The Aanab News Bulletin: Q3 + Q4 of 2025
From July 2025 to December 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 —BUT I got busy finishing my short film so I combined Q3 and Q4 below. I changed the format because there was too much to cover.
The two previous bulletins in the original (and more in-depth) format are now free for all to read.
I did not write commentary for each news article in this list but if you need a refresher on how I generally feel about local and international coverage of Lebanon and its wines and the reason I decided to compile these bulletins in 2025, read this:
Top News on Lebanese Wine (July to December 2025)
July 25, 2025: “From The Black Market to NYC: SAG Brings Arak Distilling to The U.S.” | Ferron Salniker for BevNet
July 27, 2025: “President Aoun hails Zahle’s global wine city designation as national win” | LBC Group
August 9, 2025: Megaphone News on Lebanon’s water scarcity.
August 19, 2025: “Sales of Lebanese winery rise 170% in Brazil” | Rebecca Vettore for Brazil Arab News Agency
August 27, 2025: “Stephen Towler on becoming the first Master Sommelier in the Middle East” | Eloise Feilden for The Drinks Business
August 27, 2025: “Lebanese winemaker strains to keep business alive through war and drought” | Emilie Madi and Maya Gebeily for Reuters - this article was then highlighted on Alder Yarrow’s blog, Vinography, with the description: “Buy Lebanese wine. It’s good and they need the help.”
September 7, 2025: BestMedGrape project, funded by the EU, transforms wine by-products into a neutral, powdered superfood that can be added to meals or cosmetics.
September 8, 2025: “In the vineyards of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa, ‘war is not over’” | Fouad Gemayel and Lisa Goursaud for L’Orient Today
September 19, 2025: “Château Musar Jeune: Youthful Wines with a Resonant Legacy” | James Robertson for Scottish Field
September 20, 2025: “Winemakers devastated by series of unforeseen events: ‘There’s not a single crisis that hasn’t hit us’” | Alex Daniel for The Cool Down
September 23, 2025: Chateau Rayak in the Bekaa Valley marks one year since it was damaged by the impact of Israeli airstrikes nearby.
October 2025: “Wine 101 with Kate Hawkings - Lebanese Wine” | Kate Hawkings for Olive Magazine
October 3, 2025: “Garbage Collector’s Focus on Fine Wine” | Oliver Styles for Wine Searcher
October 9, 2025: “Lebanese MP proposes turning Hezbollah tunnels into wine cellars” | The New Arab
October 22, 2025: “My City: Beirut” | Philippe Ghabayan for Roadbook (my photo was used for this city guide without my knowledge)
October 30, 2025: “War hasn’t stopped Lebanon’s winemakers from producing world-class bottles” | Victoria Moore for The Telegraph
November 2025: Massaya’s harvest newsletter is a downer as the anticipation of harder days ahead thanks to climate change is undeniable: “A single year without a harvest due to adverse weather is an unfortunate reality of agriculture. What makes 2025 truly alarming is the high mortality rate of the vines in affected areas, reaching between 30 and 50% in some regions. We won't know the true extent of this damage until the spring of 2026.”
November 25, 2025: “The Middle Eastern wines a Hawaii chef wants on my Thanksgiving table” | Mark Stock for The Manual
December 7, 2025: The Lebanese government is proposing a draft law that will regulate the trade of seeds, seedlings, and propagation material. The problem: it prioritizes imported hybrids over local seeds. It monopolizes the source of seeds, it negatively impacts Lebanon’s biodiversity and adaptability to the changing climate, and it puts more burden on small, already-undersupported farmers. Related: “Saving Iraq’s seeds, one garden at a time“ by lala thaddeus for Prism Reports and “Erasing roots, stealing seeds and engineering flight” by Dr. Oroub El-Abed for Middle East Monitor.
December 8, 2025: “Poland’s Food-Security Aid reviewed in Kefraya visit” | MTV Lebanon
December 19, 2025: “Uncorked stories: Our wine special” | L’Orient Today - see the full portfolio of articles here.
NEW RELEASES/COLLABS: Ixsir launched a limited batch dubbed “Eclipse,” a new white blend of Obeidy and Assyrtiko. Rafeeki Wines launched Grape Jones, a collab bottle with local singer Grave Jones. It’s 100% Merwah, immersed in Syrah juice for 10 days, making it a red wine. A percentage of the profits go to NGOs supporting adults with disabilities. Sept Winery collaborated with Gerald Foltete to create 88 painted bottles inspired by the poetry of Omar Khayyam. Beirut Wine Trail launched The Harvest Society, their signature wine club. Charlie’s also got some new Wine and Confine podcast episodes out including one with Hiba Salloum of Umami Wines and Kamil Chaoui from Chateau Ksara. Separately, Marc Hochar from Chateau Musar was a guest on The Sipping Point podcast. Hisham Assaad was interviewed by Lama Obeid for her podcast, I Come From There.
Souk el Tayeb is moving from central Mar Mikhael to a larger venue in Jisr el Wati, Sin el Fil. I didn’t care about this news until it was revealed that the location is being turned into a noknok (the Spinneys-owned grocery delivery service) distribution center. I have long felt that Souk el Tayeb is a farmers’ market that caters to the wealthy class but at least it was a platform for local producers to make some dough. Online convenience wins again.
The Commodore Hotel, the legendary foreign correspondent hotspot (read: spy den) of the civil war era, is closing on January 10th, 2026. This announcement feels very sudden for such an iconic place.
AI images are starting to infiltrate Lebanese wine accounts and their visual language. Booooo!
