Lebanon Tourism, culture, music and events

  Date: Friday, April 18, 2014 By: Elise Knutsen Source: The Daily Star JDITA, Lebanon: Rustic and raw, Chateau Nakad is a far cry from the more corporate wineries in the neighborhood. In keeping with the homespun atmosphere, the winery has started holding bespoke picnics. Formal dining isn’t the order of the day, however. “We aren’t planning on serving people with silver spoons,” explained Jalal Nakad, the grandson of the Chateau Nakad’s founder who now runs the winery with his father and two siblings. But the overwhelming hospitality, verdant setting and delectable cuisine make the Chateau Nakad picnic an absolute must. Nestled in a residential corner of Jdita, the property seems an unlikely space for a winery. But a brief pre-picnic tour of the premises ...

Date: Friday, April 18, 2014 By: - Source: The Daily Star Editor’s note: Stephen Quinn travels the world for his weekly wine column and hopes to convey the magic of the grape in ways that anyone can understand. The Daily Star will be publishing Quinn’s columns, beginning with his visit to Lebanon courtesy of HORECA. KSARA, Lebanon: Chateau Ksara is the oldest continuous winemaking operation in Lebanon. Jesuit priests founded Ksara in 1857, and this religious and teaching order continued to make wine until 1973, when a local consortium purchased the estate. Ksara has the largest output of any Lebanese vineyard, producing almost 3 million bottles a year. It exports about 40 percent of that total, higher than the national export average of about 30 percent. The cha...

Date: Thursday, April 17, 2014 By: India Stoughton Source: The Daily Star BEIRUT: A total of 17,000 people are estimated to have disappeared over the course of Lebanon’s 15-year Civil War. Close to 25 years after the conflict was declared at an end, relatives of Lebanon’s missing are still waiting for answers, many of them reluctant to follow the state’s advice and declare their loved ones legally dead. In 1992, with the war winding its slow way to a close and the families of those who vanished during the conflict hoping desperately for news, multimedia artist Salah Saouli decided to tackle what had already become a taboo issue in a three-part installation entitled “Time Out.” The artist, who works between Beirut and Berlin, where he has lived for roughly 30 years...

Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 By: Chirine Lahoud Source: The Daily Star BEIRUT: Another season of long-anticipated concerts will kick off this summer, despite the political tension.  Neemat Frem, founder of Phellipolis, which sponsors the Jounieh International Festival, expressed the event organizers’ determination to hold the annual festival despite the fact that the security situation in the country remains uneasy. The program for this year’s festival was announced at a press conference Tuesday and the line-up promises a few surprises. “Every year it gets more difficult,” said Joe Beano, head of the festival’s marketing committee. “We have to take risks every time.” Beano added that it had been more difficult to generate the required funding this year in comp...