Couvent Rouge
Couvent Rouge is a Lebanese winemaking reality with a very particular history, effectively suggested by the slogan “from cannabis to Cabernet.” Just outside the center of the small village of Deir El Ahma, in 1999, the social winery Coteaux d’Heliopolis was founded, a cooperative that transforms illegal hemp plantations into lush quality vineyards, allowing farmers to settle in their native villages. The company has recently been certified by the international Fairtrade organization and spans about 240 hectares, supported by over 200 farmers: two of the most enterprising among these members decided not to deliver their grapes to various Lebanese wineries anymore, but to vinify on their own, giving rise in 2010 to the brand Couvent Rouge.
Couvent Rouge is located in the most suitable wine district of Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, which produces almost 90% of all the wine in the country and boasts a history of ancient origins: as early as the first millennium BC, the Phoenicians traded the wines of their land throughout the Mediterranean, making them known in Egypt and all of North Africa, in Arabia and East Africa, all the way to the extremes of Spain and India. Not far from the winery, the archaeological site of Baalbek, also known by its Greek name Heliopolis, city of the sun, still preserves the incredible Roman temple of Bacchus. The vineyards extend at altitudes that approach 1,800 meters above sea level, ranking among the highest in the world, along the slopes of the heights that delimit this fertile valley within a fundamentally desert territory: they are essentially composed of a gravel surface above a limestone subsoil. Following the rules of organic certification, some indigenous varieties are cultivated, such as Obeide and Tfeifihé, alongside a wide array of more well-known grape varieties: Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Arinarnoa, a French-origin cross created in 1956 between Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The winery of Couvent Rouge interprets with modern vision the most diverse types, seeking to create authentic expressions of terroir: from whites, to rosés, to reds, up to pet-nat, an innovative range of dry wines is composed. The vinifications are linked to the experience that the French school exported to the Middle Eastern territories since the late 1800s: Al Dayaa represents the first Lebanese wine with the label in Arabic, while Coteaux Les Cedres is the first Fairtrade certified.
Couvent Rouge is a Lebanese winemaking reality with a very particular history, effectively suggested by the slogan “from cannabis to Cabernet.” Just outside the center of the small village of Deir El Ahma, in 1999, the social winery Coteaux d’Heliopolis was founded, a cooperative that transforms illegal hemp plantations into lush quality vineyards, allowing farmers to settle in their native villages. The company has recently been certified by the international Fairtrade organization and spans about 240 hectares, supported by over 200 farmers: two of the most enterprising among these members decided not to deliver their grapes to various Lebanese wineries anymore, but to vinify on their own, giving rise in 2010 to the brand Couvent Rouge.
Couvent Rouge is located in the most suitable wine district of Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, which produces almost 90% of all the wine in the country and boasts a history of ancient origins: as early as the first millennium BC, the Phoenicians traded the wines of their land throughout the Mediterranean, making them known in Egypt and all of North Africa, in Arabia and East Africa, all the way to the extremes of Spain and India. Not far from the winery, the archaeological site of Baalbek, also known by its Greek name Heliopolis, city of the sun, still preserves the incredible Roman temple of Bacchus. The vineyards extend at altitudes that approach 1,800 meters above sea level, ranking among the highest in the world, along the slopes of the heights that delimit this fertile valley within a fundamentally desert territory: they are essentially composed of a gravel surface above a limestone subsoil. Following the rules of organic certification, some indigenous varieties are cultivated, such as Obeide and Tfeifihé, alongside a wide array of more well-known grape varieties: Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Arinarnoa, a French-origin cross created in 1956 between Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The winery of Couvent Rouge interprets with modern vision the most diverse types, seeking to create authentic expressions of terroir: from whites, to rosés, to reds, up to pet-nat, an innovative range of dry wines is composed. The vinifications are linked to the experience that the French school exported to the Middle Eastern territories since the late 1800s: Al Dayaa represents the first Lebanese wine with the label in Arabic, while Coteaux Les Cedres is the first Fairtrade certified.
