Wine with Leslie: The fertile crescent of the Middle East is the cradle of wine culture

The oldest proven evidence of winemaking that we have found is in Armenia and in nearby Georgia, both of whom have a long and continuous tradition of winemaking

There was a time when Merlot featured prominently on the backstage riders of rock stars along with M&Ms (with the brown ones removed obviously), it was dubbed “Cabernet without the pain”, thanks to its soft tannins and easy-drinking fruitiness.

So they are bombing the Beqaa Valley and Iran again, the cradle of wine culture and civilisation. 

There are no reports of Lebanon’s wineries being hit so far and at least it is at a relatively quiet time in the cellar and vineyard for the 50 or so wine producers based there.