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Around the large table set up in the Vintage Wine Cellar boutique, guests are preserving a mood of respectful silence as they taste the finest wine selection from Bourgogne and Bordeaux, on Friday, October 30. So, on the occasion of the French Haute Cuisine Week, the prestigious and finest liquors-specialized boutique in Saifi quarter hosted a tasting session with two wine experts here to help amateurs and professionals discover their best wine productions. The experts were Jean-Francois Curie, Commercial Manager and marketing head at « Maison Joseph Drouhin » in Beaune (Bourgogne), and Charlotte Denjean, marketing chief and public relations development and receptive chief at Château Lagrange (a reputed Bordeaux vineyard) in Saint-Julien.
Both were among the five experts invited by Vintage Wine Cellar to hold multiple similar sessions during the Gastronomy Week. Among the attendees there were Bertrand Michat from "Domaines Paul Jaboulet Ainé", Vallée du Rhône; Emmanuel Cruse, from "Château D'Issan", Cru Classé, Margaux ; Claire Thomas-Chenard, from "Château Larmande" and "Château Soutard", Grands Crus Classés (High Ranked Vineyards) of Saint-Emilion.
Wadih Riachi, manager of Vintage Wine Cellar explains, « Many of our guests were visiting Lebanon for the first time. They found that Lebanese people had very sophisticated taste regarding wine». As a tasting session has just come to its end, expert Jean-Francois Curie, who works as a manager of local markets and exports at Joseph Drouhin Vineyard, testifies having noticed “that Lebanese people are truly curious. People here are very receptive. We can manage a real complicity with them. We talk the same language when it comes to taste pleasure. Here is very different from Asia where flavors session may be more like school session. In the USA, tasting remains very superficial. Here, we feel like people listen to us, we are heard”. He added that “Lebanese love good things and that is necessary to really appreciate good wine!” There is a true sensuality in Lebanon”.
Raising up consumers to higher levels
Such events are in facts, results of Vintage Wine Cellar’s will to import the best liquors “which give us a real competitive advantage in order to enhance our status in Lebanon” Walid Riachi explained. He added that “since 2002, Vintage Wine Cellar has opened all borders for ordinary wine consumers through taking them to higher levels and meeting their requests with a broad brand of services such as courses, cellars plans and deliveries, stocking cupboards and accessories, as well as private and professional dinners. All of that aims at providing customers with the best quality and in conformity with all set budgets, while taking profit, at the same time, as possible as it may be, from the best selection of wine”. Later, after co-animating the tasting session with Jean-François Curie, Charlotte Denjean remarked that “there was an excellent welcome for French vintners and wine producers. People were both curious and receptive”. We noticed an authentic attention and interest regarding France and the French wine production. Moreover, there is a magnificent compatibility between the French flavor and Lebanese gourmet culture! There is no way to separate wine from the Haute Cuisine, and you have here wonderfully wine-garnished tables”.
A real market for the greatest French vintages in Lebanon
A specialist with dozens of years of experience within the wine subsidiary in Bordeaux city, Charlotte Denjean underscored the importance of the Lebanese market as a real wine market, though it is quite small. She said, « 85% out of the 700 000 bottles we produce at Château Lagrange are mainly exported to Europe, Asia and America. As for the Lebanese market, for us, it is small, however, French wine has a very beautiful place there… This is why we came here! As a matter of fact, the ground was well prepared for us to come here. At Château Lagrange, we seek addressing a private and certain public. My stay here was organized by a wholesaler from Bordeaux who knows the local market very well”.
Speaking about wine production in Lebanon, Jean-François Curie said he wondered “why Lebanon is not a bigger wine producer?” He said, “Because when we look at the culture, the history and the geography of the country, the climate over here… we would think wine was created here! To my personal opinion, I have a particular soft spot for Château Muzar’s red wine, that I may compare it to some vineyards in Bordeaux”.
He described Lebanese wine with high and deep respect, “It is a warm climate wine and very different from Bourgogne produced one. It is powerful and opulent. It is the wine of the sun, but also the wine of heights as nights are cool. That is too advantageous. Truly, the (Lebanese) wine is of high quality, especially the red wine (as I don’t know thee whites that well). Besides, Lebanese wine is more and more present in prestigious French restaurants…” Well, the greatest French vineyards seem to have a promising future in Lebanon… and maybe, vice-versa?
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