Why you should be drinking more Lebanese wines - Guy Woodward, Gentleman's Journal

... Also pushing boundaries is Ixsir, a relatively new label co-founded in 2008 with a decidedly Bordelais influence (co-founder Gabriel Rivero previously made wine at popular Bordeaux estate Sociando-Malet, meanwhile consultant Hubert de Boüard owns one of the region’s leading lights: St-Emilion’s Château Angélus). Yet, if there is a classical make-up at Ixsir, it is married to a decidedly contemporary thinking that sees vines planted according to terroir rather than grape variety.

“Ixsir is basically about new-world winemaking in an old-world country,” says Rivero. “We have the history and heritage – we have vineyards in an area that first saw vines 5,000 years ago – but there are no appellation restrictions, so we can experiment and innovate.”

That experimentation saw the venture plant its vines in the mountains, rather than in the valley, where most Lebanese producers are based. The Altitudes range of three wines is named so to reflect this philosophy of growing grapes as high as possible to extract maximum freshness. In doing so, Ixsir has overseen various territories in the hills to the north of the country, across six different mountain regions at 1,800 metres high, which, the company claims, makes them the highest vineyards in the northern hemisphere.

“One of our key objectives was to produce elegant wines, in spite of Lebanon being such a hot country,” says Rivero. “It’s the altitude that is the key ingredient.” A marked diurnal shift [the difference between the daytime and night-time temperatures] helps preserve the grapes and gives elegance to the finished blend,” he adds.

The 2022 vintage of Ixsir’s Altitude White is a blend of three grape varieties – a roughly equal split of the structured, textured, fat obeidy plus the more familiar, lighter, floral, aromatic muscat and viognier. It all makes for a lifted, grapefruit-and-jasmine-tinged nose leading to a more full-fruited, honeyed-orange palate with a perfect balance of freshness and texture – and a great wine with which to surprise people in a blind tasting.

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