Chateau Musar is quite possibly the only winery in Asia that is a household name. Its calling card is how extraordinarily well the wines from this winery can age and as equally impressive is how the winery managed to turn out wines of quality during 15 years of civil war in Lebanon, which finally ended in 1992.

The vineyards are located in the Bekaa Valley, which is actually more of a plateau than a valley, but its elevated position, reaching 1,000 metres in some places means that the heat is not nearly as oppressive as you would initially imagine.

The winery was founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, whose ancestors had arrived from France in the 12th century, and is now run by his grandsons. However, it was Gaston's son Serge who brought the winery fame and championed the wines of Lebanon through the turbulent times of the 1970s through to his passing in 2014.