ixsir Grand Riserve 2017

The very best, of the best white wines that I have consumed. ixir Grand Riserve 2017 is an amazing blend of white grapes from the Batroun District, in Lebanon, of 60% Viognier, 25% Sauvignon, and 15% Chardonnay.

This blend is a blend of not just grapes, but terroirs, selected with respect to the grape varietal, the altitude (which the ixier wines seem to be based around), and the sustainability that the company’s foundation resides upon.

First and foremost, the salinity of the ocean booms through, clearly, with white stone, amazing minerality that explodes across the palate with overripe golden apples and pears, green and golden, in leather, that have been travellin for days, bouquets of aromatic green herbs, thyme, basil, sage, an rosemary. The salt and shale and sandy beach in this wine blasts through the fat in a steak cooked rare, bringing out the flavor of the meat, not just the rub or the preparation, but the meat itself. It is a powerful foil to chocolate cake, or chicken cordon blu. I am excited to try it with more traditional Lebanese recipes.

This is the wine I would drink, if I have one left to drink the rest of my life.

El Ixsir 2012

“Day long they pour the wine, must0wine, fit for rulers. Wine, sweet and abundant, select wine. The choice wine of Lebanon, must be nurtured by El.” From the Rapiuma, Phoenician poem 2500 BC” (From the label)

These are the most beautiful wines that I’ve had in awhile. In a place in the world, where war is a potentiality, this winery is about as earth-conscious and green as it gets, even in the first world countries. Actually, it consumes 75% less energy than any other winery in the world, using gravity fermentation, built underground with free flow production. The Cellar is 12 meters underground. This winery is committed to helping farmers KEEP their land, and provides training, and support for the vine growers. Ixsier also has the largest planted roof in Lebanon.

El Ixsir 2012 red blend is a blend of 55% Syrah, 35% Cab Sauv, and 10% Merlot, to create one of the most aromatic reds that I’ve had in years. It’s floral, thick, and velvety, with a majjestic tannic structure that isn’t overbearing. It’s the glorious tents of the middle east from children’s books, not the stone castle structures that these blends produce in French wines. El Ixsir’s red blend is a spice box, full of wild anise, mulchy mossy earth, sun warmed red apples in leather bags, and almost an ice-melting blueberry finish.

I love this wine. But NOT nearly as much as I love the white blend from Ixsir.