Description

By 3000BC, the region now known as Lebanon was the commercial centre of the wine production under the control of the Phoenicians based out of the cities of Biblos , Sidow and Tyre, trading wine throughout the Mediterranean to as far afield as Cadiz. Even the Greeks appreciated the finer qualities of the Phoenician wines and it was only many centuries later, that they would attain comparable winemaking skills. Fast forward many centuries later to the 12th Century and France makes its first appearance in the Musar story with the arrival of the Hochar family (pronounced Hoshar) who arrived in Lebanon with the Preux Chevalier during the period of the Crusades. The relationship with France remains intertwined and is at the core of the Musar story. The French connection next re-emerges in 1857 when Jesuit missionaries introduced the first of the French varietals (Cinsault) into the region from French governed Algeria.