Phoenix Skin-Contact
Mersel Wine
Regular price
$26.00
Unit price per
Indigenous Merwah vines, over 150 year old Ainata, Bekaa Valley (1,700m) – Picked in middle of October and crushed into 2-proportional lots, then fermented in stainless tanks and amphoras. The wine is fermented on skins for 3 weeks, the cap is gently broken by hand a few times a day, and is then racked off skins in the middle of November into half neutral barrels and half stainless tanks. The temperature at the winery reaches -5 degrees celsius, consistently in winter, allowing for natural cold stabilization of the wine. MLF happens in Spring, the wine is bottled in May.
Origin: Dimane, Qannboubine Valley - North Lebanon (1,600m)|
ABV: 12.5%
USNW Classification: Natural
Varietal & Type: 100% Merwah
Vintage: 2021
About the Winemaker
"Lebanon is among the oldest site in wine production in the world.
Eddie Chami, the winemaker at Mersel Wine was also one of the winemakers at Couvent Rouge. He holds a degree in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis, California.
For anyone that knows and speaks to Eddie, you will know that making wine is not a hobby or job, it is a deep-rooted passion. He is passionate about winemaking, as well as preserving and reviving the land of our ancestors and the winemaking techniques used many, many years ago.
Eddie wanted to make wine that is not mainstream in Lebanon. Being born and raised in Australia, he doesn’t speak French and didn’t want to associate Mersel with the French influence in winemaking. He just wanted to make some f%kn good wine. His passion is to develop wine using local Lebanese indigenous grape varieties but something not common locally. Mersel Wine is the first to develop a Piquette and PetNat and he has been dabbling with skin-contact wines since 2016."