Faouzi Issa
Domaine des Tourelles, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Faouzi is winemaker and co-owner at Domaine des Tourelles, founded in the Bekaa Valley in 1868. He is a champion of old vine Cinsault. The Mediterranean workhorse was brought to Lebanon by Jesuit missionaries in the 1800s – generations before internationals such as Cabernet and Syrah came to dominate. Faouzi’s project highlights a kind of old wisdom rediscovered, and serendipity rewarded. Many derided varieties are transformed by slow time, and Cinsault is one of them. It also thrives in Lebanon, producing scented and sleek wines from vineyards at over 1000 meters altitude. Faouzi’s pioneering varietal Cinsault has been heralded as expressing a uniquely Lebanese character. His calls for others to value and make more wine from old vine Cinsault are being heard. Many of Lebanon’s ancient indigenous varieties are lost, but Faouzi has just made his first vintage of the white Merwah, the grapes harvested (for the first time in decades) from rescued vines, trained up cedars, that are thought to be up to two hundred years old.
