The Aanab News Bulletin: Q1 of 2025
From January 2025 to March 2025
📌 The Aanab News Bulletin is a quarterly round-up of the latest wine news with my hot take on how each relates to Lebanon and the region. The bulletin is a snapshot of the three months prior to when it’s published so if there is timely and relevant work, studies, or context that is not included below, please add links in the comments.
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“University of Haifa Study Reveals Insights for Winemakers Grappling with Climate Change” | Wine Business - January 3, 2025
A new paper by researchers explains “how ancient grape varieties (Vitis vinifera) have thrived in the arid conditions of the Negev desert for centuries” and what can be learned from these cultivars.
My take → The Lebanese grape studies had similar conclusions1 but I can’t read this press release from the University of Haifa’s School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures without thinking about the massive contributor to climate change: all the bombs the Israeli forces have dropped on Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. I can’t pretend that historical cultivars or traditional farming techniques will temper the effects of their assault on our shared environment. Let’s also keep in mind how these studies are used to reinforce Israel’s viticultural lineage and ancestral claim on a desert that bloomed for centuries.
“Wine in wartime” | Jancis Robinson - January 29, 2025
This features snippets on the experiences of winemakers from Ukraine, Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Israel. It has a Part II with personal accounts from the winemakers (Abdullah Richi of Dar Richi and Walid Habchi of Couvent Rouge) that was published four days later.
My take → For once, Lebanon isn’t the only nation getting the wine & war treatment but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. “Producers in the Bekaa Valley hardly dared venture into their vineyards at harvest time for fear of air strikes” makes it seem like the strikes sprouted from the ground spontaneously. Then, Palestinian wine is “never easy nor copious,” described passively without context. Jamal Rayyis is cited as saying that growers there “feel safe visiting their vineyards only on Saturdays and other Jewish holidays” but there is no explanation as to why that is. The paragraph is followed by a long, quoted diatribe on the hardships of Israeli vintners, as if equal in severity and duration to that of the Palestinian and Lebanese people (which wasn’t fleshed out to begin with).
“Scientists solve the mystery of when and where wine grapes originated” | Joseph Shavit for The Brighter Side of News - February 3, 2025
A published study of fossils discovered in Panama, Colombia, and Peru suggests that the ancient ancestors of today’s grapevine thrived in the tropical belt of the Americas and the Caribbean.
My take → I initially read about this study in Wine Spectator last year. Although I haven’t read the study itself, I’ve included it in the bulletin now because of the bigger picture: the beginnings of wine. As Lebanon is one of the “Ancient World” territories when it comes to where winemaking began, that title of “being first” is always up for grabs as we discover more buried parts of history. As of today, the oldest known grapeseed fossil was found in India but the domesticated grapevine came later. The fossils date back millions of years, before grapes were grapes. Whenever we talk about the origins of anything - be it a variety or the entire species - we have to ask the important question: how far back do we go? And then, when we think about how we’re constructing the mythology of our wine tale, we have to ask: what happens if this origin story goes rancid? What else makes us special?