Although you might think of western Europe, particularly France, Italy and Spain, as countries where food and wine goes hand in hand, the same is true of the Middle East as well, albeit nowhere near on the same scale, for understandable reasons: Syria’s wine industry, for example, has been crippled by war, and Turkey’s by overt hostility from its government. Surprisingly, however, at least one Palestinian winery, Taybeh, is still managing to export its products, as I discovered the other day at Akub in London (I especially enjoyed the Nadim, a herby white zeini).
A more reliable hunting ground is Lebanon, whose wines are very similar to those from the south of France, due to the influence of French winemakers during the 28-year French mandate (some of the country’s reds, such as the Chateau Oumsiyat Mijana below and the more famous Chateau Musar, which is sadly now out of my price range, also tend to include Bordeaux cabernet sauvignon).
