post 21/365

Al-Iksir, meaning Elixir, is the purest form of all substances, a secret potion that grants eternal youth and love. It’s an Arabic word that was introduced in Andalucía by the Arabs and became to be known as elixir. Ixsir was therefore chosen as a fitting name for this new wine project. Their wines blend rich varieties of grapes cultivated from carefully selected terroirs that symbolize the diversity of Lebanon. The grapes are selected from different regions (Ainata, Deir el Ahmar, Jezzine, Kab Elias, and Niha) sponsoring sustainable development within growers’ communities.

The winery is situated beneath a historic manor house in Basbina overlooking its grapevines and surrounded by aromatic rosemary. It sits gracefully undisturbed by time, proud amongst its people. Its stunning blend of sleek modern lines with ancient heritage, has earned it acclaim as one of CNN’s greenest buildings of 2011.

Our history in winemaking goes back millennia. We have been making wine in the region of Batroun for a staggering six thousand years with the Phoenicians being the first civilization to cultivate and ferment grapes, and to distribute their wine throughout the Mediterranean through the port of Byblos. It’s a beautiful story of a land that produced wine abundantly once and is now home to one of the youngest and most ambitious wineries in the country.

I love wine it reminds me of our beautiful fertile Lebanon and how it should be loved, a love sweet like grapes from the vine. No evil should breed in those roots, because those roots are from its land and are God’s gift to us all to share.

Wine is the taste of the past as its fruits takes time to ferment. It might be a bitter past but when worked on intensively with goodwill and heart could be turned into an elixir of life, something for all of us to enjoy and treasure for the future. It’s an intensive labor of hands, soul, and soil. Wine, is the one drink for me that mirrors the soul of its land, because it combines passion from the people working the land, with the right environmental factors, and it differs in taste as the soil changes. It’s a true labor of love.  It takes a certain kind of passion to enable us to share the love of the future with the harvest of the past. Thus comes the fruits of that labor, in a bottle with a sign of the roots of its vines and its sun, the Ixsir logo.

Because my Lebanon is like its wine, it has a certain liveliness, it’s rich in minerals and saturated with a Mediterranean character hinting an aroma of mature fruits and spices that fill the soul, I#livelovelebanon and I will #fighton

I took this picture this Sunday, it’s a truly magical place