Chateau Ksara was established in 1857, when Jesuit missionaries began growing vines a 25-ha plot of land in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. In 1920, the winery became a business after increased demand from the newly arrived French authorities after WW1 and today Château Ksara is Lebanon’s leading winery.
But it was never always thus. When George Sara’s family, along with other investors, bought the winery from the Jesuits in 1973, the deal was the talk of the town, such was winery’s fame and the closeness to which Lebanese held it to their collective hearts.
But two years later came civil war and the winery endured daily fighting, isolation, blockades and invasions, while members of its management team were kidnapped and subjected to mock executions.
With peace has come prosperity, but there have been hiccups. The 2006 July War between Hezbollah and Israel forced the French winemaker to return to Lebanon via Syria, navigating bomb craters along the way, while in recent years fighting between ISIS and the Lebanese army, not to mention the proximity of the Syrian civil war has posed new challenges, all of which have been successfully overcome.
Now there is a new enemy. Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, the country faces inflation on a Venezuelan scale and strict currency controls and Lebanon, and Chateau Ksara, is once again hunkered down behind the nation’s sandbags.
In our Thursday webinar, George explains the challenges facing his country and his industry and how he takes strength from the Lebanon’s legacy of not only being the country that invented international trade but also a nation that has perfected the art of crisis management.
Live for 30 minutes this Thursday, May 21 – 9AM California | 12PM New York | 5PM London | 7PM Beirut