Lebanese Wine Tasting @ Vine St. Friday, July 10th

Come taste the wines of Lebanon, featuring the wineries Heya, Mersel and Massaya!

Founded by two mothers, Claudine Lteif and Michelle Chami, who share a passion for natural wine and ancestral wine making techniques. "Heya" means "She" in Arabic – an ode to women in a male dominated industry. Claudine is the wife of Eddie, winemaker at Mersel Wine, who helped to inspire the project, and Claudine is a nutritionist, committing her scientific diligence to winemaking. The pair handles every step of the process, from growing the grapes to harvest, fermentation, hand-bottling and ageing.

Mersel Wine is dedicated to creating wines that fit with the Lebanese character - wines that are for everyone to enjoy, and that help local farmers. Their philosophy is to keep it simple: the wines are grown using organic farming methods, and are made naturally, with little or no sulfites, unfiltered and unfined. They strive to produce wine with diverse tastes and methods using natural and environmentally-friendly methods.

Massaya’s story is intertwined with modern Lebanese history. Their story begins with the Ghosn family abandoning their property in the Tanaïl, Beqaa Valley at the outbreak of civil war, however the Ghosn brothers, Sami and Ramzi, ultimately returned in the early 1990s to establish Massaya as an arak producer first and later as a winery. They own vineyards and wineries in two distinct regions – Beqaa Valley (home of Chateau Musar) where they grow their red grapes and Mount Lebanon in the Faqra Valley where they grow their white varieties, including Obeidi, for still wine and arak production.

Veronioca Delgado of Nomadic Distribution and Trac Le of Skurnik Wines will be here to pour a selection from all three wineries – come learn about the wines of Lebanon from three incredible producers!

The project is intent on keeping the agricultural heritage of California in the ground--preserving as many old vine vineyards (often times over 100+ years old) as humanly possible. Bedrock makes wines from a staggering selection of vineyards--from the 1880's planted Bedrock vineyard in the heart of Sonoma, to 100+ year old Evangelho vineyard in Contra Costa County, to Bien Nacido in Santa Maria Valley, to the ancient vines at Beeson Ranch and so many more.

Six years into the project, Morgan welcomed Chris Cottrell as a partner-in-crime along with a small staff to continue the Bedrock mission and to grow and change as well. Come meet Chris, taste some delicious wines and learn about why preserving old vine vineyards is so important to winemaking in California!