Bonarda Liqueur Nebbiolo Lebanon

The Nebbiolo grape varietal is widely understood to be the fruit responsible for Italy's finest aged wines. However, its popularity and reliability as a grape which gives out outstanding flavors and aromas has led it to be planted in many countries around the world, with much success. These purple grapes are distinguishable by the fact that they take on a milky dust as they begin to reach maturity, leading many to claim that this is the reason for their unusual name, which means 'fog' in Italian. Nebbiolo grapes produce wines which have a wide range of beautiful and fascinating flavors, the most common of which are rich, dark and complex, such as violet, truffle, tobacco and prunes. They are generally aged for many years to balance out their characteristics, as their natural tannin levels tend to be very high.

There are few countries in the world with a wine history as long or as impressive as that of Lebanon. Indeed, the Phoenicians who once lived on the coastal areas of the country were amongst the first people to spread viticulture around their empire, and wine was being imported from Lebanon into ancient Egypt almost five thousand years ago. Today, wine production in Lebanon remains strong, with over half a million cases of wine being produced annually. In fact, the last decade or so has seen wine production in Lebanon increase enormously, with new wineries opening each year in the eastern part of the country, near the Syrian border where the climatic conditions are more favorable for viticulture. Whilst modern wineries in Lebanon prefer to use classic French grape varietals, there is an increasing interest in using native grapes, which are producing some highly characterful results.