve in the southern sector of Mount Lebanon.

Shouf Cedar Reserve - Al Shouf

The Chouf  is Druze country and it is definitely easy to spot this by the style of the dress of this highly independent sect. Indeed, the ancestral stronghold of the much-loved and powerful Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, is the village of Mukhatra in the Chouf. From there, we wound along old trading routes, clinging to the precipitous mountain sides with drops that seemed almost endless. Not a brilliant place to be if you suffer from the odd spot of vertigo! 

Lebanon is a long, thin country that is made up (loosely speaking) of four geographical features running from north to south: the Mediterranean sea in the west, then the Mount Lebanon mountain range and between that and the Anti Lebanon mountains, that run down the Syrian border on the eastern side of the country, there is the verdant Bekaa Valley. Bekaa means “patchwork” in ancient Lebanese and this is clearly seen as you drop down the road from the Chouf  towards Kefraiya in the Arz El Barouk region of the Bekaa. The differing colours of the fields reflect their position in relation to the Litani river which irrigates this lush valley.

Looking south down at the Bekaa Valley and the Golan Heights

The Bekaa Valley is about 120 kilometres in length and forms the northern part of the Great Rift Valley which begins in Syria, runs down to the Red Sea and then finishes up in Africa. The Bekaa makes up about 45% of the Lebanon’s total arable land and the northern part of the valley, which is really quite barren and dry, is the home of pastoral nomads with their ever-moving flocks of goats and sheep.

Bedouin nomads in the foothills of Mount Lebanon

It is in the southern part of the valley where one finds the vineyards, centred around the town of Zahlé. These are planted on the hillsides on gravelly, stoney soils with a base of limestone. Nearer the river Litani are the richer, alluvial soils where there is a patchwork of crops which include corn, cotton and vegetables. The Litani river, fed by the snow melt and rains from the ranges of mountains that run either side of the valley, flows down to Lake Qaraoun at the southern end of the Bekaa. Water is the “oil of Lebanon” and is a hugely valuable natural resource in a geo-political region where drought is the norm.

Our trip through Mount Lebanon came to an end as we drove northwards up the highway running along the valley floor towards Zahlé. Massaya vineyard is situated about 6km. to the south-west of Zahlé in the Qabr Elias sector. The estate has been created on land purchased by Sami and Ramzi Ghosn’s father in the early 1970′s and is a corner of paradise. Although occupied by squatters during the Civil War, it was wrestled back in to Ghosn control by Sami and his family in 1992. A long, hard struggle then started to establish the vineyards and winery. Today, an extremely well thought-out winery is surrounded by the ‘homestead’ vineyards, along with a restaurant (which can do over 200 lunches at weekends!) and an unassuming, single-story farmhouse situated amongst secluded gardens.

Massaya winery

We toured the winery and restaurant but also had a good look at the artisanal distillery where Massaya’s famous blue-bottle Arak is made. The production of this was where things started at Massaya, before the planting of the vineyards. In arabic, Araq means ‘condensation’ and at Massaya, this clear spirit is made from the wine of quality Obedi grapes and is then triple-distilled. During the third distillation, green, organic aniseed (from the village of Hineh on the Syrian slopes of Mount Hermon) is then added and infused. It is then aged in traditional clay amphorae before bottling. Arak is drunk in the Lebanon with the traditional mezze (a massive selection of small dishes of local produce) as we can testify. It is carefully mixed on the basis of a third Arak to two-thirds water, which results in a rounded, aniseed-flavoured milky-white drink that can be ever so easy to consume!   

