Domaine des Tourelles

At A Glance

Field: Detail
Region: Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Vineyard area: Close to 50 hectares
Altitude: Approximately 1,050 metres above sea level
Main grapes: Cinsault, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon
Old vine bottle: Vieilles Vignes Cinsault
Defining feature: Dry farming, organic treatment, and mostly bush-trained vines

The Producer

Domaine des Tourelles is a Lebanese estate in the Bekaa Valley whose red range is built around Cinsault, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards are dry-farmed, treated organically, and mostly bush-trained. The current team comes from the Issa and Issa el Khoury families, with Faouzi Issa as managing director and winemaker.

The estate farms vineyards around Ammik, Jdita, and Taanayel. Its bottles move from Vieilles Vignes Cinsault in the old vine heritage collection to blended and single-variety wines made from Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Place

The Bekaa Valley combines dry, sunny conditions with high elevation. Most of the vineyards lie around Ammik in the Western Bekaa, with two further plots in Jdita and Taanayel.

High elevation generally slows ripening and helps preserve acidity while sunlight supports ripe fruit. Dry conditions allow vines to grow without irrigation. Those effects help explain how Bekaa reds can combine ripe fruit with freshness and firm tannin.

Soil And Site

Iron-rich gravel and limestone sit over clay subsoils. Gravel and limestone drain quickly, while clay can hold moisture below the surface, a useful combination for dry-farmed vines.

Some vines are more than 70 years old and produce extremely low yields. Most are bush-trained, with some trellised vines, and the grapes are selected by hand in both the vineyard and the winery.

Story

Faouzi Issa studied agricultural engineering in Beirut before studying winemaking in Montpellier. He then worked at Domaine René Rostaing and Château Margaux, returning to Lebanon in 2008 to take up the reins at Domaine des Tourelles.

The winery's current work pairs that training with a cellar based on indigenous yeasts and minimal processing. In 2024, Domaine des Tourelles became fully solar powered. Lebanon does not have electricity around the clock, so generators fill gaps in supply, including during harvest.

Vineyards And Cellar

Harvest selection takes place twice, first in the vineyard and again at the winery. Fermentations are entirely natural and use the winery's own indigenous yeasts. The cellar uses no fining or filtering and only very small additions of sulfur.

Indigenous yeasts carry out fermentation without a commercial culture. Fining removes suspended material, while filtering clarifies wine before bottling, so omitting both leaves fewer mechanical steps between fermentation and the finished bottle.

Wines

Vieilles Vignes Cinsault sits in the estate's old vine heritage collection. Marquis des Beys Red is an equal blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented in concrete and aged for 18 months in French oak, divided equally between new, first-use, and second-use barrels.

Syrah du Liban is made entirely from Syrah and ages for 24 months in new American oak. The producer describes Marquis des Beys Red as a wine for five to eight years or more of cellaring. The broader range also includes Valley of the Sun, Domaine des Tourelles Red, Domaine des Tourelles White, and Marquis des Beys white.

In The Glass

Marquis des Beys Red opens with spice, chocolate, dried red cherry, morello cherry, blackcurrant, and plum. Its dark purple colour and cedar aroma sit beside a concentrated fruit profile shaped by French oak.

Syrah du Liban combines floral aromas with pronounced spice across the nose and palate. The wine has a long, persistent finish and benefits from time in the cellar or decanting before service.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose Vieilles Vignes Cinsault. The 2021 wine is made entirely from Cinsault grown on vines above 50 years old. It ferments with indigenous yeasts in concrete for 10 days, completes spontaneous malolactic fermentation, and ages for eight months in neutral used French oak.

The wine began as a separate bottling for old vine fruit and sits in the estate's old vine heritage collection. Its bitter-sweet cherry, stone-dust, and pepper notes make the grape easy to place before the range moves into Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon blends or longer oak élevage.

Anecdote

In 2014, Faouzi Issa recognized that fruit from the estate's old Cinsault vines merited separate bottling. He set it apart as Vieilles Vignes Cinsault, creating a distinct wine for the old vine fruit. The wine brought old-vine Cinsault into the estate's range. Vieilles Vignes Cinsault began with the 2014 vintage and now belongs to the old vine heritage collection.

Final Word

Domaine des Tourelles joins dry-farmed Bekaa Valley vineyards with indigenous yeast fermentation and a red range with Cinsault, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon separate places in the cellar.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Soil And Site

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next