“I am happy that after I have been fighting for this for so many years we finally have it. I have done my homework. Wine has taken back its place in Lebanon”
“It will take time and people have to be patient. It takes time to [apply] the bylaws and organize. It’s not the savior though and competition is more important. Competition is there so regulation is there. But I am optimistic and in time I think we will be doing great work as an institute”
“it is changing but very slowly. It’s a very tough business: producing wine is easy and I can teach you in one day but producing a quality wine is very difficult. So many details go into this that we call it a passion. You cannot do it if you don’t love it”
“We have a sexy product. We have one of the best terroirs in the world in terms of weather conditions, soil and altitudes. We [have been] a wine producing country since the Phoenicians. Lebanese are very well connected so we can export our wines easily”
“We don’t make much wine, only 8 million bottles in fact. It’s nothing really, not even by regional standards – Cyprus makes around 33 million bottles – but this means we can play on scarcity, sell it at a premium and market Lebanon as the ultimate boutique nation”
“While lower end wines abroad are treated in an industrial way through machine production, the more expensive and prestigious [wineries] have an obligation to hand pick grapes and select them properly. In Lebanon even our lower end wines are treated this way. So if you compare a $6 bottle of Lebanese wine with the same range foreign wine there is no comparison”
“It is a quality project and we are very proud of what we have achieved already but with the situation [in Syria] now, this investment will not be profitable before many years. Ultimately, we have to make money but it is a lot about passion”