Massaya Arak ageing in amphorae

Averil, Sami, John & Ramzi (L:R) on the shaded terrace at Massaya

Ramzi is a great cook and prepared most of this extended (three hour) meal himself. Apart from some very good mezze dishes, there was brilliant kibbeh (a paste of very finely minced lamb with burghul, onion, basil and mint, followed by some delicious quail. This array of Lebanese food married extremely well with the Massaya wine ‘collection’. The strawberry-tinged Massaya Rosé 2010 made a perfect aperitif whilst the beautifully balanced Classic White 2009 is showing its true colours with hints of ripe melon and spice. We tasted both the 2005 and 2007 Massaya Classic Red and the latter is definitely showing the quality of the vintage with a big, spicy richness and fine bead of acidity. The Massaya Silver Label 2005 clearly reveals why this is the ‘flagship’ wine of this estate – excellent complexity with overtones of coffee and chocolate and fruitcake spice, enveloped in a tidy black cherry and plum fruit. The Gold Label Reserve 2005, the grand master of the proceedings, is just beginning to show its potential and class. Given a couple more years, this will be a majestic and very important wine but, on the day, was pipped by the Silver Label.

2005 Massaya Gold Reserve and Silver Label

As the sun began to get lower in the powder blue sky, it was time to take our leave and we headed back up in to Mount Lebanon but this time in a more northerly direction. As we climbed, the air temperature dropped by more than 10 degrees C, from 25C to 14C and the landscape and ‘feel’ of the mountains made us realise show how much Lebanon is a country of contrasts and extremes. Then there is the driving! Well, if you think Italy, India or Chile are bad then you need to get behind the wheel of a car in Lebanon (or maybe not)! It’s best left to the locals who have an ingrained sense of limitations, although it might not seem like that to the average European! Of course you drive fast (that should go without saying) but it’s where you overtake that sorts the donkeys out from the racing camels. With thousands of miles of precipitous mountain roads and massive, never ending bends and heavy volumes of trucks and farm vehicles, there is little option but to overtake whenever you can. This normally means on blind corners at 70km/h. with the odd ravine on one side of the car or other. In towns, things can be worse – but more of this anon.

Is this our hotel for the night?

As we drove along, deep down in the valleys, white cotton wool mist was beginning to gather and as we neared our mountain top destination at Faraya, we drove through a small village which had obviously taken the brunt of a Syrian attack in the 2006 conflict. Buildings were still scarred from RPG and mortar fire (see above) and there were obvious signs of the ferocious battle. As we arrived at Fakra (which is part of the Faraya ski station) we were relieved to find that our hotel (Hotel Terrebrune) was, infact, a newly-built ski hotel to accomodate the rich of Beirut. Although lacking some ‘heart and soul’ , it was eminently comfortable and had a glorious view down the mountains towards the Mediterranean and Beirut.

Infinity pool and view from Hotel Terrebrun (too cold to swim)

That evening, Sami had decided to show us what a true Lebanese mezze was all about. Lebanese cooking has clearly evolved as a result of thousands of years of invasion and many cultures have influenced what is eaten today. The strongest of these influences were the Ottoman Turks and, in more recent times, the colonial French. We ate at a family-run restaurant (with about 200 covers!) down in the village of Fakra, which is obviously heaving during the ski season but last week, the five of us were the only customers! Despite this, they were all delighted to see us and were determined to show us mezze as it should be. Sami ordered, without looking at a menu, what seemed like an endless stream of dishes and when they started to be drip-fed on to our table, this certainly proved to be the case.

15% of the Mezze that we ate at Fakra!

Some of the dishes (and there were so many that it is difficult to recall a lot of them!) were kibbeh bilsaniyeh (a kibbeh baked in a round, shallow pan), some charcoal-grilled meats, piles of uncooked fresh vegetables (amongst which were some stunning raw broad beans and peas in their pods), a sort of lamb tartare with masses of herbs and spices and of course, the ubiquitous tahini. Once again, we had been treated royally but none of us went to bed feeling full as we had just easten what we wanted. John even managed to intersperse his meal with some tumentous pulls on a nargile (a hookah water bubbler pipe) with some very strong local tobacco!

Apparently the Nargile water pipe aids digestion!

The Lebanese are amazing when it comes to hospitality which seems to be a part of their national character. They are also extremely friendly and even us strangers were warmly welcomed wherever we were – even just walking down the street in Beirut!