Top Lebanese Wine-Adjacent News (July to December 2025)
VWEs: New research on consumer behavior and virtual wine experiences.
ATLANTA’S SOFT CLUBBING ERA: “It’s all about the vibe, with daytime DJs and non-alcoholic options like coffee and CBD drinks, not to mention the ability to hear a conversation. It’s becoming increasingly popular as millennials (ahem) get older and Gen Z drinks less.” Also…Australia.
REGENERATIVE FARMING: Mimi Casteel gets real about a movement that she was one of the first to bring up. Related: an interview with Nancy Matsumoto, author of Reaping What She Sows.
GASTRONATIONALISM: For the first time ever, UNESCO officially designated an entire national cuisine (Italian) as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage. For Italy Segreta, Anna Hirschorn unpacks what that could mean for Italy. There are a lot of parallels with Lebanon which tends to be the case when I read anything about our cousins across the Mediterranean.
MICROFERMENTATIONS: Penn State research says microvinifications, if repeated enough times, can give trustworthy results so there’s no need to ferment gallons to test if a Lebanese white grenache is crushable. A demijohn will do!
GENETICS IN NZ: “Scientists at Lincoln University are using a state-of-the-art genome sequencer to identify natural disease-resistant traits in grapevines, allowing farmers to cut down on chemical sprays without compromising crop health...This isn’t genetic modification. We’re identifying natural variations to breed stronger, more resilient plants. With climate change increasing the unpredictability of disease outbreaks, this type of precision agriculture is not only innovative, it’s essential.” Also…Australia.
SMOKE TAINT: a study found that naturally occurring bacteria on grapevines can break down guaiacol, the volatile phenol responsible for smoke taint. More evidence that nature heals itself.
ANCESTORS: A grapevine can retain its ancestry going back 400 years! “New research from the University of California, Davis, reveals that the grape still carries a kind of gene memory of its parents.”
CANAANITE WINE PRESS: 5,000-year-old wine press and temple unearthed during highway construction project in Occupied Palestine.
ROMAN WINE PRESS: 1600-year-old “ancient wine production center” discovered in southeastern Turkey, near the village of Oymakli
TREE OF HEAVEN: Lodi is using grassroots data collection to track the spread of an invasive species of trees, Ailanthus altissima. Citizens log sightings of the tree through a free app which is then fed into an interactive dashboard.
SOLAR PANELS: Madrid is banning them on agricultural land (including vineyards) while the Netherlands is embracing them via a technology called VitiVoltaic. It seems that there are conflicting views on whether solar panels are considered to be too much intervention. Piccini, a fifth-generation family-owned estate in Italian Chianti Classico, is striking a balance between tech and tradition by using Icaro X4, a solar-powered robot for vineyard care like emitting germicidal UV-C rays that disrupt fungal DNA, but incorporating it alongside veteran agronomists.
DRONES: Some wineries are using a fleet of drones to handle vineyard management. I wonder if this will further elevate “our grapes are hand-picked” as an attribute of higher-priced luxury bottles and their storytelling.
SAUDI ARABIA: Access to its only alcohol store in the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh has now extended to (wealthy) non-Muslim foreigners who hold Premium Residency. From the NYT: “Saudi Arabia Will Sell You Alcohol Now, if You’re Rich Enough”
GREECE: Land lost to the tourism boom, combined with the effects of climate change, means Santorini’s wine industry as it is today is at risk of extinction within a decade if things don’t change. In case you’re a fan of Santorini Assyrtiko, it will become increasingly harder to find and thus more expensive. More on this crisis here. Also see “Climate intervention may not be enough to save coffee, chocolate and wine”
ICELAND: Reykjavík is now home to Sumac, a Mediterranean restaurant, by Icelandic chefs Þráinn Freyr Vigfússon and Hafsteinn Ólafsson. The menu “draws inspiration from North Africa to Lebanon, yet it’s anchored in Iceland’s natural bounty—lamb, fish, and root vegetables treated with a new, exotic rhythm” including a wine list that is “a mix of European, Moroccan, and Lebanese selections.”
THE ZIOS ARE AT IT AGAIN: According to The Times of Israel, the Zionist state is implementing a map of official wine regions which include the (occupied) Golan, Judea and Samaria (Israel’s names for the West Bank but split into two separate wine regions). “With this classification, Israel hopes to sustainably structure its wine industry, strengthen its image abroad, and encourage agricultural and tourism development rooted in its territories.” Look out Mexico, they’re also farming agave by the Gaza border to make Israeli’s “first tequila.” Tfeh.
CULINARY COLONIALISM: A great essay from Rocio Carvajal to end this bulleted list with. Kinda related: “The Quiet Rebellion of Writing Arab Food” by Majed Ali.
📌 I’m considering publishing a monthly bulletin (in the original format I used for Q1 and Q2) instead of a quarterly one as of 2026. On the other hand, I’m also considering nixing bulletins altogether. Please let me know what you think about it as an Aanab News offering.
My take → A round-up is an important record to keep track of what’s being said about us + what we can learn from news/wine news that’s not about us directly. Compiling it monthly will make it more manageable for me but preparing these bulletins is extremely time-consuming regardless and I want to be using my energy efficiently.
I think the Bulletins are a great roundup of info, and would appreciate them continuing. I can appreciate how time-consuming they are when you add your takes, however, so maybe you could find a happy-medium for the future format? Perhaps rather than adding your take to each article, you could mix the formats used in 1&2 and 3&4, and add your take to some articles you feel particularly strongly about, but then just add links/quick lead-ins for others.