Hello, my Name is Yorgo Salloum. I’ve been Studying Wine for the past 2 years in Bordeaux. Now I am back in Lebanon, kind of broke but with a dream, to open my own winery in Lebanon and make a world-class wine. And I hope that one day I can look up to this thread where it all started. I will keep this thread open to suggestions from your part; all advice is welcome. I will also be posting regular updates and milestones.
Now, for the first part, I’m still deciding what wines I want to make, but for sure one of them is going to be a natural wine so if some of you winemakers have advice and experience in natural winemaking, I would love to hear it.
And any advice, commen,t criticism, or is also welcome
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Wishing you the best of luck! I’ve had many impressive Lebanese wines and Chateau Musar is one of my favorite producers in the whole world! There is definitely potential for world-class wines in Lebanon.
I don’t know how good advice I can give you as a wine drinker, not a wine maker. However, these points come to mind:
- Many parts of Lebanon are on the hot end for growing grapes; if you have say in which parts you can get grapes / vineyards, look for as cool sites as possible. I doubt the global warming is going to reverse anytime soon, so most likely many vineyards will be too hot for viticulture in the future - you want to have fruit sources that remain viable for grape growing as long as possible. Furthermore, cooler-climate fruit makes better wines than hot-climate fruit!
- Don’t try to emulate or copy the best wines of the world; get inspired by them, but always try to make wine that speaks of place. You want to make wines that make people think of Lebanon; not Bordeaux, California, Burgundy or Australia. Musar is a great example - there are no wines that truly taste like Musar. When you drink Musar, you immediately think of Lebanon. That is really a wine that speaks of place.
- The best way to hit that sense of place, employ those grapes that have been grown in Lebanon for a long time - they have stuck there for a good reason. Of course you can also experiment with different grape varieties off the beaten path, but I wouldn’t try making them your selling point. Lebanese Silvaner might sound interesting, but it’s not necessarily something anyone would buy - apart from maybe for just one bottle out of curiosity.
- Unless you really know what you are doing, don’t set out making one natural wine from the start. First learn to know the best wine you can with your material and equipment, then start moving your whole production towards the natural spectrum. However, never go fully natural - all too many times I’ve visited natural producers who make wines that taste awesome at the winery, but the wines don’t travel well and the exported versions are never as good as those tasted at the winery or at the local wine market. Producers like Musar, Balthazar or Gonon make wonderful wines that are basically as natural as they come, but they employ enough SO2 (still very tiny amounts) to protect the wine, so they come across as pure and slightly wild, but they travel and keep well.
- From my experience producers who make “conventional” wines but only one natural wine often (but not always) don’t make good natural wines, because they make that one natural wine the same way as the other wines, but they just don’t add any SO2. Usually these kinds of natural wines feel somewhat muddled and can be riddled with problems like excessive VA, or - more often - mousiness. I think it’s better to make fully natural wines with a tiny bit of SO2 than “natural” wines that are just conventional wines with no SO2 at all.
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Well Noted Thanks Man
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I am not a winemaker. But I am a communications professional. So a small bit of advice:
In a crowded marketplace, buyers like a “good story” behind the wine they drink … especially a start-up.
Try and think of a back-story, something unique about your background/approach that is noteworthy. Something that separates you from the thousands of other winemakers out there. What makes you different and worthy of support?
Make the steak, but sell the sizzle.
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I think this really depends on the market segment. When it comes to mass-market wines and maybe up to lower-end premium wines, good stories matter. They sell.
However, the higher you go in the premium wine category, the stories matter less - the quality much more.
It’s different in the US, because there the stories sell better and a huge market segment has tons of disposable income, so even super-premium wines can sell as long as they have a great back-story; the quality doesn’t have to be there, as long as the wine’s luxurious feel can match the back-story. The people are there, visiting the wineries and the American market is the biggest market for American wines, so you’re bound to sell some of the stuff with stories alone.
However, things outside the US don’t work similarly. You can sell wines priced up to a certain point with stories alone, but if one is aiming for the world-class premium market segment, it has to come quality first. If there is a good back-story, it never hurts. However, if the market isn’t the American market, most customers everywhere else aren’t willing to pay such prices just because of the story.
Furthermore, there are lots of wineries out there that have kicked off with a “great story” that sound like they are from the pen of a copywriter, not grounded on reality. Whenever I come across these kinds of wineries, they feel completely fake to me, no matter how good wines they make (often the wines aren’t as great as the story behind them). I’d rather have an excellent winery making superb wines with a story that goes “I wanted to make wines so I brought a few hectares of vineyard and a small, abandoned winery” rather than a winery with a glorious back-story with all kinds of incredible and improbable moments and turns but with very average wines.
So, in essence, if one has a great story, it’s always good to use them; but if one isn’t aiming for the mass market, I wouldn’t worry about it. However, one thing that Matthew said rings true: “something that separates you from the thousands of other winemakers out there”. It doesn’t have to be an astounding back story, but you’d still better think how you are going to stand out from the competition. Better quality can make it, but that is always a gamble - and you shouldn’t put your luck on a gamble alone!
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King of Clubs may be an example of a wine with a “story” which didn’t last
Of course, the quality of the winemaking is the first consideration.
Great marketing and inferior product is not a sustainable business strategy.
Media attention, social media buzz and word of mouth will help a new outfit gain traction. A cool story will help drive those, no matter the market.
Is it an absolute must? No. Will it help? Most definitely.
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If you don’t have money look for investors who can afford to lose their investment.
This is what I wanted to do. Like I know I can make good wines great wines even, I thought for marketing make a transparant series of the process of building a winery and post it on instagram create a community who are invested, Like a netflix series of a guy building his winery after leaving france and coming back to lebanon I think If I play on those emotions I can make good for marketing what do you think
Unfortunatly with evrything going on in Lebanon I doubt someone will invest anytime soon especially in a first-time nobody. So i think I ll start small 1000 bottles slowly expand make a name for myself then when wines gain recognition I could look for investors
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I understand what you’re saying and I agree 100% The lebanese market however is closer to the american market people like a good story Like to feel a connection Like yeah this isn’t some well known winery cliché wine it’s from a small niche producer I found … those things sell here but I agree with you for it to work i have mto make the best wine I can possibly make
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What can you grow? Do you have land?
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The economics are tough at that level of production.
Bottles/labels/corks $4000-$5000
New oak $3000+
Fruit $4000-$5000
Add in overhead, any tanks, pumps, etc
It will be an expensive hobby.
Marhaba and best of luck.
This is a completely unnecessary expense. 
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The OP would be better served by making a quick turn time white or rose’ initially. Keep the cash flowing.
Do you have land? Is it planted? Will you be buying grapes? What is the price per tun? I would suggest you start with purchasing grapes.You need far less investment than starting with a land purchase and vineyard planting and waiting several years for grapes. what you make and how you make it will depend on what grapes are available.
Quite a few of us here know people who’ve started new wine brands from scratch with varying levels of resources - and quite a few people on this board have done it themselves. But in order for us to give you useful advice or information we need to know the basic material assets and restrictions you’re working with, and what you want to make.
No I will source grapes from farmers and wineries
I won’t use oak as a start bottles and corks together are 1200 for 1000 bottle I need around 4000- 6000 $ total to start that I’m saving through my job
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