Lebanese Wine Day in Berlin

Local wine conference in October

Local wineries are planning several activities to help promote local wines in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture. A conference about the local wine industry will be held in the Université Saint Esprit Kaslik (USEK) on October 1-4 and will include full day lectures for foreign wine experts.

Zafer Chaoui, President of the Union of Wine and Vine and Chairman of Château Ksara, said: “The International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) will be visiting Lebanon in early September to inspect local wineries and make sure they are implementing international production standards.” The OIV will visit the vineyards and wineries in different regions to give recommendations to the National Wine Institute about grape growing and wine production.

After Paris in May, a second Lebanese Wine Day is planned in Europe. It will be held in Berlin, Germany on May 14, 2014. Chaoui said: “We proposed conducting a wine day in the US or Germany, because there is a big potential in both markets, but the Ministry of Agriculture chose Germany because it is more convenient and less expensive.”

“The reason for choosing Germany is because it has a big population and the strongest economy in Europe,” Chaoui said. He said: “The majority of wines produced in Germany are white wines; therefore we can penetrate the market with our red wines.”

Events such as the Lebanese Wine Day and the conference in October aim to increase the size of exports to various markets worldwide.

Local wine producers will ask the Ministry to allocate an annual budget to promote local wines either through television commercials or on billboards.