Private Wine Tour | Chateau Musar, Ixsir & Batroun from Beirut

Chateau Musar is not simply one of Lebanon's great wineries — it is one of the most celebrated and most written-about wine estates in the world. Its wines have been described by critics as among the most distinctive and complex produced anywhere, and the story of how founder Serge Hochar continued making wine throughout the Lebanese Civil War — at one point being held at gunpoint at a checkpoint while transporting his harvest — is the stuff of wine legend. A private visit to Musar is a pilgrimage for any serious wine lover. From Musar the tour continues north along the Lebanese coast to Ixsir — one of Lebanon's most architecturally stunning wineries, built into a 400-year-old terraced hillside above the Mediterranean near Batroun, with panoramic sea views that rival anything in Tuscany or Provence. Guided cellar tours and tastings at both estates are followed by lunch in Batroun, whose ancient sea wall and vibrant old town make it the perfect stop before the drive back to Beirut.