Who makes it
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.
Where it grows
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.
How it is made
The 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.
What they make
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.
Wines to try
First bottle
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